The End! (Unless I decide to post again)

Well... its a little weird to be at home, but good. I'm back to sitting on my big squishy bed. After ignoring me when I first got home to show their disdain, my cats are now talking to me again. (They still fight with each other... so nothing really has changed.)

I have realized the flaw to my plan in writing this blog this semester. I've already told you all my best stories... so you are just going to have to listen to me tell them again in person.

So let's see... In the last entry I gave you the highlights of my last two days. The only thing I wanted to expand on was dinner with Eric, because after three months in Montevideo, Caitlin finally went to Mercado del Puerto. So we met Eric at about 8:30 to go to dinner. We wandered forever because none of us were particularly hungry and no one wanted to pick a restaurant to eat at. Well after we had wander two miles all the way to the Old City I suggested that we go to Mercado del Puerto, since Caitlin had never been and we were within 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile. We went to a nice restaurant that was really good. One of the fun things about eating in Uruguay is that after you eat they don't try to hurry you off so that they can have your table, so after we finished eating, we sat and talked for an hour or two. We eventually roused ourselves from the table to head home. The one problem with eating there, was that we needed to walk back through the Old City at night, which isn't the safest place in the world. Mainly the danger is mugging. But Eric is a good sized guy and Caitlin and I aren't tiny women, so we were fine. We ended up deciding to walk all the way back home, I was pretty sleepy once I got back. But it was a gorgeous night and a good way to end the trip.

Wednesday after aerobics, most of the time was spent with last minute packing up. I kept removing things from my bags to try to get them underweight (which I did succeed in!) At 2, Sandra took our keys from us... that meant we couldn't wander off. At this point we didn't really want to leave, but we were didn't want to sit around any more either. Emiliano and Eric both came over to help entertain us. So Eric, Caitlin, and I got to mock each other a bit more. Eric got to wear Caitlin's beret one last time. At 4, we drug our luggage out into the entry way to wait for the van. I know I had roughly 150 lbs worth of luggage by the time you add up my two suitcases, my carry-on, and my personal item. Now everyone else had roughly the same amount. So we are talking roughly 1650 lbs of luggage! YIKES! Once we were loaded up we headed to the airport.

On the way we stopped at the lookout over the city that we stopped at when we arrived. We had a prayer and took another picture. :) (So we have a before and after shot.) After a few minutes there we loaded back up and headed to the airport. Everyone got checked in ok. The only problem we had was when going through security we found out you couldn't take pre-wrapped cookies or ground coffee with you which we thought was strange.

The flights were pretty uneventful, which is always good. I pretty much slept through everything. I hadn't been sleeping much and had apparently been stressed out and not sleeping well when I had slept, so once I got on the plane I relaxed and passed out. I think I slept through all three take-offs.

The lay-over in Buenos Aires was about 4 hours and wasn't bad. It was weird because all the gates around ours had flights going to the States, so most people were speaking American English. Also all of a sudden, people were tall again! Strange!

In Dallas, everyone's luggage arrived, which was super exciting. We made it through passport control and customs just fine. After that we all went our separate ways. Nikita was also flying to Abilene, but on a later flight, but we at least got to keep each other company for a couple of more hours. We actually found each other in the terminal an hour or so after customs. During that hour, I realized the value of traveling with someone else. When I had to go to the bathroom I could leave my stuff with Nikita and didn't have to carry my 40 lb. bag of books with me. :)

When I arrived in Abilene, Hilary, Judy, Terri, and Sandy were there to meet me. Terri and Sandy were wearing crazy hats and cheered when I walked out. It was fun. My luggage all made it home, although I'm starting to hear reports that that's not true for all the students. Hilary took me to lunch at Abuelo's. Eating Mexican food was the first thing on my list to do when I got home. After 3 and a half months of good, but relatively bland food... It was REALLY spicy. (Although, I knew it was stuff I normally didn't find spicy at all.)

After cleaning up, I spent the afternoon at school. People keep being surprised that I went to "work." Obviously I didn't WORK!!! I went to socialize. I did manage to walk into a departmental meeting... they told me I didn't have to stay. I assured them that I would fall asleep if I sat down in a meeting, and escaped while I still could. I went by and saw the Cukrowski's and told them how jealous I am of them of the fact that they get to go next semester. Then Shelly took me out for American burgers. (Also a request of mine.) It was a great first day back.

While I'm sad to leave Uruguay... it is awesome to be back with my friends and family. I can't believe how blest I have been to get to have this experience. I know I was really blest to have such a great group of students that could also be good friends. I will miss Uruguay and my friends there... but I'm happy to be back with my friends and family here.

Unless I'm inspired again... which I may be when I realize what the reverse culture shock is... I might decide to share some of those experiences... this is my last post. Thanks for reading and experiencing this crazy semester with me.