I can always hear a freight train baby if I listen real hard

I was going to call this post Planes, Trains and Automobiles (yeah that movie!) but then I decided I had enough to say about just trains to fill one post and that my thoughts on planes and automobiles would have to wait for another time. I also love the line in "Raining in Baltimore" which is the title of this post. Sometimes I feel like I can always hear a freight train too. I have an interesting relationship with trains because I don't actually like trains that much but I adore everything surrounding them. I definitely prefer travelling by planes or cars. (I don't mind/actually kind of like subways and commuter trains. When I was still in high school I used to prefer buses to subways because being underground kind of freaked me out. But once I left high school I started much preferring subways. They are faster, I can read on them, and they don't get slowed down by traffic, etc.) I don't normally get motion sickness but I find the motions of trains, the slight tilting or rocking side to side, sometimes gives me a headache or makes me feel a bit nauseous. Train tracks, however, and train whistles, I absolutely love.

One of my favourite things about Berkeley (along with the hills and November full moons) were the train whistles. I could always especially hear them at night. Maybe because there were less cars out and so less background noise? Or maybe because more trains went by at nighttime? I'd hear them sometimes in the daytime too but it was always more special at night. I have so many very happy memories of sitting at my kitchen table in my lovely Hilgard apt and hearing the train whistles. I must have heard them before 2005, but all my memories surrounding hearing them come from my last year there. To this day, whenever I hear a train whistle, I always think about Berkeley and that year I lived on Hilgard. I mentioned to K. once, sometime after we'd both left Berkeley, how much I loved the train whistles there. She told me that during our second year when she lived in that house on Oregon St. and slept in the little sun room turned bedroom off the kitchen that she could hear the train whistles really well and also loved it.

I got to indulge my love of train tracks, but not whistles, in Paris. Near my fabulous apartment on rue des Batignolles were some wonderful train tracks. Paris has a really good commuter train system with an extensive network of tracks and trains taking people to and from Paris and the surrounding suburbs. I got well acquainted with these trains while living in Paris because I needed to take one of them in to Paris that first week I got there when staying in Meudon with my family friends. I loved that train because it was a short ride into Paris and you could see the Eiffel Tower for part of the ride. I also had to take commuter trains out to the airport when I was assigned to teach English to Air France employees. These trains were great because they functioned much like subways except above ground and didn't have any of that tilting that I don't like. Anyway, at the end of rue des Batignolles is a lovely little park called Square des Batignolles. It has a little pond, some nice paths, a playground and lots of greenery. On the far side of the park, there is a big long fence and on the other side of the fence, a steep drop to some commuter train tracks. I used to love going to that park and standing by the fence watching the trains go by below. I also used to walk over a bridge located above those same train tracks on a regular basis and I'd love stopping sometimes to watch the trains go by, or just to stare at the tracks. (See the picture of the tracks below.) When I first discovered that there were train tracks so close to me in Paris it felt like fate, and further convinced me how much I belonged in the 17th arrondissement.

Another amazing train track/whistle experience I've had took place in Marathon, Texas - this little speck of a town in the vast and magical West Texas desert. I've been to Marathon twice - once in May 2008 with S. en route to Los Angeles, and once in June 2009 with J. after we left Big Bend National Park. Ever since I first heard the song "We Danced Anyway" by Deana Carter when I was 16 I always loved the line "Well they say you can't go back, baby I don't believe that" because it's true that people do always say you can't go back. But Deana is right (!) since three times in my life I have gone back and going back has been perfect: 1. the two times I went to Marathon 2. Going back to Paris and living at 45 rue des Batignolles again in June-July 2008 and 3. returning to Berkeley for the 2005-2006 year after spending the first 7 months of 2005 in Santiago.

But back to Marathon, it is very beautiful there. The sky is so blue and bright during the day, and so so full of stars at night. It is also the most beautiful rich blue at sunset. Both times I stayed at the Marathon Motel which is located at the edge of Marathon and basically right in the desert. All the rooms are little cabins and when you step outside the cabin, you are confronted with the desert. The first time in May 2008 when S. and I were there, I was awoken in the middle of the night by long, loud and clear train whistles. Instead of wishing it would stop so I could go back to sleep, I lay there smiling and thinking about Berkeley and its train whistles and about how much I already liked West Texas. S. and I had arrived in Marathon in early evening and left early the next morning so we didn't get to enjoy the town much. J. and I arrived in the afternoon. In daytime, Marathon was awash with light, in brightness, the hot West Texas sun beamed down on our shoulders, our heads, the backs of our knees, our summer dresses, as we walked along the train tracks that scorching hot June day. It seems the trains there mostly go through at night and so in the afternoon we had the tracks to ourselves, to walk along and to explore. That night, I was awoken by the whistles again, and again I lay in bed smiling, so happy to be back in the vast desert with the night train and its whistles to keep me company.

Toronto also has some really cool train tracks. There are some good ones downtown, running along the lake. They go right by all these big tall condos and if I'd lived in one of those, I'd love to look out my window and watch the trains go by. There are also the Dupont train tracks which cross over Avenue Road just above Dupont and which run behind Dupont St. and a few other streets in that area. Some friends of my parents used to live right on Dupont and said that the trains running basically through their backyard were noisy and annoying. I know I wouldn't think so though, and would actually love to live super close to train tracks like that. Hopefully one day I'll eventually get to.

Une journée sans chocolat est une journée sans soleil

D. and I went for a walk the other night and passed this restaurant called Juliette et Chocolat (I love the name!). In the window they had the words above and as soon as I read it, I thought how perfect! I need to use it for my blog :) I've actually only ever been to the restaurant once (and it was great!) and so I need to go back. Their motto is perfect, and so true. But it didn't always used to be this way for me. I've always loved chocolate but for many many years I didn't eat some every day. That changed in March 2011. I was home in Toronto for a few days at the end of that February and my parents had a Lindt 70% chocolate bar lying on the counter. Never one to say no to chocolate, I tried it and was instantly hooked. March in law school is really stressful and so I decided chocolate would help me get through. I kept buying 70% and also branched out to try Intense Mint, 50% and 85%. Intense Mint quickly became my favourite, closely followed by 70%. At that time, I limited myself to two pieces per night and told myself I would only eat chocolate through the month of March and maybe April.

Since March 2011, three important Lindt chocolate related things have occurred. 1. Starting in September 2011, I began buying the chocolate regularly and now eat some almost every day. So much for only needing chocolate during the stress of March. (Although in my defence, other months are stressful too). 2. Also in September, I began eating usually 4 squares a day. I know it's bad! I know I should go back down to 2 but I can't help myself. I also do not seem to have gained weight so I tell myself the extra chocolate intake can't be that bad. 3. In terms of variety and selection in drug stores, Montreal beats Toronto any day. In Toronto I pretty much exclusively go to Shoppers Drug Mart. Very occasionally I'll go to PharmaPlus which my mom told me is now called Rexall. In Montreal, there are three competing drugstores and they are all in convenient locations across the city and all very close to each other. They are Uniprix,
Jean Coutu, and Shoppers (called Pharmaprix). These three drugstores continually rotate who has Lindt chocolate bars on sale 2 for $5. I am positive they coordinate so they have their sales at different times. It's perfect because I rarely have to pay full price since the deal happens so frequently (at one or the other) and I always stock up on a lot when they are on sale. I love these sales and it's a good feeling to pop into one of the stores for some toothpaste and also leave with 4 chocolate bars. Sometimes, though, I have to admit I feel like all I do is go from drugstore to drugstore hoping they'll have the deal on Lindt chocolate :)

The last time I was so consistently into chocolate was in the winter & spring of 2007 when I lived in Paris. It started the first month I was there when taking that English teacher certification course. There were only 8 of us taking that class together and we used to take turns going up the street to the little grocery store (called Franprix - a Paris grocery store chain; there was also Monoprix which was another chain whose stores were bigger. You can't walk more than a few blocks in residential parts of Paris without seeing a Franprix or Monoprix) and buying chocolate which we'd then share with all the others. That class was pretty stressful too and we'd all look forward to the chocolate all day. I think we mostly used to get milk chocolate back then. I do like milk chocolate but if I am just going to eat chocolate plain I prefer dark. Eating chocolate every afternoon was definitely a highlight of my day that whole month.

I had two other cool chocolate experiences in Paris. One Sunday in early June, I went with some friends to this little restaurant called Puerto Cacao (it focused on fair trade cocao and coffee) for a chocolate brunch. Back in 2007 the restaurant was located in the 17th arrondissement. However when I just googled it now it appears it has moved to the 12th arrondissement. If you're really into chocolate I think I would recommend going but I think it's the kind of thing I am glad I tried once but wouldn't really want to be a regular thing. The menu consisted of hot chocolate, chocolate croissants and then lots of bowls of hot dark chocolate into which you were supposed to dip bread and fruit. I left fairly satisfied, I guess, but I wouldn't say it was the best chocolate I'd ever had.

One rainy Sunday in May I ended up in a cafe in a part of Paris I didn't normally go to as I had just gone to an art gallery and then wanted to escape the rain before heading home. I ordered a hot chocolate, which was a good choice as Paris cafes take hot chocolate very seriously. The waiter brought me a cup with milk and then a bowl of hot melted chocolate. I could then put as much or as little chocolate as I wanted into the milk. I liked how I could control how chocolatey it got. It was the perfect escape from the rain outside. I wish I could have one right now actually! But since I can't, I think I'll go have my daily pieces of chocolate.