Back in America

Sorry for the delay in the blog post


Friday was a long day for me, I woke up at 6:30am Barcelona time and my last flight landed in Myrtle Beach at 3:25am Barcelona time (9:25pm eastern time). Then it was an hour and a half drive back to Charleston...finally at 6:10am Barcelona time (12:10am eastern time) I laid my head down and went to sleep; I was just shy of being awake for 24 hours. Thankfully all of my flights went smoothly, I was overcome with excitement when we landed in Philadelphia because as I went through customs and passport control I was told "welcome home Mr. Ashby". I had always heard that saying in movies so it felt good to finally hear it directed at me! Needless to say all day yesterday I was still tired so that is why I am finally getting to the FINAL BLOG POST!


My internal clock and general equilibrium are still a bit off but I am slowly starting to get back into "the swing of things". I didn't reset the clock on my laptop back to eastern time until today and I still haven't reset my watch...even as I am typing my watch reads in Barcelona time, I will change it sometime this week. 


I drove my car yesterday for the first time since January 3rd and I will admit at first it was a bit strange and awkward but driving a car seems to be like riding a bike...you never forget. My first meal back in the states was at a Chick-fil-A in the Philadelphia Airport, I wanted a Philly Cheese steak but the airport did not seem to have any authentic Cheese steak places. It feels great to be back home, right now the excitement of being back is drowning out everything else but I know in about 2 weeks I will start to miss some of my favorite things from Barcelona. 


This semester has been a wonderful experience, and I want to thank everyone who helped me along the way from those who helped to fund the trip, prayed for me, thought of me, read the blog and everything else in between! I have been talking about all of the things I will miss and those that I won't miss throughout the week but the greatest thing I am taking away from this trip is the realization of how big this world really is. We often say "it's a small world" but after spending 4 months in foreign settings I have to disagree...the world is huge! There is so much more to life and earth than the confines of our daily lives and I feel so grateful to have witnessed these events and lifestyles. Europeans do certain things vastly better than what we do in America, and here we do certain things vastly better than the Europeans do...both cultures could learn so much from one another. I intend to go back to Barcelona in the future, I would love to see what has changed and stayed the same, only time will tell! I have accumulated around 3000 pictures during my time abroad, and even more memories and stories. Over the past four months I have had the joy of sharing some of those with you through this blog...you have traveled vicariously with me. Even the days I had that were "uneventful"  were amazing and worthwhile.


As I suspected the surrealism and realization that I was in Europe is hitting me heaviest now that I am no longer there. Thank you so much for reading and experiencing my adventures for the last four months, it has been a pleasure chronicling my stories. And now for the last time: Buenos Noches!