We’re still in Montevideo, Minnesota.

We’ve spent the past week catching up on writing and video projects, reading books, exploring the town on our own and with friends we’ve made here, and meeting with various individuals and groups that we hope to collaborate with in the future. I have to admit, it has been harder than I thought it would be to adjust to the slower pace of life here, in part because we’re still tethered to our computers for much of the day. We spent the past weekend offline and outside. Some of the highlights:

• Driving to Easy Bean Farm in Milan for dinner, then sitting in a hot tub (a wooden tub of water heated by a wood-burning stove) outside, in the rain, while my tub companions sang murder ballads into the wind.

• Biking to Duffy’s Bar & Grill for Biker (Discount) Day, and being the only ones on non-motorized bikes. No one seemed to care. We ate dinner, then biked back along a highway with absolutely no shoulder.

• Walking to the laundromat, biking to the grocery store, cooking dinner in the apartment together, going to the library to print things, having coffee in the coffee shop and getting to know the faces and habits of regular customers, asking eachother, “What if we lived here?”

• Attending an annual community event in which everyone who came was invited to perform their favorite Beatles song to a packed room full of neighbors, who clapped and sang along. Getting invited onstage to join a group singing With A Little Help From My Friends.

• The quiet nights overlooking main street.

We’re planning to head back to Minneapolis later this week. Hopefully, we can get out a few more times before then!

S.H.M.