Tout Fini!

All done.  I got my little certificate of completion today.  People still couldn’t believe I was only staying 1 week.  Most people stay 1 month.  Most people don’t have jobs.  Most people are on summer holidays from school.  Sigh – how I remember those – but then again, I had to work then.  How do these people do it?!  It’s always fascinating to learn more about how people just make things happen.  There is no straight path and it’s amazing to hear of all the different trajectories people make possible.  I am honestly kicking myself for not having done this years ago.  That’s where role models come in handy.  I think if I’d known someone who’d done this kind of thing, it would have been so much more possible for me to do.

Both Nicole and I found that we were just getting into our groove with the 5 days of classes and were both wishing for at least another week.  No luck.  And so it was that we parted.  She was off on an excursion to Aigues Mortes and I was hopping a train to Carcassonne.

The train ride was and hour and a half.  I have never seen such a disorganized train in my life.  The train was a bit late although that wasn’t such a big deal.  Once I got on though, I had to walk over and around bags in the aisles, bicycles at the ends of the cars all stacked next to each other blocking the doors.  I managed to find a seat by making some kid move his bag.  I was not going to stand the whole way.

I arrived in Carcassonne around 5PM and thought my hotel was a 10min walk from ‘la gare’. Not so.  Twenty is more like it if you know where to go directly.  It turns out I was so close but wandered around lost for a good 10mins.  Sigh.  The heat doubled the weight of the bags I was carrying, I am sure!

The hotel was very, uh...minimalist.  It’s new and it was charming though.  I couldn’t believe it when I asked the proprietaire about the internet and when the password wasn’t working for me on my iTouch, he just gave me his Mac notebook to take into my room!  Wow.  That made an impression!

I was hoping to catch up with Deanna and Steve that night.  The plan was to meet at the hotel around 6 or so.  No sign of them by 6:30 so I started Happy Hour and two glasses of wine later I assumed we’d have to try again the next morning.  And so – camera in tow, I wandered up the big hill to the Carcassonne Citadel.  J’etais ‘baba’ – as they say in French, or rather I was so mesmerized while walking around and exploring that I actually caught myself saying ‘wow’ out loud on numerous occasions!