Before we get into the heavy stuff, let me just say...
FINALS ARE DONE! WOOOOH!
Anyone who knows me will know that this statement is a little bit ridiculous since I only had one real final, and three papers, but hey...I'm allowed to be excited vicariously for those of you who were stressed! Also, hopefully Annelise will read this after she is done with her A-Chem final, so it won't be too early of a celebration.
Beware of sadness...
In previous years, people whose finals finished early and got to go home early were considered lucky, and being forced to stay until the absolute last day, when campus was almost empty, was the worst. This year, instead of remaining cloistered in our rooms studying feverishly and then leaving as soon as possible, my friends and I are making ridiculous excuses to spend time together, and the longer each of us is staying at school, the happier they are. About half of my friend group is going abroad next semester, and we are being extra clingy to make up for it.
Yesterday we had a jello-pudding pops cuddle-fest, as we are wont to do, and then went to lunch, where at least two or three of us, full on cookies and jello pudding, did not even eat. We are an extremely mob-like group of folks, separating us is a difficult and unpleasant task. Do not attempt.
I said goodbye for now to Anna, who is coming to see me in CA before she sets off on her boat, and goodbye for now to Heather, who I will see in France! Goodbye for now to Inbar, who will visit me in Bath, and goodbye for now to Dylan, who I will see in Ireland! So yesterday's goodbyes were rather cheery.
Today, I packed and said goodbye to my two absolutely splendiferous roommates, Hilary and Annelise, who I will miss very much. We have had quite the year...me in the room, and them in Ebaugh...sometimes we would intersect for brief moments over some sort of schedule confusion or cancelled class. This one time we were all in the room at once!
Then I went around campus saying goodbye to everyone I could find, while my dad napped in the car. It was quite depressing, but did end on a good note. SleepyClayIsSleepy told me he would say goodby once he put some pants on. Noah told me he was still asleep, and to try again later. Annie and I ran slash bounced towards each other from other ends of the
hallway, each trying to out-adorable the other (she won). Rob, in a sleep-induced haze, told me as I was leaving "Have fun in England, or as they say in England, pip pip cheerio!" I then proceeded to skip down the hall as my friends watched, I'm sure with tears in their eyes. No, seriously that's how it happened. The Rob and the skipping anyway.
I think the most difficult part of the semester abroad will not be, as some of you might think, the language barrier. (I mean really, what is a loo, anyway?) It will be really really really (times 52!) hard starting over with a whole new group of people. My friends here I have known for years, I know exactly where I stand with them, and feel comfortable blurting out the strangest things, or you know, just making random noises if I can't think of anything to say.
Suddenly, I will be in a world where people don't know everything about me, and I can't just blurt out things that in most polite society would be considered, well...not very nice at all, young lady. Social norms scare me. What if I've forgotten how to talk in normal people language, without memes, rob-isms, clay-isms, and nerdy references? I'm going to have to appear normal, friendly, and god help me I may have to act "cool."
