Home

Today some friends from college were passing through Berkeley on their way back to SB.  Sam and Ashley have always been ahead of the curve, graduating into fancy grown up jobs that utilized their engineering degrees and buying a house long before any of us even considered moving somewhere with more than one bedroom.  Now they are renovating and planning for their September wedding (which is scary, but awesome) and it was great to see them.  

The thing is, they made me think about my home.  Where exactly is it?  LA? I haven't been there in years. SB? Where I met countless friends, and lived for a majority of my personal development as an adult, maybe.  North Carolina? I visit there and consider it a home since it's where I find my parents, but I haven't ever actually lived there.  Or Berkeley? I have only been here a year but it is already a place filled with good friends and happy feelings.

So which is it?  

I think I can count out LA sadly, even though it is where I am from, it isn't home anymore.

And SB no longer houses most of the people that I consider to be an essential part of it's "hominess"

North Carolina has most of my family, but nothing I am actually familiar with.  Because seriously, those streets are effed up.  Whoever designed Charlotte must have been on drugs.

Berkeley seems to be the only choice.  But I am still in a learning period here and feel like a stranger most of the time.

I guess home for me, is wherever I am with friends and family at the time.  I used to think it was about things.  Things like a really cool rocking chair in our front room and our house and my room set up just the right way.  But after my parents moved I started realizing that I didn't really miss the things, just the people.

So it is great that Sam and Ash are making a home, something that is uniquely theirs (with some kitties too) and hopefully one day I will decide on a place to make that happen.  Wherever it is, I hope that there are more memories like this though.

from left: John, me, Kris, Ash, Dan, Kaela, Sam.  Front is Chelsea's head.

Franceland

All right, all right, stop whining for more updates from me! Wait, what? Nobody asked for more? Well too bad! Here is a new blog post.

Kris and I returned home from France on Sunday.  The trip was awful, 12 hours in first class with free alcohol and a five course lunch, seats that were able to lay flat, bathrooms that a normal sized human can comfortably fit in.  Blech.  But really, our trip was amazing.  We went to a new place almost every day (spending a day and a half in Paris) and got to experience France and Belgium like I never have before.

We stayed in Nomain, a small small town about an hour from Lille, in a Gite run by a lovely couple named Bernard and Therese.  Our general daily plan was to wake up early, go to town X, return around 4 to the Gite, and have a nice dinner at home or at  a local restaurant.

I wish I could just upload my travel journal with all of the details of the trip but it would lack ticket stubs, postcards, maps, and just about everything else that got stuck in my pocket for the week.  Theres quick photo run down of the trip though after the jump!