Home, Sweet Home

March 4th, 2011: Time to remember the trip home!

I was set to leave early in the morning on the 28th of December. But, wait! You are probably certainly wondering what my last meal in Italy was!!! You guess it--a Kebab (aka a Gyro). I loved them, they were about 3 Euro for plenty of delicious food and that is exactly what I wanted for my last meal. So, I took Maggie and Phil to this Kebab shop I'd seen earlier. (They even liked them so much that they went back later in the week before they left on the 1st of Janurary (or around then).)

Anyway, because they're so nice, Maggie and Phil rode the metro with me and got me on the Leo Express to the airport. (Thankfully they were there cause I didn't have enough cash to buy my train ticket!) They trip was about a half hour and I just waited for people to unload a little since I knew it would take me a couple minutes to grab both my bags. But, I learned a little something while in Europe. Everyone is a sucker for the damsel in distress! All I had to do was put a hand on my bag and get ready to move it when a nice European man asked if I needed help and proceeded to get my bags down the stairs of the train and onto the platform! :)

I began walking toward the TVs that had departure information and looked for my flight. Of course, it wasn't on there. And it was leaving in just over an hour. Ridiculous. I wanted to cry, but didn't. I just looked from TV to TV until I found it. (The only reason it was so important was because I was at a 3-pronged fork in the hallway and each path led to a completely different terminal.) Of course, there was no one around to help me. Anyway, I found it. Got on my flight to Zurich. Arrived in Zurich and left an hour later and headed to Chicago.

It took an absurdly long time to get my luggage in Chicago and it was even more frustrating because I knew my parents and Emma were right behind those opaque sliding doors--which I couldn't go through until I got my luggage. Finally, it arrived. I handed my customs card to the inspector and he laughed at me because I had written down "noodles" on sheet. Well, they said to write down everything and I figured since it was food, I should let them know. Anyway, I walked through the doors and saw mom, dad and Emma with my winter coat and a welcome home balloon.

We drove to Madison and had supper with Libby--my first food back in America was Red Lobster--I obviously got the chicken strips! It was funny because of the time-difference it felt like 4:30 (or 2:30, I can't remember now) in the morning when I was eating supper! I think I slept the rest of the way home then.

And before I knew it, I was welcomed into my bed that I had missed for 4 months. My amazing adventure in a far away land had come to an end. HOW BEAUTIFUL AND GREAT IT WAS!