Journey and Arrival Home

I departed Auckland on Thursday afternoon, Sept 15th, exactly one year after I had arrived.  My visa was expiring on Friday.  I flew on Air Tahiti from Auckland to Tahiti (where I arrived at about 9pm Wednesday night, confusing even for the airline employee who checked me in).  I was greeted by the tropical guitar player and hula-like dancers before going back through security and waiting in the half indoor/outdoor lounge before boarding the plan again to fly to LAX.  I arrived in LA Wednesday morning at about 10am...a day and a couple of hours before I even left Auckland (technically).  There I had to collect my bags, go through customs and luckily only walk up the sidewalk a slight distance to check back in with American Airlines.  With my cart full of my 4 huge bags, I nearly rolled back down the slight incline I was trying to go up.  And it was HOT in LA....people were looking at me like I was crazy for wearing Ugg boots!

I had plenty of time once I checked in, so I got some chips and dip for the flight to Dallas.  When going to pay, I had to think twice about the price, forgetting that I had to add in the tax to what I was expected to pay.  Soon I was on my way to Dallas, where I had another short layover before continuing on to Hartford.  There I decided to have another snack, cinnamon sugar Auntie Annie's pretzel will vanilla icing. It was delicious!  Already, I was exciting about all the yummy food I'd get to eat when I got home.  Feeling pretty tired at this point, standing up to board the plane I thought I saw someone I recognized, but thought maybe I was just imaging the similarity... just to be sure I walked around the line to get a better look and sure enough, I had been in the country less than 12 hours and I was about to get on the same plane home as Rose, a girl I swim with in high school!  Even crazier...she was in the seat directly behind mine!  So I had someone to have a little chat with, though we would have needed way more than a plane ride to REALLY catch up since it have been about 6 years since we'd last seen each other!

Finally, I arrived in Hartford just after midnight.  In the car waiting for me was another snack, a chocolate cream-filled donut from Atkins! Yum Yum!  We got home just after 1am where I proceeded to unpack all my things searching for things to show my parents.  I was up until after 4am and then slept until about 2pm Friday.  I didn't jump right back in to settling in to the time difference.

Friday night, Dani came and tried the new Mexican restaurant at the end of our street with use.  It was PACKED so we ended up bringing it back to my house, but it was pretty delicious!

Saturday, we headed for Fenway Park with Greg and met Auntie Diane and Uncle Jim to watch the Red Sox.  A nice little homecoming outing (apart from the fact that they lost and continued to lose the rest of the month....).  It was a successful day in all though, since I had Chipotle, which I had been missing for quite some time!

The next week we spent at Cape Cod visiting with Jack and Sandra before they drove back to Florida.  Although, I spent the majority of the time catching up on my Anatomy and Physiology w/lab course online.  I had 3 weeks of material to learn for the exam that weekend.

Now, I am all caught up on sleep, studying, eating, laundry, organizing and starting an Abnormal Psych course as well.  Soon I'll probably start applying to Occupational Therapy Master's programs and continue searching for some money-making opportunities so I can save up for when Jacques arrives Dec 22nd!

Tahiti Welcome Crew