...The End

Well, it seems that it's been a long, long time since I last posted here. As with so many things in life my regular blog posting well, wasn't. That's okay, though. I think I've shared a good deal on here of my trip and life in Belgium and now that I'm back in the U.S. I can share the stories with my friends and family face-to-face and I have to say, being able to see and be with my friends in family is wonderful.

My remaining time in Belgium was fine, but by late March and then April I was ready to come back home. The trip was a success: I did get a good deal of research done for my dissertation, was able to narrow my topic and focus what I wanted to write about, and I got to experience living overseas for an extended period of time. Of course, I wish somethings went differently, but that's the past and now it's time to look forward and take the experiences -- good and bad, but mostly good -- that I had an put them to work for me in my professional and personal life.

Being away made me realize just how much I need my friends and family. It's lonely being away, especially when the work you do is a lonely task like research. Now that I'm back the challenge is to find the proper work/life balance. I hope that by being in Brooklyn I can more easily do that. I'll be able to see Carly each day and have day-to-day routine with her. As my friends have spread out around the country and as I am now a friend who's left the nest of CT I hope to focus my work energy better so I can then take trips to see friends in CT, PA, VA, and elsewhere. I'm also going to get to reconnect with some college friends who are here in New York. And, of course, my family on LI, NJ, and PA are now closer. I also hope to catch up with family from FL and CA -- if we can coordinate our schedules!

Now that I'm back and have had some time to settle in, I do miss my Belgian life and think I now appreciate it even more. I miss the pace of life. Even though I was in a big city, things moved a bit slower. Not so, here in Brooklyn. The food, of course, was always awesome and I had my little routine. Of course, now I get to set a new one and, I hope, incorporate aspects of what I did overseas into what I do here -- taking Sundays as a day of real rest, for instance.

Once I got back I was thrown into wonderful celebrations: a childhood friend got married on LI, a good friend from grad school got married in NOLA, and a good friend from college got married in TN. After exploring Europe, I got to come home and explore the South for a bit with Carly and friends in NOLA, Carly's family and some friends in ATL on a stop over, and then in TN. It was tiring, but fun to see part of my own country I don't see much right after being away. I'm simply used to the NYC area and I love it, but being in Europe and then hanging in the South made me realize for the first time that I really don't need to live in New York or even the north east. A different setting and pace of life is something that I'd be happy to try out now as I move forward with my career and with my relationship with Carly and our friends and family.

I'd like to think my trip helped me grow a lot or, at least, a bit. I could have worked harder over there, I could have "let things from back home go" more, I could have, I could have, I could have....but I can't dwell on those things. From where I sit in my new home in Brooklyn, surrounded by my books and papers, old and new knic-knacks, and new goals set in my mind, life is good and I know now more than before that life is hard work, but that there are a lot of moments and experiences in it that make the work worth it. If nothing else, I gained perspective on a lot of things from the fact that I love research, but I love teaching and working with students more because I missed it so much; that I like my time alone and to myself, but I'm a social creature who enjoys the company of others; that if your kind and patient, others will be kind and patient with you even if you're an outsider, an "other."

I lived my life in the Low Countries and I survived and made a home for myself there and now it's time to do the same here. If one thing is for sure, I can do whatever I set out to do and I have wonderful friends and family who can and do support me.

So, I'll end this emotive post and blog with a thank you to all who have read it and who listened to my ups and downs. I'm back home now and ready to live my life to the fullest. I'll miss the beer, the fries, the waffles, and the stoemp, the people I met there -- thanks SC and EC and JK among others -- but now it's time to take what I've learned about the past and about myself and work hard to move forward with my life here. Times are good and I'll back to Belgium, I'm sure.