My most memorable vacation was when my family went back to Ethiopia after 13 years. First some background information, I was born in Alexandria, Virginia where I lived for the first four months of my life before hopping on a plane to go live in Ethiopia with my grandmother. In Ethiopia, things are very different from how they are in America. As a kid, I was pretty much allowed to do whatever I wanted. So when I eventually came to live in America after six years I was very hurt that I was not allowed the same freedom that I had when I was in Ethiopia, and by “freedom” I mean the freedom to go out and play all over town, I was only allowed to go down the block when I cam here. The memory of doing whatever I wanted created an image of Ethiopia in my mind as some magical wonderland. And as the years went on and family that lived there would send us pictures of how things were changing that image became more and more real for me.
So needless to say when we finally went back I was going back with all this built up excitement. I had so many things that I wanted to explore and do. When we first landed in Ethiopia we were met by all our family at the airport. So my trip had started on a really good note. The next day we went around Addis Ababa exploring all the markets and historical sights. After about a week there we flew to Gondar which is where my family is from.
In Gondar, we were again met at the airport by all of our family that lived there. Gondar was where I had the most fun. I was able to see and hang out with friends that I had not seen in over a decade. It was also where I learned to drive a manual transmission and ride a motorcycle. All in all it was the best trip I ever had becasue I was with almost every single memeber of my family at the same time.