After being away from the United States for a year, I finally made the journey home. Honestly, going into it I was a little hesitant about going home. I missed my friends and family but I just kind of felt I'd be out of place after being away for a while. Its also easier to block out homesickness the longer you are away. I didn't really want to go home because I felt I might miss it more. As I closed in on the trip home, I kind of felt like it was time to go there.
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| so close! |
The journey was a relative breeze. Kind of a been there done that feeling. I woke up at 7AM to take a 5 hour bus ride to Tokyo. From there, I went to the train station and took the narita express for 90 minutes to Narita Airport. I got there with 2 hours to spare. Just enough time for the 12 hour flight to Chicago. In Chicago I had 3 hour layover (that turned into 5). Then I flew the 1 hour it took to get to Grand Rapids. Then I rode in our van for an hour to get home.
Piece of Cake right?
The only real hitch to everything was when we got on the runway in Chicago and the captain says, " I had to make a tough call to choose either people getting to Grand Rapids or some of your bags. I chose the people." Long story short, I was missing a bag with all of my clothes that didn't come until midnight Christmas morning. Luckily, that meant that I got to open an early Christmas present so I didn't wear the same clothes I wore home. (
Travel Tip: Always pack at least 1 change of clothes in your carry on. Its saved me at least 3 times off the top of my head).
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| monster medium on the right |
For the first few days, I felt like a tourist. All the Americans were loud, the roads were big, the portion sizes for the food was ridiculous. I got a medium drink at Wendy's and I'm pretty sure I could have jumped in the cup and took a bath.
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| family visiting |
Most of my vacation was visiting friends that I haven't seen for the past year. Its great when you see people and can just pick up like we saw each other yesterday. It was always tough saying goodbye though knowing that I wouldn't see them again for a while. But I know when I do, we will pick right back up.
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| Chicago |
The only other thing I did besides visit people and buy clothes that actually fit me, was a random out of the blue trip to Chicago. It kind of went like this between a friend and I: "Hey I wanna go on a random adventure, lets go to Chicago" "Ok". We had no map or plans just kinda went on whim which was pretty cool. Life is more fun when you stay in motion.
All in all, it was good to be home. It was amazing how quickly, it kind of felt like I never left. I was really excited to see so much family and friends over the two weeks. By the end of the trip, it was hard to leave knowing I wouldn't see everybody for a while. However, the greatest thing about the vacation is that it reminded me how lucky I am to be where I am and doing what I'm doing. Its easy to get caught up in this job and forget how truly unique and awesome this experience is. God has truly blessed me with this opportunity that felt like it just fell into place for me. I'm very thankful for being in this moment in my life and knowing that more is to come. I glad I was able to visit home but I know that I have another home right now and its right here where I type this post. It feels pretty great!
- Random things I'm doing in the next few weeks: Watching a sumo wrestling tournament in Tokyo this weekend for the first time, doing English voice over work for peoples testimony about the major earthquake, going sledding down a mountain with my students, saying goodbye to my old students and hello to new students,.. (hopefully)taking a vacation somewhere warm with a beach!!
