Journal 2

We are supposed to be keeping up "journals" for Museum Studies, as a part of the whole package we turn in for a final grade at the end of our Study Abroad Semester. I keep a personal journal, and find it redundant to keep a "class journal", so I just write when I feel inspired--when I can't hold the excitement, the beauty, the wonder in any more. So this is a journal entry I wrote on a train going so fast it was hard to make out the countryside as we sped by.

I’ve been to the top of the world and the ends of the earth. I’ve stood in valleys and rivers and felt the rain in London. I’ve seen grass greener than fresh cooked green beans and water bluer than the sky at its bluest. I have heard stories of Kings and Queens and learned the magical histories of their castles. I’ve sped by millions of people on the street, in a train, on the subway—and I don’t know any of their names! I have seen sunny days and rainy days and cold days and everywhere in between. I’ve listened to hundreds of songs and written pages of information and taken thousands of pictures. I’ve heard so many languages—so many dialects—so many accents—each singing with a different tone, every one pulsing to its own rhythm and beat of the centuries of its existence. I’ve stood in the ghostly footsteps of some of the most influential people in history and I’ve stood at their graves. I’ve explored and I’ve seen comfort and I’ve felt love and I’ve felt welcome and I’ve missed home. I’m living this life I couldn’t have dreamed up if I’d tried-and--so many times--I've stood in absolute wonder at this world.