And I'm Off!

It's been a crazy, wonderful, weird final week. Many ups, a few downs, and the disbelief that I'm not going to be 'sortir'ing with Martina every other night, not going to texting Alex for a movie or Ahmed for salsaing... weird that I'll be turning in my trusty bike today, never having to ride it to the IIEF building for classes ever again... and yet, I WILL be coming back here, three times, before actually leaving in August. So it's not like I really need to say good-bye all at once... And yet, seeing Martina and Alex say goodbye - potentially for good, all though Martina always says "you always see someone twice in a lifetime" - and then witnessing her bare bedroom this morning before wishing her well until we meet up chez elle in a month or so...

I'm extremely glad my last week has been as good as it has, even though it makes it harder to leave. It's like, I finally felt truly settled in, finally begun to make some connections with people beyond the foreign student population, finally got the hang of it all... and then it's time to leave. But at least it means I'm off on a good note. With connections, to boot.

This week has been topped off with activities:

- two concerts last week, with the 21 mile hike on saturday followed by awesome alsacian meal

- sunday exhaustion, can't even remember what i did... oh right... i updated my blog... ;)

- Monday, last final - an oral exposé that went wonderfully - errands, coffee with Susan (Canadian from our class) before she was to leave, dinner chez Martina followed by an evening out with Susan, Martina, and Anisa... met a french guy - Xavier - there, talked a good part of the evening with him, was ashamed he could shimmy his shoulders ten times better than i could ever do... may get together with him on my one day back next week for dinner and chat...

- Tuesday, road bike to kehl (in germany) with martina, dollar store shopping, cheap icecream, delicious struesle... evening out at L'abattoir, a hookah (or 'shisha') bar, with Martina and Martiniquan Christian.

- Wednesday, internet day that rendered me sick due to the constant smell of BO that seems to permeate this otherwise awesome internet place... but managed to feel better enough to get to Martina's for a 'dessert fest' with her, Albane, and Martina's Strasbourg-met German friend Carmen... Albane made delicious lemon tart, I made my orange chocolate chip cookies, and Martina provided a dinner of three different types of salades and some damn good wine. We talked about stereotypes of each of our countries in relation to the others... Albane had never heard that the french were called smelly and hairy in the US...

- Thursday, errands, last-minute deals, etc before a final night of AWESOME salsa dancing with Martina and Ahmed... danced for three hours straight, never a lack for a partner (though some of the smellier, skeezier ones we could've done without)... made friends-for-a-night with french Alexi, who chatted so much while we danced that i could barely keep up the multi-tasking with the footwork... danced/talked with an older Ecaudorian decked out in his native amero-indian garb -- he's a street musician in a group that tours europe's boulevards, and i'd definitely seen him playing in Stras before -- could barely understand his french, but we managed to have a conversation about the immigration situation into the US... Got home at 2 am, sweaty and happy to have spent the final night out doing what have been among my favorite things while in stras: dancing, talking to people from all corners of the world, laughing with martina, and drinking good wine.

- Today? Final everythings before hoping on a night train this evening to find my way up to Gretchen's campsite south of Copenhagen... The railpass gets initiated tonight!

okay. time to shop for train-snacks and turn in the beloved bike...

The summer adventure begins!