Alors, my time in France

Part 1/10. The motivation...

Europe has a special energy, understood only by those who had let themselves get lost in it's streets and vibrations. Europe is, indeed, a place worth visiting regardless ulterior motives... So is France. But me?, I did have ulterior motives: France maybe a great visiting spot, but for me it was about a girl.

As I said before, that story was far from over... I had to travel to discover the next few chapters in that book of my life...

What did it take?. Focus intensively on learning french (I still suck), working like crazy to make money, and balance an unprecedented number of details so that being in Europe wouldn't be a horrible thing while I was supposed to, well... Not be in Europe and doing many important things for my department and research.

Talked to people, made commitments, made agreements, had someone covering, and had people getting mad at me... I discovered I have a great knack for diplomacy and negotiation!... Heh. Anyway... The main thing is, I never took my coming as a "choice". I was coming, for sure, so the rest had to accommodate around that. It was the only way to make it happen!... Sounds easier than it is.

On the other hand... Staying in touch with Albane... That was really no work at all... That was plain pleasure, talking to her, hearing her voice and laughing together... When Albane left to France, I did think she would just forget about me... Go back to the old continent, to her old life, and leave silly Mexican behind... It was far from that.

We were in love when she left... As much as we said that we were free, and that we may just meet someone else... Etc... Words talked about freedom and letting go, and becoming each other's nice memories... But actions kept us "together" in a very cool way. The way we related to each other, the frequency of our conversations and her presence in my mind, made me want to see her as soon as I could.

That meant September, just a little after she was done with her internship.

For the sake of my "memoirs", I have to say... At some point, I was going to cancel the trip, and this was a period of great anxiety. I don't want to dwell on the reasons, but I just felt, for a while, that maybe it was better to acknowledge that as great as the idea seemed, there may be the chance that leaving the book unfinished and the last chapters unexplored was the better thing to do.

... You know me. Yes there is a "safe" zone... But that one has never seemed interesting.

One way or the other... I got on that plane to Europe leaving a lot of crap behind and unattended... I wanted to see her... I was going to.