Forehand Farewells

Today has been an emotional day. At 10:30 I had my last face-to-face contact with SSH (the housing association here) when they came to inspect my room prior to my impending departure. To their seeming disappointment I hadn't wrecked the place, and everything on the inventory was present and correct. So, that little experience, along with the knowledge that I'm done with SSH, nicely covered 'euphoria', on my behalf at least.

Afterwards I'd been invited to take part in a workshop on student service for the Faculty members as a student representative. It wasn't terribly interesting from a student perspective, and I mainly nodded and shock my head at the appropriate moments - I'm always sceptical as to the use and effectiveness of these sort of presentation led workshops. But nonetheless, I was glad to be felt worthy enough to have been invited as my last act within the University. So there goes 'appreciation'.

I also got a phone call from Joe and Jaron who are in Holland for a couple of days, who invited me to a talk in Leiden this evening, but alas, due to the above meeting this afternoon, and a very special occasion this evening, I couldn't make the trip. So I guess that covers 'disappointment'.

Finally, the special occasion - my final badminton lesson. Tears almost welled in my eyes when the trainer proclaimed that he'd miss me. It's been a really fun thing to have done while I've been here, although today did give rise to the awkward question of what to do when you're saying goodbye to 15 people who you don't know all that well, but who you've seen every week for a year, that you're not going to see again? Do you shake their hand and wish them well? Just give the usual parting cry of 'Tot ziens'? Do you do the Dutch thing and kiss them on the cheek? In the end I adopted all three for different people, pretty much at random. But three events made this evening even better. Firstly, one of the Dutch people there spoke to me in Dutch without realising what they were doing - 'acceptance'. Secondly, I understood a joke that someone cracked in Dutch without having to wait for someone to translate - 'surprise'. And thirdly, I won my last ever game of badminton here - 'delight'.