Time for assessments

Dear readers – dear friends,

 

Sadly enough, this year in Cambridge is over. I won’t cry over all the work I don’t have to do anymore, nor over the fact that I’m coming back to one of the most beautiful countries in the world (I’m not being arrogant. We’re number one destination of tourists in the world – deal with it) where cheese, good wine, baguettes and jingoistic bigots abound. But still. It sort of aches a little.

There are so many people and so many things I’ll miss there, that were all part my everyday life. Some more than others, but even the small things and minor acquaintances wind up being so important.

 

I’ll miss walking along the river, shared by dedicated rowers, idle punters, ducks, swans and a zillion little annoying bugs.

 

I’ll miss our little Lucy gang, the good laughs we had, and even the times when everyone was plunged in a reading-writing-freaking out marathon. Yeah, I even liked the moments when we were so exhausted and desperate that all we could do was giggling away for no reason.

 

I’ll miss the lectures and the whole set of fascinating, brilliant and/or quirky teachers I had. That long-haired, neckbearded, geeky-looking guy who gave a course on counterculture – and you could sense his underground, countercultural streak had hardly been tamed by the academia. Or that old gentleman incomprehensibly raving about Victorian poetry, but whose voice was so Albus Dumbledore–like, that it made your early waking up worth it.

 

I’ll miss tangoing, salsaing (?), bachataing away (??) my feeling of guilt as I procrastinated the ridiculous amount of work that was on my hands (I agree with you, “tangoing” is alright, but for some reason the rest just sounds horrible).

 

I’ll miss rusty Roger and the fight for survival in the streets of Cambridge, amongst oblivious/suicidal pedestrians and murderous taxi drivers.

 

I’ll miss the porters. Funny John, sweet Neil and even grumpy What’s-His-Name.

 

I could go on and on but I think that’s enough sentimentalism. The point is, if any future Eramus student was to read this blog, I couldn’t recommend more Cambridge as a destination.

 

There’s no need to mention the academic level of Cambridge University, but let’s just say that I have met a bunch of truly amazing people (I won’t play any “name and shame” game, they will surely recognise themselves (-: ). People who, stunningly enough, made me change my mind as for my long, dogged resistance to Facebook. People who taught me a lot on a human level and also, incidentally, helped me practise my English a bit. I’m indeed very proud to state that, after this year abroad, and on a scale from basic Frenchman to native Englishman, I would characterise my current level in English as “almost German”, that is pretty decent. Which does a lot to show that there’s more to the Erasmus experience than just bar-crawling, binge-drinking and unproductive lazing around.

 

Now, as for the future of this blog, well, I don’t know, but if it lives on it’ll have to deal with something else… In any case I’d like to thank those who read and followed it 🙂

 

Cheerio/ciao/tchüss/adios/au revoir etc. etc. …

            and lots of love.

 

 

CF

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