Month: October 2015

Studying abroad is great.

I repeat that to myself every day. And I’m not lying, it is great. But no one tells you how much you’ll miss home.

The biggest challenge in my life right now is this itch to go home. It’s not very huge but it’s there. I guess it sucks that I haven’t really had any friends or family visit. I did have an old friend from high school come this weekend, but me and him were really not that close. I miss familiarity and I want it for a little.

It has been two months and four days since I’ve been here and I yearn to read something in English, to see my friends, to go take the Subway, to get a good slice of pizza, to get good Chinese food (yes, food is very important to me). But I can’t get that. I can’t drive two hours back to Brooklyn to do this.

And I’ve really been thrown in the deep water. As a student who has been commuting for two years in college and four years in high school, this is my college experience. I am living alone and I’m cooking alone. I’m doing laundry and cleaning and shopping for food and it’s all in Dutch.

I love it here. I tell myself that when I go outside with my bike and just ride down to Flevopark and look at the colors on the leaves changing or I bike down to Jordaan, a very old-school Dutch neighborhood, and see the original canals of the city. It is absolutely beautiful and breathtaking and I truly fall in love with it more every day, but I do miss home.