A little warmth in the chill.

This semester, I'm in my last of three English teaching methods classes. Fall of last year was the writing course; spring was reading; this semester is media composition and analysis. Not bad.

As the class has moved closer to being grownups with real jobs during school hours, our meeting times have changed. At first, we met two afternoons a week...then two nights...and now just one, Monday nights from 5--8. (Three hours is an excruciatingly long time for one class, but that's another issue.)

Sometime in the second or third week, F. and I discovered that we walked the same way home, and began to meet up and chatter for the few blocks our routes converged. She's a very sweet woman, a graduate student from China doing her master's work, and it's been really nice to share a bit of travel with her. We've been in class together for a year and a half, but this is the most one-on-one time I've had with her. Even though I'm much better than I was in high school, I can still be a bit of an awkward turtle--I'm never sure about class friendships, whether they exist only out of convenience or the two of us are actually friends. At any rate, walking with F. was nice. I wasn't going to look too closely at it.

Tonight, we headed towards home, sharing remedies for sore throats and colds. (She suggested ginger and brown sugar; I swear by lemon, mint and honey.) As we reached the corner where our paths divide, she stopped for a moment to unzip her backpack and pull out a small bag of red bean and date dumplings. We had talked about food and dumplings before, but I was surprised to get such a treat!

We chatted a few minutes more, waved, and went our own ways. As I walked the few blocks more to my apartment, I carried a warm little thought with me: Yup, we're friends.