Boston, MA

20 AUG 2011 - 23 AUG 2011

Semester at Sea had been one of the most incredible journeys I had ever could have imagined. Full of life and experience and people and places that I never, in a lifetime could have imagined myself being a part of. As we arrived in the Boston harbor finally back on US soil I was so incredibly distraught to be leaving this family that I had built my days around for the past two and a half months. On the opposite side of that story I was arriving in Boston to see some familiar faces that I couldn't be more excited about. When I had left Hilo in May - I was leaving behind some of the most amazing east coasters (& Canadians). My mom was unable to meet the ship in Boston when I arrived so I asked if I could stay a few days with some friends that I knew from school and she said yes. So while debarking the ship was hard saying good bye to my roommate, and other amazing people - I was greeted with Racquel (New Jersey), Kayla (Massachusetts), Abby (Massachusetts) and a friend of Kayla's, Molly. Full of tears from watching people come off the ship to meet families, friends and loved ones and I was a complete mess seeing them. It was chaotic. I had to struggle to help friends with bags and take care of my own. We then scurried off near the train station where I left my bags because we were meeting Naomi (Canada) at the airport.

Wondering around the city was so surreal. First and foremost, it was strange to walk around and be able to understand everyone. It just seemed like another port country. Especially because I kept seeing familiar SAS faces rushing through the streets just like any other place. But it wasn't any other place. I had the strange realization that a lot of them I would more likely than not - never see again. I had to refocus myself to the people that I was with, and I was flooded with memories of being back in Hawaii and the amazing semester I had had with them in the Spring. When the time came we headed over to Boston-Logan International to meet Nomz. It was incredible. You know those slow motion airport hugs? This was nothing like that. We rushed over to her nearly tackeling everyone down and jumped for joy. Before we headed to Kayla's house for the night, we went to eat but not before taking this.

Me, Naomi, Racquel, Kayla & Abby

We spent the night talking about things we had done in the summer and the dumb things we had done back in Hawaii along with things we wish we had done more often. I was completely dead. I was running on about 3 hours of sleep in the last 72hours so I had to call it a night. The girls stayed up and continued chatting but it was nice knowing I was in good company. 

Waking up the next morning, we went back into the city to play. I was so excited because a friend of mine from home, Primo goes to FIT - NY and had come down to Boston to see me. I couldn't have been happier to see him. It had been so long. He came with a friend from school as well and we all did a boat tour of Boston. It was one of those car/bus things that can go into the water. It was crazy.. We got some interesting facts about Boston and the Boston Harbor and awesome duck quacker things. 

 Though my time in Boston was short lived, it was nice to see familiar faces meeting me after the summer. But my adventure was still far from being over. On the 23rd, I flew to Buffalo where my mom, Uncle & Aunt were meeting me. From there we went and ate (of course) and talked about my summer. It was strange seeing my mom again for the first time in so long - and there was so much that I wanted to say to them but just couldn't find the right words. Or words that would even begin to describe how amazing and (at the risk of sounding cliche) life changing. I wanted to thank my mom a million times over for allowing me the opportunity to have such an epic summer and in two weeks I would be on my way to Scotland to study for the year. It was all just.. more than I could have ever hoped for. To this day, I can't believe how lucky I am to have had the opportunity to do all of the things that I have. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't remember my experiences from the summer. And there isn't a day that goes by when I'm not thankful for having had those experiences. I carry as much of it with me as I can, always. It's something I wish I could explain to people but it really does leave me speechless.