Ache

Jube left yesterday in a rented minivan to pick up le Parisien and his girlfriend at the airport. Today they are going outlet shopping and eating lots of good American food.

I, on the other hand, am still in Norfolk, trying to finish my homework for the next two weeks. I'm going to be getting married, going to a conference in DC, and (supposedly) reading for the next week's worth of classes. I don't know how it will all happen, but I'm trying. Right now I'm lying in bed with my books scattered around me. I have started a paper and am doing research for another. However, in the course of my research, I stumbled upon this blog. My chest aches because I miss Montpellier so much! It reminds me of when Jube would leave and go back to France while I continued studying at Wittenberg. Maybe it's because he left yesterday and brought those memories back, but I don't think so.

I really fell in love when I moved to France. Of course being with Jube had a lot to do with it, but it wasn't everything. I had never known what it was like to be attached to a place until I lived in Montpellier. I loved waking up and riding my bike through town to the train station to go to work. I loved exploring the city, alone and with my friends. I really loved it when my family came to visit and I could share my favorite places with them. I hope that someday I can recapture those feelings. I loved living. Sometimes, walking home from the nearby grocer's, after a long day at work and annoyed because I had to go shopping before I could cook dinner, I would just stop and look around and realize how lucky I was. Simply smelling the Mediterranean heat or hearing the lives of the other inhabitants of the city could make me feel calmer.

Maybe someday I'll feel the same way about another place, but right now I can't. I'm jealous when I read about someone else discovering my city, my Montpellier. And even though I know I have 5 papers to write, and la belle-famille's visit to plan, and menus to translate... I can't stop thinking about the one glorious year I spent in Montpel'.