And so it begins...

It's hard to believe in just over a week I will have completed my Masters. This year has flown by, and as a result, the time has come to start parting ways with the people I have shared this part of my life with.

On Friday night we had out last "Flatmate Family Dinner." It took some coordinating, but we managed to do it. Somehow, half of my flatmates had never been to Curry Mile, so that obviously needed to be corrected. We decided to go to one of my favourites - Mughli, which specializes in Indian street food. Sure they may have had false accusations of cockroaches found in their food in the past, but let's face it, we're probably eating much worse in the majority of the food we eat from the everyday grocery store. Plus, cockroaches are a pretty good source of protein.

Family photo! Sadly this was the best of them...

Anyway, we had one massive feed! I ate so much, in fact, that running the next morning was pretty tough, and I had to push off my breakfast date until the early afternoon. But let me tell you - it was worth it! Mughli is definitely going to be one of the things I will miss about Manchester.

Yesterday, I had a 'girls day' with my friend, MaCris. We went for late breakfast at 'the Moose' (basically lunch - which I just finished telling you...) and then did some shopping. It was supposed to be a rainy day, so this was going to be our 'don't feel guilt about taking a break from your dissertation' activity. Well, it didn't rain until much later in the day, but she was pretty humid all day. And, one thing I'll never understand about this place, is the lack of A/C in massive public areas. I felt sorry for the many retail employees we encountered throughout the day, as it would have made for one hot, sluggish day!

(Photo and collage credit: MaCris Gutierrez Cottle)

I'm currently sitting in the Learning Commons, where I've basically been living for the past few weeks. I'm putting the final touches of my dissertation together and should be able to submit any day now. A friend of mine and I were chatting last night about how silly it is that we're putting such a great emphasis on this project, when in a couple of weeks time it will be some past activity that doesn't really equate to much. I have to say, I'm pretty excited to soon click the 'submit' button and be done with it. For my next degree I focus on puppies, rainbows, or something far more uplifting than why people are awful...

Onward and upward though - plenty of things still left to see and many more memories to be made with friends before I finally get to pack up and head on home!

-the Orange Canadian