I have to admit that I was a little disappointed of not feeling totally amazed by being on the other side of the world. People speak english…I have seen that. The houses look like those I had seen in the US and in the UK…so no jaw-dropping either. Life seems so comparable to all I knew…and I had hoped to feel something special being that far away.
Today, this changed. We were walking across the Harbour Bridge and I tried to get my directions straight, thinking that we probably are heading northbound and the opera is in our east. Always double-check your assumptions when risking to walk for quite a way in the wrong direction, I was glad I did. Since it was around 11 and bright sunshine, the sun would have to be somewhere behind me if I was heading north. I looked back. No sun. Strange! I looked right and left. No sun. (Can you imagine how strange it feels to have a blue sky and looking for the sun? 😉 ) And then, suddenly, I realized that on this side of the equator, the sun is in the north at lunchtime. I looked up and there it was, bright and shining. It’s probably hard to imagine, but I got goose-bumps from realizing that a fact that had been one of the most absolute in my life so far, had just changed.
The sun, we learned, can never be north of you. Yes, it can. It doesn’t matter if life is very comparable to ours back home. Now, I’m so amazed of being on the other side of the world!!!