This evening Julia came for dinner all the way from Pristina in Kosovo. She told us that there is one cinema in town, that it shows two films per day. She saw a good Albanian film the other day. I wondered if she was learning the language. Not really, she said, the film had subtitles, in English. I use my free time, Julia continued, to go to the gym, to keep fit, physically and mentally.
I told her I had been to the English Cinema in Vienna when I was there in January. I didn't tell her the film I watched. She didn't ask. It was "Seven Pounds" with Will Smith. I sort of liked it. I sort of felt it was too corny to be good. I couldn't stop crying when it ended. I felt so sad, alone in Vienna, going to my hotel in the cold, with my new leather gloves and my new leather boots from a top-fashion store.
I wonder if Julia feels lonely in Pristina? She says there are no parks for walking. How do you live in a town without parks? I guess she has more friends now. The internationals, it figures. I'm happy for her. It is hard to be an expatriate. I know it myself after 12 odd years of Brussels. I don't have a lot of time to go to the cinema here, mais bon, there is always so much to do at home anyway. I go to the cinema when I'm on mission.
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