Manhattan is the kind of place where, when you find a great parking spot, you're tempted to just leave your car there as long as is legal. In the decade I've lived in Manhattan as an adult I have found a space right outside my building twice.
When we got home after our most recent swap there was a legal parking spot just outside our door. That never happens. The children had been perfect angels throughout the four hour drive up the coast. That's pretty rare as well. While the rest of the family went upstairs I struggled to load everything from our trip into one small cart.
It was a beautiful day and I took my time working out the geometry puzzle. Then I heard my name. A man I had never met was smiling at me, as was the woman and girl with him. I was confused but from these strangers smiles and body language they appeared to be friends I hadn't met yet. They embraced me: "We're your home exchangers!" Well, that made perfect sense. "How did you know who I was?" As soon as I asked I realized that of course this family had spent the past five days in my apartment, surrounded by pictures of my family and mementos of our lives.
Our swap partners had asked if they could leave their bags at our place for a few hours until it was time to catch a cab. Now they were heading to their favorite of the local restaurants in the time they had left. We chatted about their stay. They had found our location extremely convenient. The huge number of nearby restaurants had been "a Godsend". We had arranged some tickets for them to attend a show and they enjoyed it tremendously.
What nice people! And how odd to feel such a connection with a family I had never met or seen pictures of. We almost never meet our home exchange partners. This was the best part of home exchange. The human connection.
There is always an interesting surprise awaiting us when we embark on a new home exchange. Sometimes it's a bucolic setting or a soothing hot tub. This time the best home exchange surprise was the home exchangers themselves.
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