Where is Home?

I just spent a wonderful weekend at home. And after two days of stressful travel I am finally home again. It's funny, actually, how people around here already refer to Messiah as 'home'. But I suppose it also makes sense. I, however, do not feel like I can really label either place as being home right now (after all, can someone have more than one home?) Hmmm.. i suppose this is sort of a trivial concern. The way I see it, I prefer to always find myself at home.

Anyways, three days at my Canadian home were wonderful this past weekend! I got to spend lots of time catching up with the famjam.. and many wonderful hours spent with Katrina. It was really nice to come home, and actually while I was there it almost felt like I had never left. BUT, leave again I did, and sad again I am. (i just felt like talking like Yoda..) However, even though when I left this time I knew it would be longer 'til I returned, I felt much more confident going into it.

I was really excited to get back to campus and having experience with all the long-distance relationships (not only with Katrina, but also with friends and family) helped me out a lot. Canadian thanksgiving with the family was excellent, I got to go to York for a day with Katrina, spent an evening with the family downtown, and had some good food with Emily and Sam. I felt really busy, and didn't even get to do everything I wanted, but it was a good 'first-attempt' at making the most of my visits home. Right now, I have a lot of work to catch up on, and I'm missing Katrina... BUT there are other matters to discuss:

SO, the plan for returning to Messiah was to catch a bus to Buffalo, then to Binghamton, NY, then to Harrisburg. Well, of course things did not go quite as planned. Actually, forget the 'quite' part. Things got totally screwed up. My first bus broke down outside Niagara Falls, so it was an hour and a half almost before we got another one. By the time I got to Buffalo, I hopped on a later bus that was going to New York City with instructions from the driver to get off in Binghamton. So I did. However, when I inquired about a bus to Harrisburg, the guy at the desk merely shook his head with a sad smile on his face (not exactly what you want to see when you are already confused and way behind schedule).

From there my only option was apparently to wait the night in Binghamton (the dumpiest city ever) or get on the next bus to New York City and go from there to Harrisburg. So, like thousands before me, I set off to test my luck in the Big Apple. Upon arrival, I was told that the next bus to Harrisburg did not leave until 3:15 am (who goes to Harrisburg at 3 in the morning!?). So that was when I did what all hopeless adventurers do: I called my mom. And thank God I did. Right before my cell-phone battery died, and with some incredible help from the home front, I got a room for the night (with a king-size bed and a view of the Empire State Building). Then I grabbed some food and went to bed, waking up at 8:30 to find the bus terminal I had been at the night before and look for a bus to Harrisburg. Well, I found one and made it back around 2:30 this afternoon. Yup, that's right. I left Toronto at 6:30 AM on Sunday and arrived on campus at 3:00 PM on Monday. Goooood times.

It's amazing the kind of wild (and stressful) adventures you can sum up in just a few sentences. Ha ha.. amidst all the anxiety of these past two days, however, I was thinking about how that night I spent alone in New York City will be a good story for years (and for my blog.) Grandpa Boden, if you are reading this, thank you SO much for that NYC trip this past summer. I would have been lost out of my mind if I hadn't been to the city before. And for all of you who have prayed for me at any point, it definitely helped last night!

So, now that both my home trip and trip home have come to an end, I am at the start of another busy week at Messiah. There will be a lot on my mind these next few days, but there is a LOT to do in the meantime. Here's a little glimpse at what will most likely happen before I get a chance to update the blog:
- field trip to Lancaster County to visit some nice Amishfolk tomorrow
- lots of homework, including writing a paper, a test, and a speech.
- Homecoming weekend (dance on Friday night, game on Saturday.. festivities throughout)
- First swim meet (yikes!!) on Saturday afternoon

And I'm sure there will be more. And speaking of swimming, I just got my 'gear' for the season (cap, warm-up track suit, new speedo, AND a massive winter parka that says MESSIAH SWIMMING on the back). So that's fun. I guess i should start going to practices then.. haha.

Okay, I need to get on with some of this work.
If you read all of this, I love you very much.
If you only skimmed it, I love you much.

Josh