I’ve been apprehensive about trying to write some fantastic encapsulation of my travels – because, really, I don’t think it’s possible.

How any traveler manages to go abroad and so concisely bring that world back to us amazes me. It requires more than just being a competent writer, but an aptitude for recognizing the finer details from all senses and people around them – things that I am still working on and coincidentally, the same reasons why I admire journalists.

All I can really say is that traveling anywhere, and especially by yourself, changes you in a way that is completely unforeseen and abrupt. The changes don’t make you a new person, but brings out qualities and ideas in you that were dormant before. Your thoughts are more lucid because you rely on them in a foreign place.

Aside from my unreasonable sleeping schedule that affords me early mornings, every morning, my pace of being is significantly slower. It’s not lethargy — I hope — but just an appreciation of every moment. I have little regard for the time right now, evident by my multiple clocks set to all the wrong times. Usually, I’m the neurotic one who sets the clock 20 minutes ahead to “gain” 20 minutes. I don’t feel the necessity to constantly tweet about my life or every interesting article I read. Instead, I crave those long, unexpectedly, but pleasantly, extended conversations with my friends, where we speak and listen and there’s little pressure or desire to fill in the silences with small talk. I want to develop my focus, my patience, and my passion to learn and create and everything else.

I can’t even begin to wrap my head around all the experiences, countless feelings and all the people along the way who have touched and moved me. It’s frustrating to try to neatly package everything in one summative post, so I’m not going to. Instead, everything hereafter will be my post-Paris melange.

PS. I also didn’t have a camera after the first two or three days because somehow, my battery charger I brought was not the correct one. Instead of thousands of HD/10mpx photos, I have a modest 100 or so photos from my iPhone. I treasure these photos so much because there’s a specific story behind each one. Since the range and quality of an iPhone is considerably reduced, I tried to capture those little moments. I didn’t set up and I didn’t take multiple shots to get the perfect shot — I just took it and continued experiencing the moment. I tried to savor and remember how I felt and everything around me because I knew I wouldn’t have that crutch of a beautifully detailed photo to fall back on. The photos I have aren’t of monuments because you can look those up on the Internet and others have taken such stunning photos of the Sacré Coeur or Notre Dame or the Eiffel Tour already. Instead, I thought I’d just take a few photos from friends to show my mom, to prove to her that I was over there doing worthwhile things and not just meandering those gorgeous cobblestone streets, heh.