Goodbye norwich

In the middle of our fourth/fifth London trip(s), Til and I made the journey back up to Norwich one last time in order to, in less than twenty-four hours, move out of our accommodation and turn in our keys. All the stuff we'd accumulated and brought with us either had to be shipped home (at great cost), carried on our backs all around Spain, Italy, and Greece for a month until we come home, thrown out, or given away.

The stuff I'm taking with me or have already sent will always remind me of my time on exchange, and will keep being a part of my life, but the things I'm leaving behind, I think, tell their own stories, and deserve a mention, so here's my ode to a random assortment of things left behind:

A bunch of thumb tacs and blu-tac used to hang stuff all over my walls, now squeezed into a snitch-like ball. I left it in the cupboard, hoping the next inhabitant of my room would find it and wonder over it.

One bottle of Pantene Pro-V Smooth & Sleek shampoo & conditioner  2 in 1, which I accidentally bought thinking it was just conditioner.

About thirty mils of Heinz Tomato Ketchup.

Nineteen black plastic coathangers.

A Simpsons poster Kate gave me, from a past exchange student.

A whole stack of books, which I ended up leaving in a pile at Heathrow. The two pretty ones I left behind 'cause I bought them for class but never read them; and the green ones were only two pounds, so I always meant to leave them behind. Hope they ended up somewhere cooler than lost and found.

The goonsack costumes Til and I wore to Gilly's fortieth.

Two shit towels Til and I bought at a shop on our second day in Norwich with Kelsey and Lisa.

And more. I'm not going to list everything haha. The rest is even less interesting than the above. All the interesting stuff got stuffed into our now swollen and hefty backpacks, or sent home, which took HOURS and cost like, a hundred and fifty pounds!

It really sucked that we had so little time in Norwich and so much to do, because we didn't get to say much of a proper goodbye to anyone. So I hope you'll all consider this your goodbye, my housemates, Til's housemates, the other exchange students I met, and the Creative Writing group! Bye Ollie, Kate, Sammy, Bryony, Sykes, and Barbara; bye Penny, Brydie, Carina, Will, Max, Lee, Felix, Danny, Ben (and Rob and Jess)!; bye Bettina and Joanna and Caroline (even though I'll see you all at home, I'm sure) and Mazie and Wes and Bianca and Megan and Allison and Sarah and Kelia and Dave and Rebecca and Stephanie; bye Kim and Nick, George, Rob, Chris, Liam and Tamara, Avani, Sarah, Guns, and Tom and everyone else I've forgotten. Gonna miss you all. And those of you I didn't get to know so well, wish we had have had more time.

Goodbye Norwich, goodbye University of East Anglia, and goodbye room three, flat one, B block, Norfolk Terrace (NTB0103)!