I came home from my trip about three months ago with about 10,000 photographs to sift through and edit. It was a ridiculously time-consuming process, but I'm finally on top of the project (yay!!!!), and I'm going to start posting some pictures each day so that there's a better record of what I saw and did than the cell phone pics that I was posting while I was on the road.
I still think about this trip every day, and it's still affecting me every day. The time I spent traveling has woven itself into the core of who I am and how I think about things. It's permanently changed how I view the world and my own and my country's place in it. Buying that one-way plane ticket overseas was one of the best decisions of my entire life, and even though the transition back to the real world has been taking some time, it's been a small price to pay for such an incredible experience. I wouldn't trade it for anything.
One of my favorite parts of this trip was the sense that I was able to bring so many friends and family members along for a vicarious ride. Hopefully getting a peek at some better photographs of the trip will provide additional entertainment. :)
My current plan is to go through the trip more or less chronologically and post a few pictures each day. The first handful of shots that I'll post below were from my first day in Madrid, back in May. I was staying a couple of blocks off the Puerto del Sol, where thousands of students had constructed a tent city and were protesting austerity measures and bringing attention to the tremendous unemployment rate among young people. I remember arriving completely exhausted, overheated and overpacked, very worried that I was making the biggest financial mistake of my life, and downright scared of the prospect of traveling to Morocco alone. Really, as I think back on it now, it wasn't an optimal state of mind for one's first day of vacation! ;) As soon as my room became available, I collapsed in my bed, beside a big open window letting in a welcome breeze. I woke up a few hours later, totally refreshed, hearing strains of Schubert's Ave Maria bouncing off the cobblestones five stories below as a busker played his cello for tourists. I'll never forget the sense of peace that settled over me as I listened to the notes dance below me. Somehow I knew everything would be okay. I was right.
I still think about this trip every day, and it's still affecting me every day. The time I spent traveling has woven itself into the core of who I am and how I think about things. It's permanently changed how I view the world and my own and my country's place in it. Buying that one-way plane ticket overseas was one of the best decisions of my entire life, and even though the transition back to the real world has been taking some time, it's been a small price to pay for such an incredible experience. I wouldn't trade it for anything.
One of my favorite parts of this trip was the sense that I was able to bring so many friends and family members along for a vicarious ride. Hopefully getting a peek at some better photographs of the trip will provide additional entertainment. :)
My current plan is to go through the trip more or less chronologically and post a few pictures each day. The first handful of shots that I'll post below were from my first day in Madrid, back in May. I was staying a couple of blocks off the Puerto del Sol, where thousands of students had constructed a tent city and were protesting austerity measures and bringing attention to the tremendous unemployment rate among young people. I remember arriving completely exhausted, overheated and overpacked, very worried that I was making the biggest financial mistake of my life, and downright scared of the prospect of traveling to Morocco alone. Really, as I think back on it now, it wasn't an optimal state of mind for one's first day of vacation! ;) As soon as my room became available, I collapsed in my bed, beside a big open window letting in a welcome breeze. I woke up a few hours later, totally refreshed, hearing strains of Schubert's Ave Maria bouncing off the cobblestones five stories below as a busker played his cello for tourists. I'll never forget the sense of peace that settled over me as I listened to the notes dance below me. Somehow I knew everything would be okay. I was right.
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