Have you seen the Lord of the Rings: Return of the King? Remember at the end how Sam is in front of his house and says, "Well, I'm back."? The way he said that was filled with very many emotions. You could hear the sadness of leaving all his friends scattered throughout Middle-Earth. You could feel how bummed he was on returning home because it meant that the adventures were now over, for the Shire, most notably Hobbiton, was a highly dull place. I understood what he was expressing when it came in touch with HIS fellowship, but now, I feel the same having left my international friends scattered across this Earth. And me? Well, I'm back.
The last week was nothing but a blur. It was a week of little sleep but lots of "last moments". The running theme, essentially, was "Why sleep when we'll never probably all be together again...maybe?" So we all abided by that philosophy and spent our nights in each other's company. By week's end, who knew one could get sick of seeing the sunrise, time and time again?
Shot with Canon PowerShot A620
The month of June started off with a trip to the city. It was a beautiful Sprimmer (Spring and Summer put together. I made it up (c) Salaam 2007) day and it called for ice cream.
Shot with Canon PowerShot A620
I got that ice cream from a luxurious chocolatier known as Thornton's. They know how to make chocolate. That ice cream was so rich in flavor, I got sick. Oh, but it was worth it. So worth it.
However, the next day, my good friends from Espana were leaving me. There is a funny backstory to them. These two Spanish girls, who were very pretty, had come to the uni at the same time as myself for the same period as myself (just the year). We lived in the same building, saw each other all the time, yet never ever spoke to each other. On my part, I never spoke to them because they were too good looking. I was intimidated. And then they would speak in Spanish with each other at super fast speeds so that just sealed the envelope. One time, I was in the library and I was walking to the bathroom because I really had to go and then them two all of a sudden walk out in front of me. They looked back at me and I immediately looked at the ground and jumped to a bookshelf and started looking at books I had no interest in. But to play it off to everybody looking (if anybody was looking) I had to take a book out, fake that I liked it, and take it back to my desk. Hey, image is everything. So I did that and went back to the bathroom, albeit cautiously to avoid the two girls.
Shot with Canon PowerShot A620
The first semester ended and when we returned for the second, everything seemed to change while remaining quite the same. The Spanish girls started talking to me and we became friends. As best friends as people can become in the few months they have together.
Shot with Canon PowerShot A620
Am I a nerd? Yes, but a nerd with friends.
Ah, I have digressed. So them two, they left the day after I had ice cream. And now, well, they're still gone. But I still remember them.
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They left on the 2nd, and on the 5th, two more friends left.
Shot with Canon PowerShot A620 at 2007-07-02
Sergio, my Portugese friend.
Shot with Canon PowerShot A620
Serkan, in the middle, my Turkish pal. He is smothered by Lucia in yellow and Aida in gray.
Later that night, we had a leaving party. The party had been organized for Zahir, Greg, and myself but I put into context that we basically all were leaving in some form or the other. This party was so international. We had people from Nigeria, Spain, Malaysia, Singapore, England, India, Mauretania, Angola, Somalia, Kuwait, Kenya, China, Ukraine, Zimbabwe, and, of course, America.
Shot with Canon PowerShot A620
Shot with Canon PowerShot A620
Shot with Canon PowerShot A620
Shot with Canon PowerShot A620
The next day, us group of guys played our last match of futbol together. Everytime I think of that, I become a bit sad. We had some great times, those guys and I. It is something I cannot even put in words. Something I'll never even be able to explain. We always had a good time. And towards the end, it was the best of times.
Shot with Canon PowerShot A620
