Homecoming

11 January

Cereal with Alicia for breakfast.  Got ready.  Alicia said she would accompany to the airport except she had a prior engagement at 1pm and would be late if she came with me.  It's an hour to get to Heathrow from Lambeth North and it would take another hour to get back.  I left a little after 11am.

It was just enough time.  Got to the airport, got a luggage trolley, checked in.  Met a nice couple from Grand Rapids, Wisconsin who were coming home from visiting their daughter in England.  We didn't talk that much, but they were really friendly.  Checked in my bags, and was on my way.

Bought a whole bag of candy at a WHSmith plus a wrap with duck in it.  The duck was good.  Ate it while waiting for my gate number to be called.  Two minutes passed 1:30p, a woman asked an airport worker which gate was for Minneapolis (because the gate was supposed to have been called at 1:30p).  I overheard the conversation and walked with her to the gate.  There, I waited some more and did some more sudoku until boarding was called.

There was barely anyone on the plane, which was nice.  I could spread out on the whole two seats I had to myself.  The screen in front of the window seat didn't have good sound, but the screen next to it worked.  So I watched movies on that one.  Saw Easy A which was really good.  Also started Despicable Me but it couldn't hold my attention because I had seen Scott Pilgrim vs the World and I wanted to watch that.  So I stopped Despicable Me and started Scott Pilgrim, which I call a good decision because Scott Pilgrim is an awesome movie.  It's funny and full of video game references and really quite campy.  Highly recommended movie.  Between movies, napping, sudoku, and journaling, I didn't have enough time to watch Inception.  Sadness.  So I passed the last two hours of the flight watching sitcoms and napping.

Food on the flight was good.  I had a pasta dinner, which turned out to be lasagna.  Kept drinking water throughout the whole flight to help with jet lag.  Towards the end of the flight, we got a small pizza and container of gelato as a snack.  That was good stuff.  You can't go wrong with bad pizza.

I was excited to have my US phone back.  It's much much better than the phone I bought in England.  Did I tell you how much I hate the phone I bought in England?  I'll save that for later.

Customs took away my fruit.  I was sad because I wanted to eat that fruit later, but I guess you can't bring it into US soil.  Darn.  At least I got to keep my Finnish crackers.

Reunited with Mom and Dad right after that.  Mom was teary eyed, but that didn't last long.  It wasn't like I was completely out of touch with them the entire trip.  So I was alright when I got back to them.  Felt all right in the hotel as well.  Didn't cry much when I got home.  Yeah, it's home.  Can't explain why it wasn't an emotional thing for me.  Nothing's really changed, except the garage door and the family room, but those are family matters.  Mom and Dad still bicker like an old couple (I intend this in a lighthearted way.  They love each other very much.  This is the kind of bickering that comes with age, love, and a good sense of humor.  I greatly look up to my parents, and I love them to death).  Ryan kept texting mom about when I was gonna be back, did they see me yet, etc.  Adam was working.

Dinner at Culver's, where I had real American bacon and cheese curds.  How I missed cheese curds and American bacon.  Yum.

~ ~ ~

Spent five days in Neenah doing general things like procrastinating, reading Across the Universe by Beth Revis (which you all should read, by the way).  There was some packing involved.  Mom made a giant turkey dinner, of which I got three servings of leftovers.  I also have leftover homemade lasagna, which will be delicious.  After a few relaxing days at home, I managed to pack up my stuff again and I moved to the next town.

At the moment, I'm in Madison.  It's currently the day before school starts.  I have cats to cuddle with, a master bedroom to myself, a freaky high-def television, and awesome kitchen supplies.  My family is just a two hour car ride away, my friends are a ten minute bus ride away or a ten second walk down the stairs, and I have some real school work to occupy me this semester.

All in all, life is good.  Stay tuned for a finalizing post about my journey.