Finally Home

Well, here I am sitting in my living room and writing this blog.  That's a little crazy to think about, isn't it?  Last week I was in Lima, Perú and now here I sit in my little country home and to be honest, I'm loving it!!!  I got home on Sunday and for the past couple days, I have been at my second home, Carthage College, but now I'm home home. :)  Anyway, let's get to talking about the last couple of days.

I came home on Sunday the 11th.  I left my home in Lima around 9:30 a.m., said my goodbyes to my host mom and thanked her for all she had given me throughout the semester.  I hopped into the taxi and I was on the way to the airport.  The taxi driver, like usual, switched the station to an English one, but considering it was my last day in Lima, I had to ask him to change it to my favorite station: 91.9.  He also handed me his newspaper that he had just bought, so I spent my last taxi ride in Lima reading the paper and listening to some reggaeton.  Once I got to the airport, I got in line at Spirit Airlines and I was so happy to speak Spanish with the workers.  Sometimes airport officials or people in Lima, in general, will automatically speak English no matter what.  Even if you speak in Spanish to some people, they insist on speaking English.  Sometimes I think they just want to practice their English and sometimes I think they truly think you don't understand them.  I think it just depends on the person.  Anyway, I spoke Spanish to everyone that I came into contact with and they all spoke it back to me.  Actually, the lady at the counter started in English, but then when I answered her in Spanish she switched back to Spanish.  It made me feel really happy. :)  Oh, by the way, my suitcase was supposed to be 40lbs and it was 26Kg (57.32lbs).  Whoops, although I was WAY overweight, everything worked out okay and I didn't have to throw anything out.  Well, I met Jacey and her family there because Jacey had the same flight as I did to Fort Lauderdale.  I sat there for awhile with her and her host mom and dad while we ate breakfast and chatted.  They then walked us to security and we said goodbye to them.  It's funny, I only met Jacey's host parents a few times, but they still said goodbye to me like they had known me for the whole semester.  I love friendly people!  And honestly, those weren't the only friendly people of the day.

When I arrived in Florida (Yea, I'm not going to talk about the first flight because nothing happened), everybody was so friendly and pleasant and it just put me in a good mood.  Starting with the guy at immigration, he was so friendly and he commented on my llama sweater. :)  However, I did think that I was going to be in trouble when 2he asked why I was there for so long.  I told him I had been studying and he said, "Oh, that makes sense."  Then, I moved onto baggage claim where Jacey and I picked up our luggage and we got in line to go through customs.  The K9 unit that was there kept sniffing Jacey's bag and we assumed it was because of the pork sandwiches that Jacey's host mom packed her for the plane, but also we each had some food in our suitcases like cancha and I had some packages of huancaína sauce.  Well, the woman asked if we were traveling together and it seemed like one of those "we're hiding something" moments because I answered "no" and Jacey answered "yes."  It was comical.  Needless to say both Jacey and I got our custom cards marked with a "K9," so we automatically had to go through the customs scanner, but everything turned out okay.  We didn't bring back anything illegal, so we still breezed right through.  Then we checked our luggage again and said our goodbyes because we had to go to separate terminals.

Last picture before we parted :)

I headed to security and the guy who checked my passport wished me a happy belated birthday, which was really nice of him.  Then, I went through, but I had to wait there because they had to rescan one of my bins and my laptop again, but after that I was ready to go.  As I sat at the gate, everything felt like a dream.  The whole entire semester felt like a dream and it was the weirdest feeling in the world.  Had I really just spent 4 and a half months in Peru?  Luckily, that answer is yes and thankfully, it wasn't a dream!  It was an amazing time and it really did happen, but I will say that it was weird sitting in the airport.  I could hear everyone's conversation in English and it just felt so loud.  Anyway, I boarded the plane and I was seated next to a Polish woman, Helen, and her ex-marine son, Mark.  I had some good conversation with them and they obviously found out that it had been my 21st birthday the day before so when the drink cart came around, they bought me my first drink, a Jose Cuervo Margarita.  It was a really nice plane ride and I liked chatting with my seat neighbors.  I told them I had a clan waiting for me in Chicago and I'm sure they laughed when they got to Chicago because even I laughed because my clan was hard to miss.  Meeting me at the airport were my parents, my sister, my brother-in-law, my boyfriend, and my roommate and they were all wearing bright orange t-shirts.  Yep, they were hard to miss. 

Right of the plane and seeing my clan

Taylor, Greg, Kayla, me, and Logan with our chullos :)

After the airport pick-up, we headed to Kenosha, WI for a 1 a.m. breakfast at Marina Gardens, a 24-hour restaurant there.  It was awesome.  I made an event on facebook inviting all of my friends there and there they were!  It was sooo fun!!  There were 16 people there and my mom had gotten everyone t-shirts so we spent time there chatting and eating and enjoying each other.  It was a blast!  I couldn't have asked for a better welcome home present!

Me with all of my amazing friends!!!

Anyway, for the rest of this week, I spent my time visiting friends at Carthage and taking tests.  I stopped in for two dance classes just to see my professors and then I actually attended the ballet class because I just can't get enough dancing. :)  I stopped in at my work to see my bosses and I saw the study abroad advisor as well.  I went to the new student union to see it because I was gone when it opened and I can't wait to spend more time in there next semester.  I also went to Iluzion practice, which is the hip hop team I am on. :)  It was so great to see everything and everyone.  People kept asking if I was feeling reverse culture shock and in reality, I never felt too overwhelmed by everything, however, I do kept saying small Spanish phrases to people like perdon, gracias, and chau. (Pardon, thank you, bye).  Also, I continue to try and throw the toilet paper in the trash can.  It's weird being able to throw the toilet paper in the toilet.  I kept thinking that I am going to clog it just by throwing the paper in there, but I should know that's not the case.  Anyway, on Wednesday, I had to take a written test and a telephone test in Spanish.  These tests serve as my Praxis II, which is an exam that I am required to take for the Teacher's Education Program.  I wasn't nervous for the written test, which consisted of writing four short essays in Spanish, however, I was pretty nervous for the telephone test.  The test consisted of talking to someone somewhere for a half hour in Spanish and although I was extremely nervous, I actually feel pretty good about it after the fact!  Unfortunately, I have to wait up to 5 weeks to get the results back, but that's okay, I guess.  Anyway, my mom and I are setting up the Christmas tree tonight, which I'm pretty excited for and also don't forget that there are several more blogs that need to be written by me so stay tuned. :)