Le fin

It took me awhile to piece together how it all worked out.

Amid much flurry of activity, arrival and departure, my appartment went from empty to full to empty again. I had left my place shortly after 8 for a doctor's appointment, to return at 9:30, expecting my mother to be gone and my boyfriend to let me in. Instead I talked to my somewhat confused roommate, whom I was not expecting to be there at all, who had seen neither mother nor boyfriend. It turns out roommate #2 had returned some time between 8 and 9, helped my mother to the bus stop, and left again, and boyfriend was still sleeping and had missed the whole thing.

Backing up, we spent the afternoon and evening with my friend A., whom we met for coffee and eventually went to dinner with. We spoke English, with A. doing a wonderful job of carrying the conversation though she always claims not to speak English. We went to dinner for Flammkuchen, gateau flambée, a kind of thin-crust pizza with cream instead of tomato sauce, and in our case with pineapple, mandarin oranges and coconut. We ate in a restaurant with separate menus for drinks, food, absinthe, and whisky, where the men's restroom features a grate over a pit in which there is the model of a human skeleton and where metal hands extend from the wall in the ladies'.

Our morning was spent walking in the woods, enjoying what makes FR green besides the politics. Our previous several days in FR included taking long walks, bike riding, touring the town, going to market and going shopping, more walks, more biking, more visiting the town, eating ice cream, playing guitar, sitting in cafés and basically enjoying life in a beautiful city in the spring. It was relaxing and wonderful, and I enjoyed every minute of it.