I should be writing a final paper. I took an epic four hour nap today after going to Naschmarkt (a gigantic flea market). I am listening to the song “We Used to Vacation” by the Cold War Kids. Paper later, blog now.
I have less than 4 days left in Europe…Back to Bentley for the Spring…Who knows where for a summer internship…last semester at Bentley…graduate in December…then a job and the rest of my life. Taking all that into account, I don’t know when I will be back in Europe. I had grand plans to visit Spain, Paris, London, Dublin, Berlin, and Amsterdam. However, Vienna was fresh to death, and I didn’t want to peace out every weekend. I did manage to hit up lots of Central and Eastern Europe:
Bratislava, Slovakia
Graz, Linz, Mauthesen, Salzburg,Innsbruck, Vienna, Austria.
Zurich, Switzerland
Verona, Venice, Milan, Italy
Budapest, Hungary
Brno, Prague, Czech Republic
Munich, Germany
Most of these hotspots I visited on the ultimate European road trip. I still need to write about this, seeing as that it was the highlight of my abroad experience. Now that I am packing (aka shoving copious amounts of chocolate into my suitcases) I stumbled upon Bentley’s “Education Abroad Handbook.” This handbook covers all topics: AIDS, homosexuals, women’s equality, and provides groundbreaking insights such as “Walking alone at night should be avoided.” Thank you Bentley.
The section I am reading now is the “Returning Home” section.
“Your international study and travel experiences can help you become more mature, independent and worldly than your peers who remained at home…You may be disappointed when friends and family do not share your interests”
I don’t know how your interpret this, but to me it sounds like because you lived somewhere else you will be granted with some paradigm shift in the way you view life and those peons who stayed in America won’t even understand you anymore.
However, the hand book goes on to explain that, “You may find that people are not interested in hearing your travel stories as you had hoped and would much rather talk about their own affairs.”
AKA Nobody gives a sneeze how much you miss pints were in your favorite pub or how much you miss eating a kabob when you take the first ubahn of the morning home from Praterdome. I have noticed this in my friends/acquaintances that come home from abroad. They are homesick for their abroad host country and talk about it 70%-98% of the time. It gets old fast. Therefore, right now, I give permission to anyone who reads this to slap me if I constantly slip into nostalgia for Austria. I can see it now, “Christina, if you mention the Turkish bakery/public transportation/proximity to other countries/people from abroad one more time, I will slap you.”
Ok, so I really should be writing my Ecological Economics final paper. What I really want to write about I can’t project all over cyberspace. I want to talk about people, things, places, here. Regrettably, since the link to this blog is on facebook, I don’t want said people, places and things to read about themselves by mistake. This last week I have watched all of season 1 and 5 of “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” It makes me wonder if Larry David’s family and friends get mad at him for how they are depicted on his show. Same things with novelists. I know Truman Capote’s friends got pissed for how he wrote about them. In order to avoid social castigation, I won’t write about those nouns until a later date. Or better yet, ask me about the characters here. (Please take note that if YOU ask ME about abroad, you are not allowed to slap me for talking about it :D).
