I was a little worse for wear last time I wrote- suffering the consequences of an ‘all-nighter’- but now I am fully recovered from that, just suffering the consequences of a hectic weekend and lots of work. It’s Monday night- I’m not at Japanese because the classes have turned into ‘stage prep.’ and since I’m not going away there’s no point in going, so instead I am trying to remember what on earth I did last week. Rachel is currently furiously cleaning her bathroom as we are leaving on Friday- just five more days. I keep hearing Rachel making funny noises as the tap drips on her head and Andrew doing the washing up- I’m going to miss this.
But that is this week and for a while I’ll live in last week so that leaving isn’t so close. Lydie read and corrected my report this week, it was highly embarrassing when she came in, sat next to me and said ‘your English isn’t very good.’ I have to be honest- it really isn’t very good, you have probably noticed the deterioration, it is directly linked to time spent in France and was worst whilst writing my literature review in French. I am surprised quite how much my English has been affected, I wouldn’t say my French was great, it’s better and I can easily get by but it’s not fluent and yet it seems every new French word I learn I forget an English one! Apart from my atrocious English my report was alright I think and I am now working through the changes.
Monday was the bank holiday and bar a bit of tidying I pretty much laid about, we had our last big Sunday meal (stuffed mushrooms with ‘spicy lentils’, and a cheese pie) and then in the evening Rob and Sarah came over to watch Howl’s Moving Castle. I have probably already mentioned that film- it is no joke that I watch it at least once a week- the book was better but the animation is superb! Rob and Sarah seemed to like in anyway. We met up with them again on Wednesday to spend a fortune (67 euros) for our farewell to Rob meal.
Thursday we started with aperitif at six and had kir (wine and syrop), it was a bit of an odd meal with French wine, nachos, fajitas and a Normandy tart for dessert- not very matching but it didn’t matter. It was an odd night, Rob was a bit out of sorts due to having to take oral exams- he had organised everything to go home then the exam dates changed, the only other option was oral exams in French. I cannot imagine they were fun, and some of the lecturers were really not very nice about it but he got through it (by skipping one) apparently. He was much happier Sunday night. We managed to avoid the goodbyes that particular night by deciding to pop round theirs when we got back from London.
On that note, the weekend finally came, possibly too soon but I could barely contain my excitement about going to see Wicked. We got the late train Friday night and my Dad picked us up, my boyfriend was already at mine, it was nice to be there with Andrew and Rachel. It was a flying visit, Saturday morning we were up early to get the train to London (forty minutes) one short tube trip later we were standing in the rain outside Topshop telling Adam and Andrew to meet us at half twelve. Rachel and I proceeded to get very excited and spend a small fortune! Lunch and a few gifts for people in the lab later we were on our way to the theatre! Rachel had never seen a London musical and Andrew loves the music for Wicked so we couldn’t wait. I cannot speak for everyone but I thoroughly enjoyed it! We spent the evening in the Mexican in Leicester Square drinking margaritas and chatting.
Sunday was spent lounging around at my house but I had to take Rachel to see the horses and we had a paddle in the river and a walk around the farm. It was a nice leisurely morning which turned into a gloriously sunny early afternoon- so much so that we could sit in the garden with our wine thinking about leaving and how we’re going to cope. We had a BBQ before my parents dropped us back off at the Eurostar- it felt like we’d only just arrived!
No time to relax we headed straight over to Rob’s for the real goodbye- he left this morning so last night really was the last night. Anne and Anna made a vodka water melon and quite a few people turned up to say goodbye, we couldn’t stay long since we had work this morning but leaving was not easy. It left a sort of hollow feeling as we hugged Rob and Vicki (Rob’s girlfriend) goodbye for the foreseeable future, and not knowing whether we would see the others again was bizarre, I don’t know them well enough to ever see them again but we’ve seen them so often this year... I cannot sufficiently explain it, it’s odd. I didn’t think about this part, at the beginning when I just concentrated on getting through each day, then when time passed so easily I thought it would never end and now I’m trying to pretend it won’t end...
Anyway, I had better stop rambling about endings and concentrate on pretending it never will- before Friday I have a million and one things to do- not least finishing my report, our final fęte, our last night out... To make matters worse after Rob’s farewell thing on Thursday my computer decided to give up the ghost, and I think, this time, it’s for good! I am writing this on Rachel’s computer and I don’t know how I’ll write next weeks’! Oh well this time next week I will be home...
