You can always tell that the semester is winding down when half the population of the university disappears the weekend before Thanksgiving holiday. It was like a ghost town here today, the only remaining students diligently attending their classes comparatively pale and cold in the overcast daylight. It's been cold and grey all day, and even when I was walking to and from dinner tonight, I could look up at the sky and see the clouds overhead, glowing pale orange in the city lights.

Tomorrow is a travel day. Well, technically, tomorrow evening is when the traveling actually happens, but for the sake of an easy term, tomorrow is a travel day. I still have much to do in preparation, including:

• washing my laundry so that I have clean clothes to pack tomorrow afternoon
• airing out my suitcase
• putting my assorted banned burnables in my suitcase to make my clothes smell nice
• packing non-essential nonsense into my backpack
• sleeping
• waking up and complaining about the shower, should the water pressure still be ridiculously low
• actually taking a shower
• packing whatever toiletries I might need that I don't have at home
• attending Arabic class and Chemistry lecture
• eating lunch
• packing my clothing
• sitting around until 18:20 when I pack up Zoey and Kitabımiki/Yedek

at which point I will leave to walk to the bus station before it gets too terribly dark, exchange my ticket confirmation paper for an actual ticket, and queue up to leave for home.

I still have a lot to do, and time never stops ticking. I keep thinking to myself; in 24hr, I'll be nearly halfway home. And when I wake up tomorrow morning, 24hr from then, I'll have been in my own house in my own room for the first time in months. It's this motivation that got me through today, and it's this motivation that will help me get through tomorrow. :]