Well, after 7 long weeks of vacation in the U.S., in a few hours, my parents and I will be hauling our baggage over to our country of residence: Kuwait.

This vacation has been the longest I've had in a while, and unfortunately, was not as eventful as I would have liked. The first couple of weeks were great; I got to spend lots of time with my sister down here in Austin, Texas, in addition to doing lots of things that I couldn't do in Kuwait. I also went on a college visit to the University of Texas at Austin, which was great. Going to Boston and seeing my brother was also very nice; the three college visits I made there (Boston University, Boston College, and Berklee) were spectacular, as was seeing the city from a new, in-depth perspective (as opposed to the limited experience I had with it the previous and first time I came, which was to celebrate my brother's graduation).

After coming back to Texas, all I really did was shopping and some community volunteer work, and that was it. I would have liked to see some local bands and gone to a few certain places (including Dallas to see old friends), but none of that really happened, nor did most of the other stuff I had planned to do. Some of it was partly due to laziness/lack of desire to really do anything, and some of it was due to the fact that everyone around me was very busy, and that, coupled with the fact that we frugally relied on public transport for the entire trip, kind of made it hard for me to do a lot of things. Still, I did enjoy this holiday very much, and I have learned a great deal, experienced a lot, and changed significantly (for the better) as a person as a result of it. so I can't really complain.

It's a bit saddening to have to return to Kuwait, but it's not too bad, since I'm returning home to where my life is. The things I'll especially miss in the U.S. include the fast, significantly cheaper Internet, the food, and the environment. Public transport was also a nice thing to get used to, and, believe it or not, I will miss that as well. Fast Internet is a big one for me, because the speed my sister has is significantly faster than what I have in Kuwait (5 mbps, as opposed to 512kbps in Kuwait). Because of that, I took advantage of that this year by bringing my Xbox 360 and external hard drive, and boy, did it pay off. The reason I can't get such speeds in Kuwait is the fact that it's so expensive over there... but I won't go into details regarding that.

Anyway, in a nutshell... I'll miss the States. Not too much, but enough to keep me thinking of its pleasures for a few days, at least. I'll have plenty of time to do that though, during my journey that starts in a few hours... it's going to last an entire day!
Yeah; my itinerary is very inconvenient... I take a 6:30 AM flight out of Austin to Dallas, then wait 5 hours in Dallas for a flight to New York. After arriving in New York, I have to wait another 5 hours for a direct flight to Kuwait, which will take 13 hours. That's 23 hours!!! I don't think I've ever been on a return trip that tedious (not that I remotely remember, anyway)... but it shouldn't be too bad. I don't complain much.

Well, that's it I guess... I'll blog some more when I return to Kuwait. To whoever reads this before or during my journey: please wish me safe travels