Rebecca's first steps on the long trip back to Louisiana.
The steward just came by and gave me a cup of orange juice and a little bag of pretzels. I heard him call it a "rehydration." We're somewhere over the Atlantic now, en route from Paris to Philadelphia. From there, I catch another plane to Houston. If I remember correctly, there's a Chik-A-Fil in the Philadelphia airport. I'm going to try to eat there. I love Chik-A-Fil; when I was in college, I could hardly walk past the one in the union without buying something.
We took off from Paris at 13:30. I got up around 6:30 this morning to finish packing and everything. I had set my alarm for 7, but of course it was impossible for me to sleep, tired as I was. I'm always like that the night before I travel; before I left for France, I barely slept a wink. I lost count of how many times I woke up last night. My last night in the lycee. I really regret that I didn't get to say goodbye to Nathalie. But I just couldn't find her, and I was in such a rush to leave. People I did say goodbye to: Heather, Sarah, Marina, Tiago, Corrine, Marie-France, Monsieur Richard. I didn't get to say goodbye to Mariana; I went by her and Marina's apartment last night, but she wasn't there. She's traveling around France right now and won't get back till after I leave.
This plane has TVs in the backs of the seats, and one of the movies available to watch is Pocahontas. And for some strange reason, I just put it on. Headsets are five dollars, so I'm not buying one and have to watch it without sound. But it's Disney, so it's not like you really have to hear what they're saying to follow the story. I remember when this movie came out; I was 10, and boy, did I think it was the best movie every. I was in my Indian-obsessed phase.
Saying goodbye to Sarah was the hardest. Monsieur Richard gave me a ride to the train station, and she came along, and rather than ride back to the lycee in his car, she stood with me in line while I bought my ticket and waited on the platform with me until my train arrived. I managed not to cry till after I got onboard. Sitting right across from me on the train was this French family consisting of an old white man, a young black woman, and two black toddlers, the youngest of whom was still breastfeeding, because every time she started crying, her mom whipped out her boob. And I just sat there crying, tears and snot running down my face, watching my last views of Villers-Cotterets go by outside the window. To or from Paris, you can see the lycee building from the train. The long, main building, with two wings on either side, and the stairs to Mariana and Marina's apartment, and the mediatheque below the lycee, across the field.
To think that life is going on at the lycee as it always did, while for me, it's something that's gone, that it already belongs to the past. The boarding school students who got back this morning are hauling their luggage up to the dorm rooms, their suitcases clunking loudly on the stairs like always. Speaking of suitcases, boy, did I have a hell of a time with mine this morning. It was so heavy, just wheeling it along by the handle put such a strain on my hands tha my palms were bright red and raw by the time I finally got it checked. How I lost count of how many times I fumbled with or dropped it. How in the hell Marlene got to Hamburg with three suitcases (and she had to change trains three times, I think), I cannot imagine.
I wonder how Sarah's class went today. She told me she had three of them, from S2-S5. I really hope her students don't give her any trouble. She gave me a Chinese pendants sort of thing that she said I can hang in my truck for protection. She was impressed that I knew how to drive, because most people in Beijing don't. I wonder what she and Heather had for dinner in the cantine tonight, and if it was good, but I'm sure it wasn't. She's going to go on teaching her classes and eating in the cantine until she goes back to China in June, while I will be back in my hometown in about twelve hours. God.
We took off from Paris at 13:30. I got up around 6:30 this morning to finish packing and everything. I had set my alarm for 7, but of course it was impossible for me to sleep, tired as I was. I'm always like that the night before I travel; before I left for France, I barely slept a wink. I lost count of how many times I woke up last night. My last night in the lycee. I really regret that I didn't get to say goodbye to Nathalie. But I just couldn't find her, and I was in such a rush to leave. People I did say goodbye to: Heather, Sarah, Marina, Tiago, Corrine, Marie-France, Monsieur Richard. I didn't get to say goodbye to Mariana; I went by her and Marina's apartment last night, but she wasn't there. She's traveling around France right now and won't get back till after I leave.
This plane has TVs in the backs of the seats, and one of the movies available to watch is Pocahontas. And for some strange reason, I just put it on. Headsets are five dollars, so I'm not buying one and have to watch it without sound. But it's Disney, so it's not like you really have to hear what they're saying to follow the story. I remember when this movie came out; I was 10, and boy, did I think it was the best movie every. I was in my Indian-obsessed phase.
Saying goodbye to Sarah was the hardest. Monsieur Richard gave me a ride to the train station, and she came along, and rather than ride back to the lycee in his car, she stood with me in line while I bought my ticket and waited on the platform with me until my train arrived. I managed not to cry till after I got onboard. Sitting right across from me on the train was this French family consisting of an old white man, a young black woman, and two black toddlers, the youngest of whom was still breastfeeding, because every time she started crying, her mom whipped out her boob. And I just sat there crying, tears and snot running down my face, watching my last views of Villers-Cotterets go by outside the window. To or from Paris, you can see the lycee building from the train. The long, main building, with two wings on either side, and the stairs to Mariana and Marina's apartment, and the mediatheque below the lycee, across the field.
To think that life is going on at the lycee as it always did, while for me, it's something that's gone, that it already belongs to the past. The boarding school students who got back this morning are hauling their luggage up to the dorm rooms, their suitcases clunking loudly on the stairs like always. Speaking of suitcases, boy, did I have a hell of a time with mine this morning. It was so heavy, just wheeling it along by the handle put such a strain on my hands tha my palms were bright red and raw by the time I finally got it checked. How I lost count of how many times I fumbled with or dropped it. How in the hell Marlene got to Hamburg with three suitcases (and she had to change trains three times, I think), I cannot imagine.
I wonder how Sarah's class went today. She told me she had three of them, from S2-S5. I really hope her students don't give her any trouble. She gave me a Chinese pendants sort of thing that she said I can hang in my truck for protection. She was impressed that I knew how to drive, because most people in Beijing don't. I wonder what she and Heather had for dinner in the cantine tonight, and if it was good, but I'm sure it wasn't. She's going to go on teaching her classes and eating in the cantine until she goes back to China in June, while I will be back in my hometown in about twelve hours. God.