The last days are always hard. You never
know how to spend those days and how to say goodbye, at least I never do.
On the first of May we had our project presentations, which was more of an informal talk. Kelly and Ullie talked about the
program and asked for the plusses and minuses of it and asked for feedback. We
all had something to say. We also talked about what we would miss the most. For
most people it was the surroundings and the people. Washington State is truly
beautiful and Bellingham is a place where anybody would feel at home.
It was nice to have a talk to end our trip with, we talked about our projects
and ate doughnuts that were given by Jim, one of the teachers. Rachel had forgotten to give him his gift, so now we could a
write a little message on the package of his gift, which was nice.
After the project presentation Tina and I spend some time in the library. I
worked on my wordfile while she copied something for her MP. We walked towards
the mall to go shopping. We wanted to withdrawal some money as well, but
Tina's card didn't worked, so we walked back to school to the ATM. Yes, we
walked back again to the mall as well, because at 1:15 the film would start
that we wanted to see: warm bodies. We were just in time and asked for tickets.
I said that we would like to sit next to each other and wanted to pay separately.
The cashier laughed and mentioned that it wouldn't be a problem. We bought
something to drink and eat, which was supposed to be small. The coke that I had
is a large coke in the Netherlands, XXL if you go to the IMAX in
Amsterdam. It was insane, but worth the money. When we walked to room 4 the
commercials already started. That's a big difference as well between Dutch
cinemas and American ones (as well as English cinemas), they show commercials and
have no break. We were the only ones in the cinema, except for one person. He
even left eventually so we where pretty much alone. Being with just the two of us made the film funnier
than it was. We had a good time and afterwards we went to the Food Co-op. Tina
wanted to see the biological and organic body lotions. We continued our trip
back to school and met Femke and Leanne there. Both of them were waiting til
Sarah got off work. Tina met Kristine at school so she went home with her. I waited
for Michelle.
Around 5:30 we had our farewell dinner. We were fashionably late and luckily
not last, even though we entered the restaurant after 6. They had a fixed menu.
A vegetarian dish, meat and fish. The stupid thing though, was that the meat
(chicken) had fish on it as well. What if you don't like fish? And quinoa? Like I do. I decided to be annoying and asked for chicken without fish. It
took a looooong time to get the food, but it was good. It was nice to talk with
the people at my table. I was sitting next to Rachel and Michelle, Fiona and
her host family were close as well. We had some nice conversations. Varying from
chocolate chip cookies to sex (no, not in this combination).
After dinner most people went home, got ice-cream or went out. I got back home
with Michelle and we watched a movie. The Scape Goat, it's a British film about
a man who meets another man and they look alike like twins. They switch places,
though one of them doesn't realize it until he wakes up. He's not really happy
about it, but he pulls it off pretty good. In the end they meet each other
again, there's a fight and... I won't spoil it. Just watch the film. I went to
bed quite late.
On the second of May we decided to meet up with some people in Fairhaven around 11.
First I went to school to work in the library (such a good student, sarcasm).
Around a quarter to 10 I knocked on Michelle's door. We had to get the
cake for a retirement party and she'd drop me off at Village books in Fairhaven
(the nicest place to wait for a long time). I spend some time there until Tina
and Mirjan walked in. We chatted and walked around Fairhaven. We bought some
souvenirs. I bought chocolate for my dad at Papa's Sweets. We explained why we
walked in (I mean, papa, come on, genius!) and he performed for us. He did a
Frank Sinatra song on his saxophone. He was pretty good. Of course, we also had
to eat a cupcake at Katie’s cupcakes (winner of cupcake wars). It was
delicious. When we went out, we bumped into Femke and Leanne and then we went
back in again, because they wanted one as well. Femke and Mirjan both bought
cute shirts for their nieces and nephews. We walked some more around Fairhaven,
visited various shops and then we took off for the Woods Coffee. Our last time
to have tasteful tea or coffee (or cinnamon roll, or blueberry scone, or yogurt
and granola... you get the point). I bought some tea to take home with me, blueberry
white, I really love it, as well as pineapple green. We continued walking
parallel to the water and then up the hill to have another cup of tea at Tina's
and Mirjan's. Leanne and Femke took the bus first to Downtown and home and I
took one later. Then, for the first time, I took the bus to Lakeway Drive,
which was easier than excepted. You just have to wait long because it only goes
once an hour, but the ride went by quickly.
After getting a shower and checking if I'd packed everything, I started working
on my homework again. Then we had dinner and Scott and I watched a film
again: the Dark Knight Rises. Awesome. A really good film. Bane's voice did make me
laugh though. He looks so bad-ass but he had a high pitched voice. There
was a twist in the plot that I didn't see coming, so it was a good film.
Then we all went to bed early because my alarm clock would go off at 1:30 AM,
because the shuttle would leave for the Seattle airport at 2:15 AM.
Scott and Michelle dropped me off and we said goodbye. They mentioned that I am
always welcome. Scott even said that I should regard Lakeway Drive as a
second home. It was really sweet and I miss them.
The travel was horrible. 20 hours of flying did not do my head well as well as my ability to overcome a jetlag. To summarize, it sucked. Food was 'blegh' as well
as sleeping in chairs that wouldn't go down much. We did have a bit of fun and
from 6 till 7 everybody was awake and we did some games 'I spy with my little
eye', so the last bit was okay. My dad picked me and Rachel up, we drove her
home (now I know where two teachers live. Insert evil laugh here).
