Soundtrack of the moment. Part III: a little Daft Punk

"It's so different here..." H was the first to finally say it out loud. We were driving on (one of the not so picturesque parts of) Route 10 the other day - running some more errands, this time together.

So that's how it is, I thought: the shiny newness of it all is wearing off, and we're falling into a routine here. We're not quite blasé about all the differences yet though either. It's all normal enough, considering how long we've been here now.

He continued with a quick back up to his statement, "Don't get me wrong, I mean I'm excited to be here and all, but..."

I don't exactly remember exactly what either one of us said next...only that Daft Punk's "Around the World" was playing in the background, and it seemed to fit the moment perfectly. The world around the world around the world, and so on (144 times to be exact, not that I ever actually counted).

I flashed on our long drives together between Berlin and Basel - we made them pretty regularly for a a while. And then on the formal dances at the university where I worked for a few years (I enjoyed and dreaded these in near equal measure). I'm fairly sure these thoughts came up, not just because this song was so often in the background then, although it certainly was...There's something about the combination of feelings I have about these moments, something that's pretty similar to my sentiments about this move.

It's sort of repetitive and exhilarating at the same time. Right at the border of annoying, but there's still something undeniably likable and catchy about it all, too...I ask H to start the song over from the beginning - to hear it fresh again this time (I think it surprised him: although this kind of music has grown on me over the years, it's not what I would choose if I were alone in the car, and he knows it)...

The world around the world around the world around the world. How many more times are we going to do this, I think? The Daft Punk play list continued, and "One more time" followed next... Enough electro-euro-dance-pop already...and I cut off the ipod and switched to the radio. Time to to hear what the locals are listening to...