Farewell + a Big Thank U

Well... it's over and we had a f*ing blast, right? Guess that makes it time to send out some "thank yous" to you guys out there for making this exchange term such a tremendous, funny, interesting... just an unforgettable experience!

To put it in a more individual, but totally random way (meaning: no importance assessment influencing the order), my main "big ups" go out to you people:

• My homie Chad for protecting me from getting even fatter by eating all my sweet stuff and sometimes even asking before doing so, for randomly hugging me, drinking beer and that strange Smirnoff shit with me, always communicating via MSN with the standard "hey mate, how r u?" while sitting about 5 feet away, for being such a pussy (sorry for being sexist AGAIN Larissa...) when it comes to migraine and stuff - but especially for understanding my humour and even starting to strike back. PLUS for the truly interesting (but also somewhat irritating..) introduction to what those guys were probably doing/discussing at that table in "Top of the Hill" and showing me your dating platform ("The "xy" routine totally works, all of them want to hear my accent." But dude: 92 "targets" online in Durham and Chapel Hill alone? What better argument to get outta here?) Cheeseman will miss you my dearest Butty Boy! Let's have some d & m's again soon (still laughing about that term...). Plus respect for getting us that umbrella from your dozen or so wannabe-girlfriends after we'd already lined up in the rain for 3 hours and were soaking wet anyway.
  
• My Party Buddies, aka "The Station 9 Crew" for always inviting me to all your cooking, dining and especially "Chapel Hill" Events.
  
• Taha for not drinking but driving, the statements about being "obsessed" with certain human beings, being not only a great cook but also a frat-party-addict - and for wearing that stupid Swiss shirt.
  
• Lee for getting that car and the "Pascal?" - "Huh?" - "See you later" / "See you in a bit" stunt - and all the other stuff you did, like getting us to the Cheesecake Factory or getting to know that girl who could do those terrific burgers. So guess that's including Larissa for those burgers, knowing Mr. Hankey and having such a refreshing view on this world. Jog on both of you - who cares about "Brangelina" when there's "Leerissa" taking over the world?
  
• Jakob mainly for having such a dry humour and letting me (and Jae Hoon) down when it comes to Korean food. ( ;-) ) Also thanks for not making it worse with that mushroom in your hand and all those funny posing pictures with you as main subject (say: bowling, aquarium etc.)
  
• Playboy Seth for (at least potentially) leaving some Duke girls to us. Well, okay, and for being such a genuinely truly nice person, wanting to beat up the security guy who would not let us in at half-time ("That guy came here from Switzerland! He has not been to a single game! Last time he waited for 8 hours!") and all those loooong hours we spent in line in general - guess there was some "d & m" as well. GO BLUE DEVILS!!!
  
• The rest of the exchange gang for being a truly funny bunch of great people
  
• Cristina for still making me believe that molecule financing piece might not have been total bullshit. But believe me: it actually is, wheras your ethics piece was really great (I am really not joking here). Plus pretending to be impressed by my Spanish (Thx Miss Egger for having taught me what "estoy en casa" meant...) - truly great acting as the next entry will show
  
• Toni for totally NOT being impressed by my great Spanish sentence! But it is SO TRUE - para ganar carreras HAY QUE entrenar muchas horas! You already seem to be taking this as your new credo (and are already performing well in terms of positive attitude and lph (laughs per hour)), so keep up the good work. Was also a nice stunt when you made us believe you were heading home because you were tired just to steal our bags with my roomkey in it. Nice job!
  
• Xavi for getting us our bags back form your mean flatmate that night and telling me how stupid that hat actually is the other night. I already had that feeling before myself (it's actually pretty obvious, no?), but it's always good to have someone being direct and painfully honest in hits statements around.
• Ajay for all those wise and witty sayings on "eating", "golfing", "putting", "swinging" and for liking going out with us "young bunch" so much. Always welcome, old man...
  
• May Lynn for asking all those people in the clubs whether they could take pictures
  
• Mattias for all those South Park quotations, the hand wringing / clapping and telling me about that weird movie watchers page (a.k.a. "da geek collection")
  
• Nils for having (according to Toni) a similarly terrible level in Spanish and telling Arie in class 1 he was actually wrong and should consider seeing acqusitions as strategic alliances - priceless
  
• Hiren for also driving me/us home several times and showing your cousin how great Fuqua actually is (because we have to get that important message out there, right?)
  
• Nikhil - for telling me about that strange place in Switzerland I did not know of. And people really seem to live and even work there! Amazing! Good luck with fighting boredom if you really go there. Plus for asking whether I was getting "Swiss Pass = SP" again.
• TinTin for being so.... Chinese! Won't forget your grinning way of waving your hand whenever you saw me, your dedication to working hard, friendliness and complaining about how stupid your teammates were for just not getting how superior your stuff was to the crap they were producing.
  
• James - a true superhero! Never saw him again after the initial orientation event but then that guy suddenly appears when it comes to waiting for our social security number "interview"! Conclusion: always there when you need him. Hope you find your U.S. job soon or have already done so.
  
• (I guess what I'm saying here in this section is something like - "thanks everyone for being the unique and great being you certainly are")
  
• The St. Gallen girl @UNC for having me contacted as "other guys from HSG around in that area at that point in time" in the first place and riding that bus to Durham several times. For all this bantering about Germans @ HSG and conluding people from Zürich actually are the worst. For having the guts to tell your fellow UNC exchange students: "That's Pascal - you've already met him at Lucy's, no?" - refering to a night where people weren't too sober (not mentioning here WHO was the worst of them all...) and obviosuly nobody did not remember too much anyway. But first and foremost for getting your beer @ Martini's yourself - one just HAS to love emancipation.
  
• All those Swiss friends who happened to be in the U.S. for whatever reason and were honoured with my presence for some days
• All the other guys @Fuqua who helped me in any way. I am sure about to forget about a dozen great guys, so here's just naming a few:
• Jae Hoon, my driver and guide through the secrets of Korean cuisine. Would be interesting to know what food the South Korean soccer squad will have before getting destroyed by the Swiss guys in the upcoming World Cup.
  
• Stephen, the kindest and most caring guy one can possibly think of as "neighbour" in class
  
• My mentor Vaswar, who has not only one of the coolest walks on the globe but also a lot of humour
• Liana, who still thinks we exchange guys are so "laid back". Keep being impressed by that!
• Nazar - do not know what for yet, but let's put some pressure on you here: For rightfully telling me Basel was the nicest place on earth after the upcoming visit
• The exchange mentor leaders Vaibhav and Nattana for organizing all those events only I and a bunch of other desperate human beings actually participated in
• All the teams I was a member of - especially Alex and Angus who guaranteed at least someone knew what we were actually talking about as well as Jeremy and David who handled our Strategic Alliance cases so efficiently (and somewhat effectively I hope)
  
• All those of you who are now pissed because I forget you - you sure were great and had an immense impact on my Duke experience but I just cannot think of ... HOW?! WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU THINKING ABOUT! I AM PRETTY DARN SURE I BARELY KNOW YOU, M'KAY?!
  

ps: I have already found a cable channel broadcasting NCAA basketball to mighty Switzerland: feel the pressure Coach K!

pps: A remark for those tons of people back in Switzerland waiting for my report(s) on the final days and the "sum up" part - here's a short version as I am just too lazy (well, there might be some sort of conclusion on day) to keep posting all that stuff: watching "Thank you for Smoking" with Chad and C. @ Chapel Hill, having drinks @ Top of the Hill; final BBQ at station 9 including raving reviews for my video ("Kewl, there's columns again" - "B-School, HollaHolla..."), a terrible trip back home as the plane door resisted all attempts to close it in Raleidh/Durham, thus doing quite some damage to my schedule (almost 24hours trip anyone?). That's it.