I'm a month removed from my "journey of a lifetime" and for the first time since being given this assignment, I am actually pleased to do a blog. I must admit, extracting the details of my journey and regurgitating them back in electronic form became very tedious after awhile. I kept listening to a song quote over and over again on the trip and that was "I can't remember all the times I tried to tell myself to hold on to these moments as they pass." Every time I would hear that song I would try to take each moment, every step, every sight and sound and just try to commit it to memory as best that I could. Of course, to avoid complete sensory overload, I also used this as a conduit to store my memories and moments that I may otherwise forget.
While in Greece, I thought that each day went by at the speed of a crippled snail. The amount of trips and events compiled on top of actual school work left me stuck in a vortex of what seemed like a never ending of ancient architecture and sweltering heat. The days ran together because of the climate, but I remember distinctly that almost every day I was in Greece had those cliche cultural encounters that make you step out of your skin for a little bit and pinch yourself to see if you are dreaming. I hope I was able to document some of those moments well enough in the previous blogs to really help you commandeer my mindset while abroad, if only for a fleeting few moments.
Assimilating back into the American culture wasn't as difficult as I thought it was going to be initially. Granted, I was very happy to have access to fast food, separate checks, and the ability to flush my toilet paper in the toilet; but I thought I would really have trouble with the people and the lack of hospitality that I sometimes encounter while stateside. It didn't take me long to understand that my generalizations of some cultures were rather unwarranted. I had gone into Greece thinking that every culture had their quirks and comparisons were difficult, but you could still carve out behavioral universals and use those as a red herring to distract you from the good or bad things that accompany all cultures.
There are many parts of Greece that I find myself missing on a regular basis. One is just the natural history that accompanies the landscape. Even the oldest monuments and structures in the United States are babies in comparison to these behemoths of stone and human ingenuity. When you look around a city like Athens and try to imagine that you are standing on the mirage of modernity built upon layers and layers of history, you really start to appreciate and grasp just how small you are. In the U.S., you don't get that sense of wonder as often. Things that are 300 and 400 years old just don't seem that impressive when you've spent an afternoon in the heights (and heat) of Delphi. Still though, you are able to return to places like the U.S. and the major metropolises of this world and marvel in man's greatness as you witness how far we have come as a species.
My time in Greece helped me grow as a student, a American and a human being. Having spent my entire life immersed in a hybrid Asian-American cross culture, to enter a world as unique as Greece and to interact with her people is an experience that will shape me for the rest of my life. I loved everything about my time in Greece and know that I will be seeing the crystal blue waters of the Aegean sooner than I believe.
