This is the story of my 6 months of studying in Arizona in 2010 and subsequent travels in Mexico, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua. Enjoy!

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Back in Copenhagen

Apparently I left my blogging skills somewhere in Mesoamerica... A shame really, 'cause I still feel like I have a lot to tell! Better late than never, I guess!

Remember the comment in my previous blog post, that I was home though not quite? It took me a while to get out of the bubble, and still now, 2 months later, I often feel how I have changed during my stay in America. It really is hard to explain, though by now I have tried several times! My best attempt is as follows:

When I took off to US I knew pretty well who I was. I left with a feeling that I was finding myself, and that I knew how I fitted into my environment. Getting settled in Arizona with that feeling was easy, since I was on a blank page - nothing to fit into. While being away I learned more about myself, independently from my original surroundings, and this is where it gets tricky. When I was back home, I felt like my home and I had developed in different directions, so I could not rely on old habits and experiences. Instead I had (and still have) to reconsider many aspects of my life in the light of these changes. I'm lucky to have friends who can assure me that what Im going through is normal!

Actually, I thought of another way to explain why it is hard to come back home. Its like taking up an old knitting-project, after having learned more techniques and acquired new types of yarn... One has to reconsider the pattern to make it all fit together, old and new, to continue the work in a way that makes sense!

Anyway, to "settle back in" in Denmark would hardly be possible, since I have never been "settled" in Copenhagen. Before US (and in Tucson as well) I was always restless, wanting to make things happen all the time! Whether I have shed the restlessness by now is hard to tell, since I have been away from Denmark more than 15 of the 65 days I have been back in Europe.

I spent the first days sleeping a lot, as far as I remember. And finishing the book I had been reading during my Mexico-trip, which actually served as a nice transition-facilitator! :) Then slowly I started finding a way back to life, with work-out, dinners with friends, and 2 weeks after arriving I started writing my master thesis. Very interesting topic, though still I haven't quite found the read thread through it. We will see how it goes! In the beginning somehow challenged by the fact that I could not wake up till at least 10 AM, I have improved a bit lately.

There has been a lot of things to come back to, luckily, so I haven't sat around being bored. I held two trainings already in Copenhagen, one about Personal Time Management and one in Presentation skills, the latter encouraged by the study board in my faculty. Several others have taken my time lately, but I will tell you about those in my next posts. :)

All in all, its good to be back, though I miss Arizona, and not least the people there!