Returning and Readjusting to America

Well, it's was a long and excellent journey, but we've been home in the USA for about a month now. Our last few days in Germany were spent visiting our favorite places in Leipzig and also spending two days in Berlin. We stayed in a hostel not far from the airport and were able to see all of the standard sights--Brandenburg Gate, Under den Linden, the Reichstag, the TV tower, the Halocaust Memorial, the Opera House, the Berlin Wall/Checkpoint Charlie, and Charlottenburg. The contrast of new and old was especially interesting in Berlin. The city has been through a lot in recent decades. It was, as usual, a very busy two days, and we were successful in using nearly all of our Euros to avoid bringing home piles of change.

Our final journey of the trip started with an S-Bahn trip, a bus trip, and a very early morning at Tegel airport in Berlin. I was successful in locating the earplugs I need to fly and a Starbucks. The airport is not very well labeled and it took ages to successfully locate our gate. Security was a breeze, though, and we had plenty of time. Our first flight was to Warsaw, Poland. There was a delay, but we were promised that we would still be able to make it to our connection to Chicago. We made it to Warsaw and I was able to buy a few magazines in English to read on the flight to Chicago. All of my books were read and the Kindle couldn't download any more, so I decided it was worth it to pay the ridiculous price for some familiar reading material.

The airport in Warsaw was lovely, but Polish Airlines (LOT) was a little disorganized. There was some confusion during boarding and some odd moments when a passenger tried to convice me I should switch seats and sit alone for a 10 hour flight. In case you didn't know, flying is not one of my favorite activities, and sitting alone doesn't make it any better. We worked out the seating arrangement and were on our way. The plane left Warsaw at 12:30 pm and was set to land at 3:30 pm in Chicago. There were some kids near us that were entertaining at first, but quickly turned annoying when all of the other 10 year old boys on the plane came over with their Pokemon cards and played some intense Pokemon in the aisle of the plane. Then, they started to play hide and seek, which, in all honesty, is a pretty terrible plane game. Their antics made an already long flight seem longer. However, there were adorable and well-behaved children as well, so it evened out a little bit around Canada. :)  It turns out that I don't particularly care for LOT's food either, so I was very happy to finally be approaching Chicago, where I knew Giordanno's was waiting for me.

When we finally landed, it was 3:30 pm, but it felt like 10:30 pm to us. Since we'd been on the train en route to Tegel at 6:00 am, it had been a long, long day. Customs went smoothly enough, but there was definitely a line and a long wait for our baggage. We were greeted with a thunderstorm, two completely dead cell phones, and humidity. Bryan used his first pay phone since 1998 and Rob and Judi were on their way with Diet Cokes and cookies for all! We had plans to meet Bryan's brother and his fiancee for dinner, but had enough time for real showers (the hostel showers didn't count) and for a bit of mail sorting (I may or may not have done a significant amount of online shopping and had it sent to Bryan's house) before we headed out to Giodanno's. Real deep dish pizza was the best choice for our first American meal in two months! It also felt a little like Christmas since we had so many presents to give out.

The next day, it was back to reality. We stopped in Rochelle for lunch with my parents and then I was back to the QCA to get ready to head back to work and move. It was certainly a whirwind few days. I was very tired and a little out of it, but I didn't really have any time to think about it.

Since then, I have caught on up mail, started teaching, attended a bachelorette party, moved, unpacked, booked a wedding date/location, and taken a trip back to the burbs for Labor Day. I start graduate school classes this week and then will be maid of honor in a wedding this weekend. I'm also running a 5k, attending another wedding, and adjusting to living completely alone. It's been ridiculous to say the least. Bryan is back to classes full time, looking for/applying to jobs, and watching the real estate ads for Quad Cities mansions.

It's strange to be back, but I am adjusting. I have decided to cancel my cable and am also enjoying a lot more "unplugged" time as a result of our trip. We've also started brainstorming where our next big adventure might take us. For now, it will be the QCA and the Chicago suburbs, but hopefully somewhere more exotic is in our future too. This will be the last post, but stay tuned for future adventures! Thank you for reading; we were glad to be able to share our trip with you!