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No, of course not. There is nothing $10 million could buy me that would be as valuable to me as the internet. Next question.
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I spent three months in Asia.
When I was younger I spent some time in Africa (and thought I was going to stay there much longer than I did) and then lived in Italy for close to a year, and during that year I traveled quite a bit to nearby countries, and saw a good amount of Italy as well. It was very exciting, and I thought I had the most amazing life. I loved being around another culture, and I discovered what a language geek I really am. Up until that point, I had no idea languages were so interesting to me, but once I figured it out, I kind of dove into it full force. I thought I had everything I had always wanted - I was doing whatever I wanted whenever I wanted, and I was having the time of my life! I learned so much - I learned another language, yes, but I also learned how to live completely on my own, because I was so far away from home. I WANTED to be far from home, but that doesn't mean I automatically knew how to do everything on the first try!
But eventually this bubble burst, because I'm not an EU citizen and couldn't stay there indefinitely. I worked while I was there, but not for very much money. I had traveler's insurance, and then student insurance while I was doing an exchange with La Sapienza, BUT, these were temporary things. Eventually I had to come home - I was running out of money, running out of visa options, and running into some medical problems that the P.S. in Italy wasn't equipped to deal with - not because there's anything wrong with Italian emergency rooms, but because my doctors are all here in the US and every doctor I saw there was like... you need to see your own doctor. This isn't an emergency, this is a continuing condition and what you need is outside of what your insurance is going to cover.
When I came home it took me a long time to adjust to being back in the US, and it took me a longer time to accept that I was probably STAYING here. Like for good. The perfect set of circumstances that allowed me to travel like that were probably not going to fall into my lap a second time. It got to the point where I didn't even want to TALK about all the places I'd been, because I suddenly was feeling very self-conscious, like I didn't want to be "that girl" who was always like oh yeah blah blah blah I've seen the pyramids in Egypt and did you know there's a pyramid smack in the middle of Rome too? Yeah I tried to climb on that one night when I was drunk, oh yeah I got drunk at this nightclub underneath the subway tunnels, they have cool shit like that in Europe you know, nothing like here, it's soooo much better, blah blah blah... and so I just shut up and never said anything, because if by chance I brought it up in a totally non-obnoxious way... then people thought I was lying. Like there was no way I could possibly have done those things. It even FELT like I was lying, even as I was talking. My life was so far removed from that life it felt like it was a lie.
So having the opportunity to go to China meant a lot to me. Like, a whole lot. I'm so much older now than I was when I was nineteen, and I feel like everything I did and saw meant so much more to me now than it would have then. I still have the same feelings of "there is no WAY I'll ever be able to do that again" but now... I mean, who knows. Maybe not THAT again, but possibly something else. Or maybe really that again. Bevan has been talking about going back for another visit - not next summer, when I'll be trying to catch up with school, but maybe next winter, when I'll be on my semester break. Just for a short visit. But it would be great to go back. And it is nice just to be able to think that it's POSSIBLE to go back.
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Me. DUH. Next question.
[Error: unknown template qotd]
Either this was already a question, or it was a meme I already answered. I'll go look for it, it was interesting. If I would tag my posts, it would be easy to find, but I like to slack off on the very last steps of virtually everything I do. Hence, no tags to search. I believe it included the advice that white eyeliner, purple mascara, and silver lipstick did indeed look weird, but perhaps "weird" was not the best look for me, lol.
No, of course not. There is nothing $10 million could buy me that would be as valuable to me as the internet. Next question.
[Error: unknown template qotd]
I spent three months in Asia.
When I was younger I spent some time in Africa (and thought I was going to stay there much longer than I did) and then lived in Italy for close to a year, and during that year I traveled quite a bit to nearby countries, and saw a good amount of Italy as well. It was very exciting, and I thought I had the most amazing life. I loved being around another culture, and I discovered what a language geek I really am. Up until that point, I had no idea languages were so interesting to me, but once I figured it out, I kind of dove into it full force. I thought I had everything I had always wanted - I was doing whatever I wanted whenever I wanted, and I was having the time of my life! I learned so much - I learned another language, yes, but I also learned how to live completely on my own, because I was so far away from home. I WANTED to be far from home, but that doesn't mean I automatically knew how to do everything on the first try!
But eventually this bubble burst, because I'm not an EU citizen and couldn't stay there indefinitely. I worked while I was there, but not for very much money. I had traveler's insurance, and then student insurance while I was doing an exchange with La Sapienza, BUT, these were temporary things. Eventually I had to come home - I was running out of money, running out of visa options, and running into some medical problems that the P.S. in Italy wasn't equipped to deal with - not because there's anything wrong with Italian emergency rooms, but because my doctors are all here in the US and every doctor I saw there was like... you need to see your own doctor. This isn't an emergency, this is a continuing condition and what you need is outside of what your insurance is going to cover.
When I came home it took me a long time to adjust to being back in the US, and it took me a longer time to accept that I was probably STAYING here. Like for good. The perfect set of circumstances that allowed me to travel like that were probably not going to fall into my lap a second time. It got to the point where I didn't even want to TALK about all the places I'd been, because I suddenly was feeling very self-conscious, like I didn't want to be "that girl" who was always like oh yeah blah blah blah I've seen the pyramids in Egypt and did you know there's a pyramid smack in the middle of Rome too? Yeah I tried to climb on that one night when I was drunk, oh yeah I got drunk at this nightclub underneath the subway tunnels, they have cool shit like that in Europe you know, nothing like here, it's soooo much better, blah blah blah... and so I just shut up and never said anything, because if by chance I brought it up in a totally non-obnoxious way... then people thought I was lying. Like there was no way I could possibly have done those things. It even FELT like I was lying, even as I was talking. My life was so far removed from that life it felt like it was a lie.
So having the opportunity to go to China meant a lot to me. Like, a whole lot. I'm so much older now than I was when I was nineteen, and I feel like everything I did and saw meant so much more to me now than it would have then. I still have the same feelings of "there is no WAY I'll ever be able to do that again" but now... I mean, who knows. Maybe not THAT again, but possibly something else. Or maybe really that again. Bevan has been talking about going back for another visit - not next summer, when I'll be trying to catch up with school, but maybe next winter, when I'll be on my semester break. Just for a short visit. But it would be great to go back. And it is nice just to be able to think that it's POSSIBLE to go back.
[Error: unknown template qotd]
Me. DUH. Next question.
[Error: unknown template qotd]
Either this was already a question, or it was a meme I already answered. I'll go look for it, it was interesting. If I would tag my posts, it would be easy to find, but I like to slack off on the very last steps of virtually everything I do. Hence, no tags to search. I believe it included the advice that white eyeliner, purple mascara, and silver lipstick did indeed look weird, but perhaps "weird" was not the best look for me, lol.
