Week 15: "My heart's in the highlands..."

I have traveled Scotland far and wide, and I have managed to travel from one end of Great Britain to the other in just under a day.
I have experienced Scottish weather, and I have fallen in love with the country and lost my heart in the highlands.

I can't deny that the first 7 weeks of my exchange stay in Glasgow was horrible for me. I won't even try to use a less dramatic word because for me it was horrible, and there was no way I was enjoying it.

Going home for my birthday (link) was a changing point. I did not want to keep being unhappy, and I was determined to make a chance in the way I was doing things. I was determined to get the best out of my stay, so I thought long and hard on what I could do to be the change I wanted to see.

The simple solution and answer: travel. So that's what I did. All over Scotland and all through England.

Mostly I was traveling alone, and while this was completely out of my comfort zone I also learned a lot from these experiences, and it is how I have gotten some of the best friends from my stay, definitely some of the people who has helped shape me into a better person, and has helped shape my exchange stay to something amazing.

 

I was in Glasgow for 15 weeks, and I use past tense because I yesterday touched back down in Denmark. I left a place that has come to be home, and while I hated the kitchen for being dirty and gross, I also had the best fun with some of the people from my flat.

I slept all the way from Glasgow to Amsterdam, but flying out of Amsterdam I shed a tear knowing that I was actually going home.

  

The question I was asked was "are you happy to come home" and for the most part of the week the answer was no. I did not feel happy about going home, I didn't want to go home. I wanted to stay. One of my friends then said if I couldn't extend the stay, and I could have, but my exams were done, and I also knew I needed to come home.

  

Slowly, after having created a mess of dimensions, I started packing down things. And as more things got packed into the suitcases, the more I became okay with going home.

I am happy I left Glasgow before my fantastic happy experience turned sour, and I am happy to have left with a feeling of wanting to come back. I am a bit sad because it's difficult for me to tell people about what happened over there, and while I know it was reality for a while, it also feels weird because some of my friends and my family just wasn't a part of it.

This post contains a lot of selfies, and it contains a lot more pictures of people than probably all of my blog does, but this is for the people who became my friends and extended family. This is not good bye, it is see ya later, and soon. If your picture is not here, don't be sad. I probably just didn't have one with you :)