Yesterday I met up with my supervisor and a few other coworkers to have lunch. We went to a Thai place, called "Lanna Thai" in Musselburgh. I hopped on the bus on the way there, as the rest of the team was already at the Musselburgh campus. It was so bittersweet, saying goodbye to everyone. They got me a lovely gift - a tea towel with lots of Scottish words on it, a box of chocolates, a lovely card, and a tin of Scottish biscuits. I bought a cake for everyone on Wednesday, wrote a card, and gave my supervisor a separate gift of chocolate bars and a card. It all in total ended up being a lot of money (I gave the family I"m living with a gift too), but I think it was worth it. I wish I could have done more. I am really going to miss everybody.
It was really strange walking home through Haddington for the last time. It is such a little town, also away from the tourist scene. It made me think about all the places in the world I still want to visit. I wonder if I will ever be back? I guess it is hard to say for certain, due to the list of places I want to see that is ever growing instead of shrinking - no matter how many locations are crossed off.
Walking over the Nungate bridge for the last time, I was fortunate enough to catch the family of swans at the perfect time. I think I posted a picture a few months ago when I first arrived in Scotland in which they were just little tiny babies. They're so big now. So grown up. I wonder if they'll decide to fly away or stay in Haddington.
I had a nice last evening with my host family as well. The gave me a lovely scarf as a going away gift! I hope they enjoyed having me stay there, as much as I enjoyed being there. While looking back, I think I could have handled living in Edinburgh and commuting to Haddington every day. It just would have been a completely different experience. I think in the end, I am glad I chose to live with a host family. They really did include me as a part of their family, and I think I learned so much more about the culture that way. If I was living with other students, I don't think I would have experienced what life is truly like in Scotland. I got to witness all the normal everyday stuff, talks about politics, social situations, family customs, etc. I'm really thankful they were so willing and generous enough to take me to all of these different places off the beaten tourist track - so many of them I would never have known about. I don't think I would have been able to get to most of them, either!
Last night after tea, we went down to this old mill in East Lothian and just spent a while walking around and talking about the summer. Like I usually do when faced with a life transition, I began sensing all these metaphors and symbolism in the world around me. When I first arrived in Scotland, it was still the springtime. The crops were just starting to grow, and quite a time away from reaching maturity. Everything was young, green and full of potential. Now, looking out over the golden fields, I realized it is almost time to harvest those same crops I compared to a rolling sea of green mere weeks ago. This acute awareness of the passing of time just seemed so fitting for where I have found myself now. Maybe I am over exaggerating it all, or over thinking it. But it feels like when I first stepped on that plane a few months ago to set out on my own, I was so ready to to just live, learn and grow from my new surroundings. I hope I did that. I believe I did. Ready or not, it is time to end this incredible, beautiful, challenging, surprising, long-awaited season in my life and transition forward into the next. The thing about the harvest is, you take from it what you planted. I just have to remember to keep nurturing these new seeds of change within me.
So beautifully said!
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