Before I even left Denmark, I was trying to find the words to put to this experience. What would I say when I received the inevitable question, “How was it?” How was I supposed to sum up 6 months and 17 countries into a single response? 

It was normal. I talked to people just as I do in the US, except they were a bit more intrigued by the fact I am American. I went to the doctor twice and never paid or filled out insurance information. In Finland, there are more saunas than there are people; I would like a sauna in my future backyard. I’d like to have more dinners and game nights with my friends, channeling the comfort and community found in the Danish word hygge. That I did in fact miss the US, or, at the very least, the lack of expectations that come with it. That I will say sköl instead of cheers. That my referring university as ‘school’ is apparently very weird. I will remember that Europeans have watched Michael Moore documentaries and if you put a ton of Americans in Denmark, Danish trust would disintegrate and the system wouldn’t work. It is less about the formal system and more about the embedded culture that holds it up. My brain is always going to figure out a way to make me live in chaos. I would like to get a flip phone when I get home. That I think it was more about how I changed, regardless of the places I visited. That I wish things stuck more than they did. Visiting cities is cool, but probably not worth being the focus of my travels because I prefer nature. That I did the ‘things’ – I stayed in hostels, took my share of Ryanair flights and overnight Flix buses. Or was my takeaway the fact that my British friend would rather raise his kids in an American city than an American suburb, and that I think American suburbs are decently walkable. That italians will tell you they could have a whole conversation with their hands, and that Spanish people love the community around cooking, whereas I get frustrated when anyone else walks into the kitchen. That I stayed on an Airbnb boat in Barcelona, that people say the German public transport system is bad and I can attest they are right, that I minded the gap? 

It is fairly impossible for me to think about my six months abroad as a cohesive experience, but I do believe I will be unpacking the experiences I had and things I learned for a long time to come.