North Carolina, I'm coming back to you. Are you ready for this hot mess? I'll tell you what I'm ready for. I'm ready for ovens, dryers, timeliness, and all things efficient. I'm ready for grown up friends with jobs and dreams. I'm ready for a good sleep in a good bed. I'm ready for barbecue, chili, and anything I want because I will have all my shit. I will say goodbye to this siren city in 3 days. This trip has been one gigantic party and I am ready to set down the Polish piwo in exchange for a PBR.
I wanted to take a minute and write a little about some life lessons I have learned while on this trip. My family, you dear people, have supported me generously and I can not fully express my appreciation any other way. As most of you know when I left high school I stayed close to home because I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to take care of myself without you close by. I was young, and I had made a lot of mistakes. Fortunately, I knew that I had many more mistakes to go before I would be ready to take on the world alone. Those mistakes became habits and dreams faded as realities set in. Pretty soon I found myself in a static life that I had built. But, I still wanted something more. I was bored and I needed a great adventure. With the encouragement of my friends and the support of my university I was able to find one.
Being here I've learned that without risk there is no fun (was,was, Maria?!). From here on out I will try to venture into paths that are risky. I know that I can handle this because when I came here I was so scared of making more mistakes. However, I've realized that the things I was fearing were not important, and when I it came time to face them they were not as bad as I had thought.
I learned that I shouldn't complain so much about my life because I've got it a lot better than some people. I'm sure that I will still be a baby about things, but I at least have this trip to remind myself that I've got a good life. So, lesson #2: It's funny because it's not funny. Just laugh at it.
I talked many times earlier in this blog about how I was trying to teach myself that less is more. Well, that is a fine motto, but truth be told, more is more. Sometimes it's perfectly ok to go over the top. It creates the comedy that life needs to support lesson #1: No risk, no fun.
Lesson #4: There are worse things than being alone. For example, sitting on a bus next to a Polish girl who wants to talk to you for the full 7 hours that it takes to get to its destination, which leads me to lesson #5.
You should choose your words wisely. I can honestly say that 70% of my frustrations stemmed from confused conversations that were absurdly lost in translation. Even when I return to my mother tongue in its finest form, I will never forget that people don't read minds. Therefore, you should say what you mean and say it nicely.
Everything else can be chalked up to history made into reality. You can read all you want to about a country, but it makes so much more sense when you are standing in a newly remodeled building looking at a picture from 50 years before when it was entirely destroyed. It just really makes you think, "What the fuck?" I still can't possibly wrap my mind around what these people have been through, and I won't try anymore. They have all my respect because they have had a difficult road to get to where they are, which is no where. But hey, at least they are trying in a stupid, backward, "never gonna happen if you do it like this" kind of way. They've got spirit, and the picture below shows it.
This is a statue that is by the bus station here. It represent the people after Martial law was implemented in Poland. Martial law was used in Poland in an attempt stifle the solidarity movement, which eventually led to Poland's freedom. If you remember one of my first blogs was about the Orange Alternative movement. This movement stemmed from Solidarity. However, after martial law, life became chaotic here, and standing in lines to buy goods with rations became a normal way of life. In short, that's what this statue is a reminder of. I can not begin to explain to you how strange it is to sit in the city center and imagine that all of these corporate stores, that stand brightly painted, at one point in time were just totally empty, dull, grey, stood with long lines of miserable people coming out of them. So, refer to lesson #2.
Finally, the trip to Budapest was wonderful. It's an amazing city. I'll post pictures on Facebook as soon as it lets me.
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