8.41 pm

My last night in Den Haag. Although I am ecstatically happy to be leaving this apartment (and the world's worst shower, and the party-till-6am-and-skip-class-the-next-day-neighbors), I'm not so thrilled about going. The thing is, I'm just starting to get to know the city. It stays light out until 9:30 at night, and all the plazas are filled to bursting with people having a drink or some dinner. Over the past few days, the last of the buds on the trees have unfurled into shiny green leaves. The garden outside my window, winter-bare when I arrived, is now in full bloom, white, pink, purple, and yellow blossoms. It's warm out now, 22 degrees some days, and I can walk home from work without a jacket.

The past few days, I've been finding new little restaurants that I'd like to eat at and remembering that I won't have time. It's strange - when I got here I kept telling myself that it would pass quickly, but the first month dragged. Now, it's not so much that it feels like its flown by as that I never had enough time in the first place.

8.46 pm

And yet I'm also excited to be moving forward. Almost two full weeks of vacation with my duckie - we've never had more than a few days before. Paris and Lyon, a country I've never been too, and then Barcelona and a country I've wanted to go back to since I left it eight years ago. I remember sitting on a bridge in Granada (I think it was Granada, but perhaps it was Seville) looking out over the water and thinking how wonderful it would be to be able to come back when I was all grown up. I remember taking the train through the Spanish countryside, the carriage rocking back and forth on the rickety tracks, looking out the window and wanting to backpack through the hills.

Then to New York, where I plan on seeing my first Broadway show, and eating good sushi again, and getting my hair and my nails done because for once in my life I'll be able to afford it.