leven en laten leven

I’ll find myself sifting through photos I took abroad. It’s been a little more than a week since I got back to sunny California, but there are countless memories I find myself wanting to relive from my time abroad. 

So for the next few weeks, I might post little oldies but goodies that I want to share here. This blog isn’t quite dead yet.

Maastricht, NL. Photo cred: Akemi B.

Today, I asked my roommate to kindly take down my suitcase from the top of my wardrobe…you know, because I’m physically incapable since I’m short. The layer of dust on it was so thick, I had to wipe it off with moist wipes. Four months of dust, yuck. But it was kind of cool because it lead me to ask myself, has it really been that long? And has it really felt that short? 

I leave from Brussels to JFK, then connect back to San Francisco in exactly 5 days. When I first considered the idea of going abroad for a semester, experienced study abroad goers told me that it would be the best experience of my life. They told me that one semester would fly by, and that I would dread the day I’d have to do back. 

Well here I am, counting down and admittedly dreading it. If there is one word to describe the last couple of weeks here, it is ‘bittersweet.’ Bitter because I am departing from some of the most amazing people I’ve crossed paths with, yet sweet because I’m returning home to my wonderful family, friends, and fluffy little dog. I spent the last couple of weeks attending final parties, writing papers, enjoying the company of my fellow internationals, sulking, laughing, packing, not sleeping, studying, procrastinating, winding through Christmas Markets, eating olliebollen, taking pictures, and just soaking in Maastricht as much as I possibly can.

I will miss the mundane: living on the ground floor next to the entrance and opening my window when people knock and stop by for a chat; biking through rain and shine, sober and otherwise; jogging through the fields and pastures into the hills and mistakenly running to the Belgium border; shamelessly eating stroopwafels and frites with mayonnaise…it all ends soon, and I know I will miss it. 

I’ve had an unmatched experience of both good and bad moments, and even the bad moments I look back on and laugh. I’m leaving with more than I could ask for: friendships that I treasure and will go far to maintain, memories and stories to last me until my dying day, and experiences that not only satisfied my curiosity, but left me with an even greater thirst to find out what else is out there. Traveling in this lifetime has only just begun.