Soooo… I am at home now. It’s really weird. I think I’m going to keep this going for a bit, because I still have a lot of pictures that I’d like to share.

Leaving everyone at the airport yesterday morning was really hard. Katimavik gives you a lot of practice at goodbyes – sometimes it seems that just as you start to get used to something, you leave. Work placements. Project leaders. Houses and communities. Billeting families. By the third time you have to leave these, it’s almost routine… even if you don’t WANT to leave the people and places, which I typically did not, it almost becomes easy to do so by the end.

The only thing that stays constant is the other participants. Well, even some of those leave. But by the end of this program, those of us that were left were really close, truly like family. I freakin’ bawled at the airport yesterday, cursed our gigantic country for spreading us so far apart, and of course promised to visit. Of all the fantastic things I’ve got from this program, nothing is better than the people I have met.

So.. though I’m glad to be home, it’s also with a bit of sadness. I plan to go back in probably a couple weeks, and will see quite a few people then anyway, but it’s not the same as living together, of course. Ah, well.. it’s been a pretty crazy and amazing ride, and I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.