When leaving for an experience such as a Fulbright appointment, excitement and anxiety are the dominant feelings. Going home is a different experience, particularly if one is leaving such a beautiful place as Pecs. I would gladly have stayed here for a very long time, with visits home to family.
During my time here, without a television! -- I have done a great deal of reading. I found the feeling of going home expressed eloquently in the book, The Same Earth, by Kei Miller.
"To pack up and go home is not an easy thing. For every item folded nearly and stuffed into a bulging suitcase, the packer will ask him-- or herself, what am I really going back to? Most will believe, with all their heart, that there is place waiting for them. But this is foolish thinking. For every man exists in the world the way body exists in water; the moment you leave, the space you occupied will close over. What is left is not even the shape of your body, but the memory of it. The is no such thing as return .We leave one place. We arrive at another. But the person who arrives is never the person who has left. We grow. We change. There is no space waiting for us. Only a memory."
I will be leaving with great memories, even from the last two days. Kind colleagues have taken me out to dinner in restaurants up in the Mescek Hills. Eating very good food while overlooking Pecs and farther Villany Hills is a wonderful treat. I've been so very lucky and blessed to have been here for these past few months.
Now to the 17 hour battle of moving from here to Minnesota.
2 comments:
I have really enjoyed reading your adventures the past few months. I hope you will continue the blog after returning to the Twin Cities. Life there may be different,but you are still you.
Safe journey and happy landings.
Indeed I'll keep working on my blog, but it may not be quite as interesting! Thanks for the nice comment.
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