Well, I am back in Kansas City and it is so good to be here! It was definitely time to come home. So far, I have already baked chocolate chunk cookies, pumpkin custards, snickerdoodle cookies, gingerbread men & women (as well as homemade royal icing to decorate them with), chocolate-peanut butter cookies (the ones with a Hershey's kiss in the center), banana pudding, oatmeal raisin cookies - and I haven't even been here for a week yet! Sometimes I seriously consider culinary school...hopefully someday :)

As much as I enjoy being home, I miss my friends from Nashville terribly! I have talked to all of them almost every day (sometimes more than once or twice) and hearing their voices only makes me miss them even more. If home is where the heart is, then mine is truly torn between KC and Nashville. Last year, I had a pretty hard time leaving to return to Belmont; this year I feel like I will be more ready to go back. I think that it will always be somewhat difficult to say goodbye to family - especially knowing that I won't see them for a few months - but it's so much easier to get on the plane knowing that there are loved ones eagerly awaiting my arrival. I can't imagine being away from both my family and my friends for an entire YEAR! I will have to (somehow) prepare for that since I will be studying in Spain during my junior year.
Thanks to Skype and Gmail's video chat option, I should be able to keep in touch with loved ones and have it (almost) feel like we're together. It has definitely made the distance between Dan and I feel much smaller. Being 4,594 miles (that's approximately how far it is from Nashville to Spain - I looked it up here) away from home will be tough at first, but I feel blessed to have the opportunity to go and I know that it will be one of the best experiences of my life. My friend and roommate, Ateia bought me a tapas cookbook for Christmas since we will both be in Spain together! I have yet to attempt making tapas, but it makes me very excited to think that this time next year I will be enjoying those authentic Spanish appetizers and immersing myself in the culture. My feelings about studying abroad for the year, as of now, are a strange combination of being so eager to leave and, at the same time, so reluctant to be away from the ones that I love for so long. It will truly be another year of transition, but I am ready for it and looking forward to every step of the journey.