So I've been reading Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, which is also a motion picture coming out in August starring Julia Roberts. It is the author's accounts of her travels through Italy, India and Indonesia.
She provides a different motive in each country. Italy:pleasure India:prayer and India:finding peace. It is a wonderful book, but I digress. This book has taught me alot of things the main idea being a rejection of pattern. I purposely put myself in uncomfortable situations in Europe in order to make the most out of my experiences and most of the time I got a positive result. But since I've been home I can feel myself slipping into the same repeat track I was following before. Like my cell phone. I barely had a functioning cell phone in Europe, but now I find myself constantly checking Facebook on my phone and texting, while I ignore my subconcious who is yelling at me to "PUT IT DOWN!". When meeting a friend for lunch I will wait in my car until they arrive at the restaurant. I mean I travled through Europe by myself and now I can't even be in public establishment by myself for heaven's sake. What is this reversal process? Is it American culture shooting back into my veins? or is it just me? Whatever it is I think I need to begin fighting the battle a little bit more harshly.
A fellow classmate from Spain told me, "Now a days I have to look at pictures just to remind me it (our Spain trip) was real". I have been hanging onto little things as to not let the experience seep out of me. Such as still using my Spanish toothpaste, shampoo and conditioner. Holding onto train tickets, museum pamphlets, metro passes etc, which I keep in a suitcase at the corner of my room. Talking to friends I met overseas weekly and watching the world cup. (On a sidenote Iam happy yet very envious that I wasn't back in Madrid to celebrate their championship.) And also looking at pictures. But my worst nightmere would be for this experience to no longer feel "real" like a distant dream. I can only hope to be traveling once again by the time my sores, longing and memories began to heal. But I know that if I do return to Spain it will never be the same as it was in spring 2010. While in Barcelona I met a man named Ralphe who, like me, had traveled abroad and had a blast. This was his return trip and he said it just wasn't the same. I smiled knowing that I too would feel the same. It's really a bittersweet feeling.
Oasis "Don't Look back in Anger":
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