home sweet home!

As I look back at my time in Spain, I think of all of the amazing things I got to experience. I got to see more of the world and some of the places that I have wanted to see my whole life! I went to Rome, Greece, and obviously Spain.I have been missing Spain so much, mainly because it is so laid back there. Here at home, everything is "go, go, go" and I miss just being able to walk everywhere. 

It has been strange being home because it is so different from the world I had been living in for the past 3+ months. I get to work now (which is awesome but so tiring), I get to drive, I get to make my own food (but I do miss having all of my meals made for me a little bit), and I get to see my family and spend Christmas with them. It was so hard to not be here on Thanksgiving but I am so blessed to have had this amazing opportunity.

I have also been thinking a lot about the day I came home. I started the day out on the wrong foot but the end of the day was amazing. In the morning we all got on the bus to go to the Madrid airport. I ended up getting really sick on the bus which made me feel gross all day and the plane rides didn't help much. Great last impression on the other students, right? I only got sick the one time, and after that I felt much better. I was getting so excited on the last plane ride and I couldn't sleep to make the time go faster. It was horrible. When we got to the airport, we all waited for everyone and then we all speed walked/ran to the baggage claim where our families were waiting. I was one of the first ones on the escalator to go through those glass doors that I had been waiting to see for many weeks. I was about halfway down the escalator when I found my momma walking to the doors I was about to come through, and when I finally walked through them, she yelled "MY BABY!", and started crying. I got to hug my mom for the first time in about four months and it was so nice to FINALLY be able to see her in real life. I, of course, started to cry  while I was hugging her and then we made our way to see everyone else who was farther behind her. I got to hug my dad, my sisters, my brother-in-law, and my sisters boyfriend. It was so nice to be home and finally have my family around me. Andrea looked at me while I was hugging my dad and asked me, "Are you really already crying?". I have been replaying this in my head because this has to be one of my favorite moments in my life so far. I was, and am, so happy to be home again and be able to talk to my family whenever I want, but it has been weird getting used to everything here again. I had such an amazing experience in Spain, and I know that at some point in my future I am most definitely going to go back to Spain and most definitely go to Segovia to visit my host-family. 

I just want to say thank you to my family for supporting me and my decision to study abroad this semester and for helping me along the way. I love you all!