Gosdot

10.15.06

I don’t know the reason, but in Austria I met more Americans than I have my entire time in Europe. On the train from Salzburg to Bratislava I met two lovely older women from California, in my hostel room I met five people my age from various places in the states, and when I first arrived at the hostel there was a group of nine visiting from a school in Virginia.

After two and a half months of being the constant outsider, it was a welcome change. It’s funny how quickly you bond with people from the same place as you. After laughing and talking, sharing stories about our travels, and talking about various takes on European culture, I left Austria feeling surprisingly refreshed. Our country gets a bad rap but it’s a great place with amazing people in it and amazing degrees of diversity. On a microcosmic level, America is a very different place from the macrocosm that media and political arenas feed the world. Despite our differences and shortcomings, when you’re not in America, the world still looks at you as being an “American”. It’s our job to represent our country as best we can as individuals.

Before I left the states I made a post saying Americans need to get out and see the world but I’ve been forced to rethink that… The main reason why we as American’s need to travel is not so much that we see the world, but so that the world sees us.

I’m excited to be returning home in a few days. Getting away is just what I needed but it has made me realize how much I do appreciate where I come from.