Last days in the US (Post blog)

I may have been putting off this blog because I keep thinking I Have to write it in French.

Voila! I do not!

So I must post a little more about Georgia and Nashville.

One more thing about Georgia..

Megan took me to a huge forest that was a botanical garden right around the corner from her house.  This very same garden captured Megan for several hours in her first couple weeks in Georgia.. that’s how large it is, one can seriously get lost. It was bloody hot so I didn’t get great pictures, but I did get a nice one of myself in the bathroom mirror with my super cute lima bean dress on that CJ said I would never wear. Point, Asia. 

Also, I’m pretty sure I picked up some Southern twang when I was down there. I am almost positive if I were there for more than a week or so I would definitely have a drawl.

Now Nashvile..

Well, starts off more about Georgia. I’ve only taken the Greyhound in Australia where it’s actually quite nice. So when I was warned about the Greyhound here I didn’t think anything of it.. oh but NOW I KNOW. All stations stink like urine, smoke and BO. The lady behind me in line asked me where I was going, nice friendly chit chat.. only gawked at the huge scar across her face for like four seconds.. I asked her where sh was going.. to Indiana, for a funeral. Her cousin, who was 17. I asked, only in hopes and wishes, if he was sick. But he was gunned down. I told her I didn’t know Indiana was so violent. She said it’s like that everywhere these days. Am I naïve to think that that’s actually not the case? It took me a while to recover from realizing that her world and my world are so very different.

The man behind me talked on his phone the entire time (although the  bus driver explicitly said after every stop, don’t talk on your cell phone so the whole bus can hear and NO CURSING. Like they said it a zillion times as if this were a serious concern on Greyhound buses.). Maybe the phone conversation wouldn’t have been so attention grabbing had it not been like this.

“No, Carly think that she gon’ keep me from my child just cause my baby girl in prison?! But she be getting out in Six months! We gon’ be a family.. I know, shoot I just got out in December, and I been doin a real good job with my life, ain’t no way she gon’ keep me from my child just cause I got my baby girl Stephanie around..”

Don’t get me wrong, this is not the funniest prisoner encounter I’ve ever had (Per request, I shall post some stories about a sublessor I had last summer who was not only engaged to a convict in prison, but was impregnated by two and dating another on the side... more to come)

Anyway, I survived the Greyhound. I read the entire book called Sarah’s Key, about a Jewish-French girl during the Holocaust.. there was a huge round up of Jews that they call Vel D’Hiv, which took place at a velodrome where races were held. The author makes sure to ntoe that although the plot is fictional, the events surrounding were not. Many people haven’t heven heard of this round up in Paris- I hadn’t but that doesn’t say much about the rest of the educated world- and it appalled me. 4000 Jews were taken from Paris, from French police- not Nazis, and never returned. Although sad, it was a great book.

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Thank God for the Kindle.

In Nashville, I was blessed enough to stay with a family-friend of Dave’s. Husband, wife and ten-year-old son. Not only did they pick me up at the bus station, house me, AND take me to the air port, but they fed me in between! They took me to Cracker Barrel, a very southern restaurant that was carb filled and superb. And the lady of the house made biscuits and gravy for breakfast! I got to laugh and tell jokes and was very at home with them. Very thankful that was my last night in the US!