Signing off.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, this is it. I leave tomorrow.

And how do I feel on the eve of my departure? Honestly, I feel strangely... conflicted. Not like I expected at all.

I have been through a lot during these past four months. I have learned a ton and I feel like I've grown up a lot. My academic goals have come into focus. I feel like I've discovered completely new facets of myself over here. Although I made only a few friends here, they are wonderful and I will miss them terribly. And believe it or not, there have already been occasions when I'm able to remember an Estonian word or expression but not the English equivalent. ... A small part of me has become quite attached to this frigid, soggy little country.

However, my consolation is that I will be back this summer. In 6 months it will be St. John's Day, Jaanipäev, the biggest holiday in Estonia after Christmas. I'll be here by then, and hopefully I'll get to stick around until after my birthday at the end of July.

But at the moment, I'm packed and ready to go. I've been packed and ready to go since Monday. All week long, my relatives have been stopping by to give me boxes of chocolate and bottles of liqueur to take home, and by this afternoon both of my suitcases were threatening to overstep the 23kg weight limit. Tomorrow morning at 5am I'll heave them downstairs, say my final farewells to the apartment, and let my relative groggily drive me to the airport. After that, I travel for 15 hours and arrive at PDX around midday tomorrow.

So. This is it. I hope you enjoyed reading about my Estonian shenanigans. I may start up a real-life blog someday to chronicle my boring Corvallis life, but don't count on it.

Be well. Happy holidays. May all your adventures be awesome.