nostalgia tiemz.

[13chapters]

toronja has put me in mind of my own time studying abroad when I was in college and I am feeling nostalgic. Oh, it was so interesting and exciting!

Comments

[13chapters]

I really hope you get to go! I am such a huge advocate for study abroad - my experience totally changed my life. Part of it was just being able to see another place, but part of it was definitely specific to living in Jerusalem, which is central to a long and ongoing conflict. It really made me aware of the complexities of the situation, how no one is right and no one is wrong because everyone involved has a valid point AND has done some truly fucked up shit. I don't know if I'm saying this in a way that makes sense, but it opened my eyes to how complicated the world is and how disgusting it is the modern politics tends to oversimplify and paint everyone in terms of black and white.

Blah blah shut up me. But it was great and I totally loved Italy! Where would you be studying? I'm gonna guess Florence? There were SO MANY Americans studying abroad when we went to visit.

[toronja]

as usual, your stories are great. :)

I am going to bawl like a baby when I have to go home, I can tell already. I love Berlin! Everything is an adventure! Everything is new and exciting! Even scary homeless guys yelling at you on the train at 4 am are exciting because it's never happened before and you can laugh about it later with your friends! Speaking only German is exciting! It's even better when you understand everything and everyone understands YOU!

oh god berlin ♥

[13chapters]

I cried for like HOURS on the plane back to the US. It was so devastating to leave a place I had really come to love and feel at home in and know that I couldn't just come back easily. Now it kind of feels like a dream because it was years ago and it just seems like a different world.

Part of living in Jerusalem was like...everything that happened was noteworthy. It felt like I was living in a CNN report or something, because things that affected me were on the international news! Like, President Clinton came to town for peace talks and it fucked up MY traffic. It was crazy and surreal. and so incredibly anticlimactic to go back to the US and finish up my college career in a little lazy beach town.

[toronja]

Gahhh, I am already dreading my return and it's still a good three weeks away. ONLY THREE WEEKS, WHAT THE SHIT. But really, I love Berlin so much and feel really at home here. I could (and want to) come back, but I know it won't be the same ~experience. Berlin isn't so full of crazy stuff as Jerusalem is, but it's still more exciting than my house in the suburbs or my well-trimmed college campus. I think a big part of this has been ~BEING INDEPENDENT~. Silly but true, I definitely feel more capable of just getting shit done because otherwise it WON'T GET DONE. GOOD JOB WITH THAT REVELATION, SELF.

umm. enough rambling. need to finish this stupid essay so i can go EXPERIENCE THINGS and HAVE LIFE CHANGING MOMENTS. and also sleep.

[fromageordeath]

I am soooooo going to Jerusalem first chance I get...We should go together. You could show me the city, teach me Hebrew, and maybe we could go see a concert of Habanot Nechama. You know you want to hear the flower song live.

[13chapters]

We SHOULD go! but lol at the idea of teaching you Hebrew! This is the Hebrew I still remember:

eifo ha-sherutim? = where is the bathroom?
ani lo medaberat ivrit = I don't speak Hebrew
ivrit sheli lo tov = my Hebrew is bad.
at medaberet anglit? = do you speak English?
ani scharchoret = I'm dizzy

(scharchoret is my favorite word of Hebrew!!)

[fromageordeath]

If it sounds like I think it does, scharchoret must be a pretty awesome word. How about the one that means "suspicious unattended item (or something)", though?

[13chapters]

That's chefetz hashud. Which will be shortly followed by ptzatza (a bomb).

[probing_grays]

so I probably skipped a few levels in [info]probing_grays and my Guidelines On Traveling in going straight to the Middle East for my first experience abroad.

LOL NO REALLY

She ended up living in St. Louis for years and years after we ~grew up

Clearly she is an awesome person then!

/in no way biased

(I was born in St Louis)

Man, it definitely sounds like fun. I am jealous~. The closest I ever got to studying abroad was spending a month in India.

[13chapters]

It was SUPER fun.

Hahaha, I don't think she particularly liked St. Louis. She went to Wash U and then she got married and her husband was doing his master's there and then they bought a house and she got a job and it was like she was stuck. But she always talked about getting out. Eventually she got divorced and went to grad school at the University of Missouri and finally left. But then I went to grad school and was super busy and I haven't talked to her in ages! It is bad.

[mistyzeo]

that sounds like a crazy situation that turned out awesome. i'm so glad! thanks for sharing! toronja and i are pulling through together, thank goodness, but i think we're both ready to go home.

AMERICA. THE DOLLAR.

[13chapters]

America is SO AWESOMEEEE. I love it for serious. When do you come back?

[mistyzeo]

January 8th or so. my padres are coming over for christmas and we're going to rome for new year's. \o/

but i miss my kittehs!

[13chapters]

That'll be so awesome! My parents never visit me...ANYWHERE. Seriously, they've come to visit me exactly once, when I lived in Chicago. So I am a little jealous.

omgggg I love Rome. Even though I got pickpocketed there TWICE. :/