årsdagen / vuosipäivä / jubilæum / anniversary

One year ago today, at nearly this exact hour, I returned to California at the end of 263 consecutive days of travels in the North. I remember feeling ecstatic, anxious, surreal, excited, apprehensive and a little sad. I couldn't help choking up as I saw the greenery and blue skies and warm sun over San Jose in late October. These feeling were followed by pure excitement as I began imagining the immense piles of vegetables and fruits I was going to stuff myself with for the first time in months, especially avocados.

At the baggage claim with my mom and my gentleman friend, we waited for the pack in which I'd been carrying all my worldly possessions. When he lifted it off the carousel he staggered under it's surprise weight and said he couldn't believe I was even able to lift something that heavy! But I had, and I did, for months on end, along with two pieces of hand luggage which I dragged around 5 countries on trains, buses, boats, ferries, airplanes, hitched rides, bicycles, and my own two legs.

Before I left on my travels, I had never:

-experienced a real winter
-eaten meat
-killed an animal for food
-skiied
-been in a proper sauna
-tasted a cloud berry
-touched a reindeer
-gotten seasick
-heard a geysir
-smelled an iceberg
-milked a cow
-attended church nearly as much
-felt more out of place
-felt more free
-had a Sweden-shaped hole in my heart
...among other things I have yet to tell.

This year has flown by much faster than I had anticipated. I can only interpret this as a direct result of how I changed as a person through these adventures. And how did I change, exactly? You will see. For now, here's an old-time Inuit verse from a book I found in Greenland:

One day when I am done,
one day when I am dead,
the sight I saw
will move another.
Another will get to see it,
a new age will see it.
Therefore I gasped for breath,
therefore I gasped for air,
strongly moved as I was.