13 / 14 January 2016

Well, this is it. This is coming to you from AFTER seemingly never ending flight from Dubai back to JFK. We were delayed because a passenger got sick before we could even take off and delayed us long enough for me to watch Big Hero 6 in its’ entirety (WHICH MIGHT I ADD IS ONE OF THE BEST MOVIES EVER AND I MAY HAVE GOTTEN A LOT A BIT EMOTIONAL ABOUT THIS.) I’m currently back in the States and kind of just feeling bittersweet as I try to gather my thoughts.

One last small adventure to see the different artistic beauty of song and dance and a trip back to one of the coolest markets I’ve ever been to before we loaded up into the bus and headed to Delhi’s airport. Once we took that last selfie with our professor, it really sunk in. This was the last time the group would be together and that really hit me. There wasn’t going to be waking up to catch the bus the next morning. By the time I’d lie back down in a bed, one that doesn’t bruise my hips, I’d be waking up according to my own schedule and needs. It really sucks to think that this group won’t ever be together again. I’ve gotten so accustomed to having these guys constantly in my life.

Sure, a majority of the group will be on campus together for my final semester, but I won’t be seeing my one professor possibly until I visit Kings’ after graduation. We won’t see one of our group any time soon either because she doesn’t even attend our college. These guys are just like a family to me and I’ll miss all the weird shenanigans.

Getting to JFK was so surreal honestly. It wasn’t even because of the excessive amount of time spent on airplanes, it was when we walked through the gate and had to separate from our friend that just didn’t feel right. We all looked out for each other so much, it didn’t feel right to say that our group was truly breaking up even more.

That last group hug between the students will always stand out in my heart from this entire trip. That moment of a variety of emotions that also just showed how far we had come as a group. We weren’t awkwardly hugging goodbye because we had to, it just seemed like such a stark contrast to how we were in that very first interaction. Even just how much closer we seemed compared to that first group photo in Amritsar, it meant so much to me.

Right now I’m half awake on the bus as we weave through Queens as our shuttle brings us back to the probable bitter cold of Wilkes-Barre (I’m really going to miss only needing a hoodie on most nights…) There’s a lot of reasons to smile after this trip. Maybe it’s all the things I’ve learned about the world, maybe it’s the fact that the students all have already set up a group chat so we don’t lose that connection so easily because we won’t be together at every moment, maybe it’s because I’m going home. This trip is going to take some quite time to process and I’m absolutely okay with that.

Am I disappointed that I couldn’t do all the podcasts (ONE IS BETTER THAN NONE, BUT ALSO YAY I’M HEADING BACK TO WRKC TO MY BEST EDITING SPACE) or any of the videos (my computer just refused to cooperate with downloading the proper software)? Of course, but I learned the importance of improvising and working with what you got. I’ve saved all these drafts on my phone in like bullet point format for future Kristina to edit at some point in the future and will work on getting the rest of these projects up as I can with everything with this semester. I just need to get back into the right state of mind and back to where the WiFi isn’t overwhelmingly irritable.

I am so happy I took this chance to explore a different culture with a group of my fellow students. It was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made, even though I got seriously sick at one point. I can’t wait for my next adventure or the next time I’ll get to see the world again.

Til the next adventure, or you know, til my life gets interesting enough to talk about once more,