Surprise! I am back in the States.
Thursday, July 16
thI flew from
Barcelona to
Washington D.C. to visit
Kaity Ruhland for a few days. I had a wonderful time with her. It was nice to catch up after not seeing each other since fall 2007. It is amazing to me that we can pick up like it was yesterday. Young Life friendships sure are special. Her family was fabulous and so was her cute boyfriend,
Shane. We spent a few wonderful hours
chattin it up in
IHOP at 2 in the morning before my flight.
Saturday, July 18
thAfter going to the wrong airport (Note to Self: Know what airport you are flying out of), I still made my flight. Finally, I was in
MCI. It felt so weird to see something familiar. I was in major culture shock - even more so than when I flew to Europe. But it also felt good to know where I was. Driving home was really interesting. I kept repeating to myself, "I'm in Kansas."
The nicest, happiest person I know picked me up from the airport. What would I have done without
Emily Evans?
We pull up to my house and to my surprise, all the cars were in the drive way. This was a surprise to me because I had not talked to my family for a few days, and they thought I was still in
Spain. Yup, they didn't have a clue I was in
the States. What a surprise!
Emily and I walk right up to my front door to ring the doorbell. At this point, I am freaking out. It felt so weird to be back on my front steps. My family was about to have the surprise of their life (or at least, the surprise of the summer).
I ran the bell and after a few seconds, which seemed like an eternity, my dad answers the says,
"Hi."
He says "hi"!
Are you kidding me? I fly across the world to surprise my family with my presence and I get a "Hi." Not even a "Hello there." He says, "Hi." Really? Not even an exciting "hi," just a normal "hi." A greeting you give someone you work with, that you see daily and don't really even like too much.
No doubt in my mind that my face showed my
disappointment.
Then to my surprise, he perks up and begins to greet me enthusiastically. "Oh My Gosh.." and such. He grabs me for a big embrace. I don't think I have even been held so tight. Also, I am pretty sure I saw tears. Dad was excited to have his girl home.
To explain his first reaction, he says it didn't process who he was looking at. I was that much of a surprise. I bet a look a bit different after the Italian chopped off my hair (now thats a whole other blog entry in its self).
Then the best part, my Mom pokes her head down from upstairs. Her face was priceless. She was in utter shock. She nearly ran to hug me.
It was a really good feeling to be home. My parents couldn't stop smiling, looking at me like I was a
spectacle, and hugging me all day long. (Funny, how fast that wore off... kidding, kind of).
They were happy to have me home. I am pretty sure my Mom was a mess the whole time I was gone. Unfortunately, she simply needs to buck up because I am off again...
Yup, that's right. I am leaving yet again. This time I don't need my passport though.
I literally just
found out yesterday that I am headed to
Challenge, California to volunteer on Summer Staff at
Woodleaf, a Young Life camp. I have to be there a week from Sunday and will be there until
August 24. This is really exciting. My good friend
Susheel Kumar will be there as well, and
Kailey VanderBaan comes for a week, too! I cannot believe how wonderful this is.
I know I have failed at blogging about my trip around
Europe. I will have to
reminisce and retell all the crazy stories as time goes on. I mean I did spend my last week in Europe
road tripping around
Spain with
Australian blokes to go cliff jumping and sky diving. Oh, and I did run with the bulls in
Pamplona, Spain.
Viva San Fermin! Needless to say, I have stories...
Life is exciting as always. I will be living out of a suitcase again soon... as always. But I love my
SuitCase Life.
