Re-Entry
Today I was flipping through a travel magazine I bought a few years ago that highlighted the top 20 places to visit in Europe. As I turned each page I noted the ones we made it to and the places that eluded us. Istanbul, Turkey was the only destination in the magazine that I really wanted to visit but never got to.
I flipped past the final city on the list and was on my way to closing the magazine when I came across the very last article entitled "Coming Home".
Fitting. So I read on.
Rick Steves' talks about his feelings on returning home from traveling abroad. "There is an exhilaration that comes from an infusion of images, lessons and memories... that just can't be shared. My trip doesn't end when I step off the final flight. I enjoy the trip-capping challenge of making sense of all I saw and did, and splicing what learned into who I am and what I do. Travel is rich with learning opportunities.... from sampling ethnic foods and listening to new music to learning to appreciate a point of view very different from our own."
Traveling changes you somehow. Three years living in and traveling throughout Germany has changed me and I am truly sad and a little afraid to leave this life behind. I know that my travel days are not over, there is still so much to see and thankfully still time for new adventures to some of the wonderful destinations outside of Europe. But as I have fully embraced this culture and have come to appreciate so many aspects of it more than my own, I am worried that life in the States will be disappointing and that I will get sucked back into the hurried culture of American life and forget how to skip the "take-away" and sit and enjoy a cup of cappuccino in the cafe, or linger at dinner for 3 hours and never once look at my watch. I'll forget I can take public transportation, go for bike rides and linger in a park for hours while the kids play and I doze in and out on a blanket of grass.
I am returning to the US in just over a month and I'm simply not ready on so many levels.
I flipped past the final city on the list and was on my way to closing the magazine when I came across the very last article entitled "Coming Home".
Fitting. So I read on.
Rick Steves' talks about his feelings on returning home from traveling abroad. "There is an exhilaration that comes from an infusion of images, lessons and memories... that just can't be shared. My trip doesn't end when I step off the final flight. I enjoy the trip-capping challenge of making sense of all I saw and did, and splicing what learned into who I am and what I do. Travel is rich with learning opportunities.... from sampling ethnic foods and listening to new music to learning to appreciate a point of view very different from our own."
Traveling changes you somehow. Three years living in and traveling throughout Germany has changed me and I am truly sad and a little afraid to leave this life behind. I know that my travel days are not over, there is still so much to see and thankfully still time for new adventures to some of the wonderful destinations outside of Europe. But as I have fully embraced this culture and have come to appreciate so many aspects of it more than my own, I am worried that life in the States will be disappointing and that I will get sucked back into the hurried culture of American life and forget how to skip the "take-away" and sit and enjoy a cup of cappuccino in the cafe, or linger at dinner for 3 hours and never once look at my watch. I'll forget I can take public transportation, go for bike rides and linger in a park for hours while the kids play and I doze in and out on a blanket of grass.
I am returning to the US in just over a month and I'm simply not ready on so many levels.
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