"I can't tell where the journey will end, but I know where it starts"

I have successfully avoided thinking about this the entire summer: Moving Day. It finally hit me that I will be unable to hop on a 45-minute train to come home whenever I want, unable to go for a late night Dunkin Donuts run with different friends, unable to eat at Buzzy's every weekend with my family. Don't get me wrong- I am ecstatic that I will be living my dream of living in Europe... but being away from my family for so long will be hard. I finally finished packing an hour and a half before my flight, so we had to hop in the car and drive race to the airport (Boyle's are never on time... convinced it's a genetic trait). With my last bagel from The Bagel Pantry in hand and tears in my eyes, I said goodbye to my family and passed through the gate. 

After being delayed 6 hours, I boarded the aircraft and thought about the summer which had ended too quickly: my family threw me a huge party at a house right on the beach the last weekend of June, I ran a marathon and triathlon with my good pal Chris Marrone, spent early August with my family at the shore house, partied hard with the lifeguards during the last few weeks in the USA (they threw me a surprise going away party... I have the best co-workers!), and got matching tattoos with my big sister and little brother the day before leaving. It was the perfect summer.

Some highlights from summer

Before I knew it, I was touching down in Amsterdam. And this is where the adventure starts...