Surely you’re asking yourself: how was your girlfriend’s visit, Matt? Well, I’ve got two posts lined up to tell you! This one is a bit more personal, the next one is a bit more about the city itself.

        We hadn’t seen each other for just shy of a month and a half. On April 28th, M- went to Paris with her family. We’d spent an hour or two together the night before, after I finished my last term paper. On their way to the airport, they stopped by for a brief visit. I spent the next few days preparing to leave, then I left for Edmonton on May 1st. We didn’t see each other in the flesh until June 9th.

        It was hardest when she was in Paris, when the time zone difference made it hard to exchange e-mail more than once per day. When they got home, things were better - we could text and IM and Skype, without the distractions of Paris (said if flowery French). But even so, we’d never been apart for more than a few days since we met - we bonded quickly, shared most of our classes, and we worked together over the summer in 2012. So this was a test of our relationship!

        For a variety of reasons, the stars didn’t align for M- to start working until late May. I got a bit excited when I heard of the first delay - perhaps she could visit before starting work! I may have been a bit of a pest for a couple of weeks. When the first good sale came up, she booked the nearest flight that had a reasonable arrival/departure time. I wound up with a week for warning of her visit, but it was a lovely surprise.

        To be honest, we didn’t do anything terribly interesting. We curled up on the couch to finish the fourth season of Adventure Time. Over the course of the week, we caught up on the third season of Game of Thrones (her family has HBO!) We spent an hour in Chapters, browsing the manga, sci-fi and fantasy sections at length.

        We tried to play Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light in co-op again, only to be utterly baffled after being away from it for months. We laid in bed and held hands and chatted about fanfiction for an hour before going to sleep. We learned about communicating expectations, and that opening my e-mail on my phone and saying “hey, did you see this thing I sent you?” is not the best way to guarantee an answer. Read receipts are way better - I’m using Boomerang for Gmail now.

        I managed to convince her to make use of the Pokemon TCG cards I’d bought and left in Ottawa for her (one pack of cards for every week that I’m away!). Or, at least, she decided she could suffer a little to make me happy. At any rate, we played two games, and I was right in the end - she enjoyed herself and asked if we could play again in the future. Though I suspect we’ll need to beef up our decks a bit, because our second game was painfully long. But with that fixed, this may be our activity when we sync up on weekends from now on.

        I think it was good for us to be on our own for a week! We cooked together and did dishes together. We ate more dessert than we should have. It was, generally, a lot like living together. We managed fairly well! Granted, it’s nicer by far to be home with my parents, or with hers. But we didn’t get in each other’s way, and nobody died - both good signs. It was lovely to see her again, truly. I got sad during our last evening together, but like usual, she cheered me up pretty quickly. I did have trouble getting back into the rhythm of a full workday, but now I’m feeling pretty good. Only two months until we see each other again! I can manage that. I think.