The differences between family and friends are both big and small. They can be as obvious as lowering your "personal space" boundaries, or as subtle as noticing that your personal world is just slightly quieter while one part of the family goes home to Sweden for the weekend. You remember how the slamming of a door exactly 7 paces away seemed so comforting, or how a familiar laugh drifting from the kitchen was like the pied piper's pipe, leading you into a land where the cacophony of pots and spoons is merely a folk-tune.

Disappearances can make you feel empty. Concussions can shake the foundations. Entire days spent sitting on the dirty floor of a kitchen talking of philosophy, politics, literature, and gossip can remind you of a family reunion.

These are the relationships I have already formed within a mere month in London. How can I possibly leave this after four more months? Granted, I will be back home with my birth family and my various other families, but all families are important, no matter how far away they may be scattered across the globe.

But let me speak of happier things. Let me spin tales of trains, strange tongues, Italian sun, and Azure coasts. One sentence from my french professor back home has sent me into the world of the Eurail. "I will be in Paris," she said to me as we munched on tartines and fudge, "and suddenly, in just 2 hours on the train, I will be in Salzburg."

Let me assure you--it is that easy. For about $500 (£319), you can travel for 10 days throughout four countries. I can start in Prague, spend a day in Vienna, see Mozart's birthplace in Salzburg, catch a glimpse of a gondola in Venice, feel the breeze off the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, see Rome, Pisa, Nice, Marseille, Lyon, and end in Paris. I can do all of this, and I will. Perhaps $500 sounds pricey, but I would rather come home broke, my brain stuffed with memories, than with some extra funds to splurge on movie tickets and expos. This extravagant spring break is what I've been saving up for. Sorry, Southern California, but seeing a quarter of Europe beats Cabo any day.

That is my Eurail trip. As tantalizing as it sounds, it will not be a social trip. Social is Paris this upcoming weekend. Social is Dublin. Social is Edinburgh. Social is Amsterdam and Bruges. Eurail, that's my solo. And I couldn't be happier, though I'm sure upon reading this, mom and dad will be biting a lip or knocking a knee (or two).

What I'm truly excited about is experiencing the change between countries. Paris, Rome, London--all of these cities stand alone in their reputation. But imagine spending each day in a new Italian city. Image seeing that relationship between Paris and the Côte d'Azure. Imagine seeing how entire nations change before your eyes in a matter of hours. Imagine walking with Mozart's ghost one day and visiting Tom Ripley's floating Venice the next. In a couple of months, I will no longer have to imagine.

I hate to echo my fellow American students (who announce that they have moved on from tourism while buying cheesy jumpers that read "Mind the Gap"), but this place, for me, truly is Narnia. Sure, the snow has all melted and turkish delights aren't nearly as appetizing as they sound, but for me, Europe will never be reality. Home is reality. The land of freezing 60º and shitty public transportation, that's my home, my reality, and I love it. However, I will wait as long as I can to finally step out of the wardrobe back into my own bedroom, perhaps with a sliver or two of proof that Narnia truly does exist.