After 15 years I sound like a stranger

I remember my mom telling about her first college reunion. She was staring with her friends at those "old people" at the 15 year table.

A few weeks ago a high school friend asked if I had received the invitation for our 15 year high school reunion. What...15 years? What a mistake, I have been graduated for 10 years.
...Oh wait a minute, it's been 10 years since university, so 15 years from high school is no mistake at all. Gosh.

So on Friday evening I was asking my dad where to go....my former all girls school has in the mean time merged & moved with the former all boys school where my dad used to teach. I must say that it ruins a bit your reunion and nostalgia trip if you need to go to a place where you have to ask where the toilets are and if half of the attending people & staff have in fact never been in "your" school. (it was a reunion of 5/10/15/20 & 25 years from both former schools)

Some of my classmates were so nice as to post themselves at the entrance of the buzzing big hall full of strangers and after some sms's we had also located the rest of our class in the far right end of the room :).

After one hour at least 5 people had commented on my "strong accent" that made it "obvious that I didn't live nearby anymore" and made it "audible that I'm not from the area anymore".
Great , I've never been particularly fond of my Antwerp colleague's accent , neither does the local Leuven accent sound to be jealous of to me, but nevertheless I must have eagerly adopted those into my language. I'm more flexible than I thought. "Just speak and I'll tell you where you're from" is such a strong truth in Flanders. Mind you I only moved 1 hour away ;) which was indeed 3 times as far as most of the others.

When I had trouble remembering most teacher's names, I realised that it had after all indeed been 15 years. I was glad enough none of them remembered my name either :).

As for my class mates....well due to facebook, the reunion wasn't as revealing as it used to be. Nevertheless I do enjoy these type of gatherings. Up to 20 years! Maybe then I'll have to book an interpreter though.

Comments

rozebril said…
Ik heb onlangs ook eens teruggeteld hoe lang het middelbaar geleden was. Toch wel verschieten, eens het doordringt!
Korie said…
This year was my 10 year reunion. I saw pictures and wasn't very sorry that I missed it.
:p

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