I’m totally wiped out, and this breaks all my rules about blogging in sequence, but today has been so amazing that I couldn’t let it pass without saying something.
If I could take any one day and freeze it so that I could live it over and over again, it would be today.
A hodge-podge group of us found ourselves drawn together and ended up spending the whole day kicking about Chicago eating Korean food, drinking a lot of beer, and other such things.
It’s difficult to explain, but the intensity of meeting people when you travel and how close and reliant on each other you become so quickly is something really quite special. With only one day before we all went out separate directions, everything became laden with extra meaning. If you’ve seen the film ‘Before Sunrise’, you’ll have an idea of what I’m talking about.
It puts things in perspective when there are complete strangers who go out of their way to spend time with each other; to look after one another… lend money for trains and food and get keys cut and invite you into their homes… hug and kiss and both count and treat you as close friends as family… and yet there are people back at home who make no real effort to make time for you.
It’s genuinely heart-breaking to know that today’s over, and that we’ll never have another day quite like it, but I wouldn’t swap it for the world. This whole trip has been worth it just for today alone.
Photo by my wonderful friend Sitthixay Ditthavong of the Associated Press.
I love this City.