You only live once, but I’m studying abroad twice. Its a weird place, being in the middle of this adventure that will take me across four continents and home again. Sitting at the airport, waiting to board a plane that will take me to Istanbul and then to Mumbai, India, where I will find my way to my host family, school, and adventure in Pune, I reflect on the six weeks that was my rickety foot bridge between continents.
Re-entry is a disease. This is a truth that many of my dear friends at Georgetown who were abroad in the fall are probably experiencing. It makes everything harder and slower. I think I speak for many when I say we’ve been giving a completely new set of mental muscles a strenuous workout abroad, to the detriment of our paper-writing-lau-surviving-extracurricular-balancing muscles. The inertia that makes us long for the study abroad life leads to cultural whiplash, and it takes time to heal, to get in shape, and to get back to ‘real life’.
In the past six weeks, I left South Africa, spent Thanksgiving on the hilltop, returned to Wyoming to watch reruns on the couch, traveled by train across the French countryside, went back to Wyoming to pack and made my way to DC in time to spend 2 nights on a couch in Village B, which finds me here, at Dulles International. Needless to say I’m not quite as well rested as I was in July before I left for South Africa, and my perspective has shifted to say the least.
4 Ways Study Abroad Round 2 Has Changed:
- I brought half as much clothes and twice as many books.
- I arrived at the airport early, via ZipCar, with best friends.
- My final American meal was Epicurean.
- I know who’s waiting for me when the plane lands.
4 Things that Haven’t Changed About Study Abroad Round 2:
- Cheezits are an essential airplane food.
- Avoid large groups of American’s in matching t-shirts.
- Frantically calling/texting everyone you know in the airport to say goodbye.
- Meeting someone under strange circumstances and knowing that that uncomfortable connection will last a lifetime.
Over the past few days I’ve spent in DC, I’ve talked to old friends about life, loneliness, wanderlust, moving on, growing up, and being brave. I’ve talked a lot about the magic of the Lord of the Rings, the fact that Frodo isn’t a hero, and that it isn’t the act of a king or a wizard or a merry elf-dwarf bromance that saves the world, it’s the marginal act of an ordinary person. That’s an idea to hold on to as I sit, travel-worn and weary, only part way through an incredible journey that promises unimaginable change. The scariest part of the second half of my split year is that this time, though I may not have a good idea of what the terrain ahead looks like, I know what ‘not home’ feels like. I know what it means to crave a familiar accent, to hope for a simple phone call from your mom, to long for a coke full of corn syrup or a Krispy Kream donut. I also know what kind of adventures might lay ahead, finding that local cuisine that becomes a staple, train rides and spring break travels, being taught hindi swear words by Indian students, and a host mom and dad waiting for me 10,000 miles away.
So much has changed since I last sat in this terminal waiting for a plane to take me halfway around the world, and so much has not. I’m just as homeless, just as clueless, just as terrified of what’s waiting for me 25 hours from now but really just as capable of dealing with it. But now I know, I know a little bit more about the world, and a little bit more about myself. Joking with the man at the ticket counter, breezing through security, and casually stocking up on American candy in the airport made me remember that in July, doing all these things had involved thinking “This is the first time I’m ____ on my way to South Africa.” Well it’s not my first time going abroad anymore, but it’s my first time going to India. There’s a first time for everything, but every time is the first of something. And to be honest, the second time feeling feels pretty good too.
Butt Naked Travels 