I was actually supposed to write my blog two weeks ago, but I guess I have been infected by the rubber time virus. Also I got sick, I was busy with the project and of course I can give many other excuses to justify the delay of my blog. However, I still feel that I want to write something, since even after the summer school has ended a week ago, it doesn't feel like that to me at all.

Exactly two weeks ago, I went to the beach with some of the other participants, an event I actually planned to write something about. It was a day of enjoying summer without school. Right now, I am on Phuket having a holiday, also enjoying a summer without school. At least that is what I thought it would be. But in reality, I can't just enjoy the summer without thinking of the summer school. Summer school hasn't really ended and I know it never will. Everything that has been said, that we've talked about, that I have seen and done, it all keeps on lingering inside my head. Every now and then it will pop up, putting footnotes to things, making me rethink what I see and hear.

For instance, when I landed in Kuala Lumpur for my transit, I saw lots and lots of neat rows of palm trees, side by side, covering enormous pieces of land. Before the summer school I think I would have been excited to see so many palm trees, but that was not my first thought. Instead I wondered if those palm tree plantations were ecologically sustainable, I wondered what was there before, if people had destroyed the habitat of animals and humans to make place for the plantations. It wasn't like I was judging anyone, since I obviously don't know all the answers to the questions. It does however keep me from taking things for granted.

I get reminded, not only of things concerning the content of the summer school, but also of the people of the summer school and the fun we've had, by little things that I see. When I saw in Kuala Lumpur a sign of 'Bukit Bintang', it took me back to the funny pronunciation of Bir Bintang, the couch on the third floor where we drank quite a few of them, and the Circle K down the road where we used to get our beers. When I see women with head scarves, I think of the picture of halal and haram dressing Enik showed in our presentation and the laughter we shared on thar. When we arrived at our hotel on Phuket and I saw that the hotel was taking part in a sustainability programme, I thought of Bart, Samuel, and Henk. I think by now a memory of everyone has popped up in association with things that I have seen after the summer school.

One thing I know for sure: summer school will never end. As I said in the closing ceremony, this summer school has turned my world upside down, showed me ways to look at things from different perspectives and think about pluralism and development in different ways. The things I've learnt, all the people I've met and who have all become friends, I will always carry them with me in my head and in my heart.

Roline Schaink, The Netherlands