Long Due Update #3: Christmas in Kentucky

Ok I’m going to do several updates as different blog posts to keep the length down, so read back to the previous posts if you want to know what I’ve been doing for the last 3 months :)

Well in December I got to take my first trip back to the U.S. for 3 weeks for Christmas, so I was pretty excited the weeks leading up to my visit. Since I had just gotten my puppy, I was also feeling some mixed emotions as I didn’t really want to leave her. But I knew she would be my motivation to return after 3 weeks :)
So I was set to fly out the 8th of Dec in the morning and arrive at home around 11:30pm the same day. Since I had to leave Guayaquil pretty early in the morning I planned to stay in a hotel in Guayaquil. I also found out another volunteer would be leaving on the same flight to Miami so I invited her to stay at the hotel too. And a couple of Guayaquil volunteers also joined us since the hotel is so nice :) Well my host family decided they would drive me to Guayaquil on the 7th so we set out with the host parents, the host sister, the host dog (Max) and my puppy Dali. The plan was to leave Dali at the host grandmas house in Guayaquil but turns out those dogs didn’t like Dali, so we ended up taking her in the car to go to the hotel. But we took a detour because my host family wanted to buy a few things for my family, so we went to the artisanal market. And I found out Dali gets carsick, as she vomited all over the towel I had brought for her. So when we got to the hotel I felt even worse because not only was I telling my puppy goodbye for 3 weeks, but she was feeling really crappy from the car ride. But alas I told her and my host family goodbye for now anyway. That evening we went to a mall and hung out with my host brother for awhile before heading to the hotel and getting to bed.
The next day we headed for the airport in time for our flight, but I was having some stomach trouble so I spent much of the airport time in the bathroom haha. Our flight was late but finally we boarded and took off. 4 hours and some intense turbulence later, we landed in Miami on US soil. It was pretty surreal! We had arrived in Miami about 45 minutes late, and my connection was pretty tight, but I thought I could still make it. Of course we had to go through customs still though, and for some reason our baggage got caught up and didn’t come out for almost an hour, so I assumed I wasn’t making my connection. I ran through customs and talke to the lady in charge but she told me my flight was closed so I would have to reschedule. I was pretty upset, as were many other passengers, but I got into the rebooking line trying not to cry that I might not get home until the next day. To my luck, the lady said there was a direct flight to Cincinnati (I was supposed to go through Chicago) that would get me in 30 minutes later than my original flight :) So I found a pay phone (did you know it costs $1.00 to make a 5 minute phone call on a pay phone?? WOW) and called my mom to tell her about the flight change. After several hours in Miami, I finally boarded to Cincinnati, and though the flight was a little late taking off, arrived around midnight. I was so happy to see my parents waiting for me at the airport! We said our hellos and hugged then loaded up the car and headed home.
It was so nice to be home, and sooo comfortable. I was impressed by having climate control, hot water, good ethnic foods, toilets you can throw the TP in, a comfy bed, carpet in the house, etc. etc. etc. There are too many things to name really. Then there was seeing my friends, family, pets, etc. I’m just going to give a rundown of more or less what I did, because since the people who read my blog are from the U.S., and I saw a lot of you, I don’t feel like writing too much hehe
I hung out with my best friend from high school before anyone else, and we went to Panera for lunch (yumm!) then out to target, where I promptly bought all of the Glee CDs hehe. It was great to see her and amazing to see how much she’s grown up since I left :) Then the first weekend back was my roommate from college’s wedding, and even though we were expecting a huge snow storm, one of my BFFs from college decided to come to Cincinnati anyway. She got to my house the night before the wedding so we got to talk and catch up. Saturday we went and got skyline (actually Gold Star because the Skyline had closed) and drove to the wedding, where we got to see other friends from college. The wedding was pretty and it was great seeing people I hadn’t seen in years! Then we checked into the hotel and got ready for the reception, which thankfully a shuttle was taking us to and from. The reception was really pretty and I was soooo excited to have GOOD beer available. I enjoyed several different types of beer with the company of my old friends and it was overall a great night. Plus my old roomie looked amazing! After the reception we went back to the hotel and hung out at the hotel bar before heading to bed. The next day we all went our separate ways
During my trip home I had a few doctors appointments, went to the school that we have a pen pal program with and talked to them about Ecuador/Peace Corps, went out to eat with my family, and visited with friends and family a lot. Plus for Christmas Eve I was able to see the extended family and have Christmas morning with my family at my parents house. There were lots of dogs there this year, which was pretty intense but fun/funny. Dali would have fit right in! Christmas is definitely my favorite holiday and I really enjoyed being home. I got everything I wanted for Christmas this year :)
I haven’t written a blog post that does justice to my trip back home, but I think I’m done writing for today. All you really need to know is that I had a great time seeing friends and family, and will be excited to go back when I finish my service. I miss everyone a lot but am glad I was able to see people. :) And for now, I'm back in Ecuador, but have great memories of home to look back on for the next months as I finish my Peace Corps service.