Noah by Noah: Headin' Back Home

I love travelling back home to Vermont. Almost every single time I’ve gone from Sackville to Burlington, it’s been on VIA Rail’s The Ocean, a seventeen hour “scenic” ride from Sackville’s station up through Northern New Brunswick and right into downtown Montreal. After that, I either beg my parents to come pick me up or I grab the bus down to Burlington which is a bearable three hour add-on. While I complain about the long trip to my friends, in a way, it’s nice to have such a long ride to myself. It’s nice to have time to just chill out, watch movies and just have time to myself to transition between life in Sackville and life back home in Vermont. Plus, the ride doesn’t hurt at all. As I write this, we are currently passing through some small Quebec hamlet with the run rising over the frozen plains. It’s pretty amazing.
I always seem to run into people while I’m travelling. I remember once when I was little, we went on a family vacation to a rather remote island in Florida and it turned out that half the campsite was actually members of my dad’s church. Another time I was in Paris at the end of a two-week trip in high school and I ran into one of my friends from a camp on the top of the Eiffel Tower. I suppose it shouldn’t be unexpected that I run into someone from Mount A on the train, but after I got settled in towards the back of the car with my laptop out, who should happen to snag the seat in front of me, but Emma.
Some background: the first time I remember meeting Emma was the beginning of winter semester last year. We were at the Pub and I think we ended up playing a game of pool. There was a band playing that night and she enthusiastically offered to interview the lead singer (although I don’t think I did ever get the results of that interview…). Anyways, ever since then, we’ve always chatted in passing and I know for a fact, she’s one of the five people other than my mother who reads this blog. (See, read the blog, tell Noah you read the blog, and eventually, you’ll get a shoutout of sorts.)
I think Mount A is made up a lot of these relationships. People you don’t necessarily hang out with on a regular basis, but when you do see them, it always brings a smile to your face. I always love running into Emma when I’m out because she seems to be someone who might actually be on the same level of craziness and awkwardness as me (which is hard to do, just ask my roommates). Last night when I was trying to fall asleep on the god-awful VIA Rail seats, she offered me her scarf because she thought I looked cold which was just sweet. These relationships are one of the reasons Mount A is so great and they aren’t something that are recorded when MacLean’s is calculating rankings for the best schools in the country. How could you? Survey students and ask them “How many people have you met during your time there who would offer you a piece of clothing when you were trying to sleep?” I’m no statistician, but I’m fairly certain that wouldn’t work out too well.
Since I have had such a long time to just listen to music and chill out, I have a couple of new songs to share with you all. First off, Emma suggested a song for the blog...but since she hasn't actually told me what the song was, it will have to wait until next time!
Second song: See the World by Gomez. It came on while the sun was rising in Quebec and it seemed fitting.

Third song: About two hours before I left, while Rhiana and Ashra were cooking lunch, Nathan and I had an impromptu dance party by ourselves. Now first, I need to put a disclaimer on the song: it has super creepy lyrics so just don't listen to those, just imagine the happy dance party we had to it.