The last week of the semester has been perhaps the most
eventful, as I’ve explored Washington D.C. for the last few times this year and
had some of my best days there, completed my exams and all my classes at George
Mason with strong grades to take back to Leicester, and said our goodbyes for
now to each other as my time at Mason came to an end. Emotional rollercoaster
isn’t even the word for this week, but if there was any other way to bid
farewell to this University, Fairfax and D.C., and these brilliant people of
Hampton Roads and beyond I can’t imagine it being better than this. Well, maybe
you could take away the exams, but in the end they weren’t too stressful. It’s
a shame we didn’t have a few more days after exams ended, but you make the most
of what you have.
Before exams we got away from revision by first having a
little picnic and one of our last Time’s Up games, always with some names
nobody else knew (“he’s a famous French actor, part of the new wave, you must
know” really Benjamin?) and Joe in full Bob Dylan tribute mode. Then this past
Sunday I went with Pauline, Emily, Rafael and GG to Georgetown for a last day
there. The weather was beautiful for kayaking on the Potomac which was
absolutely brilliant, one of the best things I’ve done in D.C. It was so much
fun to get in a boat (with suspiciously little health and safety, mind you),
head down the river, around Theodore Roosevelt Island, back up and past the
Lincoln Memorial and seeing it from the water. Afterwards we checked out the
final few landmarks in Georgetown we hadn’t seen yet, like the Old Stone House,
the only surviving pre-Revolution building in the area, the steps that appeared
in the film The Exorcist (which are incredibly steep, so if you’ve seen the
film you can imagine how intimidating they could be), and one last D.C.
memorial to T. Roosevelt. It’s an island on the river, completely covered in
forest apart from one grand clearing with
classical fountains and a huge
statue, very fitting for the larger than life President it remembers.
3 exams in 2 days came and went, tough schedule but learning
about the Revolution, Vietnam War and U.S Foreign Policy was interesting and
got me through them- how much of that knowledge will stick around I don’t know!
We took a chilled evening afterwards, apart from Yusuke who soldiered on for 35
hours straight without sleep to study for his exams, because he’s absolutely
mad! To the cake-making team led by Sahrish, thank you for creating an epic
Hogwarts Express cake complete with passengers, it was delicious!
When we first visited D.C. in September, as we exited the
Metro the first landmark we saw was the Washington Monument, the giant obelisk
in the centre of the city. It was covered in scaffolding as it had been since
late 2011, when an earthquake meant it was closed for repairs. Over the course
of this year we’ve watched the scaffold slowly be removed until 3 days before
we left, the Monument reopened for visitors. So as our time around the American
capital ended, Joe and I went to the first landmark we had seen all those
months ago, and it was a nice way to complete our D.C. experiences. The views were
spectacular too! Then on our return journey to campus, on the bus in Fairfax an
eccentric man from Nicaragua in a patterned shirt, very short shorts and a
crazy laugh got on, and we remembered back to our first night in America. We
had been trying to get back to campus from Walmart and this man had helped us
find the bus, and chatted to us about guns, Playboy, Nicaragua and Mick Jagger
for a very surreal first day. 9 months later he turned up again for our last…
either it’s a symbol that the circle was complete, or this guy just rides the
bus a lot!
The last night was an all-nighter, as those of us departing
on the 15th finished packing and had a last supper in Fairfax. After
a long night of hanging out, eating the cake (and wishing happy birthday to
Yunjin and Mahmud!), a final game of Fifa against Youssef (my Juventus were
schooled 5-3 by his Barca) getting emotional at Sahrish’s Hampton Roads video
and one last Time’s Up, it was time to head to the airport. Thank you guys for
staying up the whole night with us to see us off, it meant so much to me to see
the friends I’ve made over this past year stick around until the end. Because
you guys are some of the closest and best friends I’ve ever known, and I will
miss you and this 4th floor so much. When you look towards doing an
experience like this, you think about and anticipate all the places you’ll
visit and things you can do in America which have been brilliant. What you
can’t anticipate or expect are the people you’ll meet, the friendships you’ll
forge, or the memories made that will be treasured forever.
Me, the King and the Peacock
So with all my heart, I say goodbye for now to you strange,
wonderful people, good luck for the future and I promise to see you again,
whether it’s visiting you around the world or pressuring you guys to come to
England. And thank you all- Joo Hyun the classy peacock, Yusef for your fellow
geekiness, and Kazuki for the love of trains (and grapes). Soomin who you never
knew if she was joking or actually being so mean, Sana, Monisola and Vanessa
for your unforgettable laughter, Josh for your deadpan humour and being a great
RA along with Sarah whose enthusiasm got me through a lot of study sessions,
and Abigail for your kindness and baking skills. The ever-red GG, badminton
champion Pauline and anxious Rafael. To Charles for introducing Freddies,
Hannah and Seth for geek talk, Erim for your artistry, Angelita and Augusto for
pool at the Hub, Phil for the reliable madness of our chats. Alexandre for your
amazing photos which we’re all going to steal, Bruno our King, Shelby for your
teaching and Benjamin for your wisdom and entertaining fashion choices. Tara
being laid-back, Percy getting Fifa rage, Youssef staying cool as he lost big
time to Percy, Sebastian for always asking what’s up, Patrick for never knowing
what was happening in Global Crossings, Susan’s high fives and everyone else
who made this semester and year great. Thank you to Terry for being a great
mate, see you at Leicester-Liverpool next year. Thanks to Sophia for your smuggling,
Sahrish for your wisdom and jokes, and the late, late night conversations we
all had that never ended. And thank you Yusuke, my roommate for the past year
for putting up with me. I know he’ll never read this- he’s probably mentioned
in this blog more than anyone, but doesn’t read it, when I asked he said “I
lived it you know, it’s like homework to read it”. But you’ve been a great
friend and I will miss you along with everyone else.
This blog isn’t quite done yet- I’m typing this from San
Francisco, and then it’s onto Seattle and Vancouver- but my time at Mason is
done. It’s been the best guys, until the next time,
A
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