A Time Of Good-byes

This is such a strange time. I mean it’s Christmas, everyone’s getting into the holiday spirit and is happy about having a break from studying. But the end of the semester also brings something else, something darker: a bunch of good-byes.

The last four months, I was fortunate enough to share my days and nights with people from a lot of different places: Denmark, the Netherlands, Australia, England and fellows from other parts of Germany, for example. I can’t believe it’s over now, but it is. We had the first good-byes this week, we saw the first tears and there are more to come. Of both.

It’s only half-time for me. I don’t have to say farewell to Victoria yet. Nevertheless it’s strange for me at the moment as well because imagine the majority of your friends are leaving all at once. The people you explored Vancouver Island with, the people you went on holidays with, and the people who were simply there when you needed a friend.

One of my favourite memories is definitely from our trip to Jasper and Banff, when we cooked dinner in our hotel room. Every evening, we had another team of chefs creating something for ten people after a day of hiking. But next to the delicious food, my favourite part of the meal was the languages floating around. We had four different languages among us and by that time, everyone had at least learned “thank you” and “please” in the other three. So the dinner conversations were spiced up by a “bitte” here, a “Dankje well” there and a little “Værsågod” from time to time. I loved it.

But at this very moment our little dinner round is spread out. Some are back home in Europe, others are travelling in North America or working in Hawaii. Everyone is making their own plans again. Although… there’s one more common plan: bring everyone together again. Next summer, next year, eventually.

But I’m positive about that, especially when it comes to the European guys. I mean, we’re living in different countries, yes. But it’s still just a three or four hour drive to visit the Dutchies, for example. For Europeans that’s far, for Canadians that’s a day trip. To get to know the North American definition of distance was kind of refreshing because if they can do it, we can do it.

Hopefully these are not good-byes but see-you-soons.