Tuesday, December 24, 2013

The Last Weekend and Canuhduh

This time last week I was still about twelve hours from home.

I know I should've written about my last weekend in Sonderborg at least eight days ago, but I had limited access to my laptop on the way home and since I've been home it's been hectic.

And it's been a lot of the same.

I guess I'm used to new things constantly happening to me now. Without that daily novelty, life seems a little boring.

Sure, I'm excited to go skiing and to go back to Mt. A. and see everyone, but I realized I'm back in my yearly routine. And that kind of sucks. It was weird, when my plane finally landed in Halifax, the first thought that went through my head was "well that's it".

It seems like I never left. And when I think about my time in Sonderborg, it seems like a dream. Like it didn't actually happen. I'm more and more thankful that I wrote this blog so that I can remember the things I might otherwise forget.

And with that in mind, here's my second last blog post (because I have one more in mind) and the last run-down of a drunken weekend.

FRIDAY

In typical fashion, for my last five days in Sonderborg I was drunk almost every night. What started out as casual drinking on Thursday night, turned into a entire bottle of wine, three beers and two shots of Fisk all by myself. Therefore, Friday felt a lot like Saturday and I could feel my body hating me already. How is it possible that in September I could five nights in a row and now I can barely do two?

Anyway, Friday was the last night of Cafeen being open. We decided tonight was the night to go hard. We started drinking in the kitchen and by 10 we were plastered. Maud, Solene and I had planned to do one more Shot-Up challenge once we got to Cafeen, you know, in remembrance. But we were wayyy too drunk once we got there. Hence, I don't remember a lot of Friday.

However, at some point, Birte decided that we should go exploring. Little did I know, that the university is left open, even during Cafeen nights, and so drunk people are free to roam. So we took the elevator upstairs, spent way to much time yelling into the high ceiling foyer and ran around crashing some random teacher's party. We also found out the hard way that a lot of classrooms are used for drunk hook-ups.

At some point, someone must've reported that we were causing a ruckus because next thing we knew a security guard was after us. We ran through staff rooms and kitchens (stealing beer and food from the fridges along the way) until we found a cleaning closet and hung out in there until the guard was gone. As a side-note, there was a Kit-Kat bar and a beer in the cleaning closet. Only Danish janitors...

After we made our way back down to Cafeen, it was closing up and the boys were already belting out "Closing Time". We were soon ushered out and from there we headed to Wunderbar. I didn't stay long because I was at the crashing part of drunken-ness, so I headed to Pronto Pizza for the last time. It's official, the pizza man knows my name. He also somehow knew that I was from Canada and talked to me about he hoped to get there someday. I can only hope that my response was one of some kind of encouragement. Some random dude in there also asked me for my number... weird. What was even weirder was when I told him no, he asked for my Facebook... I'm sorry, what? Is that a thing?

SATURDAY

Preeetty rough hangover on Saturday, but the show must go on. That night we were headed to a housewarming party. This apartment was insane. It's right on the waterfront and they have the best view. It's also loft style, so it had the downstairs drinking area, then they had set up a DJ and a dance floor in the loft. So sick.

So Birte and I spent most of the time drinking a lot of wine and then started to head out to Wunderbar when the Danes at the party started to light themselves on fire.

I'm not kidding.

Someone thought it would be fun to stick toilet paper in their pants and make a toilet paper tail, then light said tail on fire. I've seen a lot of stupid shit, but I think this is right up near the top. It was at this point that the hosts started to kick people out.

We got to Wunderbar and had copious amounts of shots, danced to some of the worst techno music ever and then called it a night with a knock-off Subway sandwich.

SUNDAY

Sunday was sad and depressing. I cleaned, packed and returned my bike. Lame.

MONDAY

A few days before, the girls and I had decided we were going to make home-made pizza for my last dinner in Sonderborg. What I didn't know is that they made it into a kind of going-away party for me. They decorated the kitchen in little signs and hung up lights. It was absolutely adorable. We ate our pizza and then the boys came and we all had a few drinks.

Then came the water-works. Unbeknownst to me, Maud and Solene had got everyone together to make a good-bye video for me. Here's the link. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152065250689455

Literally, it was one of the nicest things anyone has ever done for me. I was in tears before it even started. So rough.

But believe me, it got rougher. I decided to go to bed early because I had to be up at 4am to leave. The girls had decided to come to the train station with me, but the boys weren't, so I was essentially saying my final good-byes that night.

Oh it was so bad. I was bawling all over the place and hugging the boys. When I finally went up to my room, I just kind of sat and sobbed for a while. It's weird to think that I'v spent so much time with these people and I might never see them again. It's just hard to imagine.

TUESDAY

I couldn't sleep at all through the night. I spent some time crying and some time trying to sleep, but for the most part I was too restless. I woke up at 4am and did some final cleaning and packing before I got the girls and we all hopped in the car and went to the train station. When we got there, my train was already there, so we decided to wait for a bit. We all got out of the car and walked down the platform.

As we were doing this, we noticed two guys sitting on the bench next to the platform with their hoods up. It was super sketchy because there was no one else around. But as we got closer, I recognized one of the guys' shoes. It was Victor and Simon!!

And they were loaded.

Apparently, the boys had stayed up and got drunk. At around 4:30, Victor and Simon decided they wanted to to come say good-bye. So they grabbed a couple of beers and walked all the way to the train station. I was so unbelievably touched.

The girls had also made me a little care package full of goodies to take on the train with me so I wouldn't be hungry. These people are literally amazing, I didn't even know what to say.

When it came time to get on the train, everyone helped me put my stuff in it's place and then went outside and stood by my window. Simon had explained to me that they were going to do a "Pearl Harbor good-bye", like in the movie.

So when the train started to move, they all started to run after it. All six of them. It was both hilarious and heart-wrenching all at the same time. One-by-one, the train outran them until it was only Victor and Simon still running and then the platform ended. I may have cried just a little bit when they were finally out of sight.

And so began my long trek back to Canada. I tried to focus on what was ahead instead of what I left behind, but I still miss everyone everyday and I know it's going to be so much harder in January when they're all back together and I'm not with them.

However, I know I'll be back. I'm already planning to go to Paris to see Maud and Solene and Germany to see the Germans. This isn't the end of these friendships, it's just the end of the simplicity of them.

This exchange has completely changed me. I can't really say how, but the world just seems so close now and my little life in Nova Scotia seems so small. I can't wait to be done school and to travel more. To learn things that actually matter and to meet people who would do anything for others. Mostly I can't wait to see anyone from Team 11 again. They are some of the best friends I've ever had and I'm looking forward to what adventures we might have together in the future. This exchange would not have been what it was without them.


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