Winding down and racing through- my story’s end here, for now

It’s been a while since I last wrote, my apologies, but the past few months have simply flown by in the blink of an eye for me. Term time was a blur of hilarities with friends, and exciting new experiences (like going to a Canucks game [and seeing Koivu play on the opposing team]) in the midst of course work and exams. Then before we knew it finals were upon us, then done with, and it was time to move out of the little pods of comfort we had made for ourselves into the concrete blocks we had come to call home during the last two terms.

Perhaps then, for a nostalgic like myself anyway, it was fortunate move out day was so chaotic and stress-filled that it didn’t allow for too much grieving of the “end of an era”. As we all stumbled over our belongings, frantically squeezing with them into the seemingly shrunken elevators now filled to the brim with people (most of whom, by the way, I swear didn’t live there all year) and luggage to try meet the ludicrous deadline of being moved out by noon, the last thing on my mind was “aw, isn't it sad that we’re all moving out”. The hassle didn’t end there, of course, because now we all had our stupendously overfilled bags on us, having to find places to allocate them for the remainder of our stay here which for some would be longer than for others. I, however, was extremely lucky that one of my friends allowed me to seek refuge with all my belongings at her house leading up to my departure from Canada- it has been so helpful and I am incredibly grateful for this! 

At this stage though, we were only in town a couple nights before I left with a group of friends to Tofino on Vancouver Island for a surf vacation. I’d never surfed before (or driven a mini van; I felt like a soccer mom with a bunch of rowdy kids in the back driving that thing), not unlike many of my pals with me, but discovered that I loved it, exhausting though it was! We saw some beautiful sunsets, shooting stars, more gorgeous BC nature on walks through forests, and had some truly wonderful meals sharing lots of laughs together on that trip. When it was time to leave, I wished we could have stayed another week. 

Seal friend

Thankfully, shortly after I headed inland to visit some friends’ hometowns, one of which was mainly lost to me due to a mysterious food poisoning both myself and the only other driver on our road trip managed to catch from some dodgy donuts. Luckily both of us recovered quite quickly and we were able to continue our trip to the Rockies from there. So as not to drone on, I'll only say this about the Rockies; I saw some of the most stunning views of my life during that roadtrip and everywhere we visited along the way was absolutely breath-takingly beautiful- well worth the dodgy night in a hostel with no running water and minimal electricity.

Since all this travelling, I’ve been back in Vancouver for a week and a half. I've biked around Stanley park, attended a graduation ceremony, been on some hikes, and caught up with and said good bye to amazing people and friends over dinners and teas. The last of those has most certainly been the hardest, and this slow trickle of farewells has been the thing that has made the end of this experience most real to me.

But as Frank Herbert says, “There is no real ending. It’s just the place where you stop the story.” I like that. My story with all the things I’ve learned here in Canada, with all the incredible people I’ve met and friends I’ve made does not end today when I board that plane heading back to Europe. It just changes its format, setting and continues on anew. And all those memories I’ve accumulated throughout this unbelievable experience, all the late night movies, adventures in and around Vancouver, cards against humanity games, hikes, pot-lucks, ski-times, tea-times, laughter and tears with all the various people I was lucky enough to cross paths with this year, I will cherish them all close to my heart as I move along to new adventures seeing where this crazy life will take me next. 

And so as I find myself coming back full circle, sitting in the midst of my haphazardly (un)packed suitcases and things strewn about in neat (or not so neat) piles all around me, I feel sad to be closing this chapter in my life, but also hopeful that all that this year has given me (the friends, lessons learned, memories) will stay with me far into the future. Moreover I look back on my first post and recall the anxious girl writing that and trying to envision the months ahead, worrying that it would not live up to the hype it had been built up to and it makes me smirk.

Thank you Canada. It truly was one of The. Best. Times. Ever. 

Goodbyes and new beginnings

I’m baaaack! So it’s already the second week of term two (when did that happen??) which means that I’ve surpassed the midway point of my time here (but I don’t want to  think about that). Since the past month or so was such a whirlwind of emotions and activities it’s hard (maybe even impossible) to fully articulate all that went on in these weeks, but I’ll give it a try to catch you up.

Exams came and went; everyone was busy at different times, but ultimately trying to dig deep for those final strands of motivation for the last push. Slowly but surely with each exam one more course was brought to a close and we were that much closer to freedom. Finally, when it was all over, there was about a week of tea meet-ups, lunches, Christmas dinners and ice skating sessions with friends before parting our ways for the holidays – and though these were all incredibly lovely, they did also mark the saying of good byes to some dear friends who either went on to continue their adventures back to their home universities, or graduated and moved on to new exciting places and stages in their lives. So it was a bittersweet time balancing the joy and excitement of the holidays with the knowledge that I would really miss this eclectic bunch of people that had come to make the first part of my exchange as crazy, wonderful, and exciting of a journey as it was. To all you guys- my most humble and heart-felt thank you.

A very orange Christmas dinner <3

Once all the tearful good byes had been said and done, campus became virtually deserted in a matter of days. It was such a stark contrast to exam season, when every available study space (read as: anywhere with something to sit on and with wifi) was crammed with people who frankly looked like they hadn’t paid too much attention to personal hygiene in a few days and were living off of cheap ice tea, Chinese take out and any number of snacks they could scavenge from somewhere nearby (it’s ok, I too, was one of them). Suddenly there was no one in sight, and as people flocked to go enjoy their holidays, I joined my parents who had come to visit for a couple of weeks. It was great having a break from campus; feeling like a local (well, almost anyway) when being able to show others around Vancouver, eating lots of great food, visiting Victoria for a couple days over New Years, and going skiing in Whistler (it never gets old). Time flew past, and after two weeks of basically running around from morning til night with my family, I could’ve used another vacation before the start of second term. Nevertheless, I rallied myself as well as I could (i.e. checked where my- no, WHAT my classes for this term were) during that one Sunday, and then started it all over again.

And now here we are. It’s week two of term two and I just know that this second term will be jam-packed with new adventures, new friends, (unfortunately) school work, and all around insanity from trying to fit in everything I’ve yet to have done/seen/experienced into the coming 4 months… BC, you better watch out- cause this term I’m gonna be all over you!