thorn

I don't have a car, so I take the bus and the train everywhere, at least until my bike gets tuned up. Today I had a meeting in another town down the way, which was the first time I had seen any town in this state but this one. I could have borrowed a car, but the bus stops right in front of my work and relieves me from paying for parking. I took the afternoon off and caught a bus along a winding road through forests of trees draped in vines and along a bluff above a river. I began to see why this area is considered so beautiful. (What I've seen prior to this... well, a city is a city is a city.) On the way home, pondering all that I had learned during said meeting, I noticed that my finger hurt, on the side. When I looked, I saw that I had another thorn.

The thorns, which I have been taking out of my skin since four weeks ago in Gonder, attacked as I was climbing that mountain that I previously described. My choices were 1. grab thorn bushes, or 2. fall off the side of a mountain. 1. was a fairly natural choice, but those thorns are still working their way to the surface of my skin an entire month later.