It was sometime last week when the reality of leaving Tartu started to dawn on me. First time it happened on Friday evening when we had our last small group gathering at my senior pastor's house. They're moving to Tallinn too and as they have much more stuff and also a vacation coming in August, the house already looked like a warzone. We had to eat from cardboard plates and sit on the carpet (because plates and sofas had been packed up). That's when it hit me. And so every now and then I get those stings of melancholy when I remember that my time in Tartu is almost over. Last Saturday a lady from my church told me she was sad about my leaving. Yeah, tell me about it! Yesterday morning I waved goodbye to my pastor's family as they packed their last stuff and moved out. And yesterday evening just before football started I went out for a jog and I was like, it's only now that I start enjoying jogging here around this lake, and I only get to do this until the end of August. Today, after I'm done with my sermon prep and youth Sabbath school prep and my office work, I'll pop by my favourite second hand bookshop that's pretty much across the street from my church. Maybe my favourite cafe later in the evening. Oh man! I like this place!

We'll have a small family funeral this coming Sunday as we bury my mum's ashes near her childhood home.

And thus I've found myself facing the age-old human problem everyone has to deal with at some point - the things I wish were permanent turn out to be temporary, and the things I wish were temporary or didn't exist at all are here to stay... Such is life.