I'm Almost There

Dear Nadhila,
As your host year winds to a close, all of us at AFS and Sponsored Programs would like to congratulate you on completing your adventurous year in America. While we're certain that you're experiencing some mixed feeling about returning home, we would also like to request that you keep a few things in mind as you prepare to depart Canton for Washington DC and eventually Indonesia.

That is the opening paragraph of a letter that AFS just sent me along with my last stipend check. LOL, I know for sure that I'm not the only one who is experiencing some mixed feeling about returning home. I also know for sure that some people are not experiencing mixed feeling at all.

I want to tell you a little bit about the block party that took place last week. It may be one of the reasons I hate to leave this small town...

With half a year of frozen winter, spring and summer is certainly the most awaited seasons here in Northern New York. In Canton, every year, they hold a block party and a parade of The Dairy Princess. It is when the town just stops and gather together in the park and dance, the main street was closed and served as a dance floor! The program's sponsor was John Deere, a big farming company. There was a two day bazaar (friday and saturday) where people sell all kinds of stuff from hotdog to t-shirts, and the parade day, which was a saturday that's when the dairy princess meet the town people. And country musics were played. It is one of those rare and biggest moments that happen in this small town.
I went to the park on friday after school and as soon as I arrived, I saw Elizabeth, Nicole, Kelly and Lizz along with other people selling refreshments to fund raise for a cancer society. We talked and I ended up helping them carry around the money box. I met other friends who ran up to me, hug me and talked and laughed with me. It's that sense of sincere togetherness that I longed the most. It's that feeling of being a world citizen, the feeling of being able to be part of them, to understand that they too are human being, it's priceless. At school, classes supports individuality. Togetherness in almost nonexistent, especially in winter. The block party was where I suddenly feel I was alive and full of life, meeting people, talking and laughing like crazy, having fun under the burning sun, being free.
I looked around the park and said, "Damn, I'm gonna miss this!"


(These are some of the pictures I managed to take during the block party.)