Homecoming

Finals, papers, it's all done. Flying standby was completely different this time, as on the way home, I got 1) on the first flight available, and 2) in business class seating. Got home around 11:30 at night, woke up at 7:15, went to church, all's well, I live happily ever after.

Kinda.

I love being in my own bed, in the house in which I grew up. I love it when both brothers are home. My room is MY room, I'm not going to be moving out in three months for good. The doodles/eventual murals are still on the walls, the plastic owl is on the bookcase, it's my room. Downstairs, it's all the same. Everything is where I left it at the end of August. The bookroom is more open, true, but everything's essentially the same.

The problem is when I step outside. My home town just doesn't feel like home any more. Parts of it are foreign to me, like the empty spot where a tree once stood, or the stack of fencing that a homeowner had removed. This building is closed, another building is something else. The people that drive by are unfamiliar to me.

I'm sure the feeling of not being home is, in part, caused by the knowledge that with another year of age (yeah, my brithday's today), I'm another year closer to finishing my degree, getting a job, and moving away. My wanderings aren't over yet.

I guess I have a ways to go before I get home.

² My soul longs, yes, even faints
For the courts of the LORD;
My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. 
³ Even the sparrow has found a home,
And the swallow a nest for herself,
Where she may lay her young—
Even Your altars, O LORD of hosts,
My King and my God.
⁴ Blessed are those who dwell in Your house;
They will still be praising You. Selah 

Psalm 84:2-4, NKJV

Canoeing, Capering, Camping, Climbing

The four C's of the last two days! Woohoo!

Thursday morning, we had the choice between canoeing and kayaking. Liz, our instructor, wasn't taking us out because she has a bad back currently, so we had Kat in the kayaks and Jon in the canoe. Melanie and I both chose to go in a canoe, so we worked together the entire day. We canoed down the Menai Strait, under both bridges near Bangor, dealt with currants, eddies, and the tide, and generally enjoyed each other's company while singing random songs. Everyone else had a kayak. Jon taught Mel and I separately. I was at the front, doing all the big steering, and Mel was at the back, doing the subtle steering. It took us two tries to get coordinated enough to cross the currant, but we didn't tip over. Jon said we did really well for it being our first time in a canoe! After we went several miles down the Strait, the tide changed and we paddled around a couple islands and a quarter of the way back to a small beach where Liz was waiting for us with a trailer. We loaded up all the stuff, drove to the Conway Centre, put everything away, and discussed technicalities of what we were taught and names for all the equipment. Then two other girls and I left, they had something to go to, and I had Morris dance practice!

Last night we only did...two, I believe, dances that I was really comfortable with and had done before. The rest were ones I had either done a grand total of once or had never done. It was great fun, learning all these new dances THAT WE'LL BE PERFORMING ON SUNDAY. I'll have to review the figures before we actually do them, because right now, I can't remember how a single one of the new ones goes. That puts me up to...five hours canoeing, two and a half hours capering.

Liz picked me up from practice so I could do the camping bit of our Outdoor Pursuits trip. Cathryn made me a "hobo packet" for supper, and they did save enough marshmallows for me to have s'mores. The hobo packet was delicious, all they did was take veggies (I had them leave the meat out), wrap them in two layers of foil, and stick the packet on the fire. While it was cooking, our entire group of sixteen or so people played a game called Mafia. It was a lot of fun. In a group of 15 people, we had 4 Mafia members. Each round, they chose someone to kill while everyone else is 'asleep'. In the group, also, was the Cop. He picks out someone as a Mafia member, and gets told by the Narrator if he's right or not, all while everyone else including the Mafia is 'asleep'. There's also a Doctor, who picks one person per round to save, and if he's lucky, he saves the person that just got killed by the Mafia. Everyone else is a Townsperson. The Narrator comes up with a brilliant (and often ridiculous) story of how someone was murdered, and the Townspeople vote on who they think the killer is. The person with the most votes at the end of the round dies. I got picked out as a Mafia member simply because I kept laughing. Cathryn's reason for picking me was, "she's over there, laughing by herself, keeping quiet, and for all we know, she has Liz's hands chopped off and stuck in her back pockets!" (Liz had just been killed by the Mafia). My first line of defence? "It can't have been me that killed Liz. I don't have back pockets." Trent, our Narrator, found that funny. It was a great time all round. I was a Townsperson both times. After that, we sang a few songs, then went to bed. It was quite fun, sleeping in a teepee. We had a fire in the middle of the circle, which a few of us woke up to occasionally feed. It got below freezing last night too, but the sleeping bags we had were amazingly warm and comfy. I didn't sleep much, but the times I wasn't sleeping were very relaxing, mostly because I was sleeping next to Jake. Jake is a big guy, and he snores. I like his snores. They were rumbley, comfy snores. It was somehow comforting to hear Jake snore, like proof I wasn't the only one there :D

Liz and Sally got us up at 9 this morning, we took until about 11 to all be ready to go for another activity, and we went indoor rock climbing. It was a lot of fun. Mel was my partner again, and we did a lot of fun climbs. There was one where all I had to do was place my back against one wall, my feet on the other, and climb the way we climbed the living room doorway! The only difference was that this climb was about four times higher! I also did a climb involving an auto-belay device, all I had to do was clip my harness into it and climb. That was actually the steepest climb I'd ever done, it tilted back towards me a little. When I got to the top, all I had to do was jump off! HA HA! The one thing I've had issues with this entire time, jumping into thin air! Well, I did it. I can't decide if it's progress or foolhardiness that I'm getting more comfortable jumping off of things. 

Anyway, we got back around four. That's...five hours canoeing, two and a half capering, a night of camping, and four-ish hours climbing. After getting back, I had mushrooms for supper sautéed in some margarine, and I was asleep from 6:00 to 9:00. I'm only up now to post everything on the blog. I'm knackered. I'm going back to bed.