QotD: A Long, Long Way From Home

Where is the farthest you have ever been away from home? Did you get homesick? 
Submitted by Melissa.

The farthest away I've ever been from home is northern Italy-- Milan and Venice. It was 1999, and I was a senior in high school. But I was there with twenty three other girls who were on my synchronized ice skating team, and there were probably about fifteen parents there as well, so I couldn't say I was particularly homesick! Besides which, there was hardly any time. Every day we were at the ice rink, except for the one day we had to tourist in Venice. And every ice rink is basically the same, I think. The converted soccer stadiums in California are more unlike a south-eastern Michigan rink than the ones in Milan were. I do remember us practicing outside and a guy seeing us from his window across the street, and then coming out onto his balcony with nothing on. Other than that, the only other thing of note was the not-so-friendly rivalry we had with the Finns, who thought that because no one in their right mind speaks Finnish, they could talk all of the trash they wanted about us to each other. Little did they know that Hennriikka skated for the US at the permission of the Finnish national skating organization.

Right now I live the farthest away from home I ever have, and it's really hard to be dependent on flights to get back for the holidays. I was spoiled the last couple of years I was in Pittsburgh... a six hour drive in my car is totally doable as a weekend trip, and I was making it back to my parents' house every six weeks or so.

Sometimes I think life in the city is based around the ability to navigate inconveniences.