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In Connecticut, Stamford

not much of an update

Author Fanny SuraPosted on Leave a comment

September 18, 2020

Sunrise, September 1, 6:24 am
Thor loves going to the park

Hellu hellu! I don’t have a lot to update you guys on these days. J and I are both busy during weekdays, the virus is getting worse out here so we don’t really do anything special, we have booked a hotel and planned on going on a road trip twice but both times we ended up canceling, we have been out to eat a few times at places with less people, we have also taken Thor for hikes in different parks (and also failed at that at times since the parks are so packed with people these days because a lot of the kids play areas are still shut down), so there’s not much to update about. We mostly just hang out at home and let the days go by, waiting for life without the virus ruling our days.
And we have no update about the house. We sort of gave up on it at one point about a month ago but then the seller kinda wanted to keep us in the mix, so we are just waiting to see what will happen but at the same time we are searching for other homes/lots to build a house. 

I hope all of you readers are doing good! I hope you are taking care of yourself and that you and your loved ones are all safe and well. 
/Fanny

Random pictures from the last few weeks:

Beautiful evening walks, enjoying the nice temperatures before the colder weather comes
Thor is a disaster in the car on the way to parks, but nice and quiet on the way homeSunrise, August 31, 6:08 am
Morning yoga on out terrace became a favorite of mine:

Cove Island Park, the closest beach we have.
We haven’t been to the actual beach this year though 🙁Sometimes it’s nice to not cook at home
Scalzi Park, a baseball/playground park by a high school a few blocks from our apartment
Family walk in our neighborhoodOne day, J and T came home with flowers for me from the Farmers Market
(I think I deserved it as I was scrubbing every inch of our home
that day while they were out having a good time hahah)Last weekend we went to Mianus River Park. We found a new path that we ended
up loving and where noone else walked (all the other trails was packed with families)

In USA

September 11

Author Fanny SuraPosted on Leave a comment

9/11, 2020

When I came to NYC in the end of 2010, the building was just in the beginning process (second photo is from February, 2011), WTC was a construction site. My school that I took dance classes at was in that neighborhood and I would often walk by and look at the process. I also went on a self guided tour with headphones around the sites which was an interesting but quite tough experience (before the fountains and the museum existed).
The Freedom Tower feels like a building of Hope to me and waking up every morning for four years before we moved to CT and look out the window and see Hope was special in a way.
Today we remember. Today we Hope for a bright future.

Tribute in Lights, September 11, 2013, filmed outside our apartment

In New York

Zofnass park

Author Fanny SuraPosted on Leave a comment

August 17, 2020 

I did not want to get out of bed this morning🥴 Thor was all snuggled up against my body, hubby sleeping next to me and I could barely open my eyes. I could easily have slept for another hour, but I knew if I just got up without thinking about it I would feel so much better. I put on sweatpants and a sweater and walked out to the living room. I did a guided 20 minute kundalini yoga practice and then directly took a shower. By this time the boys had gone out of bed and the day had officially started. I was still a bit tired but way more awake than if I had skipped my practice. 

On Saturday we had a bit of colder temperatures outside in the morning, so we decided to bring Thor to a park that we haven’t been to before, Zofnass Family Preserve, Westchester, NY. We were the only ones in the entire forest which was kinda nice (and quiet). Thor took charge and was leading the way hahah. For being such a small little guy he can really walk far and he seems to love hiking as much as we do. We have to carry him at some places of course, like up bigger rocks, but then when the ground looks better he immediately wants to go down and walk by himself, it’s like he knows, so cute. We ended up walking back after about half of the trail cause the sun was coming up and Thor started to look tired, but it was still about 3 miles which was a perfect start of the weekend. We bought coffees on our way home.
In the afternoon, we were on the terrace, J was working out with the weights we have and I did yoga. It got pretty windy up there after awhile so I ended up moving my practice inside.
Yesterday, after morning coffee, I ran around cleaning and organizing the apartment (as always hahah) even though I said to J that I didn’t want to clean, but I had so much energy and I was motivated to declutter our home. When there’s stuff everywhere it is hard to feel at peace so I constantly move things around or walk around trying to find stuff to get rid of. I can’t wait to move so I can get furniture that makes sense and closed cabinets instead of open shelves. But for now, it is what it is:) 

We could’t spray Thor with mosquito spray of course (deet is toxic to dogs),
but we used spray on ourselves and also put on these mosquito-repellent wristbands
I wish I had this on our adventurous vacations, like on Kauai, so handy
It’s a waterproof reflective Fanny pack, fits my phone and keys,
perfect for hikes or just to take Thor out for a walk

In Connecticut

stormy season has begun

Author Fanny SuraPosted on Leave a comment

August 4, 2020

Thor keeps finding new hiding spots:)
For more cute pics of Thor, follow his instagram: @athorablenyc

We just had the tropical storm Isaias passing by. Blue sky now. Giant trees across from our apartment came down and the roof of the apt building across started to come off a couple of hours ago. We lost power at one point to. Storms here always sounds and looks worse from the inside our apartment than they usually are, and I always freak out a little bit. It was very windy and the streets are green from leaves now, but not too bad.  When we were in Florida in July there was apparently a tropical storm hitting CT then as well, and these two are just the beginning of this hurricane season. I read that because of the warmer temperatures this year storms might not be more than usual but stronger. We’ll see. 

This weekend we drove to costco, our first outing in three weeks and first visit in a store together since early March. To our surprise there weren’t many people, quite pleasant shopping actually. Of course there’s always idiots who doesn’t understand what social distancing means, but at least everyone had their face covered. They didn’t have as much food and stuff as usual and the humidity these days makes veggies and fruit kinda bad, but Jim still got some meat and I got lots of berries. I also, as always, found some cozy clothes:) Pjs, leggings and a pair of sweatpants. Back home J watched the first hockey game of the year (so weird to see hockey in August), I washed the new clothes and wiped off all the food we bought and ran around organizing like always. Gaah, daily life is just about constantly cleaning and organizing, hahah. 

On Sunday we worked out together in the living room which was nice but very sweaty. I wonder if there’s something wrong with our air conditioner, sometimes it’s on all day long and other days it can be a couple of hours in between, and it can say 78 degrees inside and we feel cold or it says it’s 71 and sweat is dripping down our bodies, weird. And speaking of air conditioner, I think that’s the one to blame for why I’m now not feeling too awesome. I have been congested, tired and had a headache for almost a week now and this morning I woke up with a swollen throat. And no, it does not seem like covid symptoms (although you never know), it’s probably just a cold and body reacting to the air conditioner, the hot temperatures outside and the fact that we have spent the past month mostly inside among dust and stuffy air.
In the afternoon on Sunday we drove over to Daniela and Gareth. Little George turned 1 last week and we had a fun gift for him (so fun that I had to put it away before Sunday so I wouldn’t play with it myself hahah). I don’t know who thought this toy was more fun, baby G or us grownups 😀 It was a veggie garden teaching thing that I ordered online. Aah, it was so nice to see the three of them! I saw D and baby G before my birthday but this was the first time since February we actually spent time with others at their house. We stayed for two hours, Thor isn’t used to be alone anymore so we didn’t want to be away from him for too long. 

All of last week I tried to take it a bit easier since I didn’t feel good and I was ready for a busy week this week, but well, I feel worse. Gentle yoga poses, breathing exercises and some pilates is just perfect for me now until I feel well again. Jim found out today that he won’t go back to the office until earliest January 2021, so not much is going to happen anytime soon anyway hahah, I can take my time to feel better:)

On Monday at 6:20 am I took Thor for an hour long walk.
It’s good to take him for walks that early before the sun comes up and the wind turns into a warm blanket
Little cutie really loved that onion (part of the toy we gave)
One giant tree blocking the entrance and there were more trees that had fallen
and landed on the parking lot (we think it may have been on top of someones car).
Hard to see on this picture but some pieces of that roof is gone
When it was calmer outside and blue sky we took Thor for a walk.
This is how it looked outside the church by us

In Stamford

Day 9

Author Fanny SuraPosted on Leave a comment

July 20, 2020

Helluuu! We still don’t know anything about the whole house thing, so I have nothing to tell you about that hahah. We are still keeping an eye or two open for other homes all over America (and the world…) while we are waiting, cause you never know. Of course it is a bit difficult when we can’t go visit places and see for ourselves in person. In the beginning of this year we made a few decisions; I would go back to dance – meaning, take the train into Manhattan more often and focus on really go back to be a part of the dance world again, possibly perform – and then our main focus for us as a married couple we would take all the time we could to look for homes and research areas. But corona destroyed those plans. This virus has been shattering a lot of people’s plans, and frankly, it sucks. But, it is what it is, we can’t do anything about it. Noone planned for a pandemic. So we are doing the best we can. There is no dance world to go back to in person, everything is online for now until at least January 2021 (at least around here) and traveling isn’t exactly recommended. But we do eventually want to move. We are staying here probably until august next year (that’s when our current lease is up) so we have a little bit of time, but also not really. We’ll see. 

And what have we been doing during our quarantine? Today is day 9. We haven’t noticed any symptoms so far, but we know that we could still be carriers. It would be nice to go get a test after these two weeks, just to see if we have developed any antibodies or not. For now, we are fine staying at home. It is very hot and humid outside these days. I went for a morning walk by myself this morning before other people were out and it was already 27 degrees and 80% humid. I don’t mind it though:) This past week we haven’t done much, I don’t even remember what we have been doing really. I have facetimed with my sister and niece and we have enjoyed our terrace. On Saturday, after a curbside pickup we decided to take Thor for a little walk along the water before driving back. Felt good to leave the apartment and our neighborhood for a second. It wasn’t hard to keep our distance, and people we met also had masks, unlike in the south. That was probably the most exciting thing we did last week haha. Life is quite simple:) 

All of last week, campers filled up Latham Park in downtown as a demonstration for BLM.
They are now gone since they didn’t have any permits.
Yesterday they apparently painted all of the downtown streets