On August 9, I took the 3:36 p.m. train from Brussels to Charleroi to catch up my return flight to Italy. I met Andras at the station while we waited for the bus that would take us to the airport. He is from Hungary and does research studies in Leuven. He came to fetch a couple of friends.

I made acquaintance with Marco and Andrea from Udine who were waiting for their flight back to Treviso. Before my flight was announced I got into a casual conversation with Stephane and Eric from Valenciennes as they waited for the arrival of their friend from Sweden. I met Mauro from Bergamo while we were standing on line to check in for our flight. After I got my embarkation card, I headed directly to the customs.

The passengers bound for Stockholm were still in the departure when I walked in. I took the opportunity to talk to a member of the basketball team whom I took for an American team because almost half of them were black. I was only too surprised to learn that they were all Swedish nationals. They placed 5^th in an inter-European tournament held in Romania that was won by the Slovenia team. When they left, I met and talked to Emmanuele and his friend from Milano.

I got a wider and more comfortable row located in emergency exit of the plane. I took the window seat, Mauro the middle and Pauline from Lille took the aisle. In the meantime while Mauro and I continued an unfinished business that we started before we were called for embarkation. Somehow, she could overhear our lively and animated conversation with a few giggles and hearty laughs while I traced and explained to him the course of the major lines as well as the significance when they’re overlapped or joined by the corollary lines on their probable effects to any changes and improvements.

From time to time, she would interrupt reading and glanced at us discreetly. When we’re finally through, Mauro was so spontaneous as to propose her if she’d care for a reading. She was rather too keen than curious to oblige. I took her by surprise when she told me how accurate my reading about the trying and difficult period during her teens in coming into terms with her anorexia problem which didn’t affect her brilliant academic performance and success to graduate with honors in high school. On the other hand, I told her not to worry too much about the future because it would bring her great challenges to her career and awesome benefits as well as personal satisfaction.

Afterwards, I told her how much Lille had become the turning point of my life after I left my country for good. My first impression was that it was a gray and cold place because it’s the northern most city of France just a few miles from the Belgian border, but I came to like it during my stay. Surprisingly however, it had never crossed my mind that I would end up and settle down in Belgium someday!

¶ 1:10 PM