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Day 53 and beyond: Home
After an eleven and a half hour flight from Rio to London and then a short flight back to Dublin I was home. I craved South America and all that went with it: in London, not yet accustomed to being in an English speaking country, I kept going to speak to people in Spanish; and despite my initial rejection of Latin music and constant criticism of "Despacito", and it's CONSTANT air play, I actually missed it (edit: it came up on my Spotify most played lists for 2017. I'm not proud of this fact, but I blame it on nostalgia)... I wasn't ready to re-immerse myself in my previous Irish life and needed to cling on to the last of South America! So, all I could do was jam my earphones in my ears and listen to Latin pop until I couldn't take anymore!
Coming through Dublin airport, I could feel a lump rise in my throat. It's sad when things are over. But as I was processing this thought, with my enormous rucksack weighing me down, I peered through the arrival gates and all of a sudden the weight was lifted. Standing, waiting, holding a banner, were some familiar faces. Bewildered at first it took me a second to register that my mum, my sister and my adorable niece and nephew had come to welcome me home!!! A big, colourful sign saying, "Welcome Home Aunty Li" greeted me and little Alex ran out to hug me! What a homecoming! I couldn't possibly stay sad after that. So, however grateful I was to have been for all the adventures and new experiences, I was even more grateful to know I'd come home to such a loving family. Travelling is amazing: it not only offers you experiences of the greater world you could never have at home, it also offers you a fresh perspective and appreciation for the world that you live in every day… which makes me think: where to next?
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