The End of an Era, Pt. 2

Well, blogger decided to go all wonky, so here's part two of the same post. 

The next couple days were spent in London, but it was hard to really settle down before we flew back to Boston on friday. We arrived around 9:30 PM EST, meaning it was really 2:30 AM in our minds. I spent the weekend with old friends, the one's I hadn't seen for 3 months, knowing on Sunday I'd be flying back home and finally be situated.  

I also managed to find an apartment with Jacki, Billy and Mike, along with Aunt Roni and Uncle Marc who were very helpful! 

So here I am... a couch in America. It feels good to be home, but at the same time I'll miss the small town feel of the castle. Most of all, I think I miss the camaraderie that comes from living in a castle with 80 other students. Already i've seen the effect that we've had on each other, and I know everyone has grown over the semester. I only hope that we all stay close, but without the castle to physically hold us together, its clear that nothing is going to be the same. 

Nevertheless, we'll always be able to say

Hey, remember that time we biked to Germany?

Hey, remember that time we ran across Venice to catch a bus home?

Hey, remember that time we went to our first coffeeshop in Amsterdam? 

Hey, remember that time we lived in a Castle?

The End of an Era.

Here I sit, on a couch, in a living room, in a moderately sized white house, in a small state in a fairly large country known to many as America. 

This is home, and yet... this is no castle. 

The last 2 weeks in Europe were spent, for the most part, at the castle in Well. My Eurail pass had run out, so it was much less expensive to simply stay put. We traveled into Amsterdam for a day trip, but other than that it was a very local experience. Many others had the same idea, so the castle was far from lonely. 

Its funny how when you're left with nowhere else to go, you really get a chance to explore your environment. It's a shame that it took us 3 months to discover the magical hiding spots in Well. To be brief, many of us wished we had known sooner about the 50's style diner, the playground with an AWESOME zip line and of course, the ever amazing sand dunes. 

Sand dunes? in HOLLAND? you must be kidding me. 

Folks... I kid you not. 

The sand dunes are tucked away, about a 10 minutes walk from the castle. We were lucky enough to hear about them, but few of us actually visited until these last couple weeks. On our last weekend at the Castle, after exams were all finished we went out to the Dunes and had a bonfire, a mini-farewell for the castle students. We ran around the blazing glory, drinking our last dutch beers, and burning the papers we never again will need to read. 

It was nothing short of amazing.