When you first go on exchange they try to prepare you by explaining that it will be a roller-coaster ride and that you will have good days and bad days all the time. You accept this and go anyway. You’ll have good days and bad days no matter where you are right?

Somehow though, when you travel to far away places for extended periods of time, the highs are so much higher, the seas and skies are more blue than you ever remember seeing. The mountains and castles perched upon them leave you speechless and little things like hot chocolate in a French cafe on a cold day make you euphoric!

In contrast, when something’s not going quite right, rather than just feeling frustrated or sad you feel lost and alone. When you are so far from the place you know, the people you love and the people who love and understand you then any feeling of sadness is amplified by the distance so that you can’t help but think ‘what am I doing here’.

These feelings, these ups and downs, can all happen in a matter of hours, or can last days or weeks.

Such a day was today, a day of extremes and confusion, it was not the first, but is the first I have included in my blog, on advice from the love of my life that the people who read my blog (however few of you there may be who are not related to me) will want to know about the tough times too.

So, whilst this is to remain an up-beat and insanely happy blog for the most part, I am endeavouring to adopt a less filtered approach for the future.