Jetlag

Reading

Well, I made it home! Not entirely without incident, of course...

My hosts in Toronto, the Roughs, were all out on Saturday in one place or another, so I was left to my own devices. After a late morning (naturally) I made my way downtown - delayed somewhat by catching the Finch bus in the wrong direction - and had a last wander around. The city is looking very vibrant, and down by the lakeside is a lot warmer than my first Saturday there in January!

On Sunday I went with the Roughs to their new church, an English service at a Mandarin church! It's interesting to be a minority; although there are something like 400,000 Chinese people in Toronto. Enough for plenty of churches! In the afternoon I gave Nick a call, and he gave me a ride to GFC for a final farewell service, to Paul's chagrin. After the service, he asked me "what are you doing tonight?" and then suggested we go and witness to Muslims. Not the first activity I would have thought of, I must admit...

It turns out he goes out often with another guy called Andrew to a Somali neighbourhood nearby. We went to eat at a rather suspect restaurant where the rule of thumb is use your right hand; then we headed to a coffee shop where a lot of Somalis were hanging out. They seemed shocked when handed cards saying "Somali Christian Ministries", as if that were an oxymoron. We got into several... heated debates and met with very hard hearts and stubborn minds. The men we met were very proud of their nation, religion, and being in Canada.

So that was my last evening in Toronto - suitably ethnic I feel. I spent Monday morning repacking my bags to get them both exactly 50lbs (the limit) and amazingly fitted all my stuff in! I then sat around for about 13 hours in various airports and planes. Despite the aid of a pint of Sam Adams and two glasses of wine in the evening, I couldn't sleep at all, and arrived in Heathrow with a headache :(

But never mind! My parents were there to record the occasion and take me home. It's very nice to be home, although until I've unpacked it still feels a bit transient. Reading is much the same as I left it in January; I go to Southampton tomorrow for the weekend and to see my uni friends. Sweet.

Thanks for reading! I will continue to update the blog irregularly and probably infrequently, but you know it'll be worthwhile visiting. Toodle-pip :)