Here it is, time to say goodbye. I’m sitting in the Dusseldorf airport after hopefully my last meat, bread and cheese sandwich for a while. Will be flying into NYC this evening to end my Europe trip with a bang. It’s called Cinco de Mayo celebration time with Brittani!!!—my good friend from uni. (for all you who are baffled by this last word, this is the shortened term for university, aka “college” in the States) Thank golly for gaining back a whole day in time.
Anywho, I’m ending this blog. I feel it’s appropriate to wrap it all up with some profound reflection of my last 3 months backpacking Europe. But I’m not really sure what to say.
But I’ll start with this: I can’t wait to 1) see, pet, play with my OWN dog ; 2) live out of a closet, not a stupid, awkwardly-big backpack,; 3) eat fruits and veggies and orange juice consistently; 4) see family and friends—duhhhh,; 5) sleep in one bed for more than 4 days; 6) cook—with more than olive oil, cheese, meat and bread, 7) eat: In N’ Out, Corrales, in general—burritos, Mom’s tacos, frogurt, and yes…I actually miss American pizza…!; 8) watch movies and other American cultural symbols of entertainment and feel like I’ve popped out of this ignorant bubble, and finally…9) have money. Feeling “broke” for the past year because of merely saving for then being in Europe—so not a good feeling when all you wanna do is shop or go out with friends or go on small trips to visit friends and see places in the States.
So yea….that kind of explains my last days of too-much-shopping/spending-excessive-euros/annoying Karina with my complaints of needing and wanting and “shux, I should of bought that scarf!”/now my suitcases BOTH have to be checked in at the airport because I am bringing home too much stuff. Yep, all on my measly little Europe budget that was pathetic even before I left for London back in February.
In any case, I’ve got dollars stashed away in my bag that have miraculously survived this trip. So NYC, here I come.
Okay, back to the profound.
In the end, I think that despite all my ranting on this blog (thank you for following me this far!), I have loved this excursion to Europe. And in the end, despite my initial complaints, I am pretty stoked I traveled mostly all of it by myself. As a 23-year-old-female. To 10 countries. And about 36 cities. It was hard at times because I don’t find myself to be a person who needs vast amounts of time by myself, but it was so worth it. Even those bad crying moments at major city sights. Those were lame. But of course, to appreciate the good, you must know how bad “bad” feels. You learn so much more about yourself when you push yourself to different levels of discomfort.
A few years back, after sailing the world with Semester at Sea, I felt those same feelings of discomfort, yet completely was in awe with the non-Western world. It was so enlightening to just immerse myself OUT of Western culture and thinking and ignorance and technology. And of course, it made me appreciate home so much more. This time around, I’ve strolled through much of the rest of Western Culture outside the States, and although at times I felt like it was much too much like the U.S. to be very enlightening, it almost made me appreciate life in the States that much more. In other words, more often then not, I left a country knowing more about myself and friends and family from home because Western and Central Europe was so much more like the States than the rest of the world. I learned of why my friends and family think the way they do because so many descend from European culture. I also was enlightened more about my Mexican heritage, because by being in Spain, I felt the influences that eventually lead to my family. And of course, there were the differences that helped me become a little bit more clear on the distinctions between such similar people.
It’s hard to say in words, in one blog entry, why I am so happy to have done this trip and what I have learned from it all. I think this is because I will learn to appreciate and understand what I’ve been through more so after I return home. Like in a long while. After Semester at Sea two years ago, it took me the whole year after to truly grasp what I got out of it all. Comparing “real-world” life to traveling and to the people I met and knowledge I had acquired—that took time. And patience. And I’m still learning to appreciate what I experienced with SAS.
And so this time around, I will wait. I will take it all in slowly, hopefully, and in the end, take on this new part of my life with some unforeseen new knowledge and hopefully, patience. It’s a confusing time—being back from such an emotionally and mentally challenging journey—so give me time if you ask me questions about my trip. I probably won’t know what to say.
Sometimes, life is just too extraordinary to put in words.
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