Week 21 22/05/11- 28/05/11

Week twenty-one, the last week in Turku.  It seems anyone who is left in Turku from the Erasmus exchange is leaving this weekend or at the start of next week.  I am no different ton Saturday I fly home from Helsinki.  I am more excited to see my family and my home than I am sad to leave all my great international friends.  I think this is because for most of them I will see them again at some point, especially when we all exchanged email addresses and offered each other a place to stay if or when we visit.  Having never been to many European countries I will be making use of this invite, and I hope they make use of theirs too.  This week I have packed in the mornings and spent as much time as I could with the wonderful people I have met.  With countless goodbye parties it is difficult not to get emotional about leaving however my eagerness to see my family has slowly grew over the last few weeks.  It has also been difficult to keep track of who is leaving and when and at the same time make plans to meet up with my friends back home.  But I felt it was more important to see the great Erasmus people before they left.  Looking back I think the people I have meet have made the last twenty-one weeks unforgettable.  I don’t think I will be able to tell my family stories of the places I have been without telling them about these magnificent people.  I feel ready to return home as twenty-one weeks is along time and now I can see the end coming closer I get more and more excited to be back in Northern Ireland.  It has become clear that I would not be able to travel home wearing my coat and jumper like I did when I arrived.  Even though I am not retuning two parts of shoes, one was ruined walking around Russia and the other did not survive the Finnish winter, my student overalls take up a lot of room in my suitcase. However I did mange to squeeze all my belongings into my before so I can now relax until my bus to Helsinki.