As One Door Closes, Another One Opens

So after 5 months, 40 blog posts, 11 countries, and many new friends I am back home in Ithaca, New York.  I have been here for almost two weeks and have been pretty busy with seeing all of my friends and working a little.  But life now seems pretty normal.  I did not have any problems with culture shock which was great and easy.  So now I have some time to reflect on my travels, think about what I learned, and about how I may have changed.

So first a summary of my travels.  I went to 11 countries, and 23 cities.  Of those 11 countries I went to 10 of the capital cities.  Can you guess which one I didn't go to... It was Madrid, which is shocking since I lived in Spain.  Also in the places I went there were 10 different first languages spoken, I thought that was kind of cool.

There are a bunch of things that I will miss about Europe that aren't so easy to do or see back in the US.  The first is the amazing wine and olive oil everywhere.  It is more expensive and less accessible here.  Next is my host family.  They were so great and treated me as if I was one of their own.  I got to practice so much Spanish with them and they taught me about their traditions, culture, way of life, and more.  It was really cool to get a whole new perspective on the world from them.  I don't think I will really notice a change until farther down the road but I feel that since I spent a lot of time with them they have influenced me is some ways.  The Spanish might have been the most rewarding part of my whole trip.  I can now communicate with people in another language, and actually last night I talked to someone in Spanish for a while.  One of my goals for the summer, or the rest of my life, is to keep that Spanish that I learned and keep using it.  One day I will be fluent.  I will also miss meeting people from all over the world.  Almost every day I met someone from another country who speaks a different language.  With English and Spanish I could pretty much talk to everyone but I really enjoyed meeting these people.  In the US everyone new I meet is from America, usually from the region and at my school everyone is from the same area.  I will also miss public transportation.  Everywhere I went it was so easy to get around the cities.  My brother has our car in Boston until early July so I have had to rely on other people and my parents for rides.  I have tried to take the bus but it just doesn't run that often.  I do live in a small town of 30,000 people but yesterday I wanted to go from the main bus stop downtown up the hill to a place where a few buses come through.  My friend looked up the schedule and the next one was a half an hour.  I just started walking and he picked me up on the way, but the public transportation is just difficult here.  I will also miss a lot of other things like the actual cities and the old buildings and winding streets.

There are also a few things that I will not miss at all.  One of these is the people that sell you things on the street.  I am so glad to get away from those people because they are extremely annoying and all the money probably goes to some Mafia organization.  Also the Euro.  I will not miss the Euro for a few reasons.  The first is that it is expensive to take money out of the ATM because of fees, and things are really expensive.  Secondly, the Euro doesn't actually fit in my wallet so I need to fold them up, and lastly I always had so many coins.

I can see some very apparent ways that I have changed.  I have a greater appreciation for language and people from somewhere else.  Before I was never too interested in these aspects but now I am drawn to a person if they speak a different language or are from another country.  I also think I am more outgoing and more likely to take chances.  I used to be kind of shy and I still am in certain ways but now it is better.  The biggest way I have changed though is now I will pretty much try anything whether it is trying food, a sport, dancing, reading, music... and that feeling is amazing.  I guess after I tried Haggis I can basically eat anything haha.

Now for the future.  There are a few things I want to do this summer.  One is to keep speaking Spanish as I said earlier.  Another is to start playing the Piano again.  I have already started and my dad found some sheet music that is pretty easy.  I know most of the right hand now for a song called Somewhere Out There, from the movie An American Tail.  I will also plan some trips for the summer.  One is going to New York City and the Boston for July 4th.  Another is a kayak trip from Ithaca to my lake house that should take a few days.  And another is a camping trip to the White Mountains in New Hampshire where I go to school.

I have loved keeping this blog and my Barcelona Experience has come to an end.  Life is like a book though and this chapter ended.  I need to accept that and move on, but my book still has a lot of empty pages and I think if I read it over the rest of the story is not predictable at all.  I still have a long life to live and I am so great full that I got the chance to travel and that I have such a detailed record of it.  I still have a while but I am really excited to re-read this blog in about 10 years.  Who knows where I will be by then.

I will keep posting here too.  It might not be very often or similar to the rest but I love to write and I want to keep doing it.  So I hope you enjoyed reading, I know I enjoyed writing.

Hasta.....