Back Home

Hello my dears,
So I'm back stateside-- got in a day ago now-- still alive and intact after going through customs (a bit intense that...). It was a long day and a half of travelling. I was exhausted when we made it in, but I'm much better now. It's incredible being back. Everything's familiar yet decidedly off in some way that I can't quite explain. Everything I took for granted before is all shiny now. Like going to the supermarket and buying milk and produce that's not rotten-- and granola bars! Yay for granola bars! And not having to think about where things are before I head out for the day. And I haven't see any pigeons in the last 2 days. It's been glorious. It's nice not having to lock up my stuff all the time either. And just sitting in the passenger side of the car singing along with the radio (there were lanes on the road lol). I listened to some of my CDs yesterday. I'd missed my music. I'd missed my home. I really do fit here.

That being said, my trip has stirred in me an insatiable need to keep seeing the world so I'm sure I'll be headed off again once I've got this trip and a chunk of school paid for. Seeing these beautiful places with their alien yet compatible cultures... it just integrates itself into your being and slowly makes you more and more human, if that makes sense. I feel like a purer artist now. It's been quite frustrating trying to explain to people what looking at a Van Gogh up close does for you. How you're a different person after walking along the Seine or Avon, when you close your eyes and just let yourself exist in something bigger than yourself, being kissed by the sun in an ancient city that's known philosophical and artistic greatness. And for that moment you're a part of it too, one line in the story that is Paris, or Vienna, or Athens, or London. That's basically the best I can do :). Do you ever wish there were just more words? I yearn for a pure vocabulary every day, some way to completely show others how you feel. Someday, yeah?

So I'm off to do tedious normal things like apartment hunt and paperwork, it's been an excellent adventure all, and I recommend you all get out there too. Now's the time before you're locked too deeply in a career or a family and the next thing you know you're 75 and knitting with 5 cats (no good). I love you all, thanks for being so supportive of this crazy lady. Talk to you all soon. Love,
Me