The cost of travel is almost always the deciding factor when considering your next vacation. It’s understandable, considering the headache induced from figuring out how much you’ll be paying for flights, hotels, food, and maybe even some souvenirs by the end of your stay. I had been hoping that this would be a little more straightforward when approaching my study abroad experience. There’s the program cost, of course, plus airfare and a little spending money, but after that I thought it would be smooth sailing. Today I learned otherwise. It’s okay though, my REI dividend was put to good use, but then there’s the camera equipment (yikes!), textbooks, and school supplies. I hadn’t even thought of any of that stuff. And I still have a few more items to pick up before I can safely say I’m ready. Needless to say, I’ll be looking for a job on campus next semester…
On a lighter note, I get to spend the next nine days at home before heading off on my first adventure of the summer! Although I haven’t felt really homesick since my first month of college, after a while I start to feel a little achy for my hometown. I can safely say that this past year was one of the most intense, influential years of my life, and it’s good to be able to come home and get a little closure. After my freshman year, I went straight to an internship in Hawaii where my mom lives. Although I was living with family all summer, it wasn’t quite the same as coming back to St. Paul. I didn’t really feel like I had just finished my freshman year of college. It was more like an extended break. This lack of closure came back to haunt me when I got back to school and everything was different. Some of my friends had transferred and the rest were scattered around Tacoma in off-campus houses. To make things even more difficult, I went back as the RA of the same place I had lived as a freshman only now, I was living in my old RA’s room and a bunch of strangers were living in my best friends’ rooms. Don’t get me wrong- I love my residents and wouldn’t trade my experience as an RA for anything. It was just a difficult transition to make given the lack of closure at the end of the previous year. So here I am in my old room in downtown St. Paul, putting my sophomore year to bed and getting amped up for summer! If only I hadn’t spent so much money on extra meal points last semester…