I've now been back home in Canada for about a month... it feels so so good to be 'home'. What I've done in the last 11 months feels incredibly surreal though. Coming back home... the city, the people, the 30 degree summer weather... nothing seems to have changed. It is so strange to think that I have just completed travelling 13 countries in 11 months, while living in England and going to university there, and to think how much this experience has changed me as a person, and yet my hometown of 90,000 people appears to have been frozen in time these last 11 months.
Although there's no place like home, and it feels awesome to be home in a familiar scene, I of course miss the amazing people that were such a huge part of my experience abroad. I knew before I left, that it wouldn't be the places I would miss the most, but the people for sure. They completely took me in, and showed me different aspects and attitudes of life and other cultures that people often overlook.
I've come to realize that this experience cannot translate to words. No matter how long or how hard I try to explain to anyone the journeys I had, the hard times, the good times, the people I met, the different foods I tried ... everything ... I get the same blank 'head-nod' from everyone. From this reaction I can tell that they will never fully understand how extraordinary my time in Europe these last 11 months was. One really has to 'do' it to understand its significance.
Below I've written the words that to me, that best describe my experiences.
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