This is a very sad time, one that only students will truly understand.

Everyone is heading home after their semester or year here in Germany. One by one, we are dispersing ourselves across the globe, trading the daily contact on which we have gorged ourselves for the thin promise of communications satellites and glass fiber, which may possibly -- but more likely will not -- defeat the evil drifting influences of time, space, new loves and new jobs.

Even in a networked world, saying "Goodbye" has not changed.