Gettin' homesick up in this biatch

At the risk of sounding like some kind of schoolboy bitch, something that’s surprised me during my trip is how homesick I’ve been this entire time. It’s silly, really, as my domestic setup in Tanzania is totally reasonable, the people are friendly, and I don’t feel uncomfortable in the slightest.

Still, I’m obviously a total sap, a limp biscuit, a silly twit, a damp pussycat, a wet squib - so I’ve just accepted that my sporadic states of self-imposed, self-indulgent misery are an unavoidable part of my experience here.

As either a coping method or a way to make my “suffering” even worse, I’ve written up this short list of things I miss the most back home. Following this, and in an effort to sound like less of a wimp, I’ve also thought of some things that I don’t particularly miss.

Things I’ve missed:

//Videogaming

I know I can come across as a hipper-than-thou, well-muscled cool cat constantly on the run from ladies, but deep down inside I’m just a nerd who loves videogames too much.

Aside from all of the solo gaming I constantly treat myself to - and the bevy of such games I’m missing right now (Bioshock 2, Mass Effect 2... argggh) - social gaming is a big hobby of mine.

My friend Ben and I like to get together for fairly gargantuan gaming sessions. Modern Warfare, Halo, Resistance… whatever floats our boat for a significantly buoyant period of time. It’s harmless, meaningless, escapist indulgence where we drink beer, order takeaway and spend time chilling - and I
totally miss it.

Of course, to me, games aren’t meaningless - they’re an art form unique to my generation, and something I cherish in the same way that the ‘60s generation embraced pop music. I shit you not. If accepted to my chosen Master’s program - Communication & Culture at York U in Toronto - I plan on studying games academically. So I like to think that my heartache for gaming runs deeper than a nostalgically childish connection to hopping around the Mushroom Kingdom.

I brought a netbook along with me and it’s proven to be a very effective remedy for home-ache. Perhaps it’s doing me more harm than good to indulge in such light-hearted escapism whilst I‘m supposed to be Saving The World, but whatever. My EEE PC can run Monkey Island: Special Edition, Half-Life, Audiosurf, Darwinia, Trials 2, World of Goo, Crayon Physics and Plants Vs. Zombies - so I really should stop my goddamn complaining.

//Music

I know I can come across as… oh yeah, well I am. I’m hip as hell. I love music. The last few years have really opened up my eyes to Canadian music in particular, and how awesome our home-grown Can Con is. In spite of being the Arts & Entertainment Editor of my university newspaper a few years ago (almost several… wow I‘m old), I once was blind but now I see.

An email from Doc Brown, my three-fingered amigo from Kitchener, placed a shining beacon of light in the near distance, in the form of a Tokyo Police Club show at Starlight upon my return in April.

Still, the fact that I’ll be missing a Thrush Hermit reunion tour (including Joel Plaskett, one of my favourite Canadian singers), K-Os, Shad, and Canadian Music Week (for which I have futile press invitations waiting patiently in my Gmail inbox) all within the proximity of home irks me quite a bit.

At the risk of sounding even more pretentious, I also greatly miss my faithful stockpile of electric and acoustic guitars back at home.

Also painful is how I’ve been absent from the weekly pub quiz at Failtes in Waterloo, where, in spite of my deficiencies in sports, geography, politics, news and knowledge in general, I do know a thing or two about non-recent music. How’s that going, guys? I could kill for a bangers ’n mash right about now.

//Family and friends

Well, this is an obvious one - and the only reason I’ve placed it last is because of its predictability, and not its importance. It’s a little redundant to explain how vital my family and friends are to my happiness - as I’m sure the case is the same for you, dear non-existent reader. Still, an extended trip abroad certainly brings to light precisely how simple that equation is: without loved ones, happiness is impossible.

I also miss the Roc like a severed limb. You know who you are. One of you has severed limbs. Guy’s Day.

//The City

At around 10km east of Arusha - which itself is hardly a bustling cultural metropolis - I really am stranded in the middle of nowhere out here in Tengeru. All of the places I frequent in Waterloo - favourite haunts ranging from the generic (Subway, Futureshop, HMV) to the unique (Laurier campus, El Medina’s, Starlight, Ethel’s, hell - even Jim’s Valumart) - truly help to form the fabric of my day-to-day life back home. Add in the fact that I know a lot of people in Waterloo, and a walk down the road can mean an afternoon of amusing social escapades.

To some, this kind of constructed community might seem superficially sad. But in Don Delillo fashion, I still hold some genuine value to it. Arusha and Tengeru are neither the charmingly rural nor ghost-town dives that I was half-expecting. Instead, most of the urban landscape is composed of rusty tin shacks and overtly generic Coca Cola signs with shop names on them.

Things I’ve been happy to live without:

//Social Networking

I’ve been without Facebook, instant messaging or a consistently-used mobile phone for almost a month now, and I haven’t gone crazy. Far from it; it’s been a nice break to be disconnected from what I consider to be the more mundane country roads off of the Information Superhighway. Truthfully, I’ve known I can live without Status Updates for quite some time now. And it’s been a breath of fresh air not to know what pet gift Billy got on Farm Douche, or whatever that app is called.

I’ve missed my website, SocietyEye.com, but that’s more been out of guilt than anything else - it’s slightly frustrating being forced to leave its pages blank after building up a fairly solid readership internationally. Rest assured, I’ve promised myself to dedicate a calculated effort to bringing the site back to full strength upon my return.

//Getting fat

Stop worrying, mum, I haven’t been turning into an emaciated skeleton over here - there’s plenty of food for me to eat, three square meals a day and all quite nutritious. While the food in Canada is certainly to be missed, living in Tanzania has certainly changed my perspective on how I eat back in chubby ol’ North America. It’s quite easy for me to lose and gain weight - I’ve fluctuated between 190 and 150 pounds over the last two years - but I’ve often blamed my non-athletic figure over disagreeable genes instead of the true culprit: luxurious over-eating and lack of exercise. While mowing down a 15 (hell, or a 20) ounce AAA steak back in Canada is a suitable way to please your palate, over here, it’s an extremely rare luxury afforded only to heavy-pocketed tourists and the upper-class.

So, I haven’t missed how easy it is to put on weight in Canada - the expectation to eat until your stomach stretches, the reliance on automobiles instead of legs to move you around. I’m not going to come back all vegan and shit, but I’ve certainly learned a few healthy lessons. Perhaps I’ll adopt a more moderate lifestyle back home - instead of pouring calories into my body and then sweating them out at the gym, I’ll eat less and get exercise outside. Whatever happens, I’ve resolved to never let myself get chubby again.

//The weather

Tanzania has been gorgeous, weather-wise, so far. Sunny skies, cool nights and the occasional graceful rain shower. Last I heard from southern Ontario, it was snowing and damp. I left my country during a good season. Sure, I miss skiing, but I miss skiing when I’m in Canada because I never make the time to do it.

//The City

Being away from the city has made me realise how much I appreciate the various activities and places that I’m granted to access to back home. But living around the country has also been a welcome break from the negatives of city life - too much stuff to spend money on, too many distractions from tasks at hand. Ok, so the negatives hardly outweigh the positives, but two months here provides somewhat of an enticing holiday away from such vices.