I’m in Heathrow airport now, waiting out my layover and spending a little bit too much time in my own head. My 12 hour flight from Cape Town turned into a 14 hour adventure, which will be followed by a six hour layover and 7 hours back to New York. Lots of solo travel time, and lots of thinking time.
It feels surreal to be sitting here. Yesterday I was in Cape Town in the height of summer, eating lunch at the beach with my friends, running around to say last minute goodbyes, packing up the last of my belongings. Today I’m sitting in London, it’s raining, the whole airport is decked out for Christmas, and I feel like a confused extra in Love Actually.
I had heard from my friends who left earlier this week that coming home was overwhelming, and I can see how it’s going down that road already, but I’m still not sure quite what to expect. I can tell, just from the past few hours, that it’s going to be really hard though.
Waiting in line to check my bags, I started talking to another American student. It came up (I have maybe 200 pounds of luggage) that I was on my way back from study abroad. “South Africa?” he asked, “That’s crazy. Was it like Blood Diamond?” I put my iPod headphones in. No, it was not like Blood Diamond. UCT is surprisingly not situated in a conflict diamond mine.
I’m exhausted and upset to be leaving South Africa, so my patience for this question was pretty minimal, but I think unfortunately I’m going to have to get used to it, and learn how to respond slightly better
After exams I headed out to Mozambique with my friends Nicky, David and Elias to spend a few days relaxing on the beach. While we were there we happened to meet an American from Nicky’s home town in California, who was just finishing up two years with the Peace Corps in Mozambique.
He had also studied abroad in Ghana. Dreading going home, we asked him “How bad was it?” [to leave Africa]. He laughed. It was awful, he said. Not reassuring, but it was good to hear someone talk about it. We were warned to get ready to answer the question “Why Africa?” a lot, to ease slowly back into American college life, realize that it would take a few months, answer a lot of silly questions, and recognize that most people won’t have any idea what you’ve just done. But the best advice we got was to involve ourselves back home with something that reminded us of this experience. That, he told us, would help you feel less homesick and out of touch.
Right this moment though, that’s not going to help me, and I’ve realized that the next couple of weeks are going to be rough. Coming “home” to a place I haven’t seen in months will be a culture shock, a difficult process, and I’m sure, really emotional. On the plus side though, I know now I have more than one place I can call home. Part of what’s so hard about leaving Cape Town is leaving the home I made there these past few months. As hard as this will be, I wouldn’t trade that for anything.
I’m off now to spend the last few hours of my layover preparing for America the best way I know how–Christmas coffee cups at Starbucks.
See you Stateside,
Lauren
Lauren – Can it really already be over? You’ve definitely made the most of it. You’re exactly right though. You’re in for a culture shock especially when faced with people that do not always view the world “big picture” or view the world through one outlet, like movies. But SA’s not going away and you’re definitely right, you can go back. And that’s definitely something to be thankful for. Happy Thanksgiving!
Lauren, your blog posts from this semester have been so much fun to read, and your pictures have been absolutely amazing. This post is so good – I’ve never really thought about how it must feel to come back home after several months abroad, but Christmas Starbucks cups sound like a good way to start the adjustment. :)