Home

Well, as most of you have probably already talked to me or seen me you know that I made it home. Friday morning we took the train to the airport (we kept saying plane station... somehow train stations have had a big effect on the last few weeks of our lives, we just can't figure it out) and tried to find our desk to check in. We couldn't so we found the information desk. As we walked up to it they closed, the workers came out, they started to push us back and then some police, security guards, and military men come also. Wow, we've never gotten that sort of reaction before just by entering a building! Actually, it wasn't from us but rather due to "unattended baggage." Great... now we're going to miss our flight, become extremely crabby with each other, and have to stay in Paris for longer. (side note: I wasn't a fan of Paris so that was NOT sarcasm there). In the end, they let us go, we found our desk which just so happened to be the one with the unattended luggage. It was basically a small suitcase, opened with its contents spilled out and was once again unattended. Wonderful. Then the security came with a cart, put it on board and carried it away. What an exciting day for that baggage. After check in we ate our PB and J sandwiches and giggled at the announcements "inviting" us to report any suspicious behavior or unattended baggage. FINALLY... we boarded our airplane to Iceland and were not fed in the 3 1/2 hours. Not even a snack. Not bad since we just had sandwiches. In the Iceland airport we tried to buy food (chips was the closest thing to food there) from the only place open but we didn't have icelandic dollars or euro bills. However, at the time I DID have euro coins, a 20 pound bill, 17 american dollars, and franc coins. Shucks. Not good enough. So, since we were also fed nothing on our next flight, but only received one complimentary beverage we starved a bit. It was a 7 hour flight. We had eaten our sandwich at noon, landed in MN around 7:30 pm central time.. which was 2:30 am in the time zone we left. That's the longest I've ever gone not eating. I'm sure of it!

Besides the lack of food everything was great and it was wonderful being home. My mom and little sis picked me up and we went to Applebee's where we met my aunt and cousin! I stayed awake almost the entire drive home and I think my sleep deprivation only showed in the form of a bad attitude when I found out my mom planted my garden. That's one of the things I was really looking forward to doing when I got home. She didn't even plant my favorite flower... alyssum. :( Oh well, we've got it all fixed now.


Saturday morning I woke up at 5:13 am and despite trying to fall back asleep I couldn't so I took my dog running instead. Or should I say dragging? She's pretty out of shape and even though I've taken her out 3 times now she still can't make it hardly even a mile before I stop because I feel so bad for her.


Since I could go on forever about all the great things I've done now that I'm home I'm going to go into bullet point format:

• Played a REAL piano. I couldn't believe how loud it was when I sat down. Such a strange feeling for my ears.
• Drank a Mike's lemonade... mmm mmm good.
• Gone to the Oasis Drive-in. Oh how I've missed it.
• Climbed the Elba fire tower with my family. My brother and I tried running but only made it like 50 steps before we came close to keeling.


• 


• Got fresh spring water.
• Found a dollar bill stuck to a branch in a stream and watched my brother and sister try to fetch it. They succeeded and then I stole it and started running. A dollar bill is worth more when it's been fetched from the stream we learned.
• Laid bark on the landscaping and planted gardens.
• Stained my grandma's deck.
• Visited my friend Sarah from my trip to Guatemala last year who now lives in Rochester!
• Went to TARGET!
• Drove a car :)
• Sat by a camp fire.
• Watched old episodes of my all-time favorite tv show... the office.

And as for things I haven't done... the list includes things such as finishing my unpacking and cleaning my room only to re-pack to move to campus. I'm going to try and move some stuff in tomorrow on my way to the cabin otherwise I'll do it on Monday or Tuesday at which time I will begin living in Westkaemper once again! I'm really excited to live on campus for the summer as it seems many of my friends will be doing that. It's good to be home.