Goodbyes

A very hectic last few days.

On Thursday, Charnice and I officially finished all our school work with the completion (finally) of the accursed CAD project at noon. After lunch with some friends we ran into at the Chula cafeteria, we wandered around MBK for a little while before returning to our apartment to start packing. That night, we had dinner at Sunrise Tacos with Dolly and her friend Jah, saying goodbye to both of them afterwards.

On Friday, we got up early (ish) and went to Dusit Palace. It was incredibly opulent - built in the style of European palaces with marble and high frescoed ceilings, but filled with gilt, enameled, diamond-studded artwork. Unfortunately we couldn't take pictures inside - huge shame, because there were some beautiful pieces in there.

After our sightseeing was done, we went home so Charnice could finish packing. Then we went to Blue Elephant for dinner (finally!) with Salilla and Kiao. It was far and away the fanciest restaurant I've eaten at. Dinner can only be described as cuisine - food is far too plebian a word for the magnificent fare we were served. I felt like I was on an episode of Top Chef.

We went to the Sky Bar afterwards, since Charnice had still never been there, but since Kiao was under-dressed (they let him in with flipflops to Blue Elephant but not the Sky Bar), Charnice and I went up for just one drink and some pictures before rejoining Salilla and Kiao. Then, the four of us went to Khao San.

We ended up at Gazebo - it seriously became our club, we love it there - and danced for hours. At 2 in the morning we said good bye to Salilla and Kiao and went back to our place. I fell asleep, but Charnice woke me up to say goodbye at 4:30 AM. I was barely awake, and staggered back to bed for another 4 hours afterwards.

This morning, I woke up too early for the amount of sleep I'd had last night and went to join Pin, In, and Prajakta for lunch and "taking pictures." When they told me that, I thought they meant taking pictures of each other. What it meant, however, was going to a photo studio and having group photos taken. So, I got a series of shots taken of me wearing a mismatched T-shirt and skirt because everything else was packed or in the laundry. But it was a blast nonetheless. When I get the digital copies I'll post some online. Then the four of us had lunch, and said farewell. Prajakta will be in New York for an internship this summer, so we're planning to meet up in NYC at some point, but Pin and In are going to London.

While I was saddened to say goodbye to so many friends I've made here...I feel fairly sure we'll keep in touch. Facebook makes it laughably easy. And as Salilla said, we're all young. We'll see each other again in the years to come.


And now I just want to nap, yet I'm meeting up with one last friend to say goodbye tonight. Then when I get back to the apartment, I need to finish packing. And then, tomorrow at 8:30 AM, I fly out of here.