Paul Georges . Alterego Construction

So things are somewhat back to normal here in Linköping: my stomach is feeling much better, another school semester has begun, in parallell there are just as many parties going on as there were at the beginning of last semester and I will soon begin packing my bags for another little excursion. The outting this time however, is to somewhere much colder and much more troubling. Russia it is my friends! 55 students from Linköping (most of us, if not all, are exchange students) shall be spending 1 week + 1 day travelling Russia by bus with major stops in Moscow and St. Petersburg! Should be a blast, yet I don’t quite know what to expect. I want to study a bit on the road but I don’t wanna look like a dork and I don’t wanna drink too much either because I don’t wanna miss out on Russia due to being too shitfaced or temporarily blinded from excessive vodka intake.

Now the most troubling part… Russia’s history is expansive and I’m supposing that a good background of historical knowledge is important to hold if one wants to get the most out of one’s experience in the country. Now… my history luggage most definately fits into a small tupperware container and I consider it to be quite mediocre but I still know my stuff; after all, I’ve read Animal Farm (way back) eh! Hopefully I won’t miss out on too much due to all this.

In smalltalk news, the weather in Linköping is pretty much indentical to Québec’s. Fall is rainy, cold, windy and ultimately, quite depressing. Went to buy myself a tuque and some gloves; warmth is good. I can’t imagine myself riding my shitty bike to school in negative temperatures… gonna have quite a laugh with that.

Otherwise things are good here in Sweden. However, whenever I find myself alone in my room for too long I begin to overthink things (my Mom and I overuse that damn word). I’ve realized so many things (proofread note: SEE!) being away, things (proofread note: damn…) that I would never have expected to be true upon departure from Québec. All this thinking has restructured my morals, my way of thinking. Being away tends to make you understand that home really does exist…

“You know that point in your life when you realize that the house that you grew up in isn’t really your home anymore? All of a sudden even though you have some ideal place where you can put your shit, that idea of home is gone.” -Andrew Largeman, Garden State

That’s exactly what I thought as well before leaving. In my mind, it was simple… travelling would not be difficult because one’s image of home gets so blurry after a certain period that one just can’t get a grip on it, one can’t see what and where home truly is. I know where my home is now, and I can’t wait to rediscover it.