April 1, 2008
Helena, who has decided to spruce up our posting by asking questions she wants answers to (feel free to ask any you want to know, too), tossed another one our way, asking if we miss "home," or if that word has meaning for us. I've thought about it for a couple months now, and here's at least a partial answer.
I don't miss home because I don't feel as though I have one to miss. When I'm talking to David and say something like, "When we're home we can...," I'm only ever refering to being back in the US. The US is "home" in the sense that it's familiar and we understand the subtext and undercurrents of every conversation/interaction, something that is easy to take for granted until you miss it by having that understanding impinged on in some way, like traveling. But, if based on that definition, the US is increasingly less and less a "home" because we miss out on so much pop culture and current events by being out of the country for extended periods and not having a television when we are there. Ultimately I think "home" is a state of mind, and one I can enter into, not quite at will, but almost anywhere, once we've been there a couple days to feel familiar with the area.
I do miss family and friends, though, both in the US and abroad. Missing people can be really difficult, especially because lots of people are terrible about emailing since everyone has their own lives to get on with. But even then, I don't get lonely in any real sense, because David is always around. Traveling with your best friend has the definite perk of assuaging loneliness. Especially since we talk, all the time.
