So, I’m finally back in America. Actually, I have been back for a few weeks now and am back at Rollins for intersession. Fittingly enough, I am taking a course on culture shock in literature and film. It is really funny comparing my own experiences to some of those in what I have been reading\/watching (although mine were pretty easy in comparison as I was in an English-speaking country with a pretty similar culture).<\/p>\n
It was hard to say goodbye to the friends that I made while abroad. Harder than I thought. I still think about them everyday and the jokes we had. It was only three months, but they really were some of the coolest people I have met, and I learned a lot from them.<\/p>\n
Leaving was actually kind of a nightmare as I had to run back and forth between my campus and the embassy a few times to get my passport replaced (I still think it was stolen — guard that ish with your life when you go abroad!) I took two planes back to Florida and was so exhausted by the time I got back. My luggage was temporarily misplaced and was not delivered to me until a couple of days after I arrived home (sorry for being so bitter about it, Mom).<\/p>\n
Despite all the problems, I was just glad to be back. I was having such a blast in England until Thanksgiving came around. At that point, I just became really homesick. I was calling my family on Facebook video pretty regularly but it just wasn’t the same as being with them. Also, it had been way too long since I’d had the opportunity to cuddle with an animal so I could not wait to go back home and see my cat, Ava. I was really lucky too that my mom cooked a second Thanksgiving just because I had missed it (my fam is the best).<\/p>\n
America doesn’t feel any different, but the world seems smaller now. It was a humbling experience, though I can’t really say why. I just know that I<\/em> feel different. A bit. I feel like I’ve read somewhere that studying abroad gives you confidence — that’s true. I was with friends the whole time, but maybe just the experience of getting on and off of a plane across the world by myself, and some of the things my friends and I did (like taking a bus to Scotland and having to find our own way around Edinburgh), and making it back to America in the end, all of it together — I think it made me grow up a bit.<\/p>\n In all, it was an incredible journey that I am so glad I decided to embark on. Anyone who gets the chance should definitely do it!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" So, I’m finally back in America. Actually, I have been back for a few weeks now and am back at Rollins for intersession. Fittingly enough, I am taking a course on culture shock in literature and film. It is really funny comparing my own experiences to some of those in what I have been reading\/watching…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":126,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-qmul"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/126"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10527"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14147,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10527\/revisions\/14147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}