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Unterkunft in Utwill suchenSunday Scribblings: Nights
08. Juni 2008 | en
Sunday Scribblings #114 – My Nights
What do you do at night? At different times in your life, how have you spent your nights? Is there any one night in your memory that stands out for any reason, as the most memorable night of your life?
It is presently Sunday morning and I am sitting here in Patrick’s family’s home in Utwill still a little groggy from last night’s sleep. I have been pondering what to write for this week’s Sunday Scribblings. There is so much to say about nights – how they have changed over the years, how they still stand to change, and all the places I have spent my nights. Being something of a gypsy princess gives you some perspective on nights around the world, and being a little older also gives me some perspective on how my nights have changed (and still stand to do so).
But the past week I have had a visitor in Germany, none other than my childhood best friend. Someone who is still very near and dear even though in adolescence we both went our separate paths. And it is rare that a friendship that was so close and then separated can survive those teen years. But survive it we did. We were more like sisters. We held each other at a distance, but we still loved each other and supported each other in any and all major developments in those years. We always saw each other at Christmas, and in university our relationship again became a social one. But wither we are socially hanging out or not, she is one of those people I know will always be there for me, and I for her, no matter what.
And so it is so strange to have her in Germany with me. Just walking up the street with her and going, “Tracey is in Stuttgart!” Worlds collide! :-) And it also makes me think a lot about how I ended up here in the first place, and how much my life changed due to one night in particular, and many nights after that.
I have always been something of a gypsy. The first time I left Canada was as a summer student in Russia. From there I went and worked in Ireland, England, and the Czech Republic before teaching in Japan. After Japan I broke up with my long term boyfriend, and though devastated, I
was happy I had made the right decision. I was in Korea, I was single, and I felt like I was breathing again. I was also partying as hard as I did my second year university when I turned legal. (I looked 12, no club was letting me under age).
And one of those nights, the exact night that my ex arrived in Korea, I met a German in a bar. I let him come home with me, and though I never expected to see him again, he was in the same bar the following weekend, and something of a pattern developed before I finally confessed to being fully smitten.
And so fast forward a few months when he has left, and now my nights are not so fun. There was still the drinking and the dancing with the girls, there was even other victims of “Sherrie has a broken heart that she gave to herself, who wants to help heal it at their own peril.” But the game of if Patrick was going to show that night or not was gone, and that rendered the nights that much less exciting. (although never boring)
And so it went, when a new head teacher came to the school and my schedule took a hellish turn for the worse, and an email came asking if I wanted to visit Patrick in South America, I decided to say yes. I took something of the milk run to get there (with a 3 week visit to Vietnam with Krista first), but arrive I did.
And these were the nights that really changed my life. No get your head out of the gutter. What I mean was the lifestyle and how it changed. We traveled by motorcycle through Argentina and part of Chile, living in a tent when we were not in a city. I never thought before that trip I would be willing to go days without a shower, spend my night setting up and every morning taking down my home.
And the best part was that I had never been happier. There was no pressure, no time restraints, no work that just HAD to be done. Work or school did not invade my dreams, and a campfire filled my nights. I still miss the bbq’s with Argentinian beef, only salted and roasted over the fire.
And so now we plan a three month trip, and next week (as in not this Monday but next Monday I write the written test) I hope to do both tests for my license, one on Monday, and with luck the practical in the same week. Now my nights are full of plotting for the next trip.
Schlagwörter:
Utwill
Switzerland
Sunday Scribblings
Karte:
N 47° 58.069
E 9° 343.185
Erstellt am: 08. Juni 2008
Fahrzeug zu diesem Ort: Auto
