Mid-June. Still raining.

In the last week: turned 21, got a new cousin, went to the gym more than once, tried haggis for the first time (don't worry, it was vegetarian), convinced my French teacher to let me go to Berlin. A good couple of days, all in all.

Old age sucks. I laughed too hard on the morning of my birthday and pulled something in my back...I am officially becoming my father.

The goodbye parties are in full swing. They've been fun and heartbreaking at the same time. Sure, we get a lot of school-sponsored alcohol, but they've forced me to think about my own departure. On that account, I'm still torn between chanting U-S-A! U-S-A! and curling up in the fetal position and wailing. The only thing separating me from the end of my tumultuous relationship with Radboud University is 3500 words of essays and an exam. In that respect, let's rip the freakin' Band-Aid off already!

The twelve or fourteen of us around the table at Clare's flat last night were talking about the first thing we're going to do when we get home. Me? Strawberry rhubarb pie on the back porch and then walking around in Target the next morning and just inhaling the bargain-scented canned air. You know, consumerist osmosis.

But then we all got quiet at the same time and someone said "Wow, I'm really going to miss dinners like this."

I don't think I realized it until that very moment, but dinners really have been the anchoring part of this whole experience for me. I've tried everything from haggis to stamppot to tapas. But it's the impromptu rounds of flip cup and the conversations that are so engrossing that suddenly you look at the clock and WHAM! it's already midnight...those are the things that I'm really going to miss. We just don't have time for such things at school. We're too busy guarding our GPAs and saving the world at the same time to sit down with good friends and shoot the bull over chicken curry once in a while.

I don't think that this experience will make me cut down on my extracurriculars (I mean, really?), but it's made me realize my reliance on friends. I don't value my support system nearly enough. I'm so engrossed in my problems and my plays and the things that I think are important that I don't pay attention to the people that have my back. Another thing to work on upon my return.

So, seventeen days left. I'm honestly amazed. Until then, I'll be passing the potatoes and laughing long into the night with some good, good people.