The time it took me 41 minutes to get home otherwise known as the time I had three double takes

The students finished with the exam I was proctoring at 16:12. I turned in the tests to the director of my middle school, signed that I was in class that afternoon and climbed on my bike to head home forty-five minutes earlier than I normally leave school on Tuesdays.

I didn’t get very far. At the end of the side street that leads to my school is the house of my CA. As I pedaled by, he called to me from his front porch, so I turned around to sit with him for a few minutes. It was that or continue grading exams.

The second double take happened not soon after I left the CA’s house. I was headed into a boutique to buy toilet paper when the French teacher at my school pulled up on his motorcycle. I chatted with him for a moment before heading back into the boutique.

After the boutique, I started daydreaming about cold water, so I took the long(er) way home in order to stop by the boutique that has a refrigerator. It got even longer than usual when I ran into the history teacher at my school.

I chatted with him for a few minutes, then stopped 20 feet later to say Hi to my host family at their store.

The longest stretch I went was between their store and the second boutique. A few moments later, my desires for cold water satisfied, I headed to my house.

I pedaled into my concession at almost the same time I normally would on a Tuesday night.