Skipping everything in the lost time, I am happy to say that I am back in Europe for the summer. Tuesday I arrived in Milan, where I will be visiting Mario and other friends in the area. The top of June I'll head in train to Graz to see Alina, and after a week or so I'll travel and bounce around from place to place in Germany. My schedule after that is not exactly planned yet since I have so many options on what I can do. It's amazing how knowing so many people internationally opens up so many opportunities to travel. Everyone I'll be seeing is part of AFS somehow or another. My journey will end about the middle of July.
I've debated on whether I should move this whole summer trip to a different blog, but I do not know how often I'll be able to write, so I think I'll just leave it here. I might rename it however, as Spain is no longer the base of everything from here on out.
In August I will be starting school at the University of Loyola New Orleans, studying International Business and Communications. I'm excited to be at a new location- even though I plan to study abroad the following year.
Back to the present...so far my time here in Milan has been amazing. I've met a lot of great people and things have been going really well. I flew to JFK from Minneapolis, had an all day layover in NYC, another layover in London, and finally flew into Milan.
This is the first time to return back to the EU since I left Spain last July. I wasn't even to London when I realized how excited I was to be back. I've worked hard to put everything together and I'm super excited to be here. I wouldn't be surprised if I moved to Europe in the future- it's great here.
It's hard to explain, but coming back is a great reminder of my "other life." People talk about how the "American" and "exchange" lives aren't the same, and that's true. Public transportation, crossing streets, food, money, it's all different, but great. Milan reminds me of Madrid a lot, all but a few minor changes such as the language or canals, but overall I feel back at my European "home."
I'll keep track of everyone I meet along the way. Before I left, an AFSer who was in my town 3 years ago came back to visit- so it was really cool to see him again. My rough estimate is that I'll see 15 friends in the next two months.
Traveling by train, I have a four country Eurorail pass for Italy, Austria, Germany, and Belgium-Netherlands-Luxembourg. It'll be a few long days of travel but I think it'll be worth it.
-mb
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