cos i'm leaving on a jet plane

21st December is the day that Lund's international student population reduced by half. For some reason, probably astrological, a fair chunk of exchange students chose this auspicious occasion for their return trip home. Things are changing pretty quick. The sound most familiar now is not that of a bike coming up behind you on the wet gravel, but rather that of a metre-wide wheelie-suitcase being dragged to the Centralen. In my corridor, Sparta F, this is also accompanied by Thomas' blasting the Ally McBeal soundtrack and singing along in his belgium accent. I'll be doing the "final walk of farewell" with him tomorrow morning - this is usually when you sling your arm across the departee's shoulder and walk along at slow pace towards the door, making promises of reunion for a month or year or five.

Vale and Dougal, two of my besties, left on Tuesday evening. I was dead sure I was going to miss them. Some poor planning left me and Murray sitting on the train back from Malmo chewing at our nails (at least I was, he was looking pretty unruffled) as their departure time inched closer, then sprinting along the Lund Centralen platform and almost falling a over t jumping down the stairs and yelling at their bus to "WAIT!! " whilst I gave Dougs and Vale a parting hug. Vale I will see in about a month when I come back through Lund in late January. Dougal has officially completed his BSc and has headed to London in search of fame and fortune. He had his first serious post degree job interview today, complete with tie. I'll miss him. I have been reminiscing over our time together and our highs and lows, such as this famous incident which could be considered both a high and a low, depending on your outlook.

These next few days are filled with study for yet another essay, my Role of Religion in the Middle East Conflict class. It's due in on the 5th January but i'm itching to get it finished before Christmas. An assessment-free christmas would almost top a white christmas, the likes of which we're probably not going to see in Lund (too rainy). The good thing is that the Role of Religion In The Middle East Conflict - and it's not possible to shorten that course title into a catchy acronym, unfortunately - is really interesting. I'm doing my essay on Lebanon and their role vis-a-vis the conflict. The textbook is amazing and I think i'll buy it for father as a Swedish souvenier. I can share this information with you because, at least while my family are travelling around information-censored communist Vietnam, they don't have access to my blog. UNLEASH THE DRAGON, etc.

In between my angst for the citizens of Lebanon and playing soulful melodies on Brad's borrowed guitar, I am organizing my Eastern Europe Extravaganza. And what an extravaganza it will be. The great thing about Europe is that it's cheaper to fly than to bus or train it to your various destinations. So I am taking full advantage of Ryanair, WizzJet, FlyMe and the other bargain airlines. My plans so far look something like this: Christmas in Lund; Bus to France (19hrs, just to say that I've caught a bus across Europe); New Year's Eve with Fiona in some quaint village 2hrs south of Paris; fly from Paris to Budapest; zig-zag up through Old School USSR (Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, Czech Republic); tearful rendezvous with Nikki in Krakow, a diagonal line up through Poland to Gdanzk; back to London; then flying to Marrakech for a few days in the "sun" (it's all relative here in Europe/Africa) with Love Interest; back to Lund for aforementioned last hurrah; and then flying out of Copenhagen on the 1st February for
Melbourne Australia. Exhausting, but seeing as I probably won't be in this neck of the woods until my i finish my undergrad studies, in approximately 2012, i want to knock over as much as I can while i'm here.

I better head into town to pick up that bus ticket before all those other lunatics that fancy travelling across Europe's midsection on the second last day of the year beat me to it.