tram's chauffeur goes to a boulangerie at an intersection

Maybe, it was a mild day in the morning in Brussels. As always, I took a tram to go to my office, and the tram, as always, already had several commuters on board, and several seats were still empty when I got into it. I sit on  literally the front seat, just behind the tram driver/chauffeur. And as the tram was going, I was just looking at the scenery from the tram window, just as always. 

It was a nice day, so, sun was shining in the morning in Brussels, and I think it was rare in here. 


When the tram passed through several stops, there was a boulangerie near an intersection, which was not big, not like franchise-chain store, but seemed to be a family owned and managed small bakery, and always had various sweet rolls, croissants and brioches in its showcase. And at the time, I realized that I was not the only person who just wanted to take one of these good looking sweet rolls. While the tram stopped at the intersection with red traffic light, the driver quite naturally went outside, and quietly entered the boulangerie. He seemed to say "bon jour" to the baker, and pointed his finger at a quite nice sweet roll. It took just 5 or 6 minutes for him to go back to his seat with a nice roll, but the traffic light already turned from red to blue, and then red came again. This means that  he had time to take a first bite of the roll, at least until the traffic light allowed the tram/him went on.


Here was Brussels, maybe, in spring or early summer, several years ago. 

same rainbow

Today, I saw a rainbow hung in the western sky in this Maryland. At the time, dark clouds gathered as if we would have a huge evening shower sooner or later tonight, and as my everyday routine exercise, I was running through the country road leading to nowhere, but a local supermarket or discount wholesale warehouse. While running, I found that that rainbow was quite similar to what I saw when taking "tram 92" running through Uccle, southern Brussels, almost 4 years ago. That rainbow was above a small, local chain supermarket, named "GB". At the time, GB was already purchased by Carrefour S.A., French hypermarket giant, but allowed to remain its name for a while. I remember the billboard painted with strong colors of red "G" and blue "B" on the top of this supermarket roof, and above these, again, a beautiful rainbow was hanging. And maybe, that was the very beginning moment of my Brussels life. 

That was in Uccle, Brussels.

everyone looked upward at the sky for f18s

On the hill near the inner harbor, everyone looked upward at the sky for six F18 jet fighters, named "blue angles". The fighters came from far over the mouth of this small harbor, maybe, originally from a military airport located in this small, Belgium-size Maryland state. Maybe, near Chesapeake bay, I'm not quite sure, though.


On the hill, most people just kept looking up at the sky, and some people held their ears with hands because the thunderous jut sound also came right after the fighters passing through the blue sky. 


The couple of young women sitting in front of me talked with a past middle age man. This aged man just happen to sit next to these women, and asked how they came here. One of them said that they took metro, and the old man picked up a name of metro-station nearby. All of them sometimes stopped their conversation to look for F18s in the sky, always flying high. 


On the day, blue angels seemed to pass through skyscrapers of this busiest city in this state.


Here's Baltimore.

in the shimmer of summer heat, milano

In that summer, I was in Milano, and still remember it was so hot and humid at the time just like today in DC. I was walking on the top of Duomo di Milano, 'cause it was accessible for tourists for just 10 or 15 euro, or walking around an intersection near Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio, looking for the science and technology museum, so-called "Da Vinci" tech-museum. Anyway, anyhow, I  reach the gelatteria, ice cream shop near the tech museum instead, and was drinking a icy diet-coke there at first. Having a creamy,  white-green pistachio-gelato, and sitting one of only two or three small steel chairs, I was just aimlessly looking at people walking outside, all seemed to hate that afternoon heat. 


Basilica was literary in the midst of the shimmer of hot air.  With a bottle of diet-coke still filled around half, I just went outside and walked to the wrong direction, opposite to the museum, just thinking to be in that hot shimmer.


Maybe, in that evening, I went to the pizza restaurant somewhere in the city, which had only a piece of pizza Margherita and beer on its menu. Both are my favorite, but I reluctantly washed down the pizza with beer. I knew that this piece of Margherita was one of the best I've ever had, but still was able to hold my excitement or surprised-good luck at the time. I just looked outside, and knew that still people were walking in the shimmer of summer heat in this evening.


Here's street in Milano, Milan.