Saudade

Several months ago, my friends Trill and Simone wrote to ask if their friends Erwin and Debora could stay over at my place in Detroit during their cross-country roadtrip.

Of course! Any friend of a friend interested in stopping in Detroit for 3 days is a friend of mine.

Erwin and Debora arrived on Friday evening at the start of an over two-month long road trip taking them from Boston to California with many cities and national parks along the way.

They have been living in Boston for two years while Erwin finished a post-doc (he's some sort of brilliant chemist) and Debora, a psychologist, did research. When they finish traveling, they'll move home to Europe to begin the next chapter of their lives.

I had such a fun time getting to know them over the last couple days...and also showing them around Detroit. Turns out, they could see in the City the same kind of potential and beauty that I do...needless to say, we were fast friends.

Some of you know I pretend to dabble in Portuguese--side effects of an amazing trip to Sao Paulo, Brazil seven years ago. Erwin and Debora speak Portuguese with each other (Debora is from Lisbon, Portugal; Erwin is from a small town near Vienna, Austria.) They taught me a new word: saudade. It's a difficult word to translate into English, but it's a word for a feeling of longing for something that one is fond of, which is gone, but might return in a distant future.

Something like a vital Detroit perhaps?

And also friends, new and old, spread all over this wonderful world.

Safe travels and happy trails Debora and Erwin!