Salsa and unsweetened iced tea were two of the things I missed most about Texas. However, finally arriving home after months of traveling the world with Semester at Sea gave me the strange experience of feeling like a temporary outsider to my once so secure southern bubble— and I wouldn’t have had it any other way.
When I arrived at the airport in Houston, this was the first conversation I had with an immigration officer:
“Where did you come from?”
“I finished a study abroad program in London.”
“What was her name?”
After several moments of confusion I awkwardly laughed and said, “Oh . . . because I studied a-broad.” I can honestly say that it was the most Texan/southern dad joke I had ever heard, and it somehow made me immensely happy. Props to you, immigration man, for making my day.
Shortly after that exchange, I was greeted by family members holding a stuffed longhorn with a t-shirt reading “I ♥ Houston.” I was still wearing a jacket and scarf, forgetting that I was about to walk into mid-April Texas weather. Culture shock, jet-lag and the Houston humidity were not my friend that day. I vaguely remember trying to talk and saying something about my time in “Japina” (Which was me accidentally combining Japan and China together while trying to talk about my trip).
On my drive back to Nacogdoches, I passed two different men on tractors wearing cowboy hats and was greeted at a gas station by a man with a very strong accent wearing all camouflage. Even some of my friends and family seemed to talk with more of a subtle twang than I remembered. I couldn’t help but think, “Have I been blind to this my whole life? Everything is so much more Texan than I remember!”
For the next couple weeks I was floating in a bubble of hyper-awareness of my own culture, while trying to hold on to the feeling of adventure for as long as possible. Semester at Sea shattered my former view of the world, and although I’ve inevitably settled into a new routine, I’ve changed in ways that I can’t even comprehend yet.
I thought I would come back home with my wanderlust temporarily satisfied but it is even worse now. All I want is to constantly challenge my view of the world by stepping into the unknown. But, until my next adventure, I’ll try to be content with my chips and salsa, Tex-Mex and all the free refills I could ever want.
Visit my blog, The Dancing Backpacker, to read about my adventures with Semester at Sea: http://andreagallier.wixsite.com/thedancingbackpacker