FIELD NOTE 4.7 - A rainbow in Nantes.

Tonight as Darryl and I were cooking dinner it began to storm. It was one of those wonderful storms, the kind that you see coming as an approaching sheet of falling rain. And in the middle of it all, as I was cooking my couscous and she was cooking her grilled egg and cheese sandwich, we saw a rainbow start to form. Weak at first, the rainbow quickly grew until it eventually became a double rainbow. Darryl said that this an extremely rare thing to see and told me to make a wish before it disappeared.
I made a wish. Not because I have any real hope that it will become true, but because it somehow seemed wrong not to. Though it may be against tradition, I will tell you what I wished for: I wished for luck and a bushel of rosemary.

FIELD NOTE 4.6 - Ticket.

In the hour it took my clothes to go through their wash cycle I decided to do something I had been putting off all morning: purchasing my plane ticket back to America. It wasn't particularly difficult or time-consuming - in fact, I completed the entire process in under 5 minutes - but by the end of it I was drained.
I was told once in 9th grade that, when given the option of finding out exactly when and how they would die, most people would refuse to look because were they to know this, every second after receiving this knowledge would be tainted. Leaving France is not a death, but it is an end just the same.
And now I have a date and a time: 29 June at 11h05.

FIELD NOTE 4.5 - Getting the hang of laundry.

Friday morning has become synonymous with "laundry day" since I don't have class until 13h30. And so each Wednesday (or Thursday if I am feeling particularly lazy one week) I sign up to use Machine 1 at 10h30. This week was no exception.
There have been some issues in the past with Machine 1 when the person before me has either started late and forced me to wait a few minutes while their load finishes (no big deal) or when the person completely forgets to come back and get their finished load for more than 20 minutes after it's finished (a slightly bigger deal). This morning though when I walked into the laundry room to use the machine I had signed up for the minutes left on the machine read 44. After a few awkward exchanges with the woman at the accueil I finally decided to load my clothes into the empty Machine 3 and prayed that no one would come expecting to use that particular machine.
The rest passed quite uneventfully save for the fact that when I finally pulled my clothes from the dryer today they were actually fully dry - a first in all the times I've done laundry here at Fresche Blanc.
So maybe I am finally getting the hang of this laundry thing. And you know what they say about laundry leading to independence...or they would if they had any idea how hard a time I've had with it!

FIELD NOTE 4.4 - Facebook comment.

Tonight you wrote, "I love our lives cole!" and I smiled, feeling my own Yes! growing inside me.

FIELD NOTE 4.3 - Ticket time.

I have been putting it off for some time now, buying the plane ticket that will finally take me back to Virginia. Today I received news that summer flight prices are expected to rise as much as $1,000 for international flights due to cutbacks on the part of the airline industries. The message was clear: time to put away the excuses and buy the ticket.
After searching and comparing prices and airports, I finally found a reasonable flight from Charles de Gaulle to Dulles on 29 June and added it to my cart. And when the moment came to finalize the flight and check out, I couldn't seem to make myself go any further with the transaction.
It was just too much, too soon, too sad.
I closed my eyes and did the only thing I could - I told myself the joy of online shopping is that nothing has to be done immediately. Tomorrow is soon enough to solidify my plans. And tonight, tonight I will let myself pretend that none of this will ever end.

FIELD NOTE 4.2 - Spring or winter?

Nantes can't seem to choose which season it wants to be anymore. Just today the weather went from spring warmth to wintry cold, from rain to sun - all in the span of 30 minutes.
I can't tell you how much I long for the day here when I no longer require a coat and can finally feel the sunshine warm my arms. So please, Nantes, for me, please choose spring soon so I can break out my thin cotton t's and not worry about the wind making me shiver.

FIELD NOTE 4.1 - April fool.

I've seen it coming for a long time, this turning of the months. That still didn't stop it from being a shock to me this morning as I crossed off the last day of March and realized: it's here.
What does this mean?
It means that my calendar is now down one more month and I am still worried about what it all means and where the this piece will fit into the puzzle that is my life.
I grow tired of this - of constantly expecting myself to know the next step, of constantly feeling like I somehow have to have all the answers. So enough of this, enough of living my life through the expectations of others. Living like this is not living.
So this morning as I was thinking this and brushing my hair, I realized that the only fool this April was me.