It felt great to get back to Charlottesville for twenty-four hours this week! I stopped by overnight on my way down to North Carolina and had a little reunion with some old friends.

On Sunday night, I met up with the summer SotL crew (my old theater group). We walked down to the Corner and had a round of beers at Mellow Mushroom, one of my old favorite hangouts. Then, after a stop at Jonathan’s frat, we went to the Historic Downtown Mall for dinner at the Nook.

Monday morning, I’d intended to wake up, have an early breakfast with Ann, and then get on the road, but Charlottesville had other plans for me… we ended up talking for ages, and then decided that since we were together, we should drop by our former office to see what our boss was up to! After chatting with her for a bit, she messaged our other former supervisors and they came over to join us. (I almost forgot just how much I loved that office!)

Before I left, I wandered around Alderman (the main library) and the campus for a little bit, just for nostalgia’s sake. Last week somebody at the beach asked me where I would call “home,” and usually I would say “wherever I’m at” because it does feel like I’ve moved around too much to pinpoint a hometown… but seeing Cville in the summer, I would definitely say I was at home.

Of course, you could also argue that home is more about the people you’re with than any specific place, and maybe that’s why I’m already feeling so at home in North Carolina, even though I feel like we’ve entered a different world! I finally got on the road early this afternoon for my reunion with Strasbourg friends — including Mark, who flew in from the UK for his first “American South” cultural experience.

(Uh… we’re not endorsing that flag. They’re just… everywhere. Welcome to the real South.)

Tonight we’re hanging out on Leah’s farm (the bugs are animal-sized here), catching up on Harry Potter, and, in my case, trying to secure an apartment, a TDAP vaccination, and a federal student loan by the end of the week. Whew!