The Homecoming

No, this post is not about the great American tradition of celebrating the return to high school, proudly wearing your school's colours and cheering loudly at the first football game of the season. The main reason this post is not about that is, well, I live in Canada and we don't engage in such shenanigans (fun though they seem :P). No, I figured about 2 months was the longest I could get away with not bothering to write about my actual homecoming from the great adventure that was France.

Yes, early July 21st (or 22nd?? wow, maybe I did wait too long...) I grabbed my 'meagre belongings' (comprised of 2 absolutely bulging suitcases, a backpack full to bursting, and a carry-on in the same state), petted the two lovely dogs at my host family's for the very last time, waved goodbye to my home away from home, and then watched this countryside that I had come to know and love glide past the car windows. Goodbye, winding country roads i had spent many a tranquil hour wandering, goodbye old lazy river, goodbye little town where so many of my friends were and are and shall continue to be, without me. 

Eventually arriving at the airport exactly 0 minutes in advance, I was forced to quickly say goodbye to my host family, who had become so much more than that to be in the past year, and walk, rotary jacket pins shining, back into the familiar yet unknown life that waited for me.

Last views of France

On the long airplane ride how I felt strangely calm. It's weird to explain, but I guess I was ready to go back to my own home my own family my own place of belonging and that's were the plane was taking me.

The end of France.

And HELLO CANADA!

Actually stepping off the plan and into the arms of my waiting parents was fairly surreal, but honestly by the time we arrived back at my little home on our great big farm I just felt like all was normal and I had basically never left. My siblings decorated the house for me, with a great big hand-painted "WELCOME HOME!" sign and canadian flags on every conceivable surface. :)

The long road home ends here :)

I'd say the only difficulties I had readjusting were a) the sudden distance between me and all my friends :( and b) the language!  Back in France, I lived in a house with one of my best friends in the entire world, and so whenever I got bored or lonely I could just walk down a hallway and be instantly happier. But now I live on a farm in Ontario, my canadian friends are far away in town, the rest of my friends are scattered across Europe, the USA, mexico, Australia, Argentina...not exactly within arm's reach. Multiple time zones are now also a force to be reckoned with (example: my Australian friend snappchats me about breakfast when I'm going to bed, and sends pictures of herself out for the night when I'm just beginning my day :p).Time zones can also make setting up Skype chats far more complicated than they need to be.

But this little lady was happy to see me, so
I guess I do ok for friends ;)

Illogical though it may seem, language was also actualy a bit of a change for me getting, even though yes, English is indeed my native language. I guess after thinking and speaking and listening to french for such a long time I needed to...readjust. My friends and family found great amusement in my new 'accent', and I once spent 10 minutes trying to understand what my mom didnt understand about the phrase, "wow, the sky is really noire over there!" ("...Do you mean black?" "..Do I? hmm. Yeah, i remember that word now :P black it is!")

Overall though, I'm glad to be home, though I'll always miss France and the people I knew there, and the person I was there. Looking forward to living the rest of my life with these experiences behind me!