That's what people ask me when we meet, and I try to tell them about my exchane. You can tell pretty fast if they're interested in it and want to hear more (and if they get me started, I can go on for hours... of course!), but I've tried telling different people about different things. It just wouldn't be fair if I only talked about school, the food, the trips I did or sports I participated in, and left everything else out. There's just so much to a year abroad. I find myself discovering more and more details that I hadn't seen or payed attention to before with every story I give, and there's always something more to it. It was really a life. It's a strange feeling, knowing you had a completely different life a year, and that, now, you will never get it fully back.
I would give anything to be an exchange student again. It was an amazing experience from which I learned more than I can even being to explain. I can't believe time flies so fast. I will always remember how I felt prior to my exchange, all the excitement and courosity that was bubbleing on my inside several years, and the happiness I feel now, of the knowledge that it turned out even better than what I could ever imagine. No pictures or stories can ever give a fair look on how an exchange changes one's life.
My friend just left Sweden to start her exchange in Indiana (and she'll be really close, like 4 hours by car, to where I was in Ohio, how awesome isn't that?!), and when I look at the pictures she posts on her blog... Oh, how much I wish I could do it all over. I'm not going to hide the fact that I am jealous. But most of all I'm happy, SO happy, and excited for her. She'll a year of a life time (haha, literally, yes. Basically:) ), and I hope she enjoys it.
From this year I've learned to take the chance, because it's worth it. Take the chance, and you might just find yourself completely emersed in another culture, speaking, thinking, dreaming and even sleep-speaking in another language, with friends and family who treat you just like one of them even though you're from a different part of the world, realizing you've gotten a second home, in less than a year. I took the chance. It was the best I could ever have taken, and I will never regret it.
YOLO~
 |
| Before and after the Dragster at Cedar Point... I'll give you this one! |
Sweden 9.12 PM Ohio 3.12 PM July 11
