How to grow up

Go abroad.

The end.

Just kidding. But I was talking to my friend Michela yesterday (mikay, I hope you're reading this. Hope you're not embarrassed.) And she said some awesome things.

A little background: Michela and I lived next door to each other freshman year, and thus had a lot of heart to heart conversations. She also is allergic to nuts, mangos, soy, and about a billion other things.

Anyway, she's currently in London having a great time and an abroad experience completely unlike mine (as in, she has her own room with internet and heat and hot water and nightlife and stuff). Regardless, she's abroad and still has to navigate many of the same cultural differences that appear when you leave America, which really opens your eyes to the way you normally live life and the way other people normally live life.

She also said that she feels more like a real person, because she reads for pleasure and watches the news and is more involved in the world. I feel that way too: I read way more here than I normally do during the semester, and I really appreciate the news because it's so scarce (although we have been watching a lot of BBC news because of the tsunami. Pala is really interested, as am I. I'm glued to the tv). Anyway, I feel more connected to the world here. I'm not sure why that is, but Michela agreed, so I have company/validation.

Also, being here forces you to do things by yourself. I do this at home, but it's more apparent here, because I make decisions like "do I brush my teeth with tap water?" (Yes) and "do I drink this iced tea even though I was told only to eat hot things?" (Yes) and "is it safe to take this taxi? Am I going the right direction? Is this guy ripping me off?" (Never really clear until later) All these questions are ones you deal with everywhere (maybe not the food ones), but they are so much more prominent here because it's hard to ask other people what to do. It's great to be a part of the world and live in it and think about things (both news and intellectual things and even everyday decisions) more than usual, even if it is sometimes tiring or more difficult than at home. My friend Kathryn, who is currently in China, said kind of the same thing in an email, about how when you're abroad it's sometimes a victory just to figure out where you live or where to buy cheese or how to ask a question or be polite. She mentioned a book about making multiple places feel like home, which is a super interesting concept to me, since right now I think I could call about 4 places home, and at the same time I've always thought of home as a collection of people, rather than a physical location. More than some place that's comfortable to return to, instead of somewhere simply familiar. I think that's how some places feel like home even if you've never been there before, and how you lose a connection with places you've lived before, and such. I've also heard the theory that home is somewhere where someone comes to pick you up from the airport (Dane, I hope you're reading, and I was happy to see that people picked you up and treated you well in Pittsburgh. I liked it there.)

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