The city

The downtown campus of University of Toronto is called St. George. It's broken into seven colleges -and the tens of thousands of students that attend U of T St. George have memberships with one of these colleges whether they live in residence or not. I'm at University College, which is the founding college of U of T, back in 1850's. Victoria College is another one, with the same old architecture that UC, Trinity, and St. Michael's share. I walk through Queen's Park every Monday and Tuesday for my HIS103 class, which is held in a theatre in the Vic College complex. At the very centre of this area is a huge old building known as Old Vic -it's kind of like a mini castle (which is actually common among buildings at U of T as I have gathered). On the south facing entrance of the building, right across the archway of the door, carved into the stone is the saying, "The truth shall set you free."
It's always seemed kind of poignant to me, and I think it always will. Sure it's just a saying, etched into some old rock on an old building covered in vines and the shadow of a late class, but it's one of those great things that just stop and make you think. I'm always running up those stairs to get to history in a timely fashion, we're all flying through our days lately. So I'm stopping now (briefly as I still have more studying to do) and I'm thinking.
It's been three and a half months. And somehow, it feel likes it was yesterday that I got here. I remember walking into this room, my dorm room, for the first time. I sat down on the bed and wondered what it would feel like after I'd lived in it for awhile. Would it start to feel comfortable? Would it have any semblance of home? And I have found just that; that in a city that I've been absent from for almost 8 years, without my family and my friends and my creature comforts of Calgary, I've been able to make a home for myself here, once again.
When Scaachi and I talk about going back to Calgary, she is usually quick to remind me that "we are going BACK to Calgary, we are not going HOME." She has chosen to believe this, as is her prerogative and I fully understand. But I'm not ready to shun Calgary my books just yet. I HAD to make it my home, and I have a damn good one there. Things change, people change, places change, and homes change. But no one ever said you could only have one.
The most bizarre thing about going back to Calgary in less than 35 hours is the feeling of how time has flown here. Regardless, it's been an amazing three months. I'm glad I've been here, with the distance, the new experiences, the people; the city.

"Time changes everything, except something within us that is always surprised by change"
-Thomas Hardy