Last Night

For the past few weeks, I have been really excited to come home. I have been homesick. I have missed being normal and all the rest. However, you know as much as I have complained about Liesbeeck, at the moment it is home. I leave a part of myself here having lived in this space, having met and influenced people. In the same vein, people have influenced me and completely changed my world. I couldn’t really explain how I am different but now I know that I have been transformed. I am anxious to come home because I don’t know if I will still fit in like I did or if I will turn people off because I talk about my experience too much. I don’t know how difficult it will be to adapt to life back at home. I know that my friends and family have also changed while I was gone and I must also meet them where they are. Not everything is as it was when I left. I know that I will cope just fine. I mean I knew these would be issues but I guess the reality hadn’t really sunk in to me. I will keep writing as I come back in order to complete my narrative of my journey. It doesn’t end just because I have come back. At least for the first couple of days I am sure that I will still feel the effects of my journey but maybe not.

Anyways, goodbye has really started to become true. Last night was my last night in Liesbeeck. Before Lane left he saw a cockroach in his bathroom. I guess they have infested all of Liesbeeck. I am really glad I didn’t know about it until the last night because I have to shower in there tomorrow. I slept for the last time on really uncomfortable beds (this time without sheets or a pillow…CIEE made us turn them in even before we left…I was too cheap to get a hotel). For the last time, I woke up under a giant bank of windows (with a giant crack in the wall) to a beautiful blue sky. For the last time, I woke up to “CAPE TOWN” as the mini bus drivers honk and yell at people to get in their taxi headed for Cape Town (it actually took me about a month to know that is what they were saying because their accents were so convoluted).

Today is my last day in Liesbeeck. I have already had to say goodbye to good friends and more goodbyes are coming. It is with the realization that you have lived with these people, that you have experienced life with these people that you realize that it wouldn’t be the same without them. Lane’s roommates were like my own. They were like my family. Adolf, as much as he was awkward, was super friendly to me and showed me the ropes of the science faculty. Vongani, was the man you would talk to about music and all sorts things like that. I actually helped him with his ear training…score one for Lauren. Celia was great. She was spunky and always bought too much food. She would always pawn it off on Lane which meant of course that I would get to partake as well. They were really my family, maybe dysfunctional and sometimes frustrating but a family nonetheless. It will be hard to leave them. I have already said goodbye to Celia and Adolf. Vongani will be around today to keep me out of trouble and to make sure that I actually talk to someone today but the reality is that this is it. This is the end.

Goodbye Liesbeeck! I hope never to come back but will always cherish my time here regardless.