What more can I say?

So I'm back in the states now. It's pretty crazy....... yet not at the same time. It's good to see some faces again. My friends seem to be happy to see me as well. It's really hard talking with people about my experience. What am I supposed to say? I keep getting asked questions like what was the highlight? or best thing? or favorite part?

It's so hard to say. I did so much being in europe for 4 months. How can I sum it all up in a 5 minute conversation? Can these people ask me a more detailed question? Perhaps about culture or traveling or people encounters? Something specific.

Or do I just tell them the whole story on the spot from day 1?

I lived in Italy for 3 months and 1 week! In the city of Florence. During my stay there, I met a lot of interesting people. I had some pretty cool roommates. All 3 were also from Minnesota. We all go to the same school. It was really fun getting to know them and living with those guys. We for sure had some good times. Florence was everything I thought it would be. Small winding streets and colorful buildings. Cheap and tasty wine. Delicious breads, cheeses, and deli meats. I had a meal with some sort of pasta in it everyday. Literally. I would switch it up between fusilli, penne, bowtie, or spaggetti. There were very beautiful women. I also got better at speaking Italian as I lived there. But I still wish I would've tried harder at speaking it while I was there.

As I was living in Italy, I took a lot of weekend trips to other Italian cities. Rome, Venice, Naples, Pompeii, Sorento, Milan, Pisa, Sienna, Cinque Terre, Lake Garda. I was satisfied with all of them except for Milan and Naples. Milan was just boring. Naples was a trash town. Very unorganized. It was just a big mess.

I studied a lot of art while I was there. Watercolor painting and oil painting. Then there was this art history class of the renaissance and baroque periods in Italy. Why can't people even ask me about that? That could possibly start a conversation. It was really cool learning about the history of Florence and seeing all of these artistic sites right in front of my face.

There was also one weekend trip where I went to Munich with my roommate. That was our first couchsurfing experience. We mainly went to Munich that weekend because of Oktoberfest. The fest was really fun but I think it is overrated a bit. It isn't much different from the state fair.

Couchsurfing is amazing though. I can talk about that a lot. Yeah there I go. I can mention the fact that I stayed in very hospitable stranger's home's in different cities of Europe as I traveled. We stayed with two strangers. They were a german couple. Our age. And they showed us around. They took us to a rave. They smoked us up. They gave us breakfast. It was truly amazing!

There was a midterm break trip to London and Dublin. London is such a cool city. The people there are so nice and helpful. I loved it! Plus, everyone there had a unique style. And I love style when it comes to clothing. Back over here, everyone is so Ridgedale. In America, so many girls try to look like Paris Hilton or whoever. In Europe, they don't care about that stuff as much. People are more unique with their styles. Why copy these beautiful famous people? For all you know, maybe Paris Hilton should copy you. Be a human and give yourself a style.

I hate those ugg boots. I've hated them for years now since high school. They look like muppet shoes. The only reason these things (bad fashion choices) get so popular is because some paparazzi dude snaps a photo of some famous chick wearing them and then you see it on the cover of fashion magazine. Now everyone needs to have a pair because they are a pretty big deal. Why copy this famous woman with such a terrible taste in style?

During my term, I made some good friends that I got shitfaced with many times. Also baked with a couple times. I even started rolling my own cigs every day when I was there. I miss rolling those. It's like a fun little project. Getting drunk in Florence was always a good time. We found a sweet bar called Amadeus. After a while though, I got sick of the people at my school and just couldn't wait to see my good friend Peter to come visit me. I haven't seen him in over a year. The only people I didn't get sick of that much were my roommates. We were pretty close.

So Peter came and visited me and we went off traveling through Europe for 3 weeks. That was so much fun. I met one of Peter's friends in Innsbruck, Austria and she introduced us to her friends. It was really fun hanging out with them and learning about their culture. We got to go snowboarding right in the alps too! We traveled through Austria and then up to Prague. From Prague, we went southwest to Interlaken, Switzerland. We skydived there!!! I will never forget that free-fall for the rest of my life! After Interlaken we went to Geneva for a night to meet up with one of Peter's distant relatives and her husband. That was pretty intersting. Then we went more southwest to Barcelona. Barcelona was a pretty cool city, but unfortunately it rained the whole time and we really wanted to skate. From Barcelona we went up north to Paris for New Years Eve. Paris was a cool city with nice little cafes everywhere you look. Really really big too. Like New York big. New Years Eve was overrated in Paris though. We should've taken it up to Amsterdam.

Amsterdam was our next and my final stop. I loved amsterdam. It is such a cool and beautiful city. In america, you have these bars people go to. At these bars, people get wasted. Everyone is fake at them. The girls are acting all slutty and such. The lights are dimmed so you can't actually see what the person looks like for real. And the music is too loud to even hold a conversation. But in Amsterdam, is the complete opposite. You can go into a chill "coffeeshop" with some reggae music or curtis mayfield playing on the speakers in a medium volume. You can purchase a joint of white widow or buy a gram of whatever breeds the place has on their menu. We chose Hawaiian haze. Roll it up. And have a nice interesting conversation with someone. It is just more real over there.

About 4 months ago, I decided that Amsterdam would be my final moment with Mary Jane and the psychadelics. I haven't been smoking that much last year. I quit around the summer of 2007. I would still do it off and on since then. Like every couple weeks or so. So I've been pretty clean. I used to smoke multiple times a day everyday about 2 years ago. There were some good and bad times. I'll never forget the good. I try to forget the bad. Weed just doesn't work with me. Especially in a social environment. I trip out too hard in my head. Then I end up not even talking with people. Sometimes I'll have racing thoughts. Its not good. I would prefer the sober max more than the baked max most of the time.

And then I smoked some amazing bud in the dam. It felt so good. It tasted so good. Everything about it was good. Maybe it is the bud in that city? Or maybe it was the breed that I chose? But there was definitely no bad that night. I could do that stuff for a long time. I was able to control myself as well. Now what? Should I stop like I planned? Or go back to my late high school roots? Pretty much everyone I know still does it. Even people I work with. It's a tough call. I haven't smoked for a week now since I left Amsterdam. Maybe it'll stay that way. My mind is in a dilemma though. Great. As I was typing that last sentence, some girls from work called me. Asking me when I can hang out with them. Asking me if I smoke pot. Saying we should toke up sometime. Part of me wants to. The other part is afraid that if i get high, it might not be so good after that. I just get paranoid. Can't really help it.

I really wanted to eat some mushrooms in Amsterdam. It was made illegal after december 1st. Some places still had some though. We managed to find some really good ones. Tripped BALLS in amsterdam. haha! It was so fun. A pretty clean trip too. I feel like I had the perfect amount. I wanted to pace myself. I ate half in the beginning while waiting in line to get inside the van gogh museum. Figured I would wait an hour and see where my trip would be. An hour had passed and nothing was really happening. But I think that something was happening though because I felt so anxious. I was impatient and just ate the other half in the museum. Just said "fuck it! lets do this." And after I ate that half....BOOM! My trip exploded and really started happening. Peter and I left the museum to catch the sunlight on the beautiful day. We went to a park and watched dogs running on slippery frozen ponds. Overall, it was a good trip. I had a headache for like a week before I ate them. Now it has been a week after and still no headache. Those things cleared my head. They are healers.

I also told myself back in august that amsterdam will be the end of my experiences with psychadelics. But during my trip, I learned that everyone can use a good trip every once in a while. I learned from it. It's hard to say what I learned, but there was definitely a lot of reflecting going on in my mind. I wanted to quit because I guess I have had my share of everything. Doses, boomers, rolls, molly. I've done them all a few times each. The doses get old and the mdma products get old. It's the same experience every time. Some better than others but pretty much the same. They were good times that I will take with me forever. But the mushrooms are nature from the mother earth. I need to research them more. Those little guys are pretty fascinating.

So what was the best part? All of it! Traveling by train is really cool. I really wish the states had a train system. I know Canada does. I would be in one country with a certain culture, then 4 hours later in a completely different place. It was insane! Meeting cool people from around the world. I got some people's contacts. I did some networking. I shall stay in touch with them. Especially the guy Peter from Australia. I really wanna go there someday. Also a very cute girl that I met in Barcelona who worked at the hostel we stayed at and was from Romania.

But now I'm back and I find it hard to just jump in funny conversations in gatherings with some of my closest friends. I don't know why. I just want to talk with my friends and have a jolly time with them as if I was never gone. Like things haven't even changed. Back to hanging out with the krew. Yet, I feel that I am put on the spot. Here' s max over here. He was just in europe for 4 months...... yet he has nothing to say. Well there's my story right above. Is it really that interesting? I'm not sure. I'll keep the experience with me in my heart though. It was more about the small daily things that happened that I really liked. For now, I guess I'll try harder at engaging in conversations with my friends. And if they are interested, hopefully they'll ask me a more interesting question than what was your favorite part.

Good night everyone.