Welcome Home

It’s over eleven hours from Cape Town to Amsterdam and another ten to Vancouver so I was ready to get off the plane. I was so excited that I talked the ear off of all the customs officers (a great way to get an extra bottle or two of wine into the country) and was practically running by the end. There is some special relativity of time when waiting for your luggage to appear on the turnstiles. My mom and several friends had come to the airport to greet me and there were many comparisons on my appearance to my cousin. Due to the delays in Cape Town we had to drive back to the Kootenays the next day to see my brother and nephew before they left for the holidays. Needless to say I was particularly alert at the party and felt that I made coherent conversation. There are definitely mixed feelings about being at home: on the one hand I am excited to see family and friends, the snow is wonderful despite being melted by the rain and I felt like it was time to leave Cape Town and get back to the real world but on the other hand when I have time to myself everything feels fairly foreign. There are a certain number of expectations and memories that I have and the reality (understandably and expectedly) is a little different. The best way to articulate this is that I feel a bit out of place somehow I don’t belong. That could also be jetlag. Now it’s time to try and summarize the experience in such a way that it can be shared (understood is another issue all together) and to reaquaint myself with my friends.