Summer days tend to all merge together so that I consider myself lucky when I know what day of the week it is, let alone the actual date. After double-checking the date on my mobile and realising that, yes, it is indeed 6 July, I can state that I've been back in America for a month. One whole month. Normally, I find summer creeping by at the slowest pace possible, but it definitely doesn't feel like it's been a month. Sure, several things have happened (like revitalising my bank account with babysitting money and buying my first car, which is also my dream car- a silver Mini Cooper), but I also feel like I was just in England. I can still picture the streets of London, my uni's campus, my flat, the Tesco I went to practically every other day. Everything is still clear. I still feel like, any moment now, I should be returning to the places that I saw daily for five months. Having to drive still confuses me. Public transport was my best friend. Not seeing my study abroad friends seems weird and seeing my friends from home feels strange. After a month of readjusting, shouldn't it be the other way around? And considering, my body clock likes to wake me up at 8 am everyday (which is 1 pm UK time and a typical time I'd be waking up if I didn't have anything to do), I'm convinced that my body isn't completely over the jetlag. But after a month, that's got to be wishful thinking. And gosh darn, is it wishful.
I choose to study in London because I'd been obsessed with the city since I was nine years old. But I'd never been there before. I could've hated the city. Instead, I ended up loving it more than I thought possible. I missed some things about home, which made being home for the first two weeks really nice. I'm over home now, though. I'm ready to go back to London. As my favourite Disney song, "Go The Distance," says: "I will go most anywhere to find where I belong." I found that place. It's London. I've never felt so comfortable in a space before. Unfortunately, I couldn't stay in that place. I had to come back to the place I grew up, the place where my family is and my friends and my university. I didn't go to London to stay. I have two more years of university in the States. This unfinished business is making it so I can't return to London immediately. I want to, though. And I want to move there permanently. I miss it so much. So, that's what I'm striving for now. I have so many other things that require money that I probably won't be able to go back to London until 2014, but I can deal with that as long as I move there shortly after I graduate.
My time in London really was fantastic. I wouldn't change it for the world. I spent my last two weeks there just living in the city and going to new parts of the city I hadn't explored yet. It was lovely. But I'm across the pond again now, back in the place of my citizenship. And I'm readjusting to my old life again. Studying abroad is in the past now (even if it is all I think about in the present). It gave me so many wonderful experiences and changed me so much. I'm so blessed to have had the oppurtunity. But it's done, it's over. So, this is it. The end of documenting the experience. I've said "See you soon" to London and now I just have to live my life until that "See you soon" turns into "Hello again."
