After flying over 3,372 miles, walking over 40 miles, burning about 10% of my skin, eating 10 lbs (or so it seems) of rice (with or without beans), and assisting ~200 patients, it was time to, for the last time, pack my suitcase and go back home. But of course, not without a few (fun) bumps along the way.
I started this gorgeous Friday off by wishing my mother a happy birthday, and then having a very delicious ham, cheese, and pineapple sandwich, which was later washed down with delicious orange juice with the Quatro. (No, I did not wash down the OJ with the Quatro, that's cannibalism, and though we are on a Caribbean island, I don't think it would be legal anyway).
About forty mins later, we were taking our last group photo(s) and boarded the water taxi again.
Forty five mins later, we were at the airport.
Thirty mins later, we were taking off for Atlanta.
An hour later, thanks to a crossword puzzle, I learned a few new words with Amber.
1. Olio -- A dish of many ingredients; amedly or potpourri
2. Loam -- a rich, friable soil containing a relatively equal mixture of sand and silt and a somewhat smaller proportion of clay
3. Lees -- plural of lee; a protective shelter; the side or part that it turned away from the wind.
4. Ardor -- great warmth of feeling
5. Palindrome -- a word, line, verse, number, sentence, etc. reading the same backwards and forwards.
Some other things we learned = goose flesh is your body's reaction to fear. Not sweating or shaking or inc sympathetic activation. Simply goose flesh.
An hour and a half later, we arrived in Atlanta.
Ten mins later we passed customs, relieved our luggage, and then sent it away again.
Five mins later, we went through another security checkpoint, at which I had to be patted down.
Five mins later, I found out that, on top of our three hour layover, our plane was going to be delayed an hour.
Because we had all this extra time, we all decided that we needed to celebrate being back in America, and so we went to TGI Fridays. Most of us had a variation of some kind of burger, because we are in America, and that is what we are all about. We wandered around a bit and then made our way to the destination gate, where we all began to get comfortable. While we waited for our plane, we recharged not only our electronics, but also ourselves with delicious Starbucks Coffee.
About an hour later, we found out that we were delayed because the plane that was supposed to take off before ours, had a 'dent' in in, which needed to be checked out. Of course, at this point, we all knew the cause -- Toucan Sam. It was the only logical explanation.
Thirty mins later, there came an announcement. "Ladies and gentlemen. In my 15 years of working for Delta, I have never seen or heard of a plane with such a large dent getting the OK to fly. Your plane has somehow been 'fixed' and we are now boarding Flight blah blah to blah blah."
I don't think I've laughed so much in my life.
After that plane boarded, we waited a bit more and then boarded our final flight to JFK. I had a very nervous man sitting next to me, so that was quite an experience. After reading through the many intricacies of Cosmo with my aisle-mate Amber, I took a mini-nap and before I knew it, we were landing in JFK.
I was picked up by my parents and within the next hour, I was in bed.
I can't begin to tell you how long I'd dreamed of sleeping in my own bed, with my own pillow. But it felt very weird and out of place. Even driving by familiar streets seemed very oddish. Walking around the apartment was very weird too. I was like that for the next couple of days, as I adjusted back into the swing of things.
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