Thanks for the update! Glad to hear that you are finding your feet.
Obviously, we only see a part of the story here, so any advice or perspective any of us offer is incomplete.
I think we can all see why…at least, I can see why you -and your friends- would see heading out for an extended holiday as a much more attractive option than staying and seeing the job through.
Maybe it has gone away- or maybe it’s that the first flush of attraction has had a head-on collision with reality. Like having a crush on a celebrity from a safe distance, and then you meet them irl and find that they have some less lovely sides as well. If you want to get to the real relationship you have to work through both the shiny bits and the harder bits.