What was my favorite country?

Really? Is this what you want to ask me when I get home? As many of you have read, I have favorite aspects of things that I have experienced. There are cities that I enjoyed visiting more than others, but to say that a whole country is my favorite is just not possible. I can’t do that. To judge one culture, people group and country based on my experiences for five days is just unfair. I appreciate my experiences in each country for the fact that they have opened my eyes to many new things. I can point to specific things that I learned in each country. From my experience in Hiroshima, Japan that opened my eyes to issues like peace and conflict and nuclear weapons to the pollution in Beijing and globalization effects in Hong Kong. The poverty and reality of Vietnam and the wai in Thailand. The complex culture of India and unexpected contrast in Egypt with the media’s portrayal of Arabs. Turkey’s combination of East and West to the effects of war in Croatia and, finally, to Spanish and siestas in Spain. I have had an amazing experience and learned a lot from each country and culture. I am NOT the same person. I am not going to be. I am okay with that – if you are not, hopefully you will learn to be. I have become more comfortable being uncomfortable. I’ve slept on trains and buses that people at home would probably not even sit on. I have been made incredibly uncomfortable by the extreme poverty that I have seen and learned that this is discomfort that I can’t live with. I have truly learned the difference between physical and emotional discomfort. One I am okay with, the other is devastating. I know that I am driven to do something about the poverty that I have seen. I don’t know what it will be, but know that it is something that I have an incredible passion for.

I don’t know what to expect when I get home. It will truly be a new experience. T. S. Elliot says, “We shall never cease from exploration, And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” This is an amazing quote especially considering all that I have learned about my own culture since leaving it. It is amazing that you can learn so much about something that you are completely separated from. I had no idea how much my culture has shaped who I am. It is amazing. Oh and, by the way, there are people in the United States that haven’t experienced the glory that is biscuits and gravy. Haha… this is a silly example, but it just shows how much different the south and my home are from other parts of the United States, not to mention the rest of the world. It is a beautiful difference. All cultural differences are beautiful in their own way. They are so interesting to me, especially now.