Goodbye Batool!

Everyone in IES Abroad is gone, and I await to start my summer of more studying and travel. Although my time in Ireland will continue, I honestly do not think it can be the same, and a skype call this morning proved that. Usually when I’m on the exercycle, I like to be quiet and try to keep my sweat to myself; however, today, I filled the  room singing everything from Believe by Cher to I’m Here Without You Baby by Three doors down. Pretty much all the classics. But no matter how hard I sang, I realized it would not bring Batool back.

We spent her final two days on the Emerald Isle with smiles. The beginning of the end was at the airport Hilton, where Batool and I did nothing but eat calamari watch comedies on Netflix, and ignore the inevitability that would occur 36 hours later when she would have to leave. And when we were not stuffing our faces with calamari and sobert, we walked around Tesco Extra, which is pretty much Costco levels of madness. It felt like we were kids again,  perusing through all the toys, throwing candy at each other, and sitting on a bench in the middle of the outdoors and gardening section. Here, we talked about our times in Ireland, life back in America, college, and most importantly what Seth Rogen movie we would watch back at the hotel.

In fact, we managed to get through Pinapple Express, This Is the End, Nerve, and we tried watching Bad Grandpa, but Zach Efron’s abs were not worth the boredom and headache that movie brought us. Not only did we get through movies, but we had a lovely time watching some television programming such as Tattoo Masters and best of all RT, the Russian news network. It was not just the accents that made RT fun, but also the eclectic variety of stories, and interesting take on global news.

But all in all, most of my prior ramblings were another escape from continuing my deep lamentation since my best friend is 8,300 km or 5,157 miles away, and not matter what measurement system I put it in, it still hurts. Although I love a lot of the people I met in Ireland, I only had a solid month and a half with Batool, but in this time we got close, like the kind of close where you send angry messages on the comment threads of facebook friends, like the kind where you finish each others sentences, or the like the kind where you can travel with and never get tired of. So I’m still in Ireland, and I know it may be harder for her because she’s probably stuck driving on the five right now. But two months will go by fast, and I know I too will be sad to leave Ireland, but at least I’ll have someone great to come back to!