One Year Away

Joseph

After 11 and half months, 20 countries, 20 flights and
countless train, bus, taxi, ferry, tuk tuk and motorcycle rides we are back
home. It’s a great feeling to be in
Canada surrounded by family and friends – not to mention wonderful things like
soft beds, fluffy towels, supermarkets that stock cheese and high speed
internet access. 

We left Greece for the return home like two people with
personality disorders. We
felt equal
parts; happiness to be returning home, disbelief that this was really our last
flight of the trip, excitement and anxiety for what lay ahead and a twinge
of regret that what had been the most amazing year of our lives would end when
we touched down. From speaking with
other long-term travelers we’d been told that we would probably experience
something they call “reverse culture shock”; that is a feeling of not belonging
in your own country and a period of unhappiness that follows the return home
after a long trip. 

Well, we’ve been back for 3 weeks now (yes, I was really
slow getting this post up)
and I’m happy to say that we’ve had no reverse
culture shock. Our return for two
weddings at the end of June and then 6 weeks in Europe were a good way to ease
back into a more western way of life. 

Penny returned to her job already and is diving back into
her work with a vengeance. I decided
not to return to my position at an energy company and am looking at entering
the fast growing field of clean-tech. I
think the decision to leave a great company and a job I enjoyed was sparked by
some of the things I saw on this trip. The thick, brown, polluted air of Chinese cities and the scheduled
rolling blackouts of India were like a kick to the head. I realized I wanted to be part of the
solution and luckily it’s an industry with a lot of opportunities right now.

So what will happen to oneyearaway.com? We plan on posting a few more times on our
re-entry to Canada, buying our first house and getting settled back to normal
life. But after that we’re not
sure. If you have any suggestions
please let us know.