So I realized I fell quite behind on my blog over the past month due to midterms, travel, and my work for my publication at home, so here’s a general recap for those interested.
Within the past month, I have fallen in love with multiple cities, have really pushed myself to the limit when making art, have solidified friendships and disparaged others, and have overall spent a lot of time evaluating myself, my priorities, my needs, and my happiness. All in all, October was a pretty big month for me…
The first week of October I visited Croatia with a group of friends from school. At this point in the semester I was starting to get a little homesick but more importantly was starting to feel incredibly burnt out due to the traveling and constant exploring the city. This trip I was really unsure of whether or not I would be just constantly irked as one does when traveling in an intimate group. However, I managed to have the most amazing time thanks to one of my best friends abroad! (I’ll call her A for the sake of maintaining privacy).
The first day we spent roaming along the coast and lounging on the beach. Can you even imagine spending an October weekday lying on a pebble beach, with literally nothing to worry about except for your distant deadlines? It was honestly so unbelievable. Later in the day we did a walking tour of Split and got to hear about its history. Then the following day my friend A and I signed up for this 7-mile hiking tour in the mountains- and I can honestly say it has probably been one of my favorite experiences to date.
We were met by a tour guide, (who was the nicest guy, and very down to earth and smart, A had a bit of a crush on him which made for some laughs later) and since we were the only ones that signed up, the two of us got to have a private hiking tour. So we went to the mountains and climbed up and down the mountain slope that faced the Adriatic Sea. Everything about it was sublime. And as we walked down, our tour guide would pick pomegranates or almonds for us to eat and would point out ancient villages and talk about their history. We also stopped by a cave and rock-climbed back up to the top. And the whole time we were joking around or admiring the view around us. On our way back up it started to rain. It reminded me a lot of both my respective homes. LA because I still get that giddy feeling that comes with seeing rain fall. And Washington because I always think of rainy Seattle when I think of Washington. It was interesting being both in a completely new place and also experiencing those familiar tinges of home.
The day after that we ended up going to a national park where we got to see some fantastic waterfalls. I realized, I much prefer to venture on my own and have my own intimate relationship with nature then to just hang out with others, because while all the other people on my program were taking their photos in the lake in front of the waterfall, I was off doing hikes by myself, trying to explore a little off the beaten path. Eventually I came back down and jumped in the water like everyone else, and got my classic photos taken (for the mere sake of bragging to my family later), but I came to realize this wasn’t the first time I’ve been more than comfortable just being alone, making choices for myself, and indulging my quite impulses to go explore.
(Week two continues in the next post)