Soulparking

Wednesday, 5 November 2005

I didn’t really check out the times on my plane ticket back to Cape Town.  I didn’t notice the glaring 14 hour layover in Frankfurt.  So I did what I used to do, left the airport, waited on the cold benches outside for the time when the Lufthansa bus left for Heidelberg. 

It was a typical Heidelberg winters day.  Cold and rainy.  And it all seemed like a dream.  Just getting into the city – my heart sank.  Other than my best friend Aksel who lived here – and some of the best damn co-workers in the world working in Wieblingen – the other half of my soul no longer lived here.  I felt it.  Not that ever acknowledged it when it was here – which is to my shame.

Suddenly, I felt very, very alone.  And like numerous times lately – I tried to imagine the pain and suffering of feeling abandoned.  Of what she must have felt like. Surviving in this town – speaking a foreign language that is not your own – and trying to plow ahead and graduate university.

So I went to my usual haunts – the first place she and I went to: the internet café – where I met Aksel.  Then I went to get a medium mocha at Star Coffee – and attempt to use my WIFI connection (which even now STILL DOES NOT WORK – get this fixed!).

Then I headed off to work.  I did something I never did while I lived in Heidelberg – I took the OEG (5R) without buying a ticket.  They never checked when I lived here – so would they check now? 

And on the OEG – I passed the Hauptbahnhof – I passed the Print Media Academy where I filmed my first short film “Lift”.

So off I took the OEG to the Taubenfeld stop.  I was starving from the lack of sleep on the flight so I walked to the bakery (as I did when I lived in Heidelberg) and tried to buy my favorite schoko-crossiant but all they had was a roisen-schenke..  So I took what they had.

Walking back in the mist of the cold German rain, I saw the smokers of my building hanging out by the doorway – chatting and taking drags.  At first, they couldn’t believe it was me – but it was great to see them!  I wanted to spend an hour with each of them – but I only had a limited amount of time. 

After I followed one of my friends up the “lift” to the 5^th floor (6^th floor really from USA standards), I got off on my old floor walked down the corridor and went back to T5.10 – my old room.  And my desk sat empty and waiting.  Ready for me to plug in my laptop and start working.  And everybody I loved working with was already there – the guy from Poland, the guy from Spain – the only person missing was the Tunsian.   The crazy Tunsian!  After spending some time catching up, I plugged my laptop back in – and it was like I never left.  It became somewhat normal. 

A surreal normal.  Like I had never left at all.  That I was the scared American in the foreign country with the struggling marriage.  And the hope that I would do something that would change the world.