Bicycle

     Home. Finally. After thirteen months and one week, I'm finally back in the place where I began. It's now been a week since I arrived on my home soil and it almost feels like I never left. But before I get into that, I should recap a bit of what's been going on since I left Ukraine. Yeah, I should have gotten on this writing thing sooner. I've been busy. Is that a good enough excuse?


     If you've been following along with the blog, you saw I flew out of Kiev on Thursday, September 1st. Before I get to that though, I want to recap a bit of the days before it. Monday through Wednesday were cleaning and farewell days. Wednesday evening, I went to my final Liberty meeting of the trip. I hadn't been planning on going because of the packing, moving things and trying to rest. But several people encouraged me (in their own ways) to go. I'm glad I did. I was a great opportunity to say goodbye to everyone on the team. They had food and desserts along with many memories of my time there. I did feel more like  a prime mover in the group rather than a supporting member. Even in that moment, it didn't really feel like I was going to leave. But I knew it was coming. I managed to say my goodbyes stoically and made my exit while everyone else was leaving.
     Jon Eide drove me to the airport in the morning. We did get stuck in a little traffic on the bridge across the Dnipr but the rest was oddly quick. I finally made it to my gate right as they were in the middle of boarding.

     The flight itself was uneventful. I sat next to Vadim, a Ukrainian who lives in Brooklyn. He started off the flight talking to me in Russian but after our introduction switched to English. He said I didn't look American. That seemed to be a common remark over the past thirteen months. The food on the plane was good (oddly). I watched three of the movies they showed. But by the time we touched down in JFK I was long past ready to get off the plane. Customs was pretty much a non-event.
     Unfortunately my dad took a wrong turn and got stuck in traffic. So he didn't show up until an hour and a half after I had planned to be through security. We got stuck in the infamous New York traffic on our way to the Verazzano Bridge. But after the bridge, it was mostly smooth sailing back to Reading, PA and home. Before going home though, we met my mom for dinner at Chic-Fil-A. It's been far too long.
     Apparently I'm not as immune to East-to-West jet lag as I thought. My body decided it would be a good idea to wake up at 3AM right as my mom was leaving for work. I also heard when my dad went out too around 6AM. I think I've finally gotten over it now. But that's a week on and plenty of snoozed alarms later.

     Friday and Saturday were supposed to be the start of my vacation (of sorts). Instead, I spent most of Saturday helping my dad fix his truck. I don't mind though. It was good to work with him and get my hands dirty again. It's been far too long since I've done anything like that. Wrenching and woodworking were big parts of my life before I left for Ukraine in 2015. Now that I'm back, it feels natural to slip back into those activities.
     I don't like being a celebrity. However, I sort of felt like one during this past year. That still hasn't gone away. At least among the people I know. Church on Sunday was my first day back at Covenant OPC in over a year. I got plenty of hugs and "it's good to see you" comments. And fortunately, I only had a few people ask "how was it (or some variation). I blame that on jokers and simply not reading the blog.
     For the most part, it felt good to be back. I'm still coming to terms with how much things actually did change in the time I've been away. The biggest two things that are different are the song choices and the faces. There were quite a few people I didn't recognize there. And the songs (other than not being in Russian or Ukrainian) were a big change. I only recognized two or three songs. One of them had a completely different tune which threw me off. I remember I've written here several times that change is growth and constancy is stagnation. Sometimes though I wish some things wouldn't change. Like the song choice at church. I'm not really a fan of modern music.
     Monday through now have mostly been my "resume normal life" days. I've gotten to drive my dad's Jeep, use my paddleboard, ride the local bike trails, make sawdust in the workshop, do a little manual labor, and even work on new projects. For most of those things, it feels like I never left the States. I expected to stall out the Jeep a few times. But I was able to heel-toe it with little trouble. The new tires probably help but my driving in it seems to have not suffered for lack of practice the past thirteen months.
     My paths around the house, the places where I step, don't seem to have changed either. My hand falls to the exact place I need when reaching for a light switch. I can take the stairs two at a time like I did since childhood.
     I think the best way I can describe my thoughts about the past week are this. It's like riding a bike. This was my life for twenty-eight years before I stepped onto that plane in July last year. I stepped off the plane last week and got back on the bike. I've wobbled a bit getting used to new things (people, places, my missing cat). But it feels like, to some extent, I haven't left. Cue the creepy children saying in unison, "You've always been here Brian. You've never left." There's a terrifying thought. I've got thousands of pictures and hours worth of video to prove that it all happened. I guess now I have to come to terms with this new stage of my life. I'm back on the bicycle now and it's rolling forward. Time to get on with life.
     So, I'll leave you with some final programming notes before I finish this post. I probably won't write a lot more here for the foreseeable future. Maybe a few of times in the coming months. If you've got questions about anything that's happened over the past thirteen months, feel free to ask in the comments section of any of the posts. I'll get the email notice and try to respond in a timely manner. Also, if you're in the Reading , PA area on Sunday, September 11th, I'll be speaking during Sunday School at Covenant OPC about the trip. I will likely show the following video and speak about the English club ministry (as that was my main duty). I'll be sharing the time with the team from Covenant who went for X-way camp. Hopefully I'll get a chance to say everything I want to. It'll be hard to condense everything that happened into 30-45 minutes.