Three more nights

Three more nights. That’s all that is left of my time here in Adelaide. My room is one big mess and so is my head. With all that’s been going on last month, I had pushed the fact that I was leaving soon to the back of my mind, but there’s no denying it anymore. I’m leaving. The whole of June has really been a shock to the system and I’m so tired. So very tired. The emotions of my grandma dying and me not being there for a final goodbye in the first half of the month has almost unnoticeably morphed into the emotions of saying goodbye to my friends and my life here in Adelaide during the second half. I guess I always knew one semester would be too short and it is. Just when everything really starts to fall into place and I’m really comfortable in the friendships I’ve made, I have to pack up and leave again. Exchange is weird like that… you build a new life for yourself, but it’s only temporary. It’s worth it though :) Not only has June been a shock to the system, it has also – despite everything – been one of the best months I’ve had here. And this is the first time I actually have really had time to sit down and write about it. I don’t even know what I have been keeping myself busy with half of the time, but there have been plenty of random days and nights this past month. Love the randomness of unit 65 :)

Just to give you an idea of what the randomness consists of, I’ll limit this update to just this week. And trust me, that will already be a long update!! Here goes...

We had a 3-hour power cut just before dusk on Saturday, so Stacey and Alex had the idea of ‘camping’ outside on our patio and cooking dinner on a little camping stove style thingy to catch the last bits of sunlight, haha. I joined them a bit later and the whole thing was quite funny. Luckily the lights came back on just as all the sunlight had disappeared, so we weren’t left completely in the dark. Sarah’s cousin Bryn also came on Saturday and has been here all week, so obviously we had to show him a good time, haha. So we went out into the city on Saturday night with a big group of about 10 people to start off a full week of lovely late nights :) Sunday was a day of recovery and of watching movies like Superbad, which was nice and relaxing. Recovery didn’t last long, when Monday night came around. Somehow it turned into a really random night of staying up late with everyone from our unit. I went up to Victor’s place for a bit with Charlotte and when I came back my housemates were all still sitting around drinking, so I stayed up with them. Dan came over completely drunk at some point as well, and it was hilarious. When Dan gets drunk, he likes to dress up and this time he was supposed to be a rock-star in girl’s jeans, haha. It was very funny, as he passed out on our couch at the end of the night and obviously he didn’t have a change of clothes with him, so the next morning he had to walk back to his unit across the village in broad daylight :) Good times :D

Tuesday morning came really early for me, because I was going to have breakfast with Charlotte and Victor at 8.30 am before Charlotte’s exam. It was tough getting up so early after not having been up before 10 for almost a month!! But it was well worth it :) Victor loves to cook and what can I say… Charlotte and I loved his cooking, haha. Good company and good food, what more could you ask for?? Later that day we all piled into Alex’s car to drop off Sarah at her work and have lunch at McDonalds on our way back. Got to love random Maccas runs, haha. Surprisingly, Tuesday night was a quiet night – guess we were all still tired from the spontaneous late-night shenanigans on Monday :)

Wednesday night however was an interesting night again, with the initial plan being going to The Holdy in Glenelg for a bit before returning to the village reasonably early to not have too late a night. Victor however ran into us as we were about to leave the village and said he was making pancakes for some people and we should come up to his place as well. So we went out to The Holdy as planned, but went up to Victor’s for pancakes instead of to bed afterwards :) Sarah, Bryn and I watched a movie back at our unit after that and it was a great night, until Alex came home really upset for several reasons and just broke our hearts with her tears. Like I said, an interesting night… The next day was the last Thursday night in Australia for my housemate Pip and last Thursday night for me in Adelaide, which meant that we all went out to Shags and New Yorks one last time!! Laura and Brenton came over to our place beforehand and joined me, Sarah, Pip, Bubu and Bryn down to Marion. Both Shags and New Yorks weren’t having the best nights somehow, but it was still a good night :) Alex was still awake when we came back, so we stayed up just a little longer with all the housemates… Again, good times :)

Friday however was a long long day filled with goodbyes. Alex was going home to Mildura for a while and left quite early in the morning, so Pip and I got up early too to say our last goodbyes to her. It was so sad!! The time of saying goodbye had finally really started… Later that day Pip and I went into the city one last time to do some final stuff. For me, it was selling my guitar, which turned out to be harder than I thought. It took a lot of walking around the city to different pawn shops anyway… It’s weird not having a guitar anymore, but I guess it’s only temporary. When I came back I went pretty much straight to Charlotte’s, as it was her last day in Adelaide. She was just about to have dinner when I came, so I joined her for a ‘last supper’, haha. It was nice, but again so sad to say goodbye… I saw her again later that night though at Marco’s goodbye party, which was a funny night. Sad as well however with several goodbyes… It’s just strange to think I won’t be seeing many of the people there again for a long time, if ever when they’re such a normal part of my life here now.

So yeah, three more nights is all I have left now. I’m pretty much home alone this weekend as everyone has gone off to either Mildura or other places and it’s too quiet for the usually loud unit 65. I’ve been busy with sorting out my stuff and trying to pack up a box to send. Tomorrow I’ll probably start on the suitcase… And then it will be Monday night and it will be my last night in Adelaide. Pip and I are leaving around the same time on Tuesday, so we’re having a few people come over on Monday night which should be good. It’s all gone so fast and I’ll definitely miss this place and the people I met here. Luckily I have some really cool stuff to look forward to still before my time on this side of the world is really over. So I’m leaving Adelaide on Tuesday and fly into Melbourne for a short stopover before I leave for 23 days of New Zealand on Friday. Will be travelling around New Zealand by myself on one of those hop-on hop-off buses, which is scary but should be awesome. New Zealand has been on my wish-list for a while now, so I can’t believe I’m actually going to be there in less than a week :) Just trying to make the most of it while I’m ‘close’ anyway, haha. Then after New Zealand my plan is to fly back to Melbourne on the 3rd of August for just under two weeks of spending time with ‘my’ people there before I am once again on a long-distance flight back to Holland on the 15th. And to be honest, even though I’m very much looking forward to seeing all my Dutchies again, I’m not sure at this point if I’m ready to come back yet. Let’s just first get through these final three days and go from there :) Will hopefully see you all soon and I hope everyone’s well and enjoying their summer holidays/ winter break/ other.
Love Carine