The beginning of the end

When I returned to Aberdeen after my trip to Budapest, it hit me that I only have a few more weeks left of my semester abroad. Although I am beyond excited to be going home, I realized that I will soon have to start saying my goodbyes. I’ll be going to some of my favorite places — Aberdeen Beach, Slain’s, Cup — for the last time. My weekend adventures to towns such as Banchory, Stonehaven, and Stirling will come to an end. It’s just not these places that made living in Aberdeen so much fun though…

It’s the people.

Even when I come back to Aberdeen someday, it won’t be the same. The friends I’ve made will return to their homes all over the world, and we’ll likely never all be together again. It’s heartbreaking but beautiful at the same time. The past few months we’ve shared in Aberdeen will be something that each one of us will cherish for the rest of our lives. This may seem strange, but I think that our inability to relive this semester together is what makes it even more special!

Anyway, I made sure to spend extra time with my friends this week. Every night, a bunch of us from Adam Smith ate dinner together and talked for hours. It was so much fun! We talked about everything from the World Cup to our holiday traditions at home.

One night, Alyssa had us all convinced that The Great Beaver visits children in Canada every July 1st and carves them toys if they’re good kids (like a summertime Santa Claus!). We sat there, eyes wide, for at least a couple minutes before she said, “GUYS. It’s a joke — The Great Beaver doesn’t exist!!!”. We’ve been laughing about it all week.

On Wednesday, Jasmin and I decided to take a day trip to Braemar one last time. It was nice to have some one-on-one time together, as our trip to Norway was the last time we had hung out just the two of us. We spent the day enjoying the beautiful scenery: the munros, The River Dee, and Christmas lights. We even saw an entire herd of stags! I think they must have been domesticated, though, because they didn’t run away when we hollered at them (and they were inside a fence…).

We returned from Braemar just in time to grab dinner. I had been planning on just going to bed afterwards, but we ran into the group from Adam Smith. They asked if we wanted to go to Slain’s for one last pub quiz, and all of a sudden there we were!

It was quite an entertaining night.

I think everyone else must’ve had the same idea because the place was so full that we couldn’t even find a table to sit at! We did manage to find enough chairs for all of us, though, so we sat in a circle and used a chair as our table. Our team name was “we don’t have a table”, and we ended up getting 9th place out of 24 teams!

Friday was another fun day. After attending my last class at the University of Aberdeen EVER, a few of my classmates and I got coffee and talked for about an hour. Then, I went over to Merit’s flat and we made cookies all afternoon while singing our hearts out to Christmas songs. Turns out, we both LOVE the song “All I Want for Christmas is You” by Mariah Carey.

To end this week — the beginning of the end — Alyssa, Brennan and I got one last brunch together. We talked about what we were looking forward to doing at home and then started planning our reunion. I’m thankful that they at least live on the same continent as me!

Now, for one of my favorite parts of the week…

My fun-filled trip to Budapest must’ve taken a toll on my body because I ended up being sick with a cold almost immediately after getting back. I was in my room watching a Christmas movie on Sunday night when I heard a knock at my door. It was Alyssa! She said, “I heard you coughing from my room. Would you like to join me for a cup of tea?”. How sweet and thoughtful of her!!!!

We went into our kitchen, and she made me a cup of peppermint tea. We sat there for at least an hour talking and drinking our tea together. Now, every night after dinner we turn around just as we’re about to go into our rooms and say “TEA TIME?!”. Then, we sit in our kitchen and talk for an hour. I can’t believe we didn’t think to have “tea time” sooner in the semester! Thankfully, she and I have plenty of quality time together this week…

Czech back soon to see what we’re up to 😉

Until next time,

Clara