My Big Fat Greek Adventure: Here's Lookin' At You Kid

8AM Departure by The Perishers
"I feel detached. Like it's not going to hit me until I get home."

Not five minutes later, we were all in tears at the port, walking our friends to the ferry. The HISA gang just said their first round of goodbyes. Marcus, Anna, Grace, and Mariana left Paros tonight. The tears were plenty. And unexpected.

There was a moment there, when I stopped to take it all in. Hugs were being exchanged between friends. Fits of awkward laughter broke through tears. Witty recounts of stories and inside jokes were made to mask the underlying sadness. It was moving. To see all of these people who, three months ago were only strangers, were now sharing a departure of old friends.

One group down. Four to go.

After spending a beautiful weekend together: sharing our semester's hard work at the Reading and Exhibition, singing at Republic's Karaoke night, rooftops bonfires, goodbye brunches and sunsets. It was hard to finally say goodbye. It was the first time that the end felt real.

I'm not trying to be overly dramatic. It's not the end of the world, and I know everything will be just fine. But goodbyes hurt, nonetheless. Especially this one. With these people. In this place. After this experience.

After the ferry pulled out of the port and the car exhaust cleared from the pick-up circle, the remaining stood there. Posing the wordless question...now what? We looked around at each other, puffy eyes and sad smiles. Without discussion, we began walking towards our school building.

Someone had lifted the key so that we were able to spend one last night in the classroom. The room where everything happened. Where we'd met. Worked. Learned. Taught. We made our way through the empty building, collecting food and drinks from all corners of the kitchen area. We made ourselves a picnic of chips, popcorn, and coke on the bare floor. My friends and I looked like children, sitting Indian style and surrounded by junk food. We talked about our time here. What we hoped for our futures. Our thoughts on leaving the island. And each other.

After five hours, two movies, and three bags of chips...we made the journey back to our apartments. Where we returned to our respective rooms, exhausted from trying to make sense of it all. I sit in my, now empty, apartment. Pictures down. Barren closet.

There are still more goodbyes to come, including the biggest of them all--Paros, itself. I think it's safe to say that I'll be exhausted, in more ways than one, when I finally end up back in California.

Until I cross the pond, here are some pictures from the final weekend.