Hello, hello. So the semester has finished and I am back in "Muh-rica." After this semester, I have learned many things. Such as that as much as I enjoyed my intercultural management class (until the case study we had to do), I never want to take another business class again and that I was completely mad for considering going to grad school to get an MBA. I still don't know what I'm doing with my life. Also, as much as I love Ryanair and their cheap flights, you're bound to have at least one semi-stressful experience with them, so ALWAYS get to the airport 2 hours before your flight because the ONE time you don't, you will inevitably have to wait forever to go through security or have the people at the visa check desk stamp the wrong side of your boarding pass and have to wait in line to have them fix it and then barely have enough time to get to the gate before boarding (true story). Let's see, what else, I've been to 7 countries this semester, no biggie. France, Monaco, England, Scotland, Spain, Belgium, and Italy. Although I would have to say that my favorite city was Brussels because of the unique beers, chocolate and of course waffles. Culturally, I think it looks unique too and has a good mix of art and dirty industrial type buildings, and looks a bit more original than all the other pastel colored buildings with ornate trims, native to Spain, southern France, and Italy. Italy doesn't have much to do after being there for a few days, but they have the best food in Europe, in my opinion. I was so excited to finally have REAL pizza and pasta. But I loved Joelle's (my host mom) cooking. The host family living arrangements worked out good and is definitely worth it if your host mom is a good cook.
Soooooo, in a nutshell, this semester was a growing experience for me because I not only became more independent by planning a lot of trips (some of which going by myself), but also by being away from home for an entire semester. Back home, I go to school an hour or so away from my house so not coming home once a month was difficult to adjust to. But that's why they invented Skype and Facetime, which I fully recommend because it's free, and paying for an international phone plan (or even just a a sim card and minutes) add up no matter what kind of plan you have. Traveling abroad was definitely worth it for me, and getting to live in a new city and eat good French food and cheap good wine were nice too. But it's all good, and to anyone following my blog posts, I bid thee au revoir!