We’re Gonna Take Your Mama Out All Night

There are nine days until I leave this place and ten days until I touch down in Vancouver. There are 12 days until I start working and exactly 2 weeks until Christmas. There are And then there are 23 days until I return. For the first time in 4 months my life is revolving around numbers and dates. This is such a weird feeling. I have gotten used to making plans on a whim and flying by the seat of my pants. I suppose this is the sort of feeling they talk about when all the members from older generations refer to the “good days” or “when I was young.” I have  been missing out!

This post unfortunately will lack the glitter and glory of the previous posts because it will be without pictures. I have graduated from picture book authorship and will now be attempting entirely textual depictions of my life overseas. In short, my computer broke and I have lost all the iPhoto versions of my photographs. Don’t worry, this trend won’t last long. I will get my pictures up and running again once I get home.

Also, I have done significantly fewer exciting things over the past month. Not to say that this whole lifestyle isn’t exciting in and of itself, but I have actually been busy concentrating considerably more on school. I have handed in (an exhausting grand total of) three assignmens already and have one final left next Tuesday. This is my way of studying – by practicing my writing. On Tuesday morning at the godawful hour of 9am (I have been justifying my sleeping in over the past four months by always subtracting eight hours and judging myself by Vancouver standards – so, 1am is very early, even for me!) I have to write 2 essays in 3 hours and they have to be good, 70% of my overall grade good. How daunting.

Marc came and went. His visit was great. It was so hard when he left though. I walked back from the train station at 11 at night and of course it was pouring rain and I was without an umbrella. I remember thinking, where am I going? Marc is going to the only place I want to be and yet I am walking off in the opposite direction. Quicky, though, I came to my senses (and out of the rain). I love it here. And I wouldn’t change it for the world.

My American friends put on a party for American Thanksgiving at the end of November and it was a great hit. We had too many people show up bringing too much food and we chatted in a hundred different languages and it was spectacular. I just am so amazed by the amount of networking that happens so naturally among a bunch of students who have practically nothing in common except for the place and the time they share together for this limited amount of time. Everyone made an effort, big or small, to support this holiday so important in one country and not even recognized in most others. People who hardly knew each other got together to bake a casserole dish neither of them had ever heard of before. People drew decorations for a holiday they had only ever seen on American television before. People from all walks of life, from all social backgrounds, ate together under one elusive cause in a country not necessarily their own. I know this is sappy, but I think it is so interesting.

I had my first event as the International Student Society’s Event Manager. It too was a hit. We were able to get a discounted rate at a new restaurant in town and we charged students a flat fee so they could eat off a set menu. It was great and I felt accomplished for one of the first times since getting here.

This week marks the last week I have with my American friends here in Dundee. It is incredibly sad when I think about it. I am so lucky to have met them and have had such a supporting foundation upon which to base much of my experience so far. I will probably sing some cheesy tune at karaoke next Tuesday to bid them farewell. Conveniently, it also happens to be the birthdays of three of them next week so we’ll do what the Scots do best, and go on a pub crawl of sorts. My 24 hours of flights the following Monday will be possibly the most bittersweet experience of my life… until May at least.

You can expect to hear from me soon as my academic endeavours come to a halt early next week.