Homesick

One of the obvious difficulties about living so far away from home is that life somehow carries on without you. Hard to fathom, I know. For me, this isn't generally a problem. I actually have to make quite an effort to remember to call home to talk. It's not that I don't love Sarnia or my family, I'm just usually wrapped up in my life here that I forget to remember the good things about being home. I've always taken for granted that when I want to return (say... once a year) I will get to come home and enjoy it for a few weeks.

This year a little wrench or two got thrown into the mix. First off, I wasn't home for the birth of my first nephew. I was too busy enjoying a two-week vacation in Europe. (Did I just call my newborn nephew a wrench?) I tried to make up for it by mailing him his first ever piece of mail. So now he's got a postcard of Barcelona, mailed from London. This was all fine and dandy as my plan was to come home and spend as much time with him as I could.

I was handling that just fine, but now I'm missing out on attending my little sister's wedding. We all knew I wouldn't be able to make it back for a February wedding - I mean, how do you fit a wedding in when you do a tour of the Gobi desert, spend Christmas vacation travelling through England, Paris and Barcelona, and have booked a trip to Boracay in the Philippines? We've made the necessary arrangements to have me participate in the festivities. They acquired a mannequin, I filmed a speech, I booked a sick day (homesick has the word "sick" in it, so it counts), and the video link is... well... a work in progress. As I write this, the wedding is in its final preparatory stages, but will (knock on wood) be a resounding success by the time you are reading it.

This brings me to a randomly and loosely connected point. What is Family Day? I only know of this "holiday" because my sister choose it for her wedding day. I have only been gone from Canada for the past 18 months and already the country doesn't even celebrate the same holidays. Seriously though, what is Family Day? As I am a man of no country - Revenue Canada has declared me an emigrant, however; I have not immigrated to any other country - I get left out of the loop a little bit. What traditional celebrations take place? Are there online contests to create Family Day traditions? Seriously!! I have no idea what this holiday is all about (or why they had to choose a day so close to Valentine's Day).

To return to my original train of thought, I miss home. I miss my family, I miss my friends and I miss having snow when it gets cold. It wouldn't be so bad if I could spend time at home this summer, but since I'm moving on from Mongolia in June, I'll be starting a new job just 13 days after this one ends, and I have to travel travel to Canada and all the way to Indonesia in that time. Wait a second, why am I complaining? I'm moving to Indonesia.

My friends and family should be coming to visit me.