Coming home

Megan:
Since leaving the fantastic city of Buenos Aires, Jon and I have been experiencing some amazing places and letting the reality of our new homeward-bound situation sink in. It really feels like we have been making the most of our last month.

Our first stop after leaving the capital of Argentina was Córdoba where we found some charming pedestrian streets and continued enjoying the tango culture despite the city's noise and grit. From there we headed north to the small flower-lined town of La Cumbre where we checked into a quaint little bed and breakfast and quickly became friends with three other travelers, Robyn, Ryan, and Pieter. This small town's claim to fame is that it was home to the 1994 World Paragliding Cup. We decided that we wanted to get in on the action, and extended our stay here by several days to wait out the strong winds in hopes of giving this exhilarating sport a try. After passing a few lazy afternoons getting to know our new friends, we finally got a call the third morning informing us that the winds were perfect and it was time.

What an incredible feeling to run as fast as you can toward the edge of a cliff until the wind fills your glider and you are swept upward. Jon and I both really enjoyed the experience, and with our instructors doing all the work we could sit back, relax, enjoy the dropping stomach sensation and watch a rainbow that seemed to have appeared just for us. After about 30 minutes, we landed next to a beautiful river and spent the rest of the day swimming, basking in the sun and drinking a few too many beers with our buddies.

Our next and last destination in Argentina was the famous wine region around Mendoza. In this delightful city, we enjoyed the numerous plazas, wide streets filled to the brim with shady outdoor cafe tables, fabulous gourmet food and of course, vino. We rented bikes one afternoon, to cruise around and visit a number of wineries, a liquor and chocolate manufacturer, a specialty organic food farm, and an olive orchard. This provided us with a fun, but surface level sampling of many of the region's offerings. Something Jon and I had never done before our time in Menzoda was pay for a flight of wine at a high-end tasting room. This was a really fun and informative experience - we were each given 6 generous tastings (for a total of 12 wines between the two of us), and we had our own personal guide throughout the evening who facilitated an incredibly detailed explanation and discussion of each wine.

Despite all of these amazing experiences that still fill the majority of our time abroad, as the end of a year long journey creeps closer, our heads seem to be filled more and more with thoughts of home. I think when we were planning this trip, we naively thought that we could leave the country for a year and then slip right back into the lives that we had grown to love once we were finished traveling. We knew that our mind-sets would have shifted slightly, but I think we forgot to take into consideration that all of the people and things at home would also have an entire year to change and evolve.

In about a week, we will reenter a reality that has gone through a number of obvious changes. We'll be coming home to a depressed economy, fragile job market and a new president, not to mention the multitude of more subtle shifts that have occurred since we've been away. Instead of picking back up where we left off, Jon and I are facing the very real possibility of having to drastically change our jobs and as a result, our living situation, our routine and our lifestyle. We do not know how long it will take to sort out the next phase of our careers, when we will begin searching for our next home, or how we are going to ground ourselves in the meantime.

I never thought that coming home could feel more scary and unknown than traveling through a foreign country. Over the past year, exploring unknown lands, speaking a foreign language and switching beds every few nights have become our way of life - that's what has become familiar. I have come to know what to expect from this. In contrast, I no longer know what to expect from home. For whatever reason though, we have decided that although going home brings with it an infinite number of uncertainties and will probably bring up an equal number of insecurities and personal confrontations, it is time. I suppose it is a combination of the desire to settle down, to reconnect with the wonderful friends and family who are waiting with open arms, and on some level we feel ready to take on these new challenges.

The textures of Buenos Aires

Jonathan:
It wasn't long after we got used to the idea of being on our own again that it occurred to us, somewhere in all the excitement of family time we had forgotten to notice that the last leg of our trip had somehow crept up on us. It was silently waiting for us in the same place it had always been, but suddenly the end of February seemed a little too close to be comfortable.

My initial reaction was to panic and try to somehow quantify our experiences. I felt my head spin into a frenzy of doubt about whether we would have anything to show for this year once the next six weeks had passed. Had we really changed at all or would we just go back to our lives, slip back into our routines, and helplessly watch our year's experiences fade into a collection of paper-thin memories?

I spent one long grumpy evening in our apartment complaining to Megan about how I didn't feel any different, and I must have missed something somewhere. Well, obviously some things don't change as quickly as others. The next day I had to smile at myself. No matter how many times this comes up, it always seems to take some effort for me to step back and remind myself that nothing is wrong.

The truth is that it's hard to imagine that even a single moment of this trip has managed to slip by unnoticed or unappreciated. I can't count the number of times Megan and I have found ourselves staring at each other across a table somewhere with uncontrollable grins on our faces, just basking in the freedom that this year has been for us - A full year's worth of experiences bursting with an unfathomable quantity of unforgettable adventures, fulfilling relationships, and challenging moments of growth and clarity.

You can't do something like this and not come back changed.

In a lot of ways it feels subtle though. Sometimes it's hard to notice that the colors are slowly shifting when you've been staring at them the whole time. The growth we've experienced on this trip is not something we can quantify or list out (as much as I would love to). No, instead this year has just become a part of us - the same us we've always been, constantly growing, constantly changing, constantly adapting to new situations and new ideas. We'll come home just as we are, knowing that everything we see and everything we experience is slightly tinted by the lense of wisdom this year has provided.

We spent our last two weeks in Buenos Aires soaking in the rich textures of that amazing city - not trying to justify anything or make the most of any particular experience - just basking in it. When the end of the month rolled around and we packed up our things, checked out of our apartment, and hit the road again we both realized this was the first time on this trip that we were leaving a city without feeling quite ready to move on.

With thoughtful smiles, we boarded a bus to head out to the central Argentine capital of Córdoba. From here we will spend the next several weeks enjoying the journey west through wine country toward Santiago where, on the 26th of February, we will catch our flight home.