last gasp of the death-grip love of Harlaxton

This weekend I did something I've been meaning to/wanting to/needing to do since the beginning of the summer: I drove to Evansville, Indiana, to meet up with some of my friends from Harlaxton! It's amazing the family-bonding that occurs with 160-something college kids get together for three months inside a castle in the English countryside...hence, we get to missing each other, and road trips happen. It's inevitable.

It was incredible seeing all my friends from Harlaxton :) It's funny, in England, we were all drifters, tied at the same post, grazing in circles, pretty much stationary. Here, I see my friends driving, living in houses, dating people I don't recognize, eating food in restaurants and paying with real dollars. There, we were all cloistered in the same house, taking the shuttle to and from town, spending "fake" money, letting our lives revolve around ourselves and each other. It was magic. 

Case in point, our friendships were immediate and deep. Afterwards, after living in the same quarters for three months, we all had to separate. We got so homesick--or, school sick? It sure felt like home--and went into withdrawals during the next semester. I say all this because I know that this study abroad experience will be strikingly similar--I'll know no one, I'll meet everyone, I'll fall in love with every single experience, I'll come home and dream about it for years afterwards, and I'll miss it with everything I have. C'est la vie :)