Monday 6 September 2010

Toodle Pip, my lovelies.

This was the last dish Henry ever had cooked for me! Funny how the only thing I ever cooked for him was on the night I finished my final paper/final and he was scrambling to finish his. He was "too lazy to cook" and busy that he sheepishly asked me to make him some peas that I had tons of left in my kitchen. I decided to throw in a bag of boiled rice with the peas because just a plate of peas seemed ridiculous and not enough for how much that guy eats. Even with rice and peas, it felt silly. Too bad I never really cooked in England.
The next day, we went to the library to print our papers out and turned them in. We decided to go into town a bit to look at some more stores we hadn't been into which went by quite fast. Since I never got to try having wine and cheese in Paris, we decided to do it in Brighton! So off to Sainsbury's we went. (Apricot and Brie) Cheese, wine, grapes, blueberries, and crackers! We ended up going to the park right after to get my inner child tendencies out. Even though it was short, it was still very fun. I'm glad I had a friend to partake in this silly outing.
It was absolutely beautiful from where we sat overlooking our dorms. It was really quiet since people had either already left, were in town, or were probably sleeping.
Unfortunately, I had a rather hard time drinking that wine. I think I'm just not an alcoholic drinker of any type. I can't even drink cider! We decided to play around on the swings for a bit after eating, but boy was that a bad idea. A big seagull swooped down and ate all of that delicious apricot cheese!!
You can see the bulge in its neck if you look closely. Not long after our little picnic, we went to a farewell reception party where our tutors also attended. I stayed for about an hour to see some old friends from the first session and so on. We had some catered food and desserts: sausage, sandwiches, pastries, ice cream, etc. All in all, a sweet little party.
The next day, Henry and I went into town for some afternoon tea for the last time! I had a fruit black current tea while he had Earl Gray. Mine came along with a salmon cucumber sandwich and scones! Yum-- I love scones. He got some assorted sandwiches which I can't really recall along with (I think) a strawberry shortcake of some sort? Boy that made me happy! The rest of the day, we walked around Brighton looking at more shops and hats. We did some last minute souvenir shopping where I decided to get more fudge to bring home. Eventually, we made our way to a pub for our last dinner in England and then back home.
This is what my room looked like just about all packed up. :( It looks so empty with no books or papers! No food, kitchen things, or electronics on the shelf. After I packed everything, I went to Henry's dorm to watch some shows a bit before getting tired and heading back to sleep.
I woke up early to really get everything into my bags like my laptop and such and make sure everything was clean and spotless. This was the view outside my window in the morning. Colder and rainier. :( Made me very sad.

A huge and gross amount of pots, dishes, and cups were left piling out and over the sink so since I had some spare time, I cleaned it all. Henry came to make sure I was awake and ready. I knocked on a fellow dorm-mate's door to make sure she was ready since she was tagging along. We turned in our keys, took a shuttle to Falmer station and got our tickets for Brighton and London Victoria. As I was making my way up the stairs to get to the platform at Falmer, I realized my luggage was too heavy (not overweight, though, thank goodness!) So he very kindly helped my carry it all the way to Heathrow. (I feel so bad!) We all had some lunch before splitting ways. It was hard to say goodbye, but experiences keep us together forever.

I made it to the far end of my terminal with 15 minutes to spare before boarding for Denver made sure I had my passport along with my boarding pass. Then for as much as I could, I soaked in everything for all it was with every sense I had.

Beautiful England. Beautiful people. Beautiful culture. Beautiful weather. Beautiful everything. Beautiful ending to a beautiful dream.