Sometimes you have to stop and observe the architecture

Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumble bee, the small child, and the smiling faces. Smell the rain, and feel the wind. Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams.
Ashley Smith

Every now and then between 5:30 and 6:30pm, I find myself mumbling, "I hate Cambridge". Between the chilly walk to the bus stop, the perpetually late 5:50 bus, and the long 12 mile drive home, my resentment eventually bubbles up a bit. However, my relationship to Cambridge is purely business--I work here. And because of that uni-dimensional relationship with Cambridge that is colored by stressful long days, it is difficult for me to fully appreciate the fact that I work near Darwin's alma mater.

But the other day I was walking back to work from lunch... and as usual a bit of sun broke up what is usually a grey day. A little bit of dazzling sun poked out from behind some brick buildings, creating a glistening silhouette of a row of 'Mary Poppins' chimneys, and I had a happy little glow inside. I don't know if it was the sudden feeling of sun on my face that I hadn't felt in the last 13 months of winter (maybe an exaggeration, but I don't remember much of a summer) or maybe it was the fact that I started to see all the neat little quirks about Cambridge. I saw the little statues carved into the sides of buildings that have been there for maybe hundreds of years, reflecting the culture of that time. I saw the old apartment buildings that sat on top of modern department stores that still retained the same bricks they were originally built with. And I saw hundreds of years of students and faculty that walked in and out of King's college....

That is the neighborhood I work in.