Home Again

Driving back took two days, it was horrible.

Yesterday after we drove from Middlebury to Erie, PA and stayed over at Uncle Paulie and Aunt Tracy's home. "Uncle Paulie" is a friend of my Dad's; a neurosurgeon originally from Midland, Michigan. When Dad was deployed to Germany a few years ago he worked with Paulie and the two became good friends. Paulie's an open sort of guy, hilarious with a "no bullshit" sort of air to him that makes him pleasant to be around. He and and his wife Tracy are like a tag team, bouncing off of each others energy, making our stay such a pleasant experience after being in a car for eight hours. They were lovely to see, such nice people; I wish I could have stayed longer.

Middlebury is done, and I'm home. And now I eat my words. Exactly why, I don't know, but a part of my heart misses Middlebury.

When I come back here, nobody speaks Japanese, and nobody cares if you do. This place is a bubble isolated away from time and away from the rest of the world, I don't know if I like it. Speaking Japanese is sort of like an embarassing hobby, people sort of smile and laugh at you when they hear you speak it, and are always asking for you "say something in Japanese." All of it almost sounds like a joke.

At least Ann Arbor will come again in three weeks. Somehow, I don't feel like I'm home quite yet.