Home Sweet Sweet Home

Tomorrow night I will be back in the good SLC... I cant wait! I am so excited to hug my mom and dad... then my friends... then eat sushi. I am going home about 2.5 weeks early, but I dont even care. I am so exhausted. I have been traveling for 2.5 months and I am tired... Its hard just getting settled somewhere... making friends.. then having to pack up and travel all day to another strange place. Thats also of course part of the excitement... venturing into the unknown.. but after a while it started to wear on me... I just kept thinking about all the things I want and need to do at home. Like get on track for nursing school, get a job, save more money for another adventure in Asia and India, and I really miss my family and friends. I guess one of the most important things I have learned on this trip is that nomatter where you go in the world.. when you get down to it...everybody is pretty much the same. Even each place I have gone to is the same in a way.. the architecture may be different, but in essence it is the same... and not entirely different than the US. I think I was trying to escape from American culture...which kind of annoys me.. the superficiality, materialism, ''Hollywood'', ignorance... but I have learned that it is everywhere.... even where you think and hope it wouldnt be... and I have learned that it is not necessarily the US that created this. So my hostility and bitterness toward the States has been subdued a bit.. I think the key is each person is different and you surround yourself with good people with good hearts... I think that is the most important thing. And then I realized that all those good people are back home... and also in London, Australia, Italy, Switzerland, and all over the world... they are sometimes hard to find but when you do its wonderful... but I guess I realized how lucky I am to have what I have back home. I definately plan on living in another country when I am a nurse for a few years... I very much want to do volunteer work all over the world. I met the coolest guy on the shuttle to Malpensa Airport in Milan who was going to the Ukraine to do volunteer work with homeless children. I got the information and maybe that will be my next thing. We had an amazing conversation.. one I will never forget... about life, happiness, Buddhism, books, volunteering.. oh and he was from Siena, Italy! We talked a lot of about Siena as well... Its little random encounters like that that have made my adventure so memorable.. it hasnt been seeing a famous painting... or the Red Light District in Amsterdam... or anything like that... it has by far been the people I have met and will never forget... I have learned so much.. about myself and the world... and I am so excited to go home!