On the 17th of September 2006, I wrote a post on the first edition of this blog titled “I Live In Manchester!“. For the past three years that has remained true, but as of Sunday it will no longer be so. I finished my last exam on Wednesday morning, so while I’m still a student, I’m liberated of any studious endeavours. It is quite an odd feeling to have no revision, dissertation work, or essays looming over me; of course I would never normally have revision or essays to bother with during summer holidays, but what makes this especially weird is that I won’t be coming back to lectures and seminars at MMU in September. If all goes to plan, it will be in exotic Leiden that I next have a stab at being academic.

I’ve said it before, but it still rings true to me: I won’t miss much about Manchester; my department at MMU, the many charms of Didsbury—especially The Art of Tea and Silver Apples—and the Cornerhouse cinema are probably the things that will be most disappointing to leave behind.

So, time to start packing those books up, giving notice on services, and figuring out how to squeeze the contents of a reasonably spacious flat into my comparatively small bedroom in Edinburgh.

The last fortnight has been just a little bit crazy. I’m now into the exam period, and the last leg of my undergraduate degree, so in just over 25 days I should be free from academia until at least September (when, all things going to plan, I should be starting a masters at Universiteit Leiden). Technically this continuation of studies makes me no more liberated from scholarly endeavours than any other summer holiday for the past three years has done, but the feeling of getting away from all the problems of MMU and letdowns of Manchester (don’t get me wrong, the place has its good points, they just seem outnumbered sometimes) is one I look forward to very much.

Last week I had a very poorly timed trip to Maastricht for the FYEG General Assembly. It was much fun, but I couldn’t get the guilt of not being at home revising for my human rights exam out of my head. As usual, the Netherlands proved itself to be beautiful and almost perfect in every way. I say almost perfect, because the darker side of one of the city parks was revealed on Saturday night, when two FYEGers were subject to a homophobic attack on their walk back to the hostel. The injuries weren’t too severe, though they looked painful. Of all the places for such an attack to happen, I wouldn’t have thought of Maastricht. I guess it shows how much work greens and other tolerant people have left to do.

Just now though, I’m trying to avoid too much politics until I get finals out of the way. It’s a task easier said than done when revising for a green politics exam.