I left my heart in SD

I have come to the conclusion that living in the city (without personal transportation) is not for me. I can't hop into my truck, leave the concrete jungle and head to clean air and trees. Nope. Not in D.C. It has begun to wear on me, I am a little irritable at times, and though visiting museums are all fine and dandy, I like being outdoors. I'm not trying to whine or complain about being here. D.C. is a great place, but not for me to live in it.

Coco's countdown to sanity:
24 days until I am in San Diego for a week to visit.

and

82 more days until I am back in the motherland.

Yesterday, I decided to go to a rock climbing gym in Maryland to revive my spirits. The 35 min metro ride seemed relaxing, as I brought one of the books I had purchased to remind me of the outdoors (Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer, I'm about a third into it, and so far, it's a good read) I then proceeded a little more than a half of a mile of the metro station platform in Rockville towards the Earth Trek climbing gym. I walked in, and was greeted with the familiar musk. I purchased a 7 visit pass (and I plan on going every weekend) and proceeded into the gym to put my bag down and get ready. I was at home. Just seeing the familiarity of this environment made the trip there forth it. I walked through towards the back where the bouldering walls were. It wasn't too packed, but being it my first time, I checked out all the marked problems. After some debate, I proceeded to start off on a reasonable V2 to warm up on. I was so excited that I almost sprinted up the wall, until I was at the top and looked down.
"Is this the last one?" I asked a young guy below me, he looked friendly enough to not blow me off and instead provided a friendly response.
"Ya, it doesn't look like it tops out, you're good!"
The reason I asked was because the way the wall hung over a bit and I really couldn't see the markings on the holds.
I came down.
"That was pretty good," he said.
I humbly thanked him for the compliment and thanked him for his spotting.
I didn't have the notion that he was from around these parts.
We began talking, and Wes told me he had just moved to D.C. for an internship from Boulder, Co. He was feeling the pain of living in the city as much as I was. It was nice to meet someone who had the same magnitude of frustration of not being able to see mountains and trees.
We continued bouldering, he helped spot me on some harder problems before my arms got too pumped out. For not bouldering for almost four weeks, it felt amazing to climb.

I climbed for about an hour and a half and before I left, I gave him one of my new business cards and told him that if he ever needs someone to go trail running (in what trails they have in the city, which are quite pathetic compared to back home) that he had a running partner as well as a climbing parter. It was nice too, to meet people outside of the program I am in. There isn't really anyone in the program that would rather run to the National Mall and along the Potomac or go to Rock Creek instead of shopping in Georgetown. I mean their aren't any west coasters, true outdoorsy west coasters out here that are in so much abundance back home. I miss it. But I know that this is not permanent and is just a season in my life. Hopefully this season goes by fast.