Lessons learned from a month abroad....

Well folks, its finally time for me to make the trek home. I'm sure you're thinking to yourself, "wow, its already been a month! That went fast." But spare me, this month did NOT go fast for me. Anyway, I have learned and gained and grown so much in the past four weeks.

Here are some of my take home points:

• I love my husband. I did not doubt this when I left. Considering we had only been married two months when I left, I think we would have had some problems if I had doubted it. But I guess what they say is true, distance makes the heart grow fonder.
  
• I love my cat. I missed my cat a ton, more than I thought I could miss an animal, and I'm scared she won't care that I return, and that she didn't miss me.
• I could move out of the United States for a while, and in fact, being here makes me want to move else where for a year or two, but there are conditions:

1. Husband must come (and he says that it therefore must be an English speaking nation, although I think if I moved to Spain or somewhere where at least the alphabet is similar, I could learn the language.)
2. Cat must come (and I've already looked into this, its possible)
3. Everyone at home must get Skype and a camera for their computer.
4. People must send me Trader Joe's unsalted peanut butter frequently, along with some trail mix and packed brown sugar.
5. Family and friends must visit. Heck, if we lived in England or Ireland or Australia, something tells me that people would be more willing to come then to visit us in Sac-town. Somehow, Sac-town has no appeal. Oh well, your loss on that one.

• I am smart and hard-working. I had lost my pizazz back in the states the last few months. I was easily distracted at work and school and was in a rut. I was starting to think I wasn't cut out to be a PhD student. But, now, I feel better, I have my confidence back! Yeah.
• A month is too long to not see my husband. We decided three weeks is our new maximum. Three weeks is long. But, I really start missing home after 10 days, and if its only going to be 21 days, after 10 days, I'm half way there. With a month, after 10 days, I still have 5 days until my trip is 1/2 over. Ugh, no good. Hopefully, if I have to go away for a month again, John can at least come out at the end, like I did after his adventure in Austria, which brings me to my next point:
• No more solo international adventures. Jeez, lets visit someplace new together!! We've been to Ireland together, and we're heading to Jamaica next month. But John has been to Austria and Italy without me, and I've been to Spain without him.

Thats all for now. Keep posted for more recaps upon my return... and thanks for tuning in.
Love, Laura