Saturday 20 May 2017

Lunch break at the botanical gardens.








Wednesday was the busiest day I've had in ages. In my pre-study abroad life I used to hate days like that, where I left the house in the morning and came back 12 hours later; busy days left me drained and usually suffering from a bad headache. But Wednesday was just blissful (another blissful day - I almost feel like i'm collecting days like that on a string here, like pearls on a necklace, one after the other, white, gleaming, precious). 

It was the hottest day in the year -27°! in the Netherlands! Unheard of- and during my two-hour break between classes I met with a friend to go to the botanical gardens. Leiden's gardens are amongst the oldest in the world, and they are just a 5 minutes walk away from my faculty. It's incredible. I feel like this town was just made for me, or viceversa, rather. The sun was shining and there was a last-day-of-school feeling. We wandered around for a while, absorbing the sunshine and doing photosyntesis like the plants around us, then we decided to have lunch in the gardens' cafè. We were the only young people amongst tables of elderly women. One lady near us was celebrating her birthday with her friends: when I am old I want to celebrate my birthday in the cafè of a botanical garden, too. My friend and I talked about our favourite memories of our months here so far over a roasted vegetables broodje, constantly reminding to each other how unbelievable it was that it was warm enough to be outside in short sleeves. Not thinking about the exams in 10 days, or the fact that we're going back home in 20 -- just sharing a meal on a sunny day, breathing fully.

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