The long goodbye

Everyone is now in full MISC mode. Pre-final, final and post-final preparations are taking place everywhere, from the last-minute buying of suits and shirts to the early online flight check in of the entire group. Not to mention packing!

The long goodbye started yesterday, Friday night, with a pre-MISC dinner followed by farewell ("wave-off") party to which family and girl/boyfriends were invited. With free drinks for all, attendance was assured. But that is not all by a long shot: the program for Sunday shows two more opportunities to say goodbye, first at the university and then again at the airport. Given that all of the students are taking an Asian holiday right after the study tour ends, lasting 2 weeks to (in some cases) 2 months, the need for a proper farewell is clearly felt.

Joyce's attempt to explain all (blurred impression)

The organisers had had the foresight to prepare a short presentation for the family. Joyce Pebesma explained to all within earshot (technology fail: Inter-Active, get that mike working!) what it is we're supposed to be doing over there: serious business, getting up early, earning study points. (Oh yes, to answer my own question in the previous post: MISC is a clever combination of the countries we're visiting with the study tour theme: "Intelligent & Secure Cities".) To balance all this high-brow stuff, Julik Keijer had posted a questionnaire for participants asking them who they thought would be the first to get lost, wake up late, get sick, and so on: questions with an increasing lewdness factor that made it impossible to present most of them (let alone the answers) in front of this audience. I guess we'll have an interesting bus ride to Schiphol. There appeared to be a pretty good consensus in the answers, except for the question who would be the first to wake up late: in that case, Jasper and Boot won ex aequo.

Jasper Boot, wide awake

The party continued for a good while after that, with a dwindling representation of the "friends and family" category. I tried to talk to some of those before they disappeared, to find out how they felt about the prolonged absence of their sons (in most cases) or daughters (2 instances). Reasonably relaxed, or so it seemed. Flying to the other side of the world isn't what it used to be: WhatsApp works just as well from 15000 kilometers away. Also talked some more to the student participants, in a futher attempt to remember all their names. I'll get there in the end... Also picked up some useful tips, like unlocking my bank card for payments outside Europe. (Come to think of it, I believer the last time I was off the continent, bank cards simply didn't work world-wide, period.) One thing was clear: Excitement in the air!

Packing has started

After a few more Grimbergen Blanches than strictly necessary I got home shortly after midnight. Today, Saturday, I've been paying the usual price for such misbehaviour, while also getting some necessities done such as shining my shoes, ironing the new shirts that I though was wise to wash before wearing, getting out the suitcase and starting on the weekly cryptogram. Tomorrow afternoon we'll see part two of the Long Goodbye!