The End

My adventure has finally come to an end.  I am writing this final blog post from the US.

I spent my last week in Denmark visiting Frederiksborg Castle in Hillerød and the Christmas markets in Tivoli and Christiania and spending time with my friends and host family.  On Friday night my host family and I enjoyed a nice dinner, exchanged Christmas presents and relaxed by the fireplace.  On Saturday morning they took me to the airport, and I cried through the good-byes.  I cried again when it was time to say good-bye to friends in the airport.  Even though I knew that my biological family and childhood and college friends were waiting for me at the other end, it wasn’t easy to leave my host family and new friends behind.  Even so, when my plane landed and I was reunited with my family, I cried once again with joy.

I have spent my first few days at home catching up with family and friends and readjusting to life in the US.  My life seems comfortably familiar and yet vaguely foreign after four months abroad.  I am and always will be proudly American, but I learned a great deal about myself and the world around me during my stay in Europe, and I will make sure to take those lessons with me as I move forward with my life.