Tintin, Captain Haddock and Snowy are also happy that it's time to go home!But who wouldn't be...
After a semester like this one, it's both mindboggling that it is actually over (I keep thinking maybe I'm in a dream) and really relieving. I finished my take-home exams on Tuesday, passed the last one in, and since then have taken full advantage of the fact that I have nothing pressing to do in order to lie on the couch, doze off, drink tea, watch silly movies (like Wet Hot American Summer, and 200 Cigarettes--love a good Paul Rudd double bill!), read "The Fiery Cross" (number five in the famed Outlander series that I just can't seem to get enough of, no matter how uncool it might be), and now, pack up some bags and head for home, Cape Breton.
Last night a gang of us went out for Gill's birthday to the Snooty Fox, a local drinking establishment with half-price appetizers on Wednesday nights. It was raining out and the booth I was in was right by a window, so I got to stare at Regent Street and the cars passing and the rain coming down. I said to Neal, who was sitting across from me, that that is something I really like about cities, watching the rain slick the streets, and the colors of streetlights reflected on them. I know I'm a country girl at heart--too long in the city and I feel cooped up, and dream of long rambles on dirt roads, yes, while wearing gumboots--but there are some really comforting things about cities too. Busses to take you where you want to go, cafes to spend hours in, and pubs for half-price red pepper and feta dip, within walking distance of your house.
Today I was downtown running some last-minute errands, and on the walk home I was just looking at everything, soaking it all in. I know two weeks isn't a long time to be away from a place, especially a place I'm getting to know so well, like Fredericton, but time is passing so fast these days that I know things will be subtly different when I return.
Some things will be not so subtle, too--there'll be new classes to get into, particularly Research Strategies which will be getting me into "thesis mode" for next year, my last--and of course, Fredericton will be welcoming a West Coast resident in January. Steph joked the other day, "If I could knit, I'd make him a sweater that says 'Dan' on the front and 'the one you've all been waiting for' on the back!" Part of me is glad she can't knit, but part of me also thinks that sweater would be really funny.
I'm off to Nova Scotia (Halifax first for a stop with the Fuller dames) and then Cape Breton by tomorrow! Hope you are all enjoying a break from something...relax first, then tell me about it.
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