One of the first things someone said about Brazil occurred when we were crossing the street; “When was the last time a car stopped for us?” Ghana definitely didn’t. In Cape Town it depended where you were. Only if you were on a resort area in Mauritius. No go in India. Not a chance in hell in Ho Chi Minh. China didn’t slow down. Japan did. Japan about 11 or so weeks ago seems to be the answer. So going to a place where people stop at traffic lights? Going to be weird. I’m not even sure which side of the road is the right side to drive on anymore.
Bargaining too. When’s the last time I accepted something at the price it was first offered? From taxi’s to clothing prices, if you didn’t get the price at least a third of the way down you were being cheated, except in Japan those 11 plus weeks ago. I’m not sure I can walk into a store and except something at full price anymore. To actually know the real cost of stuff too; for it not to be in terms of ren, doug, real, rand, rupees, cds, yuan? I’m not sure I want to pay the real price if I actually know what something costs and I don’t even have to option to bargain. And wow that’s a lot of denominations that start with r. And really now, the US has the most boring looking money.
And the internet. Throughout this voyage, 109 days, I have been on the internet for 21 hours and 50 minutes. Not even a full day. That’s No YouTube. Barely any Facebook. It’s mostly from figuring stuff out for the ports ahead. Making sure everything is good for registering for classes in the real world. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with free accessible internet. Or phones. I haven’t heard it ring in months, nor could I tell you what the ringtone is. Texting is going to be completely foreign.
It’s all so weird. It was weird to swipe onto the ship for the last time. It’s going to be weird to go to sleep at night and not have rocking. It’s weird to think that there are people here that I might not see again. Weirdness all around. Weirdness that I don’t want to think about.
There are about 580 students on this ship and there are still people I’m meeting after almost four months. It’s great. The overall student population is beyond words to describe. It has been a blast to travel with them all. I made sure that every port I traveled with someone I had never traveled with and I think it was one of the best decisions I could have ever made. It leads to so many different experiences and you connect places and people. I’m not going to be able to separate the two. And I wouldn’t want to. I wandered through foreign cities with all of them; some things planned others not so much. And it was magnificent. I’m so glad I got the chance to know them.
Far beyond that are the people you connect to in places. Connect in spite of boundaries and barriers, whether lingual, socio-economic, racial or imaginary. Toothbrush people, who you’re never going to meet again, I wonder if I made as big an impression of them as they did on me. Some of them I still keep in contact with, and others I couldn’t tell you their name. But I can picture their faces and the conversation. You take in so much and there’s so little time. You’re always moving. There’s not enough time.
In a day I get to step onto US soil. I haven’t been in New York since the 13th of January. I get to see everyone and see what I’ve missed. To be in one place for more than a week. I don’t know what that is going to be like. I don’t know if any of us want to reintegrate back into the US. It’s the end of something that I’m not sure I want to end. I’m going to miss this. But our stories aren’t over yet.
Thanks for reading; I hope you enjoyed my rambles and photos. I’ll see you all soon.
