there's no place like home

so here i am, finally sitting at a desk that i know, using a keyboard that makes sense. my travels through europe were not about achieving any list of must-see or must-do things. for me, travelling was a chance to eat, drink and basque in a different kind of life for a short while. i hope i let the few cities i visited open themselves up to me, and i am certain that for a short while, i opened myself up to a different kind of life.

when i first was applying for this trip i was seeking an adventure. i wanted time away from so many things that were making me tired and anxious. i wanted something for me. i have come back a little more stable and hungry for time with my family and friends who have been residing in two cities very close to my heart for the last few months.

attempting to sum up my last two weeks in europe would only fall short of the extreme emotions i felt while i was there. there are not words to accurately describe a misty paris morning, eating a crepe on the steps of the pantheon and looking down a street that leads to the eiffel tower. and, i can't possibly express how emotional it was for my rosenheim family to meet my cleveland family for the first time. even through an icam, you can see family resemblances and language barriers are nothing when there is love involved. watching my oma see her sister for the first time in 20 years is a memory i will have forever.

so, like dorthy, i have escaped the dulldrums of the midwest for a little while and visited a fantasy world, only to come back. lots of people thought i would stay there forever, transfer to some london university and set up a whole new life. but, as much as i loved my time there, each little adventure only served to remind me of the people at home that i wish i was sharing it with. and believe me, i have a situation where i wished everyone of you were there.

so my last entry is a bit of a cop out. instead of telling you all about everything i did, i am choosing not to. at least not here. instead, i am going to post pictures from the last few weeks on my flickr. and i promise, if you ever want to know what it's like to be stuck in berlin sans hostel at 2 am, i'll tell you all about it, complete with catrina hand motions and everything. come up to the braumeister and over a beer you can tell me all about your last 2 months of adventure i will tell you about mine, and then we will knobel. and i will win.

so i promise i'll have pictures up in the next few days, and i'll keep putting up pictures of my adventures here at home with the people i missed for so long. but for now, my real life is calling me and i have to go feed the cat, and take out atti and spend some time with a few of you in real life instead of through typed words and rapid skype phone calls.