...and beyond!

So it's been a little while, blog, but I'm back.

Have about a week and a half left in DC, a few days in transition (home-->NY-->dc-->home), and then about 5 days in Cherry Hill before I head off to Edinburgh. I got my housing assignment today, I'm really quite excited. I'm living in Darroch Court, which, as the sources on the Internet seems to point, is an excellent residence. 5 people per flat with single rooms, and shared bathroom, kitchen & laundry.

I said goodbye to a lot of people as of late, it's pretty weird.

The last weekend of July, Jason came for the AIPAC conference & surprised me. But, after that, it was saying goodbye till January. I went home (with Evan!) for my birthday weekend and said bye to the Trojans. And then Evan & Marti left the next weekend. And I said goodbye to them too. To Evan for what could be a year. Unsettling to think about. These are my friends with whom I spent the majority of my time this past year, and now it's just "See yaa." I'm trying hard to grapple with the realization.

But, as silly as it sounds, I think we're headed to interesting and exciting journeys. That's what I had to remember during this summer too. So many of my friends were and continue to be so far away. Caitlin was in Texas finding a niche in the costuming world. And Dave was in Seattle paving his way in video game community management. It's a new for me to figure out the best ways of staying in touch. Especially with no phone service in my apartment--which was probably good practice for the UK lifestyle. With many of my friends, even a few minutes of phone time when we could find each other was precious. E-mails & Skype have also proven to be quite useful.

Even with such tools at my disposal, sometimes, it's hard to just find the time. The time when we are both on Skype at the same time, the time to respond to an e-mail. And one would imagine it will get even harder once I'm in a different time zone. It's not a problem, it's just a challenge.

And as people are starting to move in at Brandeis, I have to remind myself constantly of what the Study Abroad office told those going abroad--life continues at Brandeis whether or not I'm there. And I'll be back in January and get right back into the swing of things. I'm sure there will be times when I feel alone and wish I could just be having brunch in Usdan with Missy or late nights with Jason and Evan, but it'll be okay. Things go up and down and I need all of it. I'm preparing myself.

Concluding Thoughts:
I like my friends a lot.

Perhaps my blog will be a bit out of order if expectations for the next part come before final reflections on the current. Oh well...