On the Tiger Holiday Oriental Express...
One semester done. Only seven left. My finals were easy compared to others, but I am not lowering my guard until summer. Next semester will be the real deal and for me, it’s time to act serious. Currently, I am sitting on an Amtrak heading to Chicago Union Station. The scenery from a train is very interesting. I never knew there were so many people with trailers for homes. The horizon is shrouded in mist as we speed through the Illinois prairie. This is probably has been the safest part of my journey to get home. Let me explain.
How I got to Gateway Station in St. Louis is in and of itself quite a tale. I woke up at nine this morning to shower and pack my bags. Packing a good amount of clothes and Christmas gifts can be quite a challenge, so I had to pack the big things in first, then pack smaller objects around the biggest items in my bag. My ride was very generous to take me to the station for free and for the entirety of the trip we were smooth sailing, that was until the rain came. For some bizarre reason my ride’s car had frozen windshield wipers and by the time we were in the St. Louis city limits, we were practically blind, and I had to be the eyes of the road for my ride while he was blinded by the oncoming mist of semi-trucks and large cars. The only way I could see was by peering through the corner of the windshield. We stayed in the right-side lane the entire time and I was consistently stiff as a door. We somehow made it out alive. I got out of the car, handed my ride a twenty and told him to find a repair shop so he could fix his wipers on his way back. In full honesty had I known his car had broken wipers and it was going to rain, I would have just gone to the Greyhound station in Columbia.
Gateway Station is what one would consider a dump with fluorescent lights flickering on and off as if they were lightning bugs communicating a message of distress. The only place to find a decent meal was at a KFC/Pizza Hut stand. I ordered myself a Chicken Sandwich for $9.00. Surprisingly, it wasn’t that bad. While I sat around, I looked upon my fellow passengers as their faces were filled with stress; as though the station’s aura was sucking the life out of them. No matter how hard the holiday decorations located around the station tried to brighten the mood, the pillars of aluminum made their presence well known with the harsh color of hard prison iron.
My plan for when I get home will consist of sleeping in my bed and working on a math placement exam, I am trying to finish in order to place into one of my classes next semester. Also, it is my duty to set up the Christmas tree and to bake a birthday cake for my father. One thing I am looking forward to spending time with my friends and catching up with them on how their first semester of college has turned out to be. It’s good to be done studying for finals so I can finally type out more Journal Today posts. Happy Holidays!