Homeward Bound

I’m writing this as I wait for my final flight at the Amsterdam airport (well, to be honest, I wrote the last two blog posts here too). I’m utterly exhausted, and I’ve been so stressed for the past few days (and am anticipating so much stress in the next few days) that I’ve been shivering. Despite that, I can’t even tell you how excited I am to finally be going home. And not just home as in the-house-I-grew-up-in-where-my-parents-live-that-I-go-to-on-breaks, I mean home as in the US, home as in my family and my Wellesley friends and my dog, home as in being able to buy Taco Bell and the tray of Oreos, home as in the familiar. 

I’m not even homesick really. Definitely not homesick like I was my first few weeks at Wellesley when I used to call home crying because I packed everything I owned but forgot to pack notebooks and pencils and had nothing to take notes with the first day of class, or because I didn’t know how to use the laundry machines and accidentally shrunk all of my pants. Not even homesick like my first few weeks at Leeds when I was so lonely that I just felt sort of numb and empty and watched “Lost in Translation” all the time, wondering what I was doing, leaving Wellesley. I’m just excited to finally be going home, I’ve so so enjoyed my time abroad, I’ve had such wonderful trips, and made such lovely friends, and yet I am very ready to be back in the US. When they checked me in and asked, “Heading home?”, I almost shed a tear out of happiness (not something I do very often). But for some reason, I really was, am, that happy. 

I’ve heard the warnings about reverse culture shock, and I’m a little nervous about jumping back into Wellesley’s curriculum after my relaxing, and borderline boring, semester in Leeds classes, but none of that seems quite as important, just a low buzzing shoved aside by the mental celebrations. 

On the purely logistical side of things, the blog is all up to date now! If you're behind on my adventures and want some voyeuristic satisfaction, feel free to go through my Instagram, where many pictures of my adventures are posted. (Not gonna lie, I sort of gave up on the Photo Gallery page, it's a lot of coding work to maintain. Coding work I am unwilling to do). Friends and family, I have a fairly extensive photo album posted on Facebook!

The next, and last, post I write will be from the US! And I’m writing that sentence with a huge smile!