This is my response to an article about coming down from 12-months of travel. It resonated with me because this is what I’m going through as well. Although unlike him, I don’t have a nice job yet.
I’ve spent a month in similar moping. I was eating fiendishly. I refused to leave the house. I kept trying to pay with Thai baht in stores. It took me a month to stop converting from Rupees, and just understand dollars, although I still cringe and think about what and how much I could have bought in India for that $5. Plenty, is the answer that comes back.
A month ago I returned from about 10 months of travel. 5 in the states, and then 5 in Asia.
It’s been a month and I still haven’t unpacked. I became comfortable living out of a suitcase. Closets unnerved me.
After a conversation with a friend which wasn’t as succinct as yours (although another friend did say something similar) I realized that I was bored in America. Even NYC.
I missed being abroad, and I missed who I was abroad.
Sometimes I was scared sure, but a lot of the time I was on top of the world and outgoing and excited.
Its always exciting to be in an unknown place and challenge yourself. Everything becomes a challenge.
So I began to look for challenges here. It took a lot of time. Moping, self-pitying time, but I suppose there always needs to be a grieving period. Traveling for so long, and having such an intense time–it’s hard to come down from that. Sure, there are nice things in a first-world country, but like you I missed the crazy things. The roosters, the cows in the streets, the crazy driving, the amazing street food, the sign-language I would employ with people because we had no language in common. They made me happy.
So I am trying to see living in NYC again as an adventure. Every cover letter I send out, I’m pretending it’s a new jungle trek. Sometimes in stores I like to warble my eyes so that I can’t read and pretend that this food is something new and strange. Occasionally I go to a very small ethnic store and literally pick up something totally different.
Or I go get lost in neighborhoods. I take wrong turns on purpose just to see what I can discover.
It’s hard to find other who understand this. So I’m trying to hang out with CouchSurfers in the city. They can sometimes bring the magic back.
If I’m lucky, they teach me some new words.
