Last night after dinner I went out with a couple of the girls from the hostel for gelato while Kevin stayed back and talked it up with a couple guys from South America.
As we sat and ate in one of many courtyards, we talked about Venice. About the maze and the tourists (pots? kettles? black?). They went on to talk about their pursuits. Jenny was on an indefinitely long trip to Italy to find herself, her roots, who she wanted to be and what she wanted to do with her life. Master's degree in architecture from Virginia Tech and no prospects of a job any time soon.
Emily taking a tour of Italy for a month before starting her master's program in London. Art history. "This hostel is nothing like the one in Florence. I wanted the people there to design my home! It was beautiful and calm and they served us breakfast in the morning that was divine! This place is terrible. The people are gross and loud. I'm leaving tomorrow. I can't take losing another night of sleep to people stumbling in at 3am."
I know that every individual has his or her own reasons for traveling, and I think it occurred to me last night that mine is about seeing and being stunned. I want to be amazed by whatever presents itself. I was amazed at the man who woke up the entire room with his snoring on our first night here. I was amazed that people took pictures of dead popes at St. Peter's. I was amazed that we could walk around Paris in the dead of night and still feel completely safe. Whatever discomfort may come, so long as there's some part of me that goes, "No way!!" this trip is totally worth it.
After chatting for another hour or so, we went back to the hostel. Emily and Jenny went to bed and I went over and sat with Kevin in a crowd of people learning curse words in Spanish and Portuguese. Beverages were spilled, words (poorly pronounced) were shouted out the balcony window, and we all laughed loud and hard together.
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