Be real.

haha, okay, "be real" is just a saying that I picked up from Billy and Liz, but we say it all the time now. It just kind of says that I need to BE REAL right now - I have to go home and leave the fantasy land of this week. It's just been too good.

The rest of Wednesday and yesterday were both stellar. We did, in fact, enjoy our final Orange Wednesday, and we saw WALL-E!!! It was SO cute…I may or may not have teared up at the end. I mean, no. I didn’t. It was just raining on my face. I had something in both my eyes. Shutup.

Yesterday was great, which was both a good and a bad thing. I finished up my work, I had a good time goofing around with Greg, Shelley and Neena, and I had a really nice little debriefing meeting with Shelley and Louise. They had some really nice things to say about me and my time here. Super emo. Then we had about a 30 minute break where we had some tea and cake and ended up talking about various pet stories (oddly enough, most of them deaths) that had me wanting to cry I was laughing so much. It was ridiculously funny.

Then around 6 Greg, Shelley, Neena, Valerie and I went down the street to have a couple of drinks. I had such a good time – enter the good/bad dilemma. It was a wonderful way to spend my last work day…and an awful way to spend my last day because I’m going to miss it/them so very much. I absolutely adore the people I work with. Everyone always seems to have an endless supply of stories that never fail to make me laugh, to say nothing of how much I love their accents. It was just kind of a bittersweet day – I had so much fun with everyone, which is a perfect way to go out but at the same time…it makes it really hard to leave. I feel like I just started getting to know everyone’s personalities and I wish I had more time with them.

Shelley is a theater/drama person, so she is always animated, and very clever. She is one of those people that can have a very serious conversation about the most absurd topic, which I love to do. For example, our little joke is about creating a web site featuring nothing but dogs in hats. Well, and with larger sections dealing with other accessories. Obviously.

Neena is so unique and has a wide variety of interests and hobbies that I find quite inspiring at times – and she is so generous and caring and intelligent. Sadly she was on holiday for two weeks during my time so I didn’t get to talk to her as much as I would have liked, both in and out of the office. She seems very passionate about what she does (not just at work), and I think she’ll make a pretty big impact in this world.

Valerie only worked Thursdays and Fridays, so I didn’t have a lot of time with her, unfortunately. But she and I got along quite well, when we did have time to talk. Actually, I think she is one of those people that can have a conversation with anyone – she has done so many interesting things in her life (for only being 25), she always has a story or an experience that can relate to everyone else. Plus she’s German so you all know I loved that. She was from Bayern though (Bavaria, for all you non German speaking people), not our home away from home, Bad Oldesloe :-)

Greg is…Greg. I just had the biggest crush on him because he is just adorable in every sense of the word. Also because he was the only guy in the office. But he seems to have that balance of being a kid at heart, but then a very professional, well spoken individual. He also received the majority of my American slang, and I don’t think he quite knew what to do with it. Not that anyone does in America, either. I think he and I had a lot of little, weird things in common (both live with our families about 30 mins outside of the city, we’re both nearsighted) and I would have liked more time to talk to him.

Filiz was the other NCA intern but she left mid-June, so I haven’t talked about her that much because it feels like she’s been gone forever. But she was the first person to befriend me, and tell me all the little things about the NCA. She is such a caring, genuine person and I just adore her. Plus I think she and I had a connection being that we’re both foreigners, and having someone else feeling like “the outside looking in” was kind of comforting. She really was just one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met.

Louise, the director, is also just wonderful. She struck the balance of being fun and cool, but a great boss too. I think it’s rare that you have a boss where you can fully take direction from them, but then want to turn around and ask what they did over the weekend. She was obviously helpful to me and my work experience, but just in general too – as a person that I got to know a little bit. And…wait for it…I wish I could have had more time with her too.

I mean, we have facebook to keep in touch (with all but Greg), and I gave them my gmail address, and told them (in all seriousness) that they better get in touch with me if they ever visit the dc metro area but…I can stay in denial all I want, but I most likely won’t see them again. Which makes me really sad because I want to shrink them and put them in my pocket and take them to DC with me. So I had myself a mini-pity party at the end of the night…which leads us to: going to the Arc for 2-for-1 drinks! Haha. I’m glad I spent my final Thursday in London at our home away from home, the Arc. I maybe had too much fun, but remarkably, I don’t feel that bad right now. **KNOCK ON WOOD**

The only plan for today is Portobello Market – Jenna just got here and we are off! Definitely going to get a crepe (I’m thinking nutella this time….dream big) and maybe some fruit/veggies for dinner tonight. Gah I’m drooling over here.

And, I’ll leave you with that. A sad little girl, missing her dear coworkers already…drooling.