Study abroad, as the cliché goes, is a time for self-discovery. Living in a foreign country means stepping outside of your comfort zone. It’s a chance to meet new people, explore new places, and unearth new passions. And then, at the end of the semester, you go home.
During the weeks leading up to my arrival home to Washington, D.C. from Barcelona, I had been planning out what I wanted my first meal to be. I would arrive at Dulles airport around 7 pm, my family would be waiting there to pick me up and we’d go to my favorite Thai restaurant. However, after I reunited with my family at baggage claim, the 13 hours of travel and the 6-hour time difference started to hit me, and I told my family I just wanted to go home and go to sleep. I was snoring by 9 pm.
The best part about having family in the country I chose to study abroad in is that my family spoiled me nonstop. Not only did they pay for expensive meals, they took me on weekend trips from time to time. This time, my aunt and uncle took me to Takayama -- a place at which, though it was raining, I got to relax and breathe in fresh mountainous air.
I’ve been home for a week and it still hasn’t set in that I will not be returning to Trinity College next semester or that I’ll walk back to my apartment building and have dinner with all my friends again. It’s a bitter sweet feeling to know that chapter has ended and another one is about to begin.
Well, I’ve been home for over a week now and today is Christmas Day. So Merry Christmas all! My sleep schedule is still all wacky. I don’t know it I would say I’m jet lagged, but everything is a bit weird regardless of what word you want to use. I start feeling tired around 1 or 2 pm and some days I get so tired I feel sick by around 8 or 9 pm. I know I just need more time to adjust, but it really is not a fun way to spend my first bit of time back home. However I am managing and people are patient with me.
Well, I’ve been home for over a week now and today is Christmas Day. My sleep schedule is still all wacky. I don’t know it I would say I’m jet lagged, but everything is a bit weird regardless of what word you want to use. I start feeling tired around 1 or 2 pm and some days I get so tired I feel sick by around 8 or 9 pm. I know I just need more time to adjust, but it really is not a fun way to spend my first bit of time back home.
Over a week has passed since I’ve returned home to America, but my time abroad couldn’t feel like any more of a distant memory. Though it has only been a week, I feel as if I’ve been home for quite a long time now. Many people advised me about the reverse culture shock that would occur when I arrived home, and I half expected there to be a rough reintegration process, but oddly enough I feel right at home as if I never left the area for China in the first place.
Since September, there have been kids gathering fuel for Halloween fires in Dublin. During a hall meeting, we looked out the window to see a few, 10 years old at most, dragging pallets out of the lot - partly a community garden, partly cracked concrete and meter-high grass - across the street from us.
By the time night fell on Halloween, a tower of kindling stood in the dog park nearby. After dark it turned into a tower of flame about twice as high, casting light over the whole street.
In this last segment of my three-part series on spring break in the southern hemisphere, I wanted to share some of my favorite pictures and memories.
