Things are so different yet so familiar, that sense of nostalgia overcoming any rationality.
Everyday I wake up, trembling to some new nightmare, and look around to find myself staring at some foreign house with no cable or landline, a complete dead zone, glancing out the window only to see a cloudy sky on the verge of raining even though the tempreture could easily be comapred to that in hell. I go through the day, eating food I remember from my childhood while I laugh at the usual daily cursing routine. The old couple I'm staying with, long family friends, couldn't be more polar opposites and hearing them fight every day is like watching a hilarious episode of Tom and Jerry.
I constantly find myself walking aimably down the streets, my head a confusion of thoughts and memories, as I make my way from store to store looking for a part-time job. The sky no longer shows any stars, hidden behind the massive air pollution while planes roar overhead, the familiar symbol of the continental airlines taking off to some unkown destination every few minutes.
It's only been a week and three days but slowly we're beginning to move on. We managed to install cable, bought a new cell phone for international calls, opened a bank account with a few bucks, my sister found a job, my mother starts hers next week and me... well, I was so lucky that I got sick on the fourth day here and no medication nearby. And even with all this we still need to apply for college, get help from financial aid, make an I.D. card, study for the SAT's and try to fit in driving lessons because campus seems to be all the wall to Australia.
The cartoon couple will be leaving soon, heading back to Florida on their extended vacation leaving the three of us to our own care, in a house that's not ours and in a city I rarely remember...
