Monday, February 22, 2010

"with these things there's no telling / we'll just have to wait & see"

I feel like every time I talk about wanting to be home, I need to preface those thoughts with "BUT I LOVE IT HERE and I'm NOT homesick", because that's true too. I do love Europe, and I don't want anyone to think that I'm homesick, because I'm not. But, as my friends and I have been trying to figure out our travel plans after classes end (a time which is actually rather eminent), I've been realizing that I would be just as happy to be home as I would be traveling around Europe. Is that bad?

I don't get really excited about the idea of traveling here. This is weird because when I'm at home, I count the days until any scheduled trip. And I love my traveling companions here, so it's not that. I don't know what it is, but everyone is always really excited about sightseeing and I'm just not.

Not really having a place in mind to go has it's advantages though, because traveling around Europe is so much easier said than done, so (as I've already told my parents), I won't be really upset if my potential plans don't work out. Or at least, disappointment won't set in until later, anyway.

Another (is there a nicer world for "lie"?) that people told me before I left was that it would be so easy to travel around Europe because I would already be here. So wrong. First of all, my end of school schedule is logistically a mess, which is what makes everything difficult. But besides that, train trips are long, flights are expensive, and the discount airlines seem pretty useless.

For example, everyone in the states always talks about RyanAir and EasyJet. BUT, it's not like they fly everywhere from Bordeaux, or even Paris. And when they do fly places, they only fly on select days, out of far away airports at inconvenient times. AND, according to this link, RyanAir's carry-on luggage limit is smaller than my small travel bag. I'm a light packer when I want to be, but this means that I can't go anywhere for more than a weekend. AND because I have an additional large suitcase, it means I can't rely on the discount airlines to take me anywhere permenantly OUT of Bordeaux before I leave.

Israel is on my list of places to go, because 1) It's Israel 2) I feel like at UCI (among the groups of people I'm around, often) Israel is a topic that's in everyone's collective consciousness EXCEPT for mine, because everyone has been and I haven't, and 3) Best Friend/Roommate/Sorority sister Talia is studying there right now. But it will cost me something like $800 dollars to get there, which I'd rather not spend. Another time perhaps.

And Kayla (my cousin, for those of you who aren't related to me) is studying in London, which isn't toooo difficult to get to. But even London has its own set of logistical problems for me.

So I don't know. There are a lot of things that I miss at home, which don't come with expensive flights, heavy luggage, inconvenient hotel/hostel accommodations, et cetera. I REALLY miss the sorority, and I wouldn't be upset to be back in time to see them before UCI ends for the year, if it meant a little less traveling.....I think. There are other things I miss too, really badly, but I don't really have a choice except to deal.

OKAY: Someone suggest for me a place to travel on this continent (or, nearby) that I can look forward to. Merci!



1 comment:

  1. I think you should go to Barcelona, because when I was there I loved it. Also, you should go to Berlin, so that you can find all the hip places and let me know before I go there. You should go to Prague, because I hear it's beautiful. You should go to Budapest, because I hear it's also beautiful, and a city that's somewhat less traveled. And finally, I think you should go to St. Tropez, so that you can hopefully run into Kanye on a yacht.

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