The Final One

Friday morning I had a nice wake up call by Johanne’s squeaky door. I wasn’t even upset about it. All I could think about was how much I’m going to miss her loud door lol. My flatmates and I had a nice time in the morning. I was definitely in denial. Johanne made breakfast burritos for us and we talked about chundering (specifically chunder dragons) lol. Toni told me that it’s impossible to call me a bitch, but it’s easy to say to Mina and Johanne lol. After a while we started talking about all the good times together in the kitchen, and the impending doom of cholera. It’s really sad that it was the last time we would randomly convene in the kitchen and talk about random things :( Toni, Mina, Jordan, and I walked Johanne to the central building. It was kind of like we were her bodyguards or something lol. But I was really sad to see her go. We all walked back to the flat as reality sank in and I realized that I had a shit ton to do… which made me feel even worse. Packing up my little room felt absolutely awful. It was so weird to see the room bare, like how it looked when I first moved in and to think of all the things that happened in those three short months. Mina cheered me up a little though, she was about the shower and said “I have a song for you!!!!!”… I totally called that it was going to be Teenage Dirtbag, but it really did make me smile. I love that Mina and I both love 90s punk, that good old music from back in the day when I was only 28 lol. When I had finally finished packing and organizing everything, I put together a little mother’s care package of useful random things like pencils, food, and tampons for my Bulgarians :) I left some of my presents with them for safekeeping since I couldn’t fit everything in my suitcases. I told them I’d be back for them soon :) Toni came with me to mail my package of books and shoes home. I nearly had a nervous breakdown at the post office. Thank god she came though, she literally kept me sane. I really love her so much. Back at Hillhead I was running around cleaning my sheets and seeing how everything was going with Bri. Seeing her room without a ton of clothes and stuff completely covering the floor was almost weirder than seeing mine empty. I gave all my sheets and blankets to the guys in case of some awful spewing or something along those lines… I’m sure they will come in handy even if they are pink and have hearts on them lol. When I was back in my kitchen in my flat for the last time I balled. I tried to cover it up by casually taking a cookie from the cookie drawer, but I just couldn’t stand seeing MY Bulgarians there and thinking of them moving on without me. Mina told me not to cry and that I will see them soon. They ended up walking me to the bus stop, where I met up with Kelsie, Bri, Zoe, Lindsay and the south house boys. Mina forgot her coat so she was shivering. I tried to warm her up like how Johanne does, but I definitely failed. At least I definitely made up my mind that I’m coming back over my spring break. The emotion overload at the bus stop was almost too much, though. In all the confusion, Greg nearly kissed me lol. He told Bri that the look of terror on my face was pretty amusing. The bus ride to town was extremely sad. It was nice to have a last glimpse of Seaton/rapey park, Kings College, RGpoo union, exodus, and that corner where Callum nearly puked. Moving the mass amount of luggage was kind of difficult, but we eventually made it to union square. I nearly died when I realized that I had forgotten to pre-buy a bus ticket. It really isn’t like me to be unorganized, but somehow I didn’t even think of it. Waiting in the line to get on the bus was kind of stressful and awful. It just really sucked thinking that this was the end. Martyn showed up a little late. He game Bri and me our birthday presents which was really sweet… I can’t get over how nice and thoughtful that was. Bri and I gave him a big hug… and cried on him a little too. Andrew literally ran all the way from the hospital to get to the bus station on time. When he got there, I hugged him and could hear how fast his heart was beating. After waiting around outside the bus, the time came for us all to say bye to OUR boys. It was absolutely beyond sad, but I made sure to give everyone extra hugs and kisses. I really do love them all so much :( I was the last to get on the bus, and I looked back at the six of them standing there… no words can describe how heart wrenching it was to leave them. However, as we were waving to them, Christian pulls out his famous belly button as a final farewell. Lots of cheering ensued lol. When the bus pulled away, I sat down with Zoe and wept. After a few minutes I opened Martyn’s present, and completely lost it… he really is the sweetest guy in the world. I immediately put on the “Made in Scotland” pin and cuddled my Nala stuffed animal. I’ve never openly sobbed before, but at that moment I really didn’t care one bit. Each and every one of those boys are amazing and I’m beyond lucky to have them as friends. After a while we all calmed down, and then Bri turns to me and asks me if I turned in my keys. The look on my face was priceless, apparently. I can’t believe that I forgot to turn in my keys, too! That is just further proof that I was a complete mess. Kelsie said that she would turn my keys in for me, so she reaches into the pocket of my coat in the overhead rack (as I scream “NOT THE COOKIE POCKET!”) and she grabs the cookie from earlier that I completely forgot about lol. The look of shock and slight alarm on her face was perfect. After a ton of laughing and properly retrieving my keys, we settle down again. A few minutes pass and then Kelsie said “Lydia, why is there a cookie in your pocket?” lol and we all started laughing again. We then talked about the winter fair in Edinburgh and the possibility of ice skating. After a while, it didn’t even feel like we were leaving Aberdeen… more like the five of us were just going on a fun trip together. We had to change buses in Dundee, and now I know why they call it Scumdee lol. The bus to Edinburgh was pretty fun after a while, actually. The ridiculous amount of luggage between the five of us was extremely comical to move lol. We were all basically buried under a huge amount of bags… the situation was even worse when some sexy guy walked passed us and kind of stared. We began the journey from the bus station with the intent of walking to the hostel but after about half a block, that definitely was NOT going to happen. So we find a taxi to take us, and as the old taxi driver was loading Bri’s and my large suitcases into the taxi he said “oh my, you brought your boyfriends with you!” lol. The taxi ride was hilarious since we were packed to the gills with  ours stuff around us, but the ride was really nice. The city looked beautiful at night with all the Christmas lights set up and the fair lights on too. Unloading at the hostel was a complete disaster. When we finally move everything into the lobby, everything kind of topples over on Kelsie, who was practically strangled. Some short, fat, drunk Scottish man, who was laughing watching with a group of friends, started to strip down Baywatch-style to a mankini (the boxers stayed on… thankfully) and rushes over to help Kelsie up, even though we had unburied her. He kissed her hand, and as he slowly walked away he comments on how he shaved his back earlier that day… really it was quite strange but really funny lol. After we get into our room, we unpacked a little and talked about what we should do. We walked to the fair and took some pictures. The German part of the fair was pretty cool. There were all sorts of neat little craft type things. The ice skating rink was closed, unfortunately, so we decided to go on the big ferris wheel. Zoe was kind of spazing out, but we made her ride with us lol. It was kind of scary at the way top, but the view of the city was so beautiful I didn’t notice too much… until one of the guys running the ride noticed how Zoe had her eyes squeezed shut and decided to pick on us. He rocked our seats and stopped us at the way top. The pictures I have of us at the top, the fear mixed with the cold, are pretty funny though. When we got off the ride, after glaring at that guy, we go to Pizza Hut for our last Friday date night. We had the nicest waiter EVER serve us… it was just slightly unfortunate that he basically overheard everything we said about him lol. After a while we all started to get really sad, though. At some point my mind was so preoccupied with thinking about leaving the next day, I couldn’t form coherent sentences. Kelsie told me “you’re words aren’t working tonight” lol. At least I wasn’t as bad as Bri’s yoda-talk. It really didn’t help our moods when the sad Christmas music played. We left Pizza Hut, and after some confused walking around the city, we got to Biddy Mulligans. It was super packed and crazy in there. We found a table, but like 10 minutes after we got there Lindsay spilled Kelsie’s pint. A bunch of songs played that reminded us of the boys and we all took to dancing like them. It was funny to think about which move goes with which guy. But each of them do have their signature moves lol. Zoe dances Andrew’s the best, and I totally have Martyn’s Tom Jones dance down to a science lol. But basically we all came to the conclusion that we missed the boys a TON and wanted to be back at union, so we left Biddys early. We walked back to the hostel, craftily dodging drunk people and talking about the constant 2m radius to keep from homeless people. Back at the hostel Bri went online for a few minutes so we all stayed down in the lobby with her. But we pretty quickly and spastically (shaking Lindsay’s coat) got into the elevator and back to our room lol. We really are crazy people, but I seriously wouldn’t have it any other way. Even though two random people were sleeping in our room, we sat up together for a long time and just enjoyed being together and happy. We talked about all sorts of things and we all looked through the scrapbooks lol. We laughed a lot and were pretty loud considering the other people in the room, but who cares. It was a really fun last night together. I really wished we would have been back in Aberdeen with the boys, especially after getting some texts about the craziness they were reeking in their flat lol. But I was so happy to have Kelsie, Zoe, and Lindsay there with Bri and me. It really made that last night a hell of a lot less depressing than it would have been. Also, I was beyond happy to have my cat sized Nala to sleep with… :)  

Waking up after two-ish hours of sleep really sucked. I already felt completely numb from the thought of leaving Kelsie, Zoe, Bri, and Lindsay. Somehow it didn’t feel completely real, though. My mind was trying to keep me believing that we were having some adventures together. That was easy enough to believe on the taxi ride to the airport, and even when we were sitting eating some breakfast at the airport. When I was checking in, the number of American students in the line really pissed me off. Hearing the American accent so loudly in one place was annoying and wrong sounding. They were just all over the place yammering on about everything they did and all the places they saw. All I could do to keep from screaming was think to myself, they didn’t make friends like I did. The five of us sat in a little circle together near a café for a while, and I was extremely thankful that we had that time together. To cheer ourselves up, we re-enacted the dances the guys do and talked about some funny memories. But I could tell that we were all emotionally hollow. Seriously we just couldn’t accept that our group was about to be broken apart. We talked about being back together again over Bri’s and my spring break. And then the time came for my to say goodbye to Zoe, Kelsie, Bri, and Lindsay… I honestly can’t write how sad that was. There are no words to convey that amount of sadness. I hugged everyone and said how much I love them all. There was lots and lots and lots of crying, to say the least. At Kelsie’s request I did the monkey face… and to my complete surprise Kelsie made a total monkey face, too! I am so proud of her :) The five of us then had an epic group hug, the kind where you hold each other and can feel the huge amount of love. As I walked through the corridor to security, I looked back at them, unabashedly crying and waving, and made the monkey face one last time.

Leaving Scotland was one of the most emotionally wrenching experiences I could imagine. I felt like a robot walking through the airport, clutching Nala as Adele’s “Set Fire to the Rain” played in the background. But somehow my feet moved forward and I boarded a plane to New Jersey. The time I spent in Aberdeen has been the best adventure of my life. I’m still confused by how I got so lucky… Never in my life did I dream that I would be so accepted and loved by a group of different people in only three months. Who knew feelings this strong were possible to have after such a short period of time? I’ve never felt closer to a group of friends before and now they are like my family. I know that when we see each other in the future it will be as though nothing has changed. I have no doubt that this will be the case… the friends you make in university are your friends for life. And until I see them again I will be loving and missing them all. Remember, you’re in my heart. Always.