We will always be together, you and me. - MSP Final Night song, always belted out by crying middle-schoolers

Summer school at TASIS started yesterday. Which always makes me feel a little bit sad. I spent many summers frolicking with 11-13-year-olds in the Alps, Milan, and Lugano, and it was the best job I've ever had. And I've had a lot of jobs.

I miss the kids, the scenery, the heat, the chaos, the Bertani wine, but most of all I miss the people. TASIS people outnumbered non-TASIS people at my wedding. My facebook page is juiced up by over 100 'friends' from my summers there whom I genuinely like and care about. It's a blissfully international, multi-aged group of randoms brought together by a mutual love for the outdoors, kids, Europe, and people.

It's almost a cliche, the idea that true friends are ones you pick up with exactly where you left, no matter how much time and distance triumphs. When you've lived all over the place, and given some of yourself to others in each place, knowing that things can comfortably slide back into place is vital. I'm a damn lucky girl.

And Lugano is still 'home'.