Not good-bye

(I bought a postcard from every place/country I visited this year. Here they are!)

I know I promised you all a "wrap-up" post; a post that would attempt to sum up what has certainly been one of the most amazing years of my life.

Not yet.

I'm still in Oxford, getting high tea for the last time, going to the pub once more, packing up my room, and hugging all my friends. It doesn't seem right to say good-bye, not yet.

Besides, I know that this has been a life-changing experience for me, and I want to do it justice. I dislike the phrase "life-changing" anyways, only because it's so vague; what does it mean? Anything that happens on a given day could be life changing. You order a new drink at Starbucks and it becomes your go-to! Life-changing. You run into a woman at the park with a Husky puppy and decide it's time to become a pet-owner yourself. Life-changing. You read a particularly moving article or book. Life-changing. So, you see, I need some time to better express how this year has been "life-changing." I won't be able to realize exactly how, I think, until I've left.

So this isn't good-bye, but I would like to share a couple of things:

1) I'm going to Africa! Eli arrives in London tomorrow; we fly to Morocco on Tuesday morning. We'll be in Marrakech for a bit, then down to the Sahara for a two-night trek (camels!), back to Marrakech, over to Essaouira, up to Tangier. Then we take the ferry across the Strait of Gibraltar to...

2) Espana! We'll go to Granada, then Valencia, and finally, Madrid. Back to London, and then fly to the U.S. We won't be back in the States until July 7th, so don't expect regular updates or emails until then, since I have no idea how much internet access we might or might not have.

3) In honor of my wonderful, supportive, and loving father (who today celebrated BOTH his birthday AND Father's Day), I'd like to tell you about a card that I found in the back of my desk drawer, while packing up my room. I remember reading it what seems like eons ago, back in October, when I first got to Oxford. He gave it to me in Seattle, and I think I read it on the plane, or maybe once I arrived. I hope he doesn't mind me sharing this short bit:

"This will be a very special year in your life. While Oxford is one of the best universities in the world, perhaps the value of education you will get at Pembroke will be overshadowed by the incredible opportunities to meet and visit people and cultures so different than ours."

How right he was.

So: this isn't good-bye; to blogging, or to Pembroke College, Oxford University.
But it is the end of my junior year of college, my year studying abroad in the U.K. I don't exactly know what comes next (aside from the aforementioned sibling travels). I'll be back in Seattle this summer, for around six weeks. And then: senior year.

But I'm trying not to go there, mentally, quite yet. Right now, I'm relishing the Chapel Quad in the pre-dusk blue-grey light; the fun I had moments ago watching the Brazil-Ivory Coast World Cup match with a roomful of Brits; the promise of tea with my pre-examination British staircase-mates, and a final night in this, beautiful, beautiful place.

Until next time.