It's not about the place...

Just because you’ve done something many times before it doesn’t mean you have to get used to it. It definitely doesn’t mean you have to like it.

I never thought I’d ever say “I miss home”.

Fine, that’s not entirely accurate. I’ve said “I miss home” before . Many times. And meant different places. But I never thought I’d say that and mean Connecticut.

I thought about this last night as I was driving home near 9:00pm just having got out of work.
Shredded by my first week of work as an infectious disease fellow, I felt homesick.

And when Connecticut became home for me I’m not sure about.

With its sunless, colourless winters that I struggled through each year for three years, I had no fondness for it.

So when then?

During my first trip out to the Connecticut River with two new friends who became great friends to watch Guitar Under the Stars.
My first week there.
I didn’t even know it was becoming home.
It happened even while I still missed my friends from the summer in Spain and my recently finished stint at Hebron.
And while I still called Ooty home.

It happened on the first of three Christmases. And I found spending time with the Lagans during this season would become something of a tradition as they pulled me into their family.

Christmas '08.  Note how little Ezra and Jordan are! 

Christmas '09. The White Elephant party at Joel and Shan's.

Elizabeth and Leroy. Christmas '09

Christmas 2010. 2 days that I spent over at the Lagans.

Ezra. Xmas 2010. Refer to Christmas '08 :)!

Presents!

And I couldn't but help feel like family. 

:)

Back from Christmas service!

Shan with a necklace Sarah made her.

Post Lunch walk-Another tradition. This time on the pond.

It may have become home when friends and family came to visit me there and share in my life in Connecticut.

Joe Bogen..my flat-mate from Salamanca in Spain...my very first visitor to Hartford. My second or third day in CT!

Magis..my second visitor. She didn't do too bad :) My first weekend  in CT and she wanted to visit UConn.

Marcelito comes to visit :) Dec '09

Tios de Granada! Nai and Marcel

Lol!

Ben and Shiyani's visit. Meeting up with Mary and X.

Introducing two sets of great friends to each other!

Marcel's second trip around. He got to meet Joel and Shannon too!

Fiona and Nipun Dec '10

My lovely parents who came to visit. Sept '09

 :)

One of the many walks the parentals took during the fall colors of CT

Or maybe when I was rescued from just sleeping through a post-call birthday. And I knew I had people who cared.

Pulled out from my bed and my house bleary eyed for a birthday dinner and ice cream. Oct '08

Rescued yet again for my birthday Oct 2010

Definitely when it became the place that we formed traditions.
Midnight runs for ice-cream.

They always understood when I ordered the banana split and didn't want to share :)

Post-call hikes.

Post-call nights out.

                   

Meena, Rina and John

It was home when we had our favourite night spots. And where we partied like we were rockstars.

Our first night out as interns. August '08!

MeenaK. Always my partner in crime and my twinnie!

My best friend

New Year's Eve 2010

We partied...

and sometimes we had an excuse to party...like New Years!

Haha

We were always dressed for it!

With Eirini at Barcelona...a constant favorite!

With Rinsta

Christmas party '08

Out with Mary Rose

And Barcelona again!

Lol!

We weren't really trying to be color co-ordinated!

Halloween 2010

And when we started showing the ‘new folk’ the places to be :) !

Our favourite coffee shop. Well, my favourite coffee shop at any rate.

One of many lovely afternoons or evenings at Itz a Grind

When I picked out a Christmas tree two years running with my family.

Tree hunting '09

The winner for '09

Tree hunting 2010

Laughing at the 'Fatty'

The 2010 tree

And of course, great meals with great company. Lazy afternoons or lazy evenings filled with good food, familiar faces and good conversation. Faces of friends, that as time went by, you found yourself having to explain less and less to.

One of the various first famous Racha and Patrick BBQs! Sept '08

Our post-call dinners where we stayed up much later than we should have! 

At Nainoa's for one of many scrumptious meals

We always had a little get together before someone travelled or came back. The coming back always involved gifts :) from the one who returned !!

Lol!

One of the many lovely lunches and together times at Joel and Shan's!

The famous Buchanan couch party to inaugurate their couch

Deep in discussion.

Another one of our get togethers just as we were getting to know each other.  The fondue night X put together for my birthday.

Yet another Racha and Patrick BBQ

Colombian dinner courtesy Ximena's parents

It was to celebrate Colombia's independence day.

Yum!!!

A pre-thanksgiving warm-up meal..haha...Nov 2010

Yummy....

...Scrummy!!!

Post meal games

At Sakura garden

I love this one of us. Even it's underexposed and blurry. 

Hajra and X at mine for a Peruvian meal

Trucha plancha, patats fritas y arroz!

One of many lovely Sunday evening dinners at the Lagans

A meal is always a great way to introduce friends :)

The last Racha and Patrick BBQ

One of my last meals this time around at the great Lagan table

When I became part of capoeira crew. And it became routine to shake off the work-day a coupla nights a week. And life became uncomplicated and just about training with these awesome guys and girls! And yet again it let me feel part of something. Not just the training sessions, but grill-outs and beach bbqs and birthday bashes!

At the Brazilian Churrascaria

Tucker's birthday at Murphy and Scarletti's

Beach trip....posin'

Love you guys :)

Little Gabe jumped in too

Marc on the berimbau and Bob for vocals

..while the rest of us worked..

 and some of us pretended to.

4th of July at Bob's

4th of July Roda at Bob's

Playing Tucker in the roda

Last night out with group.

One of my first classes.

And my last class! Axe guys!

And surely, you can call a place home when you see life unfold in the lives of people who are now your closest friends. Engagements. Babies. Weddings : ) Well not necessarily in that order!

One of the Dermesropian twin princesses!

Beautiful Racha with her beautiful baby

Liam and Andrea's wedding

Ximena's engagement to Carlos

Ansu's wedding

And just before I left....

..darling, beautiful baby Charlotte.

And funnily enough you know it’s become home when you’re so comfortable that you start making friends so much easier than you did when you just moved in.
The problem is when it happens right at the end. When you've just started feeling like it's home but it's time to move again.
Which is a shame because you'd have liked more time to get to know these people.

Hanging out with Dan...such an ace guy!

The Greeks who I love and wish I had spent more time with.

With Jackie. Team Jackie was too short an experience.

Lol...we rocked it!

I guess what I’m coming around to saying is this.
The people I met, grew to know and love made it home for me.

And that’s always the case isn’t it.?

It isn’t always so much about the place but the people. Clichéd but like most clichés so true.

Leaving was hard.

I think I left well though.
On my last night there, I met two friends for drinks and nachos. And though we knew that the time where we could give each other a shout out and do that sort of thing at a moment’s notice would end that night, we laughed and talked like we could do it again the day after.

Looking up how long it took sharks to go to sleep :)!

And the only thing that stopped my heart from breaking as I drove away from my home in Connecticut was the family that came out with me.

They loaded up the van in Connecticut....

.....and settled me into Maryland.

So, that’s why I’m homesick.

And that’s how Connecticut became home.

Books and Boxes

Time to pack. My life into little boxes.

Again.

Not that I’m complaining. I don’t think I’ll ever live in one place for very long. There’s just too much to see. So many interesting people still to meet.

There’ll be more on that I promise. More cathartic ‘blogging’ to inflict on whoever stops by.

Today though, I started to pack my books away. As the little piles formed on the floor, I realized it was a much more interesting experience than I had anticipated.

For one I would definitely say my favourite type of books are travelogues. I love travelling. Among a few other things that bring me to the threshold of pure, serene joy is travelling. And when I can’t travel for one reason or the other, I travel through someone else’s experiences. Not as good. But still good.

Though inspite of being cleaved to Connecticut by the sentence of residency, I was still lucky to have some fairly amazing trips!

One of my other loves is languages. I wish I could learn more. Because each new language you learn opens up a new place to you and better still, lets you meet people you would never would have otherwise. I came across some of my old books from Spain….can’t say I’ve had chance to work through them here in Connecticut.

And for some odd reason, I tried to learn Italian and Russian during residency. Well, maybe Italian isn’t so weird. But Russian? I’m not sure what I was thinking. I didn’t get very far again on either count. Somehow residency didn’t lend itself to predictable hours or time to oneself to do something that needs discipline like learning a new language.

Yes, I confess to owning books on eating smart and then on exercise routines. Well, the South Beach diet I bought in a lame attempt to solve the fact that I had become a fat a*s at the end of first year. I didn’t make it a week. And then I decided to get off afore-mentioned pudgy bottom and join the gym. And that paid off, I’d say!

Fiction’s ok at times. Terry Pratchett is a favourite. And yes, the next confession. That is a Harry Potter book under there. What? Don’t pretend you haven’t read them too.

My random pile. Because I’ll read anything. The back of a box of cereal. An ad. I’m not, I hope, a pretentious reader. But sometimes, I’ll pick something up to see what all the fuss is about.

The pile I’ve read the least from. I don’t know if that’s significant of something. Probably. Sigh.

These three years of residency, I felt a lot of who I ‘was’ was put on a shelf. Things I loved I couldn’t do as often. As I looked through my books , it was good to remember what those were. And remember it’s possible to take them up again.

Spring days...

Spring's here in a classically temperamental fashion. Cold and wet one day. Sunny and clear another. Wet and humid today.
Yesterday though, as I drove to Blue Back square I passed the American School for the Deaf and saw one of the neatest things I've seen for a long while now.  There was a group of students from the school walking to Blue Back with a couple of teachers. Like any other group of teenagers out together for a walk their excitement was visible in their smiles and the 'spring in their step'. What was different and novel though was that they were signing to each other.  It was an alternate world. I don't think you could hear a thing but judging by the intensity of their signing, the expressions on their faces it seemed somehow joyfully raucous!
 Another neat experience was this weekend being Easter, Ximena and I accompanied our Greek friends to Easter Vigil at the Greek Orthodox church. It was beautiful and especially the lighting of the candles from the Pascal candle. After that we went to Tax and Vivi's place where we met Dimitris, Sareen and their friend Yannis for a 2 am meal. The central part of the meal was Mayiritsa which is made of lamb intestines, liver and heart. It wasn't unpalatable but at least for me was an acquired taste. It was a great time. And even though we were tucked away in the early morning hours in New England, the atmosphere around the table was unmistakably Mediterranean. Loud jokes and even louder laughter. Great food. Greek music. Wine. Good times.

The candles at Easter Vigil

Tax in his West Hartford castle

Dimitros setting the tone with Greek music

Mayiritsa

Filo pastry with stuffed with cheese

 And to finish off, here are some pictures of reminders that winter's been shown the door. For now at least. Spring's here :)