Where have you been?

Since everyone has been traveling lately, please send us a few paragraphs of where you have been and what those places have done for you (made you feel happy/homesick? had excellent food? reminded you of a place back home? been an completely new experience?) Have you seen anything/anyone that is a direct connection to home? Sometimes we travel to a far away place and see--our neighbor, an old middle school friend, a person wearing a t-shirt from our high school.