Symphony For The Senses

My full intentions to study abroad rested in my growing desire to travel, see the world, experience and learn as much as I could about other cultures and customs. With my acceptance into my first choice of schools in England, I knew things were going to fall into place. The month scheduled for the students at Keele University was the month of April for Easter Break. I was aware of how much time I would have for travels, so my interest to see the wondrous cities and countries throughout Europe would, fingers crossed, become a mighty reality as places I would see with my own eyes, apart from the photos, dreams, and questions I had prior to departure from the United States.

I can vividly remember the overwhelming excitement and amazement I felt the day I arrived in Manchester, England! The coach ride from the airport to Staffordshire, Keele's location, revealed to me that I wasn't intended for a casual wonder to England, Scotland, Ireland, and other European countries. My mind knew where my heart was leading me, to many childlike revelations filled with butterfly moments from the sights I would see. The only question yet to be resolved, as I looked out of the coach window to the hilly English (surprisingly lushly green, livestock-filled) countryside was whether I'd have the courage to grasp all the opportunities present to me. Partially, that was one reason my heart was racing so fast!

You could say my European sabbatical was to fulfill my travel desires. Deep down, its reason was to part from my dependency on others, obligations of school and work, and mostly to try one last time, to hold on to and prove my independent lifestyle. I was capable to live on my own and make my own decisions. I no longer had a car or cellphone. Soon, I adjusted to the reliance of public transportation for a pound and thirty pence one-way, to and from town. I learned the differences in food options at the grocery. Milk is offered in cartons and is shelf safe until opened. (Then it's refridgerated). Gross.

The trip was, in a way, my attempt to postpone the quickly approaching "real world" that I soon would have to face after graduation, becoming an adult.

When did the change inside me begin? The first trip that required overnight stay was to Edinburgh, Scotland. The speechless moments were tallying up from the second I stepped out of the train station. In clear, direct view was Princess Street and the Edinburgh Castle, two of the most distinguishing characteristics of the city. That was merely the beginning.

Traveling the month of April throughout Europe, I was forced to adapt an understanding that my heart would continue beating at a fast rate or either skip beats regularly because of the continually changing surroundings and wondrous, dream-like sights. I left dreary London and arrived in Venice, Italy first. The moment I stepped foot on Italian soil, something in me cracked open and in poured the unexplainable sense of passion. I was in Italy, the most romantic place on Earth. San Marcos square was filled with undeniable romance, kisses, passionate saludos, Italian tunes, and the flutter of hundreds of pigeons (who were fed by tourists). What a symphony for the senses. Literally, everything was different from the language, climate, culture, and food. The sun warmed my face. The food was fresh. I enjoyed made-from-scratch pasta and sauces, pastries, and bread. Having a glass of wine was as common as drinking water here in the US.

Maybe the excitement of traveling long distance and carrying my life in a backpack added to my open-mouth expressions. No matter what appeared to be taking place physically, inside I was quickly changing. The initial avoidance of quickly becoming an adult was not being postponed but more or less, was well within me and rapidly approaching and transforming my life and my opinions of the world.

Everything seemed to mount at greater levels inside me in the days that followed. All the collected romance, wonder, and hopefulness of a new country consecrated to an ideal. I visited Rome, Florence, Tuscany, Geneva, Switzerland, Viena, Prague, Berlin, Munich, Bavaria, and Amsterdam. With a place, same as with a person, you sometimes find the one you have been looking for all your life. It's possible to find reasons for it--that the object of your affection has become continuous travel which results to the findings of sights and moments which are uncontrollably exuberating--the fascination is well beyond the reach of reason. Those moments, that internal awareness, made me realize how wondrous life is!

When a trip goes right, things take on an inevitability, a momentum they never have in real life. Every time I run through in mind the route I explored, my senses flood with an overwhelming sense of gratitude combined with accomplishment. More things happened to me in my time abroad that were transparent as they happened, being graced by people of countries I visited. But the more I reflect on my time, the changes become more solid within me. I've realized the times when I stood still and allowed my surroundings to engulf me, viewing the city of Florence from the top of Giardino di Boboli, where the very points when nothing happened physically. Yet something was placed in me-a thought, a dream, a question, a speechless moment that I would never manage to uproot.

For five months my mind was in a state of bliss, particularly April. I woke up every day with new anticipations for what the day might have brought into my life and every night, my reflections made me think I'd fallen through heaven's hedge and straight into a postcard of paradise. That postcard is now stamped with my life's most changed experience, most memorable time thus far in 22 years.