Would it sound too harsh to start off blogging by saying that it may soon feel that study abroad may be a mistake? Because it sure feels that way. I have no idea what an internship at the University of Sydney's psychology department will look like or what I'll be doing there. I’d like to be honest: I struggle with anxiety, and studying abroad is going to be a challenge that I’m not entirely sure I will be able to handle. So why am I throwing myself halfway across the globe from my family, my friends, and everything I know?

Gradually, I’ve been adjusting. To the 14 hour time difference, the food, to constantly hearing English instead of Japanese, to driving a car instead of riding the subway, and to not seeing a conbini on every corner. For the past five months, I have embraced a lifestyle far different from the American Midwest, and though I’m excited to see my friends and family, there are things I deeply miss and habits that seemed to be deeply ingrained into me now.

After living in the Netherlands for almost four months, I am able to reflect on a number of things about the Dutch culture that continue to surprise me. Before coming to Amsterdam, I was somewhat aware of the Dutch people's love for bikes, but I did not fully understand the extent to which Dutch people utilize bikes in their daily lives. The biking culture in Amsterdam continues to shock me each and everyday. There are more bikes than there are people in Amsterdam.

After leaving the Galapagos, some of my fellow students and I decided that we wanted to try and make it to Machu Picchu before we headed home. Going to Machu Picchu has always been a dream of mine, and I had actually decided before the program even began that it was something I needed to do before I came home. I distinctly remember deciding to make the trip when I was in Spanish class the previous semester, and Machu Picchu came up in one of our exercises. I was excited to find that the site really wasn’t far from Ecuador.

The feelings I had leaving the Galapagos were different than any I’ve had before when leaving a place. Here I was, in paradise, surrounded by some of the most amazing people I have ever met, surrounded by countless memories, and saying my goodbyes. In some ways it felt like we had just arrived, and in other ways it felt like a lifetime had gone by since that day. It sounds silly to say, but the island had truly come to feel like my home, and I couldn’t quite wrap my head around it that I was leaving one home to return to another.

For the past week and a half I have felt so strange, like the world I am now inhabiting isn’t real. Or maybe it’s Morocco that isn’t real, and I’ve just woken up from a dream. The first few days back in the States, I kept looking at my phone, adding four hours to the time, and imagining what was happening in Rabat and what my host family was doing at that time. 3pm here – almost time to break the fast in Morocco. Getting ready for bed at 11pm – my host family must be getting up for suhoor before sunrise.

It’s hard to believe but my year in Granada has finally come to an end. I am writing this on the plane, about an hour out from the Newark, NJ airport. Just 24 hours ago, I spent my last night in Granada at the Mirador San Nicolas, eating take-away kebab with a friend, and gazing out at the Alhambra one last time. Admiring that magnificent monstrosity of red brick, glittering against the backdrop of the Sierra Nevada mountains, I felt in that moment as if there was nowhere else I'd rather be.

Want to study abroad ? Thinking about the IES Abroad EU program, but not sure if it’s for you? Maybe you’ve seen brochures from your school or found images online about study abroad programs, but you haven’t seen anyone who looks like you in them. Maybe you are worried about how being an LGBTQ+ student will affect your experience abroad. I think this is a feeling that a lot of minority students face, when considering study abroad.

Whenever I share photos or talk about the experiences I’ve had in the Galapagos, I typically try to be as positive as possible, but sometimes this can cause me to overlook some of the less glamorous aspects. This is not to say that my time there wasn’t amazing and I wasn't constantly surrounded by unparalleled beauty, but in reality some of the less glamorous aspects came with the most important lessons.