The Homestretch

I’ve loved my time in Amsterdam, and yet I think the hardest part of the experience has been these past couple of weeks. My program is ending soon, so we’ve had to balance finals, getting the most out of our final weeks and Amsterdam, saying goodbye to friends, and figuring out what going back will be like. A lot is going on, so I figured I’d use this post to write it all down in the hope that it will make this last week easier. 

I do not like taking exams. I’d much rather do hours of research to write a easy than walk into an exam room. So it’s been a little stressful to have exams make up most of my grade. Thankfully, I only had one exam for the end of this period. However, the midterm was pretty hard so I knew that I need to focus and study. And it was scheduled for a Friday afternoon. Not the most optimal time to take an exam. I spent the whole day studying before heading to the VU in the late afternoon. 

The exam was not too bad. It was eight open response questions with multiple parts each and we had two hours and fifteen minutes. I left with five minutes to spare but felt a lot more confident about my answers than I did at the midterm. When I got back to my room, I immediately collapsed onto my bed for a nap and it was definitely one of the better naps I’ve taken.  

Back home, I have a dog. Her name is Macchi and she’s a nine year old pitbull-boxer mix. She always barks at the delivery truck, is terrified of thunderstorms, loves peanut butter (like recognizes the sound when we say it), and when she decides that you are not an intruder in her house, will immediately fall on her back so you can give her belly rubs. She is completely spatially unaware, which was really funny when she had to wear a cone and could not figure out the stairs but is annoying when you’re taking her for a walk, she finds a stick, and she runs past you, hitting you in the back of the legs with her stick. She is undoubtedly the favorite in the household and it is killing me not being able to see and talk to her these past months. 

Macchi does not understand how phones work so even when I see her on FaceTime, she does not really know I’m there. So more than anything, I really miss her and can not wait to see her again. As I’m writing this, I’ll see her in a week and will dog watch from the cafe I’m sitting in.

I was talking to my parents the other day and my Dad said that the time from when I left in January to when they visited in April feels shorter than the stretch from April until I go home. He was definitely right. It always feels like that for me during the semester. Getting through the month of April is harder than the rest of the semester. There is always a lot going on and eventually I reach a point of feeling content with what I’ve done and ready to go home. I’ve definitely been there these past couple weeks. 

Amsterdam has been amazing and I’m beyond grateful for the experiences I’ve had here. Studying abroad is seriously a once in a lifetime opportunity and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. I’m going to miss biking by the canals to get to class and being able to visit a museum whenever I want. I’m going to miss the people and my friends. A part of me does not understand that I won’t be woken up by the metro anymore and I know sleeping in my quiet room back home is going to feel really weird. But I’m ready to go home. 

I did not think that the last couple of weeks would be the hardest. I always thought it was going to be the first, trying to settle in and getting used to being a different time zone away from my friends and family. Now, I’m scared about going back and stay in touch with my friends here. I’d much rather look at the canals of Amsterdam than the suburbs of Rhode Island. As much as I’m torn about leaving, I know that I had a great experience here and I will see Macchi in a week.