I did laundry over the weekend and on Monday I spent the day in Rennes. Once I hopped off the train at Rennes, I took a walk around town and came across the Marché de Noël site before scoping out the area I was going for an appointment and the walk was invigorating.
I was climbing the incline to the office when a girl walked up to me and asked if I knew where it was. I told her that I was headed to the same place so we walked the rest of the way together.
When we arrived we sat in the welcome area and talked for a bit before she was called up. She had the same name as my sister, she was from Tunisia and she was studying at the University of Rennes for the year. I knew it was the Universe at work when I heard her name and once she was finished at the front desk we left together to get lunch ( I was informed by staff that my appointment would take place later in the afternoon).
At the nearest train station the machine was not recognizing my French bank card so I had to dig out some coins and insert them into the machine instead. Once we took the train to Sainte Anne I realized that I had forgotten to bring along photos which I needed for my appointment: So we spent about fifteen minutes looking for a place with a photomaton, we stopped at an ATM for my bank and thankfully on our walk to find a place to eat lunch we spotted a photomaton through the windows of Galeries Lafayette.
We went into Galeries Lafayette, I sat in the photo booth, and then I learned that that machine took coins only so I had to find a cashier to exchange some bills for coins. Once this had been done and my photos had been printed a lot of time had passed and so the both of us parted ways since I had to move at turbo speed now in order to make it back to my appointment.
I grabbed a sandwich at a place I’d seen students crowding earlier on our walk into the central part of town and I took a few minutes to eat my sandwich (the lady working there was very nice). I then had to rush to the train station since my appointment time was coming close. I found myself actually walking in the wrong direction and a lady I asked for help redirected me and once I was close to the corner where she had instructed me turn, I glanced back and noticed that she had paused at the spot where we’d talked and she was waiting to make sure I took the right turn.
When I reached the office, the police officer who I’d seen earlier and who was nice was still stationed there. I walked into the office, went through the appointment process, and briefly talked to a Spanish language assistant who was from Mexico and was working in Brest. Once I made it into the doctor’s office, while she was checking my heartbeat, I asked for a sign so I could relax and I spotted a plastic bottle near the sink labelled “White Spirit“. I relaxed and knew that Spirit was with me.
Everything was finalized and the guy who did the final part of the processing was super nice. When it was over the officer said bye as I was walking out and I took the walk back to the SNCF station. I got a sandwich and Orangina from this place I had liked the last time I had visited Rennes before arriving and waiting at the train station.
Once the train arrived, I hopped on. The guy beside me was an older guy and he was playing candy crush which made me smile to see his inner child was present. When I got to my designated stop I switched trains and the conductor was very personable which was awesome.
P.S. I’d meditated on the train and I think it was awesome.
November 2016
Aisha Isabelle 
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