The hardest question for me to answer after my time in Ireland is: how have I changed as a result of my trip? It’s a tough one because I truly don’t feel that I am fundamentally different from when I arrived. Having been abroad for several weeks before, culture shock wasn’t a huge issue for me, and Ireland was far more similar to the USA than several of the places I’ve been. I can’t really say that I have a ‘new appreciation for the world outside my own country,’ or that I had a Joycean epiphany about how closed-minded I was before I met another culture. I already loved other countries, and Ireland was as much a notch in my suitcase handle as a chance to finally see how non-Americans live. The food wasn’t crazy different from what I might eat at home, and being well over 21 drinking in public wasn’t anything new to me.
But I have changed; I know this, because I know that travel changes one in a million tiny ways. Talking to friends, I find myself saying “one time in Dublin,” or referencing in-jokes from the trip. I’ve got new friends, not just on facebook but in real life, and their presence in my life has changed me as well. I’ve noticed that I’m more aware of my actions at home; in part, this is due to a new living situation, but I’ve consistently found myself more concerned that I am acting in an acceptable manner, a holdover from living with an Irish family. I crave foods that I previously didn’t even think about; bangers & mash has topped my list of wish-I-was-eating-it-right-now foods. I watched a bartender poor a Guinness the other day, and I knew that he was doing it wrong; part of me wanted to offer him advice, but that’s not really how we do things here.
People ask me to see my photographs constantly, or pester me with questions about my trip, to the point that I occasionally get annoyed about the whole thing. I think this happens because I’ve already assimilated the experience. To me, it isn’t as big a deal anymore because I lived it. It’s inside me, a part of me. I think it’s hard for most people to say how travel has changed them, because the big changes only happen in books, movies, and propaganda materials (and perhaps Study Abroad promotional materials, if that’s different from propaganda). In truth, the changes that occur when we travel are too many and too subtle to be aware of most of the time. But I think that makes them more important – it’s the little changes that other cultures make in us that bring the world together.
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