Homesick for Ecuador

So on Saturday, I spent the morning packing up. Surprisingly, everything fit well into my bags and I even had a little room to buy a little more, but I didn't. I walked around the Mariscal a bit and then went to the Centro Historico to eat lunch with some friends. However Akiko and I didn't meet up with Amanda and Cara until after we had eaten. Then back to the Mariscal for more hanging out. Then we headed off to the airport early and said some final goodbyes to the ADs who really were amazing and incredible throughout the entire trip. It's really because of them and because the group was so great that the entire trip was awesome. I feel so fortunate to have met them all and gotten to hang out with them for the past four months. So, the flight had to go from Quito to Guayaquil because a flight from Spain had run off of one of the runways a few weeks ago and they still haven't opened all of the runways and don't fuel up the planes in Quito, so we had another hour in Guayaquil until we headed off to Miami, where we got in around 12:15 a.m. Passport control took a little while because the lines were long but customs was really quick-we just had to give our customs declarations sheets to the agents and that was it. The seven of us who had taken the group flight back got to the hotel around 2 and slept for a bit. Amanda and I had flights out of Miami at 8:00 so we headed off to check in at 6:00. Security lines were a little long but we got through pretty quickly. Then off to my gate. The plane from Miami to Chicago was a little late to takeoff so we got to Chicago a little late. However, we were also made to sit in the remote parking lot for close to an hour because the plane taking off from our gate had to be de-iced. So we got in a little late and my two-hour layover turned into a 30-minute layover so I had to rush to get to my other flight, but I had ten minutes before boarding. The flight from Chicago to Cleveland was on time as well but we also had to be de-iced before taking off so we were a little late getting into Cleveland. Once there, I met my mom by luggage pick-up and we found that one of my check-ins was missing. This is the second time that American has lost my luggage from a flight from Miami, and I've only flown on them a few times. However, I got my luggage last night at 10:30 so all ended up ok. So we took the luggage I did have and drove back home but we stopped first at Laurie's Christmas band concert which was nice. Then home at last.

It's really strange being back in the US. I have been thinking and speaking in Spanish sometimes without realizing it. I still throw out the toilet paper instead of flushing it. I drank my first glass of tap water at the hotel in Miami and it was really good. I have had two salads since I got back. People are much better drivers here. I went to the library and got a ton of books out to read (most of them about Uganda-I'm sending in my VISA application tomorrow). It's really great to be back but I miss Ecuador. I miss seeing mountains every day. It's really cold here (for me, 50 degrees was cold last week) and I miss the nice temperate weather. I'm sure I'll return someday and when I do, I already have a list of things to do and people to visit. So I arrived home safely and all in all it's good to be back. Oh, and here's a link to an article that I wrote for my school paper: http://media.www.kenyoncollegian.com/media/storage/paper821/news/2007/12/06/Features/Notes.From.Abroad-3137440.shtml

Hope everyone is staying safe and healthy. I can't believe Christmas is coming up so soon. It really feels to me like it's time for summer vacation or something like that, but not Christmas.