Hopping the Pond

For the record...

I know I've been talking about leaving for a long time, but it's really starting to hit everyone now. We're working on finals (when it gets to 2:30 p.m. tomorrow, I will be incredibly relieved.) But tonight is the last Professor Serb session! And everyone is dashing around to see the things they still haven't seen (Abbey Road and Camdentown Market for me) and doing some last minute shopping. (I had an incredibly successful day on Oxford St. yesterday, when I didn't have class.) And of course, visiting all of the tourist shops to find a Union Jack speedo for a certain someone. Although in light of recent photographs that have surfaced, I'm thinking a bikini might be more fitting.

At any rate, it's starting to get sad! Last night was the film club finale, and they showed a foreign film called L'Auberge Espagnole, about a French student who studies in Barcelona for a year. More than anything, the movie was about the bonds that were created between all of the students who were living there together (French, English, Danish, Italian, Spanish) and the three categories life has gotten divided into: school, traveling/exploring during the day and then doing the same at night. (In other words, going to see the tourist sights during the day and getting 'legless' at night, as Prof. Serb would say.)

The thing that hit home the most in the movie was when the main character went home and had a hard time re-adjusting. I've gotten so attached to this place. There were even some tears during the movie (Stacey;) because the weight of leaving is finally hitting. Leaving and saying goodbye is always particularly hard with me. Ever since the move from Illinois-->CT. and saying goodbye to Granny and Pops, I always get upset, even with minor goodbyes. I still well up when my parents drop me off in Syracuse every year.

There were some scenes that really stuck out and were easy to relate to: when the whole group went out to a club at night and ended up finding a guy (American) with a guitar who played a Bob Marley song for them. You could tell that they were just all so happy. It's been those moments--the sort of unexpected ones, where you just have this feeling of freedom and happiness. Paris in particular was one of those. And now there's really this bond between the people here, because we all experienced it together. I have no idea how I'll be able to explain the experience to people at home, because there's just so much. When I used to think of studying abroad, I would just think of traveling for a few months. But this was our home, and how can you describe your whole life to someone if they ask you? I can tell you stories about getting farted at in Dublin or unruly Irish Ryanair passengers on the way to Barcelona, but I can't describe how happy I've been here, how much better my life is now that I've had this experience or how freeing it is to navigate yourself all over Europe. The past three and a half months have been the best time of my life.

I apologize for getting kind of schmaltzy and emo, but like I said I'm not good with goodbyes.

Thanks for listening.