Eight girls — only five of whom drink consistently — 17 wine bottles, 11 cider, 12 hard alcohol and two beers. This isn’t adding cou ntless bottles lost to the street (we’re terrible litterers) and those bought on the go. It really has been a hell of a semester. No one would be more surprised than me to realize that I’m really going to miss London. This last week, everything's been coming full circle. In my last class, we watched clips of the first movie, and it was crazy how different I felt from January. We had our very last get-together on our program's annual boat cruise. The best way I could describe it was a drunken cluster--of karaoke and mini sandwiches.

Suddenly, we found ourselves hugging each other and giving tearful goodbyes. These 22 people I’d never even met became my world for four months. And regardless how difficult it was, I’m going to miss it. It's funny because I had planned to write an article about the ways in which New York City is better than London (public transportation for one) and

found myself saying a quiet goodbye to London.

As we sailed up and down the Thames, we rode by the Globe. I thought back to earlier in the week when I saw my very last play there, "A Midsummer Night's Dream." I am by no means a serious Shakespeare fan, but even I loved it. There was a moment in the play when the music strummed softly and smoke rose up to hanging decorations, and I felt so at peace, happy in my decision to come here. I've spent a lot of this trip trying to figure out if I’d made the right decision. If maybe I should have stayed home in the world and people I was comfortable with. I won’t pretend I haven’t spent a good portion of this trip telling myself I chose wrong, but in that moment, I knew I hadn’t.

There were so many first and lasts. I read at a poetry reading for the very first time here. I was supposed to go since January, but I couldn't gather the courage. When I realized they would never see me again, I just did it. And it was exhilarating. I walked through the parks for the last time and finally got to touch a squirrel. It's crazy how much I learned in these four months. As I said my goodbyes to London and sat in my class, screeching "History" by One Direction into the night, I wasn’t sad because I knew I’d be back

As I write this, I’m sitting in St. James Park (yeah, I go to parks now). I’ve walked the city, and I’ve said my goodbyes. As I’m sitting here writing this, I know that when this is published, I'll already be home, probably sitting in front of the TV with my dad, and that excites me. I'm looking forward to being home. In a couple of hours, I’ll go to Nandos with my flatmates. Just like we did the very first week we got here, unaware of what was ahead of us. It’s really true: everything comes full circle.