Goodbyes upon goodbyes

Tjena!

It feels so weird to be writing this blog about the final month of this exchange, and June was a rollercoaster and a half. It’s been a month of winding down, of many many goodbyes and of wrapping up this whole experience in general. For each of our close friends who were leaving one by one, my friend group prepared a goodbye ‘prank’. We would invite them to someone’s house for dinner but surprise them with an act we had prepared: an outdoor scavenger hunt in their native language, a karaoke song rewrite about how much we’ll miss them, or friendship bracelets with inside jokes. It was both extremely funny and extremely sad to spend those last bittersweet bits of time with them–those people who had made Lund feel like home.

I stuck around for a little bit longer until the end of the month, and was in Lund to celebrate Sweden’s National Flag Day and the famous Swedish midsommar! Traditionally, friends and family gather to celebrate the summer solstice with a garden party in the sun, self made flower crowns, ‘sill’ (pickled herring), ‘jordgubbstårta’ (strawberry cake), and dancing like a frog around the May pole. Lund had a town celebration at its historical open air museum which I attended with university friends. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and there was lots to see and hear, including a folk duo who showed us how to do the traditional May pole songs and dances.
I then began the process of packing up my room to move back to the Netherlands. I needed to get it done quickly, because my friend and I flew to visit some of our exchange friends who had just returned to their home in Helsinki, Finland. We stayed for a few days and had the best time exploring the city and the surrounding nature, before sharing one last bittersweet goodbye together. After returning to Lund I quickly finished all the cleaning, packing and errands needed before I could move out. My last night was spent at my favorite falafel place (Clemens Falafel, I’ll miss you) & a karaoke bar with the last of my friends still in Lund.

Moving home was an overnight trip by ferry and a long drive in the car, and I have to say coming home has been a confusing experience. Upon settling back into life in my hometown I noticed how much it felt like I stumbled out of Narnia and back into a regular day. It felt like no time had passed here at all, and yet simultaneously I felt so different, like I’ve grown more into who I am. I’ve come home with a new language under my belt, new friends all over the world, new ways of viewing my creativity, opened eyes about how big the world really is, new perspectives on how lucky I’ve been in this life, and an immense amount of gratitude for everything this experience has been. It all still feels very raw and a bit abstract, and I’m curious to see how this progresses. They say the ways in which you’ve changed tend to become more obvious once you’ve spent more time back in your old environment.

Currently, I find myself at a big crossroads with just having finished my bachelor’s degree, and am chewing on the big questions on what will be next for me. I believe there is no better place to sit with these thoughts than in the quiet small town life of Zuid-Limburg in the summertime.

And that’s a wrap! Thanks for following along on this incredible adventure 🙂

Tack så jättemycket och hej då allihopa! Ana