Ramble On

Because I am planning a trip later this month, I realized a little late that I needed to renew my passport. I also realized that I had to let go of my passport issued in 2003 when I was first heading off to study abroad in France.  That was a tough pill to swallow. It has certainly come full circle because the whole reason I am taking this trip is to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of studying abroad with a member of my Grenoble cohort.  I was flipping back through the pages and pages of stamps from different countries, remembering what it was like to be exploring and living in a new country and learning a new language with totally new people. This was my first visa ever.   I sat down and thumbed through the pages of the passport musing over the places that my eyes have seen and my feet have trod.  This was a really hard passport to let go of.   I remember running through Parisian train stations in winter hoping to catch a bus to the airport on time....

Today on my metro commute home, I was switching to the yellow line at Gallery Place as I usually do.  I saw that a Yellow train was coming in one minute.  I remember there was a green train on the board before it, but with no arrival time, so I shrugged it off as a probable no passenger train.  I was pretty engrossed in my book, and without really thinking about it, I got on the next train that arrived. After a few stops, we were in a tunnel and I looked up and around me.  I noticed two things: 1) The train was much more empty than it usually is. 2) I was the only white person on it. And that alone was enough to know I was on the Green line. It was an odd moment for me to identify going in the wrong direction not by geography at all, but by ethnicity.  Sure enough, the next stop, where I got off to correct my mistake, was Congress Heights, about 4 stops past where I should have been.  As soon as the train came back into the district near Nats Stadiu...