Johannes and Michaela

About 3 weeks ago Johannes and Michaela went to Queretero and loved it. They told me that it is a much smaller city than Guadalajara, is more pedestrian friendly, has more greenery and college age students, and is closer to everything. They mentioned that they were considering transferring there if they were allowed to. Last week they started asking the school and the whole weekend they were gone on a trip so I thought they were probably going to stay.

Monday morning I woke up with a fever and a sore throat and really didn't feel like going to school, but I went anyway. When I came back from school around 3 pm, I was exhausted. It felt like my head was off balance. Anyway, when I entered the house, Johannes and Michaela told me that they were leaving the next day for Queretero and they were having a party that night. Unfortunately, I was too sick to go and just slept the whole time.

Today, I woke up sick again and decided that I was not able to go to school, but then I thought of my students and how much they love computer class and so I decided to go in for an hour to finish up their lesson plans so hopefully their teachers would be able to take them through it. Also, we have a public drive on the server where I've been telling my students to save their work and on Monday that folder was erased. I had Hugo recover it and I wanted to make sure that I backed up their files in case that should happen again.

When I came home today around 10 am, they were just waking up and since they hadn't started packing, I thought they would be leaving in the night. But they told me they would be leaving in a few hours and so we said goodbye to each other and I went to bed once again. I woke up once to get water and in the living room was all of their baggage. It was so surreal. It happened so fast and it was really strange. I didn't know how to react. They are really good people and fun to be around and good to live with too. As I went to sleep again, I heard them packing and talking about their plans in the sound-of-the-wind distance and suddenly I woke up and all was quiet. Surely I would have at least heard them open the front door and move their baggage out.

The house felt empty. I looked into their room and it was vacant - the sheets were all folded and put in the closet. The room lacked the colors and posters that once decorated the walls. It was bland and sterile. This was the room that we all met in the first time we hung out to watch a movie. These were the people that I helped start a blog and constantly answered computer questions for...the ones that I ate dinner with. Yet, I barely knew them and their was such great potential for us to go on trips together and hang out and get to know each other more. And although now I have a place to stay in Queretero and they will be coming back to visit, it is a feeling that is hard to describe and an unexpected feeling...like a drenched white cold towel being wrung out by strong hands in the hot sun, then snapped and hung on the clothes line. It will dry but it will be wrinkled. I don't even know if that makes sense but that was the image that came to my mind. Until we meet next time friends!