MOVING OUT/HAPPY 20TH BIRTHDAY TO ME

Well people, I have finally said goodbye to room 120-2 for good.

It was a sad occasion. I decided to stay till the last day to spend some extra time with my best friend on campus and to get the most I could out of my meal card. After shouting meals for a couple of friends and starbucks for my aunt and cousin, I still have about $12, but I'll go back sometime next semester and have lunch there. If I can't, well. $12 doesn't devastate me.

It was the right decsion for sure. I ended up having an exam on the 20th instead of the 19th, because of my basic inability to read forms. Turns out the disability service centre doesn't do seven pm exams, so they changed mine to 3.30, and the one before that to 11 instead of 12. I did not read the tiny bit at the very bottom of the form where this was written in very small font, and instead went with the times on the online exam schedule (which makes sense). But yeah, I turned up at 11.50 and got told the exam had started at 11. The exchange went a bit like this:

Check-in woman: Your exam started at eleven.
Me: No.
Check-in woman: ....
Me: No, you're wrong. It's definitely - it's definitely 12.
Check-in woman: Okay, let me just go check this.
Me: (quieter) You're wrong!

I go sit down, pull out my laptop and check my exam schedule. It does say 12, not that this changes very much. I show it to her and she's like well you can start it now and that's fine, but you have your next exam at 3.30. And I'm like 'NO! It's at seven!' So she told me I could take it at seven with the class if I wanted, but I would have no extra time, or I could take it with extra time but with only like 20 minutes between the exams (and I needed that time to cram). So I opted to take it with the class. Then they moved me to another room and had me stand around for a few minutes while they waited for someone to finish so I had somewhere to sit. I went to the bathroom and screamed into my palm for a bit. And then I did the exam and, let's be honest, probably aced it.

Long story short I went to the disability advisor to check there would be an exam for me if I went to take it with the class, and after very kindly and subtly telling me I was an idiot for not reading the form she called my professor and they decided between them I could take the exam the following day (tuesday instead of monday). I was very lucky. Especially since I REALLY needed that time to study.

I did my exam the following day, then came home, hung out for a while, met up with aforementioned friend Kaare, then thought I was going out to dinner with my friend but that fell through so I came home, did some packing, and then Kaare and I went down to Wreck Beach to star-gaze for a while.

I'm kind of gutted I didn't get any photos of this. My camera wasn't working in that little light. So I just lay back and concentrated on taking a million mental snapshots. It's one of my most beautiful memories from my whole time here, honestly, and the perfect thing to do with my last night.

Later I went back to Kaare's room for a while, played a board game called Devil Bunny Needs a Ham (that's a good time) and went home to finish my packing. I had a brief visit from another friend at 2 am, and then I stayed up for another three hours trying to condense 13 weeks worth of stuff I have accrued into one suitcase, two backpacks and a temporary storage box. There was a lot of overflow. And Melanie will be returning to her room to find a pile of books almost as tall as she is.

I got a bit choked up while packing, but not nearly as badly as I thought I would. It helped to know that I would be seeing my two best friends (in the country) two days later, and three more of my closest friends the day after that, and then it would be Christmas :)

So my aunt and uncle picked me up the following morning, and after saying goodbye to Kaare and a few other people at 12 I was off. Having gotten about four hours sleep maximum on tuesday night, I was pretty tired yesterday, and all I did when I got home was sort out my enrolment for next year. It took over two hours to do, and my schedule for next year is possibly the worst I've ever had. I have NO days off either semester, and in the first semester I have to get to school at nine for ONE class and then I have nothing for the rest of the day. Don't think there are any early starts in the second semester, but I do have a five hour break on mondays. What the fuck are you supposed to do with five hour breaks? I'm 2/3rds of the way through my degree and I still don't know. I just know you're not supposed to go see movies every week. Which is what's probably going to happen.

Anyway, after having my worst fear realised with the exam thing and then going through the emotional upheaval of moving away from my home of four-ish months, I lay down at 10.30 and slept for some ten hours.

I woke up twenty years old! Surprise!

Today is my birthday in New Zealand, so I'm technically 20, but it doesn't really feel like my birthday. I think I'm going to break into one of the presents my parents sent. I saw the massive package when I got here and was immediately doubtful of my ability to wait until sunday to unwrap them all. On opening the package, I saw that the tissue paper on one of the presents marked 'Claire' had ripped slightly, and there was something pink sticking out. I was like 'WHAT THE FUCK IS IT, I HAVE TO KNOW' and now I have a necklace. So... yeah. I'm probably going to open another one after I finish writing this.

So since I didn't get to do my shopping on the 20th (as I had to do my dumb exam) I have to do it today. I'm going out in a couple of hours to hit up the mall, and then tonight Kaare and Laura and I are going to see The Muppet Movie. Hopefully. It's a bit tricky to find a location that's good for all of us, but I'm optimistic.

Then tomorrow I will be busing for some three and a half hours to the winter wonderland that is Whistler, and hanging out with my other good friends Eihild (her name changes every time I try to spell it. It's pronounced Ailey) from Scotland and Rob from New Zealand and Patrick from Australia. We're a multi-cultural, attractive, charismatic bunch of people.

I spend one night in Whistler, and then I'll be on my way back here for Christmas eve. Busy week! But all of it really good. Even the last exam (on literature to the 18th century!) went pretty well. I only have one final grade back so far, for American Lit - a B+. I'm very happy with this - I knew that I had screwed up by loosing lots of little points on things like pop quizzes and participation, so I had to really work to get it up from that, and I managed it. I emailed my professor and he says I got an A- on my last essay (how it was STILL not an A after I spent three days on it I don't understand, but whatever) and an A on the exam. Good work, self.