Can I go back now?

It's been over a month since I returned from study abroad and I miss it almost every single day.  When people ask me how my last semester was it is much harder than I expected to explain to them what an amazing experience it was. I can show them pictures and tell them some of the amazing things I got to see and places I got to go. Like getting to spend a week in Paris eating lots of macaroons, going to the Eiffel Tower almost every day and visiting the Louvre. Or going to Belgium and only eating Belgian fries and chocolate all day.  Or going to Italy and seeing the statue of David and the Colosseum and eating my weight in pasta. But even telling them all these things can't fully explain how much I got out of this experience.

Since being back in America I miss a lot of the things from Europe including the public transportation, travelling every weekend to amazing places and being able to legally drink.  But I also took back some great things.  I've become much more independent and confident in my ability to travel alone.  My sense of direction has improved greatly from navigating new cities every weekend and I no longer have to use Siri everywhere I go.  I've become much more open minded and adventurous when trying new things, especially strange foods.  And even though it's cheesy, I have so many great new friends.

All in all I have no regrets about going on this study abroad and would do it again in a heartbeat if I could. Before going I was so nervous about leaving all my friends and family for a whole semester and was worried about all the things I would miss at home.  But in the end I gained so much more by going.  I looked in to going on another study abroad next spring but my parents quickly shut that down :(. But I hope to go back to Europe soon and explore all the places I still haven't been (maybe as a TA for this program after graduation??).  In the end I would 100% recommend this program to any student and if I could give them one piece of advice I would say take it seriously when they say to pack a days worth of clothes and toiletries in a carry on bag because the airline really might lose your suitcase and then you will be very sad. (but even that won't ruin your trip I promise)