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thoughts on heading home
heading to my homeland, the united states, in the coming week for the first time in ALMOST THREE YEARS. this isn’t exactly weird to me, because i’ve lived it, but i can see how it would seem weird to everyone else. i suppose when your life is weird, these weird facts just grow on you! two years and nine months solely spent in europe. blam. i can’t help but wonder if i might freak out when i hear english around me all the time. or what i’m going to do to busy myself on a long-haul flight because the real last big one i took was in 2011. or if…
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Living Without Stuff
i came over to europe with only those things that would fit comfortably in my (large) backpack. well, fit comfortably isn’t exactly correct because it was totally over-stuffed and weighed more than even alex’s bag and huuuurt if i wore it for over an hour. ouch. (below, me and said backpack in gimmelwald, switzerland, 2008) but i am now settled in a place: České Budějovice for the time being. it’s nice to live somewhere. to have plants (my small “herb garden”) and make baked goods. to have people over for tea or dinner. this is living as usual and it’s nice. since i’ve stopped moving around in january of this year…
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Leaving Home, Living in Europe
when i left seattle last july–almost a year ago–i didn’t have a goodbye party… something i sometimes kick myself for. although that’s what most people do when they go away for a long time, it didn’t seem real to me then. i told everyone where i was going and when but i didn’t feel like the occasion warranted a full-out goodbye party. sometimes i downplayed my departure. that seemed too definite at the time. when i packed my clothes in anacortes last august, i didn’t quite understand what i was packing for. even though it was august, i forced myself to pack a warm winter hat and a sweater or…