Hello Again

I woke up on the morning of August 1 feeling those all-too familiar stomach butterflies. But this time, instead of being nervous, the butterflies were from pure excitement. I was finally headed home to see my family and friends!

After a quick final tidying of the flat, and when every single last thing I could jam into my suitcase was jammed in, I was ready to go. All of my belongings from the year (minus the two suitcases I already sent home with my family) were packed and ready in three very large suitcases. With my new luggage scale, I was able to pack one to the maximum overweight limit of 70 pounds and keep my other two at the 50 pound limit, which is as heavy as you can go without paying extra fees. I also had a rolling carryon suitcase and a backpack stuffed full of books. I was definitely loaded down!

All packed up and ready for home. Here's my suitcases with my travel wall in the
background. On the wall, I stuck up postcards from all the places I travelled, and I would often
lay in bed and look up at this wall and remind myself how incredible my experience was. 

I caught a taxi to Heathrow and arrived in plenty of time to get my bags checked in and all the way through security. The attendant was quite impressed with my maxed-out-to-the-limit packing skills! I even had time for one last lunch of bangers and mash (my favorite!) and one final Kopparberg Pear Cider (also my favorite!) in an airport pub. The whole morning and afternoon felt like a blur, and then, before I knew it, it was time to board the plane.

Goodbye, London. I'll miss you! 

Pulling out of London made my heart sink a little, but I just had to keep reminding myself I would be back someday...hopefully someday soon.

The flight home was pretty uneventful. I had a good window seat with only one person next to me, which meant I had a little extra space. And I passed the nine and half hours with movies, naps and even made a little photo DVD project on my laptop.

Coming into Seattle was more than a little surreal. And I don't think it was just the jet lag and lack of sleep that was making my head feel so foggy. I think it was more that I was in a total tail spin of emotion. So excited to be home to my "real" life and already so sad to have left my amazing life in London. But tears welled in my eyes as soon as I saw the Cascade Mountains and Puget Sound on our approach into Seattle. I was home, and it felt good.

Home at last. The beautiful Pacific Northwest!

It's funny how whenever you're really excited for something, it always seems to take forever for that thing to happen, and this was the case after we landed. Since I was in practically the last row of the plane, I was just about the last person off the aircraft. Then, it took ages for my bags to arrive and even longer to get through customs. All I wanted to do was rush out and see my big sister, who I knew was waiting for me with my brother-in-law at the top of the escalator! Finally, I got through all the boring stuff and made my way out, and there she was, faithfully waiting for me. Well, she wasn't just waiting...she was standing at the top of the escalator, waving an American flag and crying.  :)  It was the perfect homecoming!

Reunited! 

After we gathered up my bags, we met up with my dad who was in the car park area. It felt so good to hug my dad and know that I wasn't going to have to say goodbye to him again any time soon. Then we all headed down to my house in Auburn where my mom and the doggies were waiting. The drive down was pretty surreal, too. I just couldn't believe that I had woken up in London, and now there I was, on my way to my house!

It felt really great pulling into my driveway, seeing the American flag flying off the front porch. When I came through the front door, my first thought was how wide the hallways was! I'd gotten used to living in a much smaller space, and suddenly, my house felt excessively larger. Of course, I gave my mom a big squeeze (yay!) and then said hello to my dog Pippy, who was a little confused but happy to see me. The house looked great! My mom had it all spruced up and feeling all homey, with the small lamps turned on and candles lit. All I wanted to do was just curl up on the couch and soak up the moment, but we had dinner plans. So after a quick change of my clothes, we were off to the Mexican restaurant up the hill. Oh man, had I missed Mexican food! They just don't really do Mexican food in London. My enchiladas were quite tasty and having dinner with my whole family at once was a great treat, but I was getting a little woozy, so as soon as we got home, I pretty much headed to bed. Since I'd been up for about 24 hours, I was more than ready for bed.

My second day in home brought even more happy reunions. My mom planned a nice family/friends gathering at the house, and so I was able to see my godparents John and Marilyn, their daughter Cathy and her husband kids, plus our family friends Tim and Karla and even my neighbors Melissa and Nathan. It felt so nice to see everyone, catch up people's lives, and to share a few of my stories.

My dad pointing to his beer, trying to look manly
while be BBQs in my frilly apron.  :)

Happy times

With my godparents John and Marilyn

The next day I was lucky enough to have another welcome home party, this time hosted by Katie. Most of my college friends were able to make it, and it felt really good to be home with them. I was a little worried that things would be different after a year away, but actually, it didn't feel any different. It was almost like I'd never left.

Katie M., Laurel, Meagan, Me and Katie C.

Ashley B., Me with Pippy and Ashley J.

For the past month, I've been popping around to different places to visit more friends. I've managed to squeeze quite a few overnight visits into just a few weeks, while also taking some time for myself to get adjusted and settled back into my home and my life here. And for the most part, I've been super happy at home. There are just occasional moments when I stop and realize how far away my London life feels, how far away my London friends really are, and those moments can get a little tough. But I'm a fortunate woman because I've got amazing friends and family right here who've been waiting for me to come home. That makes me feel better any time I start to feel sorry for myself.

One new adventure on the horizon that's been keeping me excited about the future is a trip to China, which I'll be taking this upcoming summer. I'll be a leader again with People to People, and I'll be taking high school students from around the area to China for 17 days. I'd never really thought about traveling to China until this opportunity came along, but now that it's in my head, I'm really excited about seeing this beautiful country. Having a grand trip to look forward to will help me reconcile myself to the fact that travel opportunities will be a little harder to come by this year.

I've also been spending the past couple of weeks trying to get resettled at school. Going back into Auburn Mountainview was a like a dream. The school is gorgeous, the staff are amazing, and it just felt like home as soon as I walked in. I've got a lot of work to do to get the yearbook up and going, and I've also taken on a new course this year--honors 9th grade language arts--so there have been some stressful days, but I'm also trying to remember how much stress I faced at work in London and how I somehow managed to survive that. As long as I don't get lost in my own head, I think I'll do just fine this year.
School started this week, and my new students are just lovely. They are kind and curious and just so American. I've been getting a real kick out of their outfits and mannerisms and silly things they do. It's good to be home.

My classroom at AMHS. Check out my Union Jack flag!

That's a framed photo of my English department from
London. They gave me that photo as a leaving gift, and
now they all sit with me at my desk in Auburn. I miss them
SO much! What a great department! 

My Fulbright friends and I are already trying to plan a few trips and reunions for this upcoming year. In fact, I just booked myself a flight to Boise in October to see Christy. I miss them, those crazy American Fulbright girls, so much. It's going to be strange this year to not be able to just hop a train for a few hours and have a weekend together. The more I reflect on it, the more I realize just how lucky we were to find each other.

As cliche as it sounds, I've also realized that I found myself this year. I learned so much about myself and grew as a person in ways I never imagined. I've realized this year that I'm much more flexible and resilient that I ever knew, and that I bounce back from setbacks pretty easily. This makes me much more of a fighter than I ever realized, and I found some deep determination in myself, which is really what made my year abroad successful. Another thing I realized this year is that I'm sort of a collector of people. I always knew I was social and pretty easy to get along with, but I had never thought about what an asset this was to my personality. I think being social and friendly are actually life skills, and this side of my personality served me well this year. I make friends easily and work hard to maintain my friendships. And I'm so happy to say that my collection of friends and relationships has grown monumentally this year. If I hadn't made these connections with people, I know I would never have been as happy as I was. God has certainly gifted me with an ability to connect to people, and I intend to tap into this more and more as I move forward in my life.

Looking ahead to what's in front of me is my biggest goal right now. There are loads of things I miss about being in London, but there are also loads of things I'm excited about having here in the States. I'm trying hard not to constantly relive the past, and I'm especially mindful of how many times I start my sentences with "In London..." At the same time, it's important for me to honor those memories and share my story with people.  Still, my main prerogative is to march on and grow from those experiences, not dwell in them.

I guess Tom Petty said it best:

"It's time to move, time to get going, what lies ahead I have no way of knowing. But under my feet, baby, grass is growing. Time to move on, time to get going."

It's time to start the next adventure.