The Beginning of The End

After three months of sheer independence, I am hitting the time border. In less than twenty days I will be heading back for Honolulu. For many, this may sound like a dream. It sure isn't my dream, though. After traveling a great chunk of the world in less than four months, it's difficult to accept the idea that I'll be stuck on an island all over again for who knows how many years. Sure, the island is beautiful and so closely resembles the ideal-life us humans like to name "paradise", but for me, it's just the feeling of a jail-cell coated in breezy palm trees and beach waves.
Bottom line- I'm not looking forward to going back.
I've had the time of my life studying in Madrid and traveling Europe (including a trip to Africa)! In the month of November I spent more time out of Madrid than I did in. I turned 20 in the precise center-point of Spain. I walked castles. I've been on rooftops over looking Portugal. I road a bike all over Amsterdam. I've seen Van Gogh, Dali, Picasso, Miro, Pollock, Tanguy, Klein originals in multiple cities. I've walked  the streets of Africa, bargained with their people, been in the homes of their dead Kings and Queens. I've seen the graves and ashes of people such as Bram Stoker, Geoffrey Chaucer, J.R.R Tolkien, Rudyard Kipling, Sigmund Freud, and so many more. I've met fascinating strangers who have tangibly tested the fabric of life by jumping off a five story building. (Many might find this incredibly idiotic, but I didn't, to say the least.)
Bottom line- I'm not looking forward to returning to an island that takes hundreds and even thousands of dollars to leave.
I will return, though. I have to. There is no point in mourning over the final days of a well-spent semester.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that many people have the problem with missing home too much. They yearn for their beds, their comforting routines and boyfriends or girlfriends. I just don't feel any of that. I miss my parents, puppy, and most of all my little sisters, but that's where I draw the line. I haven't felt homesick once (unless we would like to change the definition of "homesick" to being "sick of home").
So if you're planning to study abroad and are afraid of missing home too much, just know that that fear can possibly turn inside-out.

Here are some photos of a few places I've been to so far...

- Bianca Marina Flores

 Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Lisbon, Portugal

Marrakesh, Morocco

Munich, Germany

Salamanca, Spain

Vienna, Austria

ps: proof that I've been having too much fun is that I haven't written one of these blog entries on months.