Falling Back

Today we "fell back," that sign that fall is near. In March? So weird to get used to this southern hemisphere thing. And today was sunny but much cooler than its been. Could it possibly be fall?? It wasn't THAT long ago (a week and a half?) that I posted about summer. I hear there is a rapid transition between seasons here. On our walk home from church (we live four blocks away, hooray) I noticed a marked transition from the summer tanks, shorts, skirts and dresses ladies were wearing yesterday. Today it was sweaters, slacks, scarves (!) and hoodies. A lot of the older couples, both women and men, were wearing sweaters knotted preppy-style around their shoulders. You definitely get the feeling that there is a huge European influence here.

Another thing I've mentioned that I have a little illustration of below is the dog walkers. Today, because it's the weekend, I saw a lot of people walking their dogs, both on and off leashes. I have no idea how they train them, in the city, to walk off a leash, but the dogs do and I haven't seen any get run over. Maybe it's because they are used to walking around the city every weekday with their dog walker. It's funny in the morning to see the dog walkers collecting the dogs: You'll see an unattended but well-behaved band of dogs tied to a railing or something outside an apt., patiently waiting while the dog walker is inside, retrieving another dog to add to the group. They go on like that until they've got all the dogs. Usually they are out walking on the sidewalks, but I noticed they make their way to the many parks in the city midday to hang out and play. This sight is very common on my way to work, but this is the only picture I've taken of it: