The Last (Official) Blog: Waking Up With My Eye on an Elbow and Other Random (Semi-Digested) Thoughts

I woke up this morning with an elbow in my eye ... okay, okay, to be fair to Nick ... I woke up this morning with my eye on an elbow (must have turned my head the wrong way).  This startled me and I shot up in bed a little dazed and confused.  Where was Alicia and her cute blanket?  Why couldn't I hear Elizabeth having her morning cereal and fruit?  And, well ... I could never hear Katy because she was always talented enough to squeeze an extra 15 minutes of sleep out of the morning.  After a couple of seconds, I realized that I was no longer in London, flat 12.  The mixture of cold air pumping out of the AC and the heat trying to fight its way through the window told me that I was in fact, safe and secure in Las Vegas.

The funny thing is that the whole London experience feels like it was just a dream - sort of like floating through a haze of beautiful scenery, laughing it up with super-fantabulous people, and the murmur of tour guided history in the background.  Funny to think that it was only a day ago that I was there.

I guess traveling back over several time zones, over 15 hours of flying, 8 hours of layover, and 3 hours of delays can also add to that sense of elongated time.  My body was so tired after all that flying and waiting - but I wasn't able to fall asleep when we got to the hotel at 3:00am, Vegas time.  Instead my wonderful boyfriend allowed me to amuse him with stories from abroad, while we feasted on a club sandwich, a french dip, and french fries (formerly known to me as "chips" or "pomme frites").  Like the patient guy he is, he waited until I was tired (at 6am) to fall asleep.

Today was spent recovering.  A hearty serving of kim chee saimin was like a bowl of reality - bringing me from my floating dream state back down to Earth.  We lazied about downtown Las Vegas, wandered into stores, and gawked at street entertainers.  All the while, I couldn't stop talking about London and how the two cities are so different.  Vegas has lights, London has architecture.  Vegas is hot, London is cool.  Everything comes in excess in Vegas, London is more minimalistic.

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I wonder how long my friends and family will let me keep talking about London and Paris before they tell me that it is "old news".  I ponder how long before the sights and sounds become a blur - details of tours gone by just a fading memory.  How many memories will be brought back by looking at old pictures, reading blog posts, and glancing at brochures in a month, a year, ten years?

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During our second to the last dinner in London, a conversation started up at the table about how ten minutes can change your life.  You could decide to go left instead of right.  Say no, rather than yes.  Well, I'm glad that I opened up that random mass email from one of my professors (because normally I trash them without looking) which told me about the London study abroad.  I'm glad I decided to pay the confirmation money on the last day, rather than letting the deadline slip by.  I'm grateful that I took the opportunity to pack myself up and allow myself to be a part of such a wonderful journey.

How did this change my life?

I don't want to over-generalize, but I believe that a good portion of Hawai'i residents don't get to travel as much as they'd like.  One big factor, I think, is the money - the price of living back home is flat-out expensive.  I always saw myself traveling, but being the dreamer that I am, that's all it was.  A sort of skewed vision that never seemed close enough to be real - perhaps I felt that thinking it would be enough.  Another thing for me was that the rest of the world seemed so incomprehensible.  In order to travel abroad, you need documents, different money, places to stay, ways to get around, an idea of what to do once you get there.  Packing needs to be light, but enough so you don't run out of clothes.  The plane rides are long and often times require connections.  You may be in places where people don't speak the same language as you do.

The London experience helped me to understand that traveling is not as difficult as I always made it out to be.  I have come to realize that desire is enough - and even though you may not know everything about your destination, adventures always find you.  On top of this, I have used numerous Web 2.0 applications which may be of great help once I am ready to start job hunting.  This blog, as well as the things embedded in it, can serve as sort of a personal portfolio to what I've learned.  Somehow, the world isn't so big anymore.

I had some really great rooibus lemonade from Caribou Coffee on my long layover in Atlanta.  I wish I had room in my bags to keep the cup because it so appropriately read "spin the globe then pack your bags".  I think this is a great motto for myself in the upcoming years.  I'm still young, full of energy, and not terribly attached to too much responsibility.  Why shouldn't I try to see more of the world.  This trip allowed me to understand how awesome travel is - not only to learn new cultures, but also to build stronger character.