I just set the background on my computer to be photos from the trip. I was distracted for the 2 weeks (okay, more like a month) before Mom and I left, and I think that Mom hoped that I would have less "Fernweh" (in english we would say Wanderlust, but that isn't even really a word in German!) when we got back. It didn't work. The memories are swirling around my head and making me want to go back even more. Sometimes I think that it would have been easier for me to never have gone to Germany 4 years ago- maybe then this feeling would just be a vague curiosity of what is on the other side of the world. I think that you can fall in love with places, but it is the people who you meet there that bring those places to life.
Even so, I feel like part of me is being pulled back to Austria, Germany, the Czech, and the Basque Country... I know that I need to finish a second year at Janicki Industries and that a lot could happen in the next 11 months, but that will never keep me from dreaming! Maybe I need to find an engineering internship in central Europe! The only other problem (besides the fact that I have a good job here) is that I really am loving living so close to my family. They are fantastic, and Washington is a great place to live. I know that this nomadic life will wear down on me eventually. Pulling up and putting down roots spread out around the world is emotionally exhausting. I really do need to share life with people who are close to me and who I trust. Unhappiness is the only result of wanting it both ways, so how can I best discipline myself to be happy wherever I am?
