Before I left, whenever I told people I was worried about possibly feeling homesick, almost every single person told me that I would be having way too much fun to be homesick.

I am not writing to say that those people are wrong, exactly… though I’ve been quite busy exploring, and having fun doing so, there are still other moments. When I am visiting tourist attractions, I am certainly not homesick, but during other moments, I still find myself at home, quite unexpectedly.

I have found home here, on the other side of the world, within the crevices of human experience. I have tasted home and the cooking of mom at home in the familiar Filipino dishes of Tita Ma’an’s making. While waiting for buses at bus stops on the wrong side of the street or standing on moving trains, I am transported to Lougheed Town Centre, to a moving sky train on the Millennium Line. Walking into Waterstones, even with my allergies (or “hay fever”) stuffing my nose, I find that all bookstores manage to smell exactly the same. At a public session at an ice rink, there is always that one guy on hockey skates going recklessly fast, cutting me off.

There are moments when I think about the comfort of my own bed at home, of the freedom to waste time or to watch Netflix or wander into a pantry and eat whatever’s in there, and during those moments I feel a little sad. Still, I find that I am reassured by the commonalities of living; I am so grateful for these commonalities, and to Tita Ma’an and her family for making me feel at home here in Britain, and I think it will help me through my own adventures, by making Britain feel far less foreign to me.