Getting Back to Oz
by Liv | Published on April 25th, 2008, 10:35 am | Travel
It's been about a week since we flew back from London. Life has been pretty weird from that point on. Surprisingly driving on the right came back pretty quick as did the odd change in etiquette between strangers. I feel isolated in my vehicle without 30 or 40 strangers riding with me. No longer did I hear "Cheers" as I checked out from Food Lion, nor did I hear "No worries, Love." when someone made a mistake. Our immediate friendliness is a few degrees short of the British, yet somehow the familiarity of the faces here endured my absence and welcomed me back.Several days of being here has left me sick with a cold, I've yet to return to work other then checking my schedule. Somehow, I'm having a hard time functioning as well. I finished the bathroom, (to which I still must post pics) and we've started painting Chance's room. I'm tired and lethargic, and honestly I can't get our trip out of my head. It's as though London has corrupted me. Perhaps such is true anytime someone travels to far off cultures? I never felt this way about Canada, the Bahamas, nor Mexico. It's as though I'm sad. Sad that the fantasy has ended. As if Dorothy in all her time in the land of Oz, -final gets home and then realizes she'll spend the rest of her life trying to get back to Oz.
My parents always use to say I had Gypsy in my blood. Like some sort of calling to travel, I've tasted blood and I want more. The problem is it really interferes with your mindset when your trying to tell yourself your just a mental case, and to get back to reality.
In one breath, I want to say as I did when I came back to Philly how much I'm glad to be home. As enlightening as the travels to the city of Brotherly love was, it was clear the moment we hit North Carolina I had a new deep profound love and respect for the friendliness and good-will of the people in our state. I still feel that way today. However, in another breath, something about London touched me so profoundly, beyond our casual mindset of "Lets all get-along" that it bothers me not having it here. Oh and I'm certain roses always smell better in a different vase, and I won't ignore the obvious responses of argument suggesting my words are almost treasonous to the American patriotism, but I can't help but wonder how much better of a country we'd be if we all took a good look at how many good things other countries have.
In America we know we are the best. We've never known any better. It's this lack of questioning, that when one final does travel and walks down a (yellow brick) road of opprotunity, one realizes how such beliefs can lead to more narrow mindset. I'm grateful for my time abroad, and while I can't say if I'll ever make it back to Oz, like any fairy tale that changes its reader when we they stop just blindly reading, and become apart of the fantasy themselves, I am forever changed.
