Heading Home for a Month

It's December 21st. Wow. I'm not really sure how to best put this all into words. 3.5 months have passed incredibly fast. While I will be travelling back to St Andrews for the spring semester in late January, the end of this semester certainly feels like a milestone and a somewhat-halfway point. I could not be happier to be returning here in January. Coming here was the absolute best decision I could have made for myself. The entire experience has been fulfilling and challenging and is worth so much to me. I can't imagine leaving now.

The St Andrews Castle and the North Sea last weekend.

It's difficult to not express everything possible into this post, but I still am just in awe of the beauty of this place and the last few months. Of the people, events, moments, days, experiences, thoughts, words said, comfort, ideas and constant laughter amidst it all. Some of my happiest and some of my loneliest days have occurred in the last 3.5 months, and as it's now nearly late-December and the end of a challenging year, I know that I would never want to relive 2012, yet I cannot imagine who I would be without living it. Since January, every single month has challenged me academically and emotionally and forced me to grow up. I've never experienced life in the ways I experienced life this year, and I know I've become a better person for it.

For fear of applying a cliche here, Scotland and St Andrews have a place in my heart. While in London earlier this week, the few times I overheard Scottish accents, I smiled and felt similar to how I feel when I overhear American accents, as if you understand and can identify with the individual.

Additionally, the views of the North Sea from St Andrews, the beauty and calmness of it all - is scenery I'll never forget.

Today I travelled to Dundee (a city that reminds me of Manchester, New Hampshire and is about 35 minutes north of St Andrews) I took the bus there and met my friends Miriam and Sheen who both live there. Both had recently arrived home for the holiday break and Sheen and I had been planning to present Miriam with a gift of notes from her friends and a few of her favorite things as she has had a challenging semester. Sheen brought along her friend Zarin and it was a really nice afternoon. Very rainy and plenty of Christmas shoppers everywhere, but we walked around Dundee and then settled in a coffee shop.

Miriam and myself.

The gifts! :)

Sheen and Zarin.

 

It was so wonderful to be with friends before leaving tomorrow and just a wonderful occasion. As the rain continued, I boarded the bus back to St Andrews at the Dundee bus station and as I listened to my iPod and watched the fields of sheep pass by I fought back tears as I thought of the last few months and the experience I've lived. For now, a return to the States!