Day 4/5 - Return home from HNFF
/July 19 and 20
My film festival events were now over, but judging from my trip over, I knew I still had a journey ahead of me. For all of the wonderful things I can say about Belleville, it is in no way an easy destination from Los Angeles, but perhaps that was part of the fun.
After a leisurely morning at home, I packed up and departed Heidy’s wonderful home to walk to the train station. On Sunday, everything is closed, something that still feels foreign compared to anywhere I’ve lived. The only place I saw was open was the pub! It was a warm day that allowed me to soak in the serenity of Belleville one last time.
The station itself felt state of the art – I noticed it said it was built in 2012 – and next to it was an older, out of use station that matched the quaint limestone style of Belleville. Unlike my train ride over, which was sparse and mellow, the train ride into Toronto was completely sold out and every seat full! Due to a de-railing that had happened last night, we had to stop for about an hour halfway to the city. For part of the journey out the window was torrential rain, but by the time we arrived in Toronto it had settled. As was the case on my way over, getting from Union Station to Bishop Billy airport was relatively easy. I was still anticipating a very short window of time in Chicago that I would need every minute of.
View of Lake Ontario from the train
Unfortunately I was not going to make it this trip without having to pay for my error in flight reservation. A 30 minute delay of my flight from Toronto ® Midway would ruin any chance of making my second flight. I landed in Midway and made it through customs with 30 minutes to travel 45 minutes by cab and rush through security to catch the flight. This time, it wasn’t worth trying. Fortunately, I was able to call United and reschedule a flight for the next day (albeit at a cost), leaving me to figure out where to stay for the night.
The first person I called ended up being my answer: Eric “Percy” Sirvinskas, who I hadn’t seen since December due to his semester in Cape Town, was welcoming enough to let me crash for the night with him and his family. As fortune would have it, he also lives very close to O’Hare. I took the train across town as the sun set on Chicago, and made it to Eric’s station around 9:30pm.
It would only be a few hours since Eric had work in the morning, but it couldn’t have been a better place to stop and catch up with an old friend after 7 months apart. As usual we had more than enough to talk about, both the minute and the profound, but generally circulating around what lies in store for both of us in the future. For Eric, it’s senior year and for me it’s the great blank page of post-grad life. I also had the pleasure of meeting Eric’s entire family, and especially got to know his older brother Adam, who by coincidence had just read a book about one of my favorite organizations! (RoadMap by RoadTrip Nation, available here:http://theonlybookyouneed.com/)
The one and only Eric Sirvinskas
In the morning I very briefly said goodbye to Eric, then was taken to the airport by Adam in what turned out to be a perfectly great extra night of my trip. During this venture I watched Wild Taleson my computer, a perfect film for the trip because it is actually 6 short films compiled into an anthology, and therefore could watch it bit by bit even when interrupted by changing planes or trains. This Argentinean film is a darkly hilarious series of shorts each with a certain level of absurdity to it, and with nothing in common with one another other than this theme. It was nominated for the Foreign Language Oscar last year, and rightfully so – it’s a master of storytelling and defies most conventions we see in movies today. As you can gather I thoroughly recommend it.
I arrived in LA by 3:00pm and returned back to the usual pace of the city, after a nice break from routine. If you’ve taken the time to read this, thanks for being a part of my trip - I’m very happy to have made it!