Being home

Everyone warned me about this thing called "reverse culture shock," and how likely it was that I'd be experiencing weird feelings of re-adjustment after I got back from my time in France.  But guys, I'm just not feeling it.

I am so happy to be home with all the familiar things and people and systems that the little things that changed or happened while I was away seem insignificant.  I came back into my group of friends and it was as if I'd never left.  This makes me so happy!  Even coming to my Omaha home, with all the changes that happened there, it was fine.  I was just so glad to be back with my family that I adapted quickly to the differences.

So, just a quick summary post to say that I'm doing great. I can't tell you all how happy I am to be back in the states.  Studying abroad was a good experience, and I'm glad I did it, but you will certainly not hear me saying it was the "best time of my life."  Because it was not.

And just a quick note about coming home: Everything went relatively smoothly until I was delayed a whole hour in Montreal, rushed to my gate in Chicago to make it on time, only to sit there for three hours watching my final 1.5 hours until home get delayed and delayed and delayed until finally the flight was cancelled and I was forced to stay in Chicago overnight.  Luckily they gave me a hotel room, and it was in Embassy Suites... very nice. Not so luckily, I wandered around O'Hare bawling for 45 minutes trying to find where the stupid shuttles were supposed to pick us up, and I didn't even sleep during the four hours I was in the hotel room.  But I made it home by 9am Sunday and I had a very nice young man coming home for the first time in 6 months sitting next to me on the plane, so we chatted and the time went super fast.  Then there were Panera bagels waiting for me!