Home again! What a Joy!!

Well, the long and winding road has finally led me to my "Home Sweet Home". It was a long road and it had a few twists and turns, but I have reached my final destination, home.
This has been an expensive trip to see a part of the world that many people, from abroad and locally, have told me about, but all in all, it has been a profitable one in more ways than financially. Financially, it has been a bust, as now I have to pay for the privilege of having travelled around Europe. Socially, it has been a great success. I have made many new friends, and acquaintances, in places I never thought I would ever visit. It was also an eye-opener to see how the world of my preconceptions was nowhere near what I had preconceived. The differences in the cultures of the various countries which I visited, were not as great as I had supposed. People still lived as I do at home. They shop, they work, and they pay bills, just as I do.
Where I had thought to learn about the differences of a country and its people, I discovered a disproportionate number of "foreigners" in their place. Immigration throughout Europe has increased exponentially, and it is not uncommon to encounter people from an entirely different culture in place of the historically local people.
This was, in a way, difficult for me to assimulate into my thinking. I am used to being one of the "historically local people". It was hard for me to imagine how a prominent culture could be so overwhelmed by other cultures, that the original culture would begin to lose it's local flavour.
When I think of our Canadian culture, I remember that it is an homogenous mixture of many different cultures from around the world. Maybe, because we, as a physical landmass, are further away from the rest of the world, we are not currently experiencing the massive movement of many cultures integrating with our own. It has been a slow process of change which is not as noticable as it is in Europe. There, the immigration policies of the various countries are more lax than our own. Also, the access to another country is easier for the immigration process.
Here in the Yukon, there is more of an influx of Canadians into the north as more and more jobs become available. "Chechakos", new people who have not spent a winter in the north, have been steadily arriving, finding employment and housing for themselves. Most Canadians can handle the cold of our winters as the climate in the south is sometimes more fierce than we experience in the north. Snow and windy conditions are what make some people dislike the north, but those who enjoy winter sports, in particular, snowmobiling and dog sledding, take to the north, like a seal to water.
The main thing is, I'm home again! Back to my mountains, wild animals by the roadside, creeks, lakes, and rivers to fish in, any number of places to visit and camp at. Sunsets and sunrises, nighttime aurora borealis to watch and photograph, friends to share with - all the things that make this my home.