OVER and OUT

And here it is - my last night in Sweden.   Hell, my last night in EUROPE, for that matter.  Not for good, of course, or even for long, but still...it's a sad day in Turnip Town, and this rabbit's jumping down the hole once and for all.

Ok.  So, that was a lame opening.  Apologies.  But, perhaps this image of me, the proverbial rabbit in "retreat" is an appropriate one, to some extent.  For one, I HATE goodbyes.  A cliché?  Absolutely, but sometimes the pressure of the right "parting words" or the fear of an emotional display leaves me wishing I could just slip away completely undetected.  Saying "goodbye" is important, but it's emotionally exhausting in a situation like this.  I'm ready to start saying, "hello."  

Another reason for the rabbit hole image is the recent addition of the two new flatmates who moved into my corridor last week.  The first to move in was Rizvee, a slightly cocky boy from Bangladesh who I almost mistook for a 12-year-old when I first saw him in the kitchen - "Hey!  kid!  What are you doing with our coffeepot!? And why do you have facial hair?!"  Once I made the association that he lived here, we began the inevitable "small talk".  I got the sense he was trying to impress me when he started describing his studies in robotics, his pronunciation of which sounded like a race for the fastest spoken word, each syllable cut-off quicker than the previous.  I could see the hint of a smug grin smear across his face as I rebutdtaled with music as my academic interest.  Obviously, this was not a subject Rizvee considered to be practical nor one to offer any outstanding contribution to society.  So, as far as he knew, I was not only the fat-ass American about to bake a frozen pizza in the oven, but also one who spent his time in school "singing" and childishly banging on a toy xylophone.  Not that it matters, though.  I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.

A few days later came Eve, a part-American, part-Arabic, part-Finnish gothic BBW who would have gladly eaten two or three apples from the tree and probably a Ding-Dong, too, had Satan offered.  A chronic talker, Eve seems to be one of those people who is under the impression that as long as her mouth is moving, a conversation is taking place.  I'm not sure if she even cares if anyone is sincerely listening.  I certainly wasn't most of the time.  When it's your last week of an exchange in a foreign country, you have a few too many things on your mind to hear extroverted strangers talk about their upcoming Halloween plans, World of Warcraft, people who are "so annoying", bad smells, or bizarre sexual fetishes.  And that's just what I heard when washing dishes.

In their defense, I'm sure they are both very good souls with much to offer the world.  Just not much to offer me...

I was sick with a fever and cold symptoms for a few days this week (first fever I remember since high school), as was everyone and his brother, apparently.  When was my last flu shot?  I have no idea.  Anyway, I manned up and packed all my crap in a slightly disoriented state on Wednesday.  Thursday, I cleaned like crazy, and today, I was out of my room by 11:30 AM.  After some heart-wrenching goodbyes on campus (I seemed to run into everybody!), I met my friends Max, Ina, and Jess for lunch before I took a train to Stockholm.  Lunch was great (vegetarian lasagna + stout beer + coffee + blueberry cake = yes, please), and after we shoveled the grub down our gullets, they helped me with my bags all the way to the station, and waved goodbye from the train platform as we started moving.  It was like a movie, but honestly, I'm so glad they were there.  I could tell Ina was about to cry when she was hugging me, but I'm glad she held it in or I might have lost it, too.

And so, I'm now in my AWESOME hotel room which I decided to splurge on (last night in Europe - c'mon), and after seeing composer Sven-David Sandström's new opera Bathsheba at the Royal Opera House (which was beyond words), I am just chilling out in preparation to fly home TOMORROW MORNING!  Sheesh.  Not much to say now, is there?  The return home...hmmm.  Will this be a new chapter altogether, or an old one revisited?

I guess we'll just have to see.  The point is, the book's not over yet.