I leave Denmark in 4 days.  Well, more like 3 and a half days. I have not started packing and still have a final tomorrow, so these will be a few crazy days.

I am having very mixed emotions about leaving.  For the last couple of weeks I have been very antsy to get back home, but now that it is coming down to it I am realizing how much I am going to miss this place, for so many different reasons.  There are things that I didn't get a chance to do that I regret, like taking the 30 minute train ride to Sweden... just to be in a different country that easily and quickly is something I should have taken advantage of!  And maybe I have spent a little too much time in bed wrapped in blankets watching movies online.  But hey, maybe thats not the worst thing... and it's pretty much the best option when you live in a weird little town 30 minutes out of the city, and your room has no heating.  I have come to cherish my time alone; it's not really a thing you get much of in a college atmosphere (ask me about it when I am living in a house with 9 other girls in a few weeks) and I think it's important to be able to be content without always having to be running around doing stuff or constantly being surrounded by other people.

People have told me that you don't really realize how great your abroad experience was until you are back home.  I'm sure that it will hit me even more then, but right now I cannot tell you how lucky I feel to have been able to live and study in a different country for 4 months, completely on my own.  With more and more American students studying abroad, especially from Santa Clara where it's almost an expected right of passage during your junior year, it is so easy to take this opportunity for granted.  It's easy to forget that not everyone can just drop everything and go to Europe for four months.  Not only have I learned about a different culture and way of life, I have met some fabulous people who I would have never had the opportunity of meeting otherwise.  I have been pushed out of my comfort zone, but with incredible results.  So to those who encouraged and enabled me to have this experience (most of all, my fabulous parents) and supported me along the way, I cannot thank you enough.  

Now, I am off to make the most of my remaining time here...