Favorite things about Bawlmer, Merlin When we first drove into town last June, our GPS wanted to show us the scenic route, so it took us on a winding road through a lovely forest full of bicyclists and joggers before leading us into one of Baltimore's grittier neighborhoods. (Prior to moving here, my knowledge of the city was drawn from a vague memory of a visit to the National Aquarium when I was six...and from what people told me about some HBO series .) After we drove through several blocks of boarded up houses and apparent drug deals, the GPS told me that I was less than a mile away from my soon-to-be home--and I began to wonder whether I should have enrolled in public health school in a different city . Once we got settled in, my perspectives of Baltimore began to change...and I have actually found the city to be quite charming after all. There are certainly more sirens and police helicopters than I had seen previously, and the juxtapositions between ext...