Home...

Well the journey to Ashton, England began Monday night when I boarded my flight in Chicago.  It was a 7 ½ hour flight from Chicago to Frankfurt, thank goodness I had an aisle seat with a little more leg room.  I was in the Frankfurt airport for three hours before I took my final flight to Manchester.  Other than having a layover in the world’s most boring airport the flights went as well as they could have.  Once we landed in Manchester the flight attendant did the normal thanking us for flying with that airline and he said, “Have a safe journey home.”  My first thought was, “Oh how little you know, I’m not going home till next year.”

When I walked through the doors there were two people that I vaguely recognized holding a sign with my name.  The last time I saw either of them their faces were a bit more pixilated through skype, but it was Ali, who has been my main contact at my placement, and Emily, one of the daughters from my host family.  They made me feel at home right away.  The 45 minute ride to Ashton was filled with constant chatter.  We drove to Ali’s house where I’ll be staying till Saturday, and moved my stuff in.  Emily’s older sister, Jenn, joined us a little later for tea time (dinner).  It was great to sit and have a dinner with them, they asked me a lot of questions about the US and I asked them twice as many about Ashton.

Wednesday morning, Emily came and picked me up at Ali’s house and she showed me around Ashton and Wigan.  We had lunch, and then went back to Emily’s house.  Walking in to the house was kind of weird as Emily said, “Welcome to your new home.”   Mr. and Mrs. Holden, Emily’s parents, weren’t home from work yet, so we just went in and watched some TV.  We watched this show called Miranda, it’s a British sitcom and it was so funny!  The entire day with Emily was full of conversations about the differences in the culture that surrounds church, Jersey Shore, school, boyfriends, anything that two twenty-two year olds would talk about.

Around 5:30 Mrs. Holden got home from work and greeted me with a hug.  We talked and joked while dinner was cooking.  I really felt right at home as we chatted and got to one another a little better.  After dinner we headed to church for a Praise and Prayer night.  I was unofficially introduced during this service, and during refreshments afterwards was able to meet many of the congregational members, and a handful of the youth.  They were all so nice, and were already inviting me to football (soccer) and rugby games.  I was trying not to jump out of my seat when these offers were coming; I just responded with a pleasant, “Yes, that would be great.”  The children had so many questions for me, and I was totally ok with it because I loved hearing them talk, haha!

To finish out the night Ali had asked some of the young adults in the church, all right around my age, to go to the Pub across the street after church.  They again were just so nice and welcoming and genuinely interested in what brought me to Ashton.  They were welcoming me into their circle of friends after just having met them.

So where is home?  I left home two weeks ago for Chicago.  This was a very difficult departure, but when I think of home, it’s not the building but the people, the joy, and the love.  It may not be the same people here in Ashton, but the joy and love is still there.  The amount of hospitality that I have experienced in less than twenty-four hours has almost been overwhelming.  I feel right at home.  I may have left home two weeks ago...but I arrived home two days ago.