Home Sweet Home

Belarusssss! My hometown, my birthplace. I've been wanting to come back for so long and now I'm finally here. I was a bit nervous crossing the border to Belarus. It's a lot more complicated than just crossing the border to Canada and can sometimes take very long. I was traveling on a bus and luckily those usually go through very quick. There are two borders you have to cross, leaving the country and entering a different country. I had a small issue crossing the border through Ukraine because I have a duel citizenship with Belarus and USA. The guy that was checking all the passports noticed an issue with the stamps between the 2 passports when I was traveling back in 2011. He was grilling me with so many unknown questions and I was feeling confident that he wasn't going to let me through. Thankfully everything went well.

I arrived in Brest where most of my family resides. It felt so good to step foot on home grounds again. It's been such a long time since I've been back and for some reason was expecting everything to be the same. But actually, lots has changed. A lot of my cousins already have kids that I haven't met. Many of them moved around the city or towns. The city has built itself up structurally. My cousin's husband, Alex, picked me up at the bus station early afternoon. We've gotten close when I came in 2011 so it was easy to reconnect without any social pressure. Driving by, nothing of the streets looked familiar so I had some exploring to do. We arrived at my cousin's apartment where I'll be staying for some time with Helen, Alex and her two kids. She prepared a dinner for my arrival, and it was a pleasant time spent together chatting up. I had some time to unpack before we went to a coffee shop called Paragraph.

It was Easter Sunday. Well, back at home. I felt a little sad because this is the first holiday where I'm away from my big family at home. I went through 3 1/2 hours of church services and was quite tired after all of it. Even though I'm pretty social, I felt out of my comfort zone because none of these churches had anyone my age who I could try to connect with. My cousin's were expecting some company back at home from Poland, so I got to meet some of their friends. I think this day in particular, I missed home and being with my family for the holiday.

My mornings here have been starting out later than usual. I think it's because I realized I don't have much to do here or go anywhere but to hang out with family. For some reason my google maps isn't working properly here so I'm not familiar with the public transportation which makes me rely on my cousins for any sort of travel unless I want to walk for hours. This city isn't touristy at all, mostly because you need a visa to come here. I tried to look for some good brunch places, maybe some coffee shops but come to a

dead end quickly. They only have one big main street with lots of shops, a few parks with some statues along the way, and everything else is pretty much residential. I don't have much personal time anyways due to spending most of my time with my family, so finding a places to explore is not much of a concern for me.

I checked out Helen's studio where she works. She works as a Eyebrow Master, so I was happy to finally have my eyebrows perfected by her. Later, my other cousin Vika and Rita joined us and we grabbed some food before they had to head home. I have such a big part of my family here that's its unfortunate that I won't have time to visit everyone. It's also unfortunate that I don't even know some of my cousins and have been meeting some of them for the first time. It's hard to keep in touch with everyone here because we live on two different sides of the world, grown up separately and have two completely different lives.

I stayed with my cousin Vika in Matykaly, a town right outside the city, and had the chance to meet her 2 kids. My aunt Tanya lives in the same town whom I've gotten to visit and spend some time with her as well. I got the chance to visit my mom's old friend that treats me like her own - catch up on life and tell her about my travels. Easter Sunday, I went to a church with my cousin Anna and her family. After the service, we had lunch at her house and later I attended the youth service with her son David whom I've also met for the first time. I got the chance to visit 3/4 of my uncles and their families who welcomed me with open arms and so much food. I feel so blessed to have so many family members here that still remember me as a kid and have stories to tell me when I was younger. Belarus is nothing but family and recollecting old memories.