“Well, the sun sets late in Glasgow”
Sunday, 16th December:
I’m sitting on packed bags – one of them weighing 22kg and the other 23kg, making my brain hurt with the possibility of it being too much. I’m not sure what I would do, if they tell me if it is too much (officially, I am allowed 23kg, but my scale might be wrong, you never know when you are as suspicious as myself). Another thing that is on my mind are my lovely plants. I so hope that they won’t tell me to throw them away, but online it only says you are not allowed knives and such in your hand baggage, and I don’t think my plants could hurt anybody; but you never know.
Anyway, my last hours in Glasgow. Isn’t it ironic, that I spend them worrying about the weight of my bags, just as I worried when I arrived about not being able to do anything? I guess, it just shows that it all works out in the end.
So, back to my stories about life in Glasgow. I met up with my hiking friend on Friday and yesterday evening. On Friday, we visited Edinburgh again, this time for the Christmas market. I took several beautiful pictures and since I still have some hours, I will spend my time choosing the best one. The lighting was just spectacular. But with her, I also seem to be walking around in parts of the city, that I normally would not have visited and so we found cute little streets with the typical brick buildings left and right and Christmas lights in the middle. Yesterday, we just met up to watch a movie and I watched “Love, actually” for the first time – I can’t believe, I’ve never seen it before. I gave some of my things to her, like my pillows for example, and we talked for hours on end. She only left at two thirty and I was sad to see her go, because she really grew on me. I hope to see her again for New Years.
I guess this is the thing that I am most proud of here. That I let go of my social fears and started real friendships in a place that was so unfamiliar just three months ago. I said this to Estelle today over breakfast, when she asked me what I liked the most over here. So, yeah, I am most grateful for the people I got to meet.
The thing I am most proud of is the bravery to read my poetry to strangers at an Open Mic Event – but I guess that goes without saying.
One thing that rather annoyed me was part of university life, because the instructions stayed unclear a lot of the times. They said to look at a document that gave a structure and then said the structure was wrong, and since that influenced my grade it was a bit unnerving, but yeah… I guess that is also just me getting used to a different system than the one I was used to for three years.
I have a good last day here. The weather is simply amazing! Typically, Glaswegian, I could say, since the sky was this blue so often during my time here. I said goodbye to Estelle around ten am, so I that left me with six hours before I will leave my flat (I still have 3 and a half). I took the time to go for another walk along my most favourite river: the Kelvin. I started out in the Botanic Gardens, strolling through the glass houses, but then I walked my usual steps back to the apartment.
I packed up everything by now, I said that already, I think. I am so glad my Dutch friend will be here in about 30 minutes and distract me from my misery of waiting. I generally think that I am a patient person, but now right now I’m not.
These are my last few hours in Glasgow, shortly before the flight, and I say the same thing I said before leaving for the exchange: “what’s life without a little risk?” and whatever comes my way, I will manage. In this sense, au revoir
Mary
*lyrics by Passenger “Feather on the Clyde”
