Travelling was quite different to what I had expected.
It was fantastic seeing some new and different cultures, looking at how different groups and nations organised things in different ways and comparing them to what I am used to. One particularly interesting comparison was how different countries treated the environment. For example in Germany they have recycling bins everywhere and lots of wind power plants, whilst in Austria there are a lot of solar panels on house roofs. It was also good to see how much people had in common, despite the barriers of language and history. People tended to speak English, but even when they didn't it was easier than I had expected to communicate.
I went to places of great history, like Rome and Paris, but I never really felt "in touch" with the past there. Perhaps it was the other tourists, perhaps the commercialisation, but standing in the Colosseum or walking round the Forum didn't instill in me much sense of what life would have been like for the ancient Roman in these places. I was expecting to learn lots about the history of the cities I visited, and perhaps I would have done if I had spent longer in each place, taken more time in the museums; but I found that the cities were more useful in placing and visualising history I had already learnt from books, rather than creating new knowledge.
One of the strongest desires I gained from the trip was to become fluent in another language. Currently I know a bit of German, and that's it; I really want to be able to think in another language to see what that feels like. Perhaps only knowing English puts a limit on what I am able to think, or at least what I am able to articulate. I'm pretty poor at learning languages, but hopefully over the next few years I'll be able to learn more and get some idea of how language effects thought.
I never felt as isolated as I expected to feel, on the long train journeys you are in carriages filled with other people, and the cities are (understandably) crammed with tourists. I think for my next journey I'll try and go out of season in order to better get an idea of the real nature of the places I visit. The trip helped me secure a sense of "home"; I don't think I could spend a long time travelling, one of the best things about being away is the feeling that at the end of the journey you will come back home to comfort and security.
When I go to SOAS in September, I’ll have the chance to learn a really exotic language like Thai, Burmese or Vietnamese! Pretty cool, eh?
my own experience of travelling has been quite different. in particular, your feelings on isolation. here, it is incredibly hard to feel a part of whats around me. not only because i am treated differently and stared at but also because the culture, at times, feels so far from my own. some experiences have made me feel so isolated as to be quite upsetting. when the only person i know is also from this culture - it can feel like i have nowhere to turn, even when i’m familiar with whats here. its certainly interesting to be thrown into a culture and spun around in it, but i’m now looking forward to getting back to a more comfortable situation in england. i’ve found i’m not ready to live somewhere so foregn to what i call home.
also: as to language - i definately share the same desire. i can understand a small amount of whats being said within conversations in chinese but am far from fluency. i think to be able to dream and think in another language takes a heck of a lot of time and effort and also the right conditions; being surrounded by the language. its also quite hard to let go of the ties that your mother tongue holds around you. i often think of chinese words only in terms of their english equivalent - but its fun when you can hear how a word is used differently and gain access to a new experession. i wonder what language you would choose.
Dreaming in another language must be crazy. It would be fascinating to learn every language and be able to weigh them up and decide which is “best”, or most expressive, if there is such a thing.