I've received a lot of complaints about my lack of a final entry. During the summer, I didn't really have a desire to sit down and think about how this incredible year of my life had ended. I didn't really have a lot of time to process it, either. I was surrounded by my family, my best friends, wonderfully warm weather, and lots of things to do. Being back was not strange- no reverse culture shock that I had been warned about.

Now that I'm back at BU though, it's finally sinking in. Ya no estoy en Quito.

I do miss it. More than I thought I would. I feel out of place here at BU now. USFQ (La Universidad San Francisco de Quito) is much smaller- after being there for a year, I felt like I knew the majority of the people at the school, even if by sight only. At BU, I don't recognize anyone. I don't know any of the freshmen (obviously) and I don't know any of the sophomores either because I was gone. I no longer feel comfortable saying hello to the acquaintances I had before going abroad, I no longer have classes with all of my closest friends, and it's not as easy to run into people you want to see in a 2 mile-long campus full of over 20,000 students.

No dollar beers at lunch, no loud Spanish chatter on the bus, no beautiful mountain views in every direction, no clubs playing salsa and reggaeton, no easy weekend trips to the beach…

Obviously there are positives to being back as well. No immediate threat of mugging, and now I can enjoy quiet walks down Comm Ave at dusk and a breathtaking view of Boston from my tenth floor apartment that almost rivals that of the Andes. Right here, right now, in a city that is growing increasingly colder, with an overwhelming amount of work piling up, it's hard to convince myself that the positives outweigh the negatives… the fantasy world of studying abroad is looking pretty good.

Basically, it's hard to be back. For some reason I feel a bit purposeless here in Boston, even though the only purpose I really had in Ecuador was to explore and to experience as much culture as possible. Maybe, for me, that contains more value than attempting to simply earn good grades?