The apartment by the pond

My apartment is great for many reasons: it's five minutes away from the school in which I work, it has an elevator which opens right up into the produce section of the grocery store on the bottom level, and it has a wide open living room, furnished with comfy furniture I look forward to relaxing in every day.
What I love most, however, is coming home and being able to look out the windows from my living room and see the gorgeous pond surrounded by forest just across the street from my apartment building. There dwells an assortment of birds, including ducks, geese, and one swan, which is down from two from last year. It breaks my heart to see the one swan by itself now. Perhaps its companion swan is still on holiday, visiting someplace fabulous like Malta or the Canary Islands and escaping from the rain that has managed to visit Brussels every day since I've arrived. I also look forward to the nights in October when the sun begins to set right over the forest line just beyond the pond. It's beautiful.
What I also love about being here is everytime I'm faced with an obstacle or inconvenience, all I have to say is "Oh well, I'm in Europe" and then go home and look at my pond. I think it's going to be a fabulous year.