Big Adjustments

On Monday night, there was a Study Abroad Night, in which students who are interested in studying abroad can meet and play games and eat snacks with students who have already studied abroad.  I attended, and while I didn’t talk to too many interested students, I did reminisce with my fellow London travelers about all of our interesting and often hilarious moments abroad.  Replaying all of those memories made me realize that I am homesick for London sometimes.

We were warned that when we came back the US we would experience this kind of backwards homesickness.  It seemed strange to me that I would have culture shock when I returned home, but I did.  Especially when I came back to LVC.  The first few days of this semester were kind of hard for me, and it was a lot of change to deal with.  First of all, I had to adjust back to living in a tiny dorm room again, not a furnished apartment.  In addition, since I had a small selection of rooms to choose from when I returned, I ended up on the third floor among a bunch of noisy freshmen.  I got over it eventually, but at first I felt really strange sitting in my room, and having to share the bathroom my whole floor again.  It was also kind of a let down to go back to eating Metz food after being able to cook all of my meals in my apartment.  It was like I got a taste (no pun intended) of real life and really living on my own and then I had to return to being more dependent.

            The workload of my schoolwork was also much easier when I was abroad.  I only had four classes from Tuesday to Thursday, so I had a four-day weekend every week.  I wasn’t really assigned any reading or homework, and I didn’t have any exams to study for.  All I had to do was write essays at the end of the semester.  Coming back to five classes, five days a week at LVC was a little challenging.  I still feel like I don’t have any motivation to do homework anymore.  I was also accustomed to having lots of free time, which was nice because I could explore pretty much the entire city over the course of the three months I was there.  Now more than ever I realize how excruciatingly small Annville is.  I was used to being able to walk or take the tube or buses anywhere I needed to.  Now that I’m back in Annville, there is not much to do that is in walking distance, and when you don’t have a car on campus, you are a little bit stranded.  I severely miss just being a short tube ride away from Hyde Park, Buckingham Palace, Oxford Street, and other exciting attractions.  There is a virtually endless list of activities that you can do whilst in London.  It made me very spoiled when I came back to Annville.

            It was also very strange when I came back to campus and I felt like I didn’t know anyone.   I don’t know if it’s just because I didn’t know the freshmen class, but I felt extremely disconnected from the rest of the students.  It was definitely a bit of a depressing feeling.  I’m glad that I had friends here who also studied abroad who could relate to me.  I also sorely miss all of the friends that I made while I was abroad.  It’s kind of heartbreaking when I think that I will most likely never see most of them ever again.  I would never regret making them though. 

            I don’t know if I will ever fully return to how I was before I went to London, I hope I don’t.  I hope that I can maintain the changes that happened to me.  And I really hope that I can adjust to considering both the US and the UK as my home.