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The Long Goodbye

It is said that all good things must come to an end and slowly, as the months rolled on and the summer of 2012 drew nearer, so did the final farewells.

Not a happy ‘see you in September!’, but a truly emotional end to the ‘Best Corridor Ever’. We had to say goodbye to friends from Brazil, from China and from Sweden, amongst others. The Brazilians who had forced me outdoors, when the first snow arrived, late one freezing cold night, to make a snowman with them. As soon as I had turned my back, I was pounded from the mass snowball attack. Giggling, they shouted ‘this is for all the practical jokes you played on us!’ My Swedish friends who had dragged me, kicking and screaming, out for a run in the pouring rain – to improve my lifestyle! They introduced me to the beautiful city of Stockholm and the incredible Midsommar celebrations. The Chinese had all the corridor cooking dumplings and could never have too much rice. Unfair competitions with chopsticks were held, which descended into howls of laughter. An international corridor can become as warm and lovely as home. Your corridor mates become your extended family, helping to ease you from a family life into complete independence. They are there for you in times of need. They are both your audience and your entertainment. All the strands of colour and culture and language and food created something, for us, which was unique. Now that they are gone, the corridor echoes to distant laughter. As new mates arrive, what of those departed? Even though they are thousands of miles away, we all use Skype and Facebook so I can still spy on them and find out what they are doing – just like old times.

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