Back in the groove.

Can't believe it's been almost two weeks since my last post... I had to take a little hiatus to settle back in at home after a less-than-pleasurable trip home. To sum it all up, it was fine in the end, but I was stuck in Newark for almost 24 hours and was alone in the airport for most of it. It wasn't so bad, and if anything it showed me the value in my new-found flexibility and independence, both of which are  positive side effects of traveling Europe for four months. I finally made it home on Friday, the evening of the 16th, just in time to unpack everything and have dinner with my family. 

I was sure to stock up on my favorite chocolates from Europe... it will be awhile before I can go back and enjoy these! Hopefully they last awhile. I haven't had any yet, so that's promising!

I spent much of last weekend just unwinding... I didn't battle much jet lag at all, which I think was helped because I didn't really sleep much at all while I was in transit and stuck in Newark. Supposedly that's supposed to help things! 

I started running right away even though I felt exhausted... love running around my normal routes. I still hold to the fact that it's my favorite way to see a place (even a very familiar one :).

I started work right away on Monday. This was the only "reverse culture shock" type of experience I had. Being in the city again was great, but being there by myself made me very anxious. Normally in settings like that, I had to have my purse locked or hidden, be arm-in-arm with Alex, and have my wits about me. Now, I was dealing with a city setting completely alone and unguarded. It didn't feel right... I found myself feeling unnecessarily paranoid that people (men) on the street were out to get me and that it wasn't safe to walk into Tower City alone. I've walked into Tower City alone dozens of times and these fears have never crossed my mind before. After the first day back in the swing of things, it wasn't so bad anymore, but it definitely took a bit to settle back in!

Driving has also given me a lot of anxiety but I think that's more just because I hadn't really been in a car much for four months :)

Back in the city

Alex and I have been busy this week going through all of our photographs and artifacts from the trip. It took awhile to sort everything, from museum brochures to métro tickets to boarding passes...and we printed hundreds of photos from our trip as well. We ended up making posters for our parents, and a "Europe" scrapbook for ourselves. It will be nice to have a concrete, solid book of things to flip through to remember. I think that working on projects like this helps with closure and the transition.

A fraction of our artifacts

Wednesday was an exciting day... it was my mom's birthday AND I finally got a badge for work (I never was given mine last year).

So official!

Yummy homemade birthday dinner for my mom - mango tacos!

Saturday was PROM for my sister, and I went with her to get her make up done! She looked beauteous. 

I had another project going yesterday as well... Alex's much-anticipated (by me, not him!) birthday cake! He will be gone for his birthday next week so I wanted to make sure he got some good celebrating and cake in this weekend at home. 

In the end, the cake was three layers, with components from 3 different recipes. The top and bottom were both banana cake which was 60% based off of this recipe and 40% completely made-up by me, the middle layer was German chocolate from one of my old recipe books, and the inside frosting was peanut butter from my birthday cake. The chocolate frosting was the heartstopping Betty Crocker buttercream from a can, just because I though that would go best with the rest of the cake. I think that the result was a combination of many very good things. 

Last night I drove over to help Alex with re-packing for his internship (he set off today... he'll be gone for 11 weeks). On my way over I saw a beautiful sunset at the lake between our houses. It's so beautiful where we live.

I stayed busy today... headed out for a run and then to the Art Museum with my family for the Van Gogh exhibition. Felt just like we were back spending a weekend somewhere in Europe (and a lot of the paintings were pulled from galleries that we actually did visit). 

In the new atrium

Spent the evening watching Frozen (finally!!) with a friend - now I feel like I'm getting caught up on all American culture that I missed out on while in Europe :)

Thinking about a hike/trail run tomorrow with the family - I want to soak up the sun and warm weather as much as possible! Happy Memorial Day!

Last thoughts in Luxembourg.

I wasn't sure I was going to write a "last thoughts" post but now I'm glad that I am. I just finished my exams and have packed, weighed, unpacked, and repacked my suitcase a number of times. My roommate has moved out already - her journey starts at midnight - and we'll be off tomorrow morning. Normally I would be happy to have some quiet time alone in our apartment, but now that she's gone it's awfully sad.

This week I started working on "lasts." I went on a last run by the Alzette River. I've started going through the kitchen, making sure to use or throw away the perishables and make sure everything's clean. I think I need a level of closure before heading home. Having spent the past few days doing a lot of lasts and reading what my classmates have written on how they feel on leaving has, unsurprisingly, brought out my sentimental side. 

It's a strange yet regular thing to leave somewhere that you never will return to. I have to imagine that I'm leaving Luxembourg forever (unless I have future offspring that go to Miami and participate in MUDEC). I'm sure I'll come back to Europe, but Luxembourg probably isn't in the cards. It's very odd, because I have definitely created a life here. During the semester, our time here felt long, but looking back it all feels like one short trip. I can't believe how much has happened; how much I've seen, how much I've learned, the new friends I've made. Every day that I'm here, I've thanked God for how lucky I am, but I don't know that it's ever sunk in quite so heavily as now that I've been able to catch my breath.

I think I owe a lot to Alex. I never would've come up with the idea to study abroad on my own. In the past, it would've been too daunting for me. All of the travel weekends? I never would've made it to those places without him. Alex is not only great at logistics, but is patient with it. I think one of the best things is that he pushes me to become good at handling those things as well. I think that 95% of our success this semester is thanks to him.

Over the past few days, since we've been here and not traveling, I've found my mind wandering to the notion of returning to Europe. Sometimes I find myself daydreaming about London, and though I still believe that it's really hard to compare places and trips, I think that the United Kingdom is somewhere that I would definitely return to and could even picture myself living (though I know that's really unlikely, but I'm prepared :). France, of course is a favorite too, and I'm aching to see more of it. Now, traveling is a part of me. I am a person who travels. And I think that's a great thing that never will change.

I never thought that I'd grow so attached to Luxembourg that it would hurt to leave, but now I'm proving myself wrong. Yesterday I spent the day with my roommate doing lots of "last day stuff." We went all around to every place that our host mom brought us to on our first weekend here and it was odd to think that this was the last time my eyeballs would ever see some of these things. I started being extra conscientious about picture taking... wanted to document EVERYTHING.

I wanted to share some of those last photos and last moments. I think I'll be soaking in the details and benefits from the last 4 months for weeks to come, so for now all I can do is document them and save them for later :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 

Wrapping Up.

Meeting Prince Guillaume and Princesse Stéphanie was amazing! It was a lot of hype for a very little interaction, but it was great. After they came to the Chateau, we went across the street for a reception with hors d'oeuvres. The Prince mingled and interacted with everyone, and you could shake his hand or talk to him or take a picture if you wanted to. I decided just to watch and I knew my friend really wanted to talk to the Prince so I didn't butt in, since I was happy just to be there. We did bump elbows though :) Our friend shook hands and spoke to him and was thrilled, it was so cute! Hey, how often do you get to hang out with a Prince!?

After the reception with His Highness we headed off for our own MUDEC end of the year Banquet. The dinner was fantastic and we had cream puffs with ICE CREAM in the middle for desert?? Yum.

There were end of the year superlatives, and Alex and I were thrilled to win "Cutest Couple." I consider this a legitimate accomplishment because I think there are about ~10 couples at MUDEC (that's a lot!). I might be just a teensy bit competitive :)

This morning my roommate and I got up early and planned on starting our studying for finals right away, but instead got into a two-hour conversation about getting ready to go home and our experiences here in Europe, and how things might be weird or different when we go home. Personally, I think I am a very "static" person and I don't think that my identity or personality or values have changed very much since I was in high school. I see my friends change all the time, but I don't think I change too much. After life-changing semester in Europe, I do see some differences in myself (though I think on the whole I'm the same old me :). I think I'm a lot more willing to step outside of my comfort zone, to stretch in order to have new experiences, and to actually want to have new experiences. I think that this advanced my maturing process and that I'm a lot more grown-up now. I think I will always retain certain European values, or at least for a long time to come. On the bus home from the Banquet last night I thought of these lists:

Things I'm looking forward to :

• Two words. Peanut. Butter.
• Not having to pay for water at restaurants
• Real cookies
• Easier-to-find food alternatives/supplements (like almond-based products, etc.)
• Sleeping
• Trader Joe's
• Texting/calling on my phone again
• Seeing EVERYONE!!! :) 

Things I will miss :

• Well. Basically everything.

Seems dramatic, but I will miss all aspects of life here, good and bad. Especially little things, like speaking French everyday, whether it's just at the grocery store or whether it's with French people! Things like not having to drive because public transportation is awesome. The fact that it doesn't get dark until 9:30PM. My funny professors. Being called "Madam" or "Madame." Cactus, the amazing all-purpose and high quality grocery store. The list goes on. I think that above all, this time here has taught me how important it is to me to come back here in the future and to continue to learn. It's a big world out there, and I don't want to leave a stone unturned, or ever stop learning what's out there.