Where am I now and What have I been up to? Part 1- returning Home

Where am I now and What have I been up to?

I’m beyond sorry and terribly sad to say that I haven’t written/journaled/blogged since leaving France. It’s been just over a month and exciting things have happened (and some not so exciting things as well) and here I have been remiss about it all. Well I felt like today was as good as any to attempt to catch up a little bit. 

I suppose I need to go back to my last couple of days in France, don’t I? Goodness… that feels like a long time ago…

My last couple days were free of the work- not that there had ever been all that much of that to begin with- but full of time with friends. I can honestly say that one of my best nights in the whole of 8 months was my second to last night there. My friend Alicia came over and we made cooked dinner in my apartment while drinking a nice bottle of white wine. We sat at the table talking for a little bit and then decided to take the wine (and the ice cream we had bought) with us and go for a walk. We headed down to my favorite view of the city- at the top of the Monte de la Grand Cote- what I have lovingly referred to in the past as “The Big Hill”. We finished what was left of the wine, realizing all too quickly the mistake of only having one bottle to start with, and ate some ice cream while taking in the glorious view of all Lyon sprawled out beneath us.

Before it would be too late and the last of any open shops would be close we left our glorious view in search of an alimentation or petite marche that might still be open to buy some more wine from. SUCCESS! We picked up another bottle and Alicia was able to put good use to the wine bottle opener she kept safely in her purse for times like this. We sat at the other view from the Croix-Rousse- over by the Grand Cayou (the Big Rock… and really, it’s just a big rock) and ate a little more ice cream and drank a little more wine. As it happened we ran into another friend who had a similar idea: my co-worker from Paddy’s Corner, Paul, was sitting at the overlook as well with one of his French friends. When we’d eaten our fair share of ice cream we offered it to him and his friend. They didn’t want any right now, but Paul lived just around the corner, so he ran the ice cream home to his freezer where it would stop turning into soup and might be of some use at a later time.

When he returned he brought with him a glow in the dark Frisbee and thus began the game. With the wine carefully set aside- within walking distance should someone want a swig (yes, drinking wine out of the bottle had become typical among my friends as we didn’t bring cups with us anymore… besides it tastes better out of the glass bottle than out of a plastic cup), we tossed the Frisbee around in the dark park of the Grand Cayou with the Easterly edges of Lyon down the hill behind us.

When, at last, the wine was gone and Paul’s friend decided he was tired, we stopped playing Frisbee and we prepared to call it a night. Until, at least, Alicia mentioned something about that ice cream. We bid au revoir to our French Frisbee-mate and followed Paul back to his place to revisit the ice cream. Paul happens to live with our friend Kim and so she joined in the ice cream fun instead of returning to bed when she saw us come in at whatever early morning time it now happened to be.

The night ended with Alicia and I climbing out the apartment windows- it’s street level and the windows are really the most fun way of getting in and out of this apartment- and trying to find Alicia a suitable velo (bike) to ride home. (No, we didn’t STEAL one… if you didn’t remember, Lyon, along with a few other French cities, has a bike rental system that is highly functional all over the city… at least it’s NORMALLY highly functional… we had some issues this particular evening, but in the end it all worked out). I headed back to my apartment to get some rest. It had been an amazing and wonderful 2nd to last day in Europe. 

My last day in Europe wasn’t too bad either. I got up early and went to wander the Tuesday Market. The Tuesday Market in the Croix-Rousse is the best because it has not only all the food stuffs that it has 5 other days out of the week, but all the “material goods” people show up too. So they have purses and shoes and table cloths and nail polish and kitchenware and underwear and just about anything you can think of! So I wandered through there for a while and then met up with Kim for more wandering and some brunch of pastries and coffee.

I can’t honestly remember what I did with the middle of my day… I know I saw some people and tried to make the most of my last day… anyway… I did dinner with a group of my friends and then went over to Paddy’s Corner to meet up with Michelle, my Irish friend, and a couple of the Paddy’s regulars that I wanted to say bye to. We had a beer together and then my friends and I headed down to the bar boats. Alicia, Kim, Lucy and my old boss, Oscar joined me as we drank a little along the qaui (the… boardwalk? Is that what we call that area next to the river?) before heading into a bar. It was a nice night out of music, friends and fun before we all headed home. This was the 2nd time ever while overseas that I got a cab home- but as Oscar pointed out- it was my last night and I really didn’t want to walk home. 

The next day I sat around agitatedly until, at last, it was time to load all my bags into my friend’s SUV (he’s an American… the French don’t typically drive SUVs) and head to the airport. It took a while not only to unload my 3 large suitcases, computer bag, and backpack, but also to get the three large bags checked… there was some confusion as to how much it would cost for me to get my luggage home and the woman behind the desk and I both agreed that 680-some Euros was far too expensive. Finally things got taken care off and it cost me somewhere around 140 Euros, which is what I expected, to ship it all home. I went to the gate and chatted it up with a guy I had met at the bar the night before- we had noticed then that we’d be on the same flight and it was nice to have someone to talk to while I waited to start the trek home. He invited me out with is friends in Dublin, and despite the fact that it was DUBLIN, I was too tired and decided a nice night in my lovely hotel room seemed much more appropriate. I took a nice long bath in the tub and then watched some movie from the plushness that was my bed. Oh, how nice it was to NOT be sleeping on a mattress on the floor after 8 long months!

There’s not much to tell about the next few hours—I ate breakfast at the airport and waited around, going crazy and ready to be home, for most the morning and early afternoon. Then finally boarded and sat for 9 hours, beyond excited to be back over US soil. I actually started tearing up when I saw the Chicago skyline from the window of the plane and had to work to hold myself together as I practically sprinted through the airport, through airport security, got my baggage and out into the sunshine of Chicago. I waited as patiently as I could for my Mom, sister and best friend Janki to get to me- between traffic and the speed at which I made it from the plane to the sunshine, they weren’t quite there yet. And then I saw the car come around the corner and park and I tried to move my 3 large bags, computer bag, backpack, sweatshirt, and plastic bag full of something or other I had picked up along the way all over to the car but was tackled before I had made much progress by my sister. There were lots of tears, mostly mine, as I hugged three of my favorite ladies in the whole world and lots of laughter as we heaved all my crap into the car.

The next few days is as you would expect it, lots of story telling, unwrapping of the presents and souvenirs I had brought home, lots of hugging and seeing people I had missed dearly over the past 8 months, a lots of laundry.

Then, just as I was getting rid of my jet lag, I started packing again. My adventures were not yet over. I had one more trip to take before truly returning to reality.