Home

It is amazing the restorative effects of home, of just being in this place. I returned to Maine last Tuesday afternoon, after a weepy goodbye with Reada, Dave and Tim in Lima on Monday night. As sad as I was to leave them, I was incredibly happy to be leaving Lima and the situation there and returning home to Maine and my family. I've been feeling bad lately that I haven't been feeling more guilty about leaving school and my students, but my counselor made a good point - we feel guilty when we've done something that we think was wrong, so these feelings just further support that I made the right decision. I'm still struggling with a lot of things and have been having some unexpected crying moments that have come out of nowhere, but hopefully being home will continue to help me heal. Thanks to all of you for your emails and phone calls over the past few weeks. I appreciate the support and love more than I can ever tell you - I'm so lucky to have you all in my life.

It is hard to believe I have already been home for a week. As I am writing this, I am watching the torrential downpour that is happening outside my window. It is taking some adjustment to be back in a place where the weather changes daily, but I like it. The past week has been beautiful spring weather, the best Maine has to offer, and I don't mind a good rain shower here and there. I'm just hoping for sun tomorrow - I'm meeting Stacey and my 3 year old goddaughter Christel in Portland and we are going to the Children's Museum and out to lunch. I'm really looking forward to spending some good time with them - the joys of being back home.

One of the best parts of the past week has been hanging out with Ralph, my brother's 2 year old black lab. Marc, being the good brother he can be sometimes, decided that Ralph would be good therapy for me when I got home and he was right. It does the heart good to have a dog to take care of and Ralph is especially lovey. As long as he is around his people, he is content, so he snuggled with me and followed me around for 6 days and made me incredibly happy. We went on walks and played in the yard and just laid around for days and it was great. I was very sad to see him leave today (Marc and Megan were missing him and wouldn't let me keep him any longer), but I'm hoping to convince them to let me have him one day a week this summer while I'm down at Hedding. And I think a dog of my own might be in my future. We'll see...

The other highlight of my first week home was my friends Becky and Betsy coming up to Maine for a visit. We've been friends forever - we were all percussionists at UNH together and then all taught music at the same time and would meet in Manchester for dinner once a week for years until I left for Berlin. They were on school vacation last week and immediately asked if they could come up and see me. They are the first people who have ever offered to come all the way up here, so I of course said yes! We hung out in Bangor the first night and I took them to a fun Irish pub. Then Friday morning we headed for Mount Desert Island. As lots of you know, I grew up spending my summers on a lake about 30 minutes from MDI and it is one of my favorite places on the planet - right up there with Wanakee and Berlin. It was so fun to be able to show Becky and Betsy around the island and play tourists for a day. The weather was perfect and the island was pretty quiet since the summer season hasn't started yet. We drove to the top of Cadillac Mountain and the view was incredible - it felt like we could see forever. Then we went to Sand Beach (where this photo was taken) and Thunder Hole, then into downtown Bar Harbor for lunch at Geddy's, the only restaurant open in the off-season. It was a perfect day and I'm so glad Becky and Betsy came to visit and I could share it with them.

So, that sums up my first week back in my non-international life. Future posts may not include exciting destinations like previous posts, but I'll try to keep you updated on life back in New England.