Au Revoir

Today is the last night that the French guys will be sprawling out on my living room floor, passed out with a myriad of sights dancing in dreams inside their exhausted brains. I know how it is to be a stranger in a new place, to get around in a country in which you do not speak the language, when you listen very hard to catch just a fraction of what is said.

I feel that I was born to facilitated understanding between cultures. English was the second language of both of my parent's, and my life's work has been making connections between their country and mine. Travelers are my kindred spirits, because all journeys bring about the same sort of self-awareness and knowledge. It comes from leaving your home and all traces of what had been familiar to discover what you are capable of in entirely different situations and environments, how you fare and roll with the punches as things come up. 

Tonight I plan to send them off with a Chicago style house music dance party. It will be a celebration of everything that they picked up in the last month in the city of big shoulders. I will make sure that the soul and vibe of my hometown is not lost on them.