And we're back!
Yes, we are back and alive in the U S of A! And what a crazy month and a half it has been.
First off, we arrived back to the US in celebrity fashion. While checking in for our flight at the Dublin airport, I happened to mention in casual conversation that we were on the final leg of a six month trip around the world and oh, by the way, it is also our two year anniversary. Nothing came of that at the check-in counter, however, once we got to the gate, we heard our names being called over the speaker. We walked up to the front, and sure enough we had been upgraded. We couldn't believe it. We had joked the whole trip about getting upgraded on our final flight, and it was really happening. Of course, it couldn't all be perfect. The video wasn't working on the plane and there was a screaming kid sitting across the aisle, but nonetheless, we were sitting in really comfortable seats drinking beer and you can't ask for much more than that.
We were greeted at the airport by Dianne (Matt's mom), Jenny (Matt's sister) and Livie (our niece). It was so great to be welcomed home by family. Of course, after flights all over the world and not losing a single bag, two of our bags were lost on the flight from Philadelphia to Atlanta. The lady at the airline told me that the bags weren't lost, they just didn't make the flight. Apparently, they were at the airport bar and just didn't hear the call for the flight. After many calls back to the airport, we were finally reunited with our bags the next day.
I must say that first week back was a whirlwind. We got back to our condo and it looked exactly the same. Suzanne did an excellent job on the upkeep while we were gone. We had heard horror stories from other people who had rented out their place and I was so thankful that Suzanne was staying at ours. Actually, Atlanta pretty much looked the same too. There were some new condo buildings around, but for the most part things were the same. Even some of the billboards were the same. We keep joking that the only way that we could tell time had passed was that kids had changed, our niece Livie had changed so much in the 6 months that we were gone, and our friend Kim had changed. She became pregant with triplets right after we left, so she definitely looked different when we came back. Other than that, everything looked the same.
We quickly had to go look for an apartment since we were going to close on selling the condo in just 6 days. Looking for an apartment was pretty amusing. When people asked us for a contact phone number we would say, yeah, we were thinking about getting one of those, our plan is to go and get phones tonight. They looked at us like we were crazy, how could these people be surviving without a phone. Of course, we did soon learn that our lifeline of internet was going to have to be replaced with a phone. And so it was.
We did manage to find an apartment. Matt's parents, in a brief lack of judgement, agreed to come to Atlanta and help us move. Thank God they did. Matt and I may have made it around the world with each other and been with each other 24/7 for 6 months, but I honestly don't think that we would have survived the move. It was grueling. The apartment that we moved into leaves a little to be desired, but of course, after the places that we have stayed over the past 6 months, it is the Taj Mahal!
The really crazy thing is what happened next. I started work on the Monday, one week after we had returned. We also sold the condo that day at noon. I noticed that I started to get a few headaches when I woke up in the morning that week. By Tuesday when I came home from work, I went straight to bed and slept through to the next morning. After 12 hrs in bed, my headache had still not gone away. So, we decided that we had to go to urgent care. I felt really bad because here it was my 3rd day after returning to work and I was going to call in sick. I didn't feel so bad later that day when urgent care told me I had to go to the ER and the ER had determined that I had viral meningitis, and subsequently checked me into the hospital. Yes, I went all around the world and then ended up in the hospital 10 days after my return. The Dr.s told me that I had probably contracted it in the States too. Can you believe it? So, that meant that I didn't really work all the next week. But at least I was getting paid not to work this time. And the best part was the health insurance. See, Matt and I had gone the week in between returning and me starting work without health insurance, which made me very nervous, but there wasn't much we could do about it. Thank goodness, I stuck out the illness until I started work.
I am fully recovered now. We are just working on our shopping list now, which looks a little bit like this, car, washer and dryer, vacuum cleaner, another car, house. Not exactly the itesm that you check off your list at Target. But we just keep remembering all that we learned on our trip, and we know that we can make it just fine with what we have right now. We have learned lots of tricks to get things done without the "necessities" that we thought we once needed. So slowly, but surely we will acclimate to our "real" life again, but I would be lying if I didn't admit that I hope it takes quite some time to get back to "real" life. I don't want to lose what we gained in these six months, which was love, understanding, and respect, for each other, our lives, and the lives of everyone else around us.
First off, we arrived back to the US in celebrity fashion. While checking in for our flight at the Dublin airport, I happened to mention in casual conversation that we were on the final leg of a six month trip around the world and oh, by the way, it is also our two year anniversary. Nothing came of that at the check-in counter, however, once we got to the gate, we heard our names being called over the speaker. We walked up to the front, and sure enough we had been upgraded. We couldn't believe it. We had joked the whole trip about getting upgraded on our final flight, and it was really happening. Of course, it couldn't all be perfect. The video wasn't working on the plane and there was a screaming kid sitting across the aisle, but nonetheless, we were sitting in really comfortable seats drinking beer and you can't ask for much more than that.
We were greeted at the airport by Dianne (Matt's mom), Jenny (Matt's sister) and Livie (our niece). It was so great to be welcomed home by family. Of course, after flights all over the world and not losing a single bag, two of our bags were lost on the flight from Philadelphia to Atlanta. The lady at the airline told me that the bags weren't lost, they just didn't make the flight. Apparently, they were at the airport bar and just didn't hear the call for the flight. After many calls back to the airport, we were finally reunited with our bags the next day.
I must say that first week back was a whirlwind. We got back to our condo and it looked exactly the same. Suzanne did an excellent job on the upkeep while we were gone. We had heard horror stories from other people who had rented out their place and I was so thankful that Suzanne was staying at ours. Actually, Atlanta pretty much looked the same too. There were some new condo buildings around, but for the most part things were the same. Even some of the billboards were the same. We keep joking that the only way that we could tell time had passed was that kids had changed, our niece Livie had changed so much in the 6 months that we were gone, and our friend Kim had changed. She became pregant with triplets right after we left, so she definitely looked different when we came back. Other than that, everything looked the same.
We quickly had to go look for an apartment since we were going to close on selling the condo in just 6 days. Looking for an apartment was pretty amusing. When people asked us for a contact phone number we would say, yeah, we were thinking about getting one of those, our plan is to go and get phones tonight. They looked at us like we were crazy, how could these people be surviving without a phone. Of course, we did soon learn that our lifeline of internet was going to have to be replaced with a phone. And so it was.
We did manage to find an apartment. Matt's parents, in a brief lack of judgement, agreed to come to Atlanta and help us move. Thank God they did. Matt and I may have made it around the world with each other and been with each other 24/7 for 6 months, but I honestly don't think that we would have survived the move. It was grueling. The apartment that we moved into leaves a little to be desired, but of course, after the places that we have stayed over the past 6 months, it is the Taj Mahal!
The really crazy thing is what happened next. I started work on the Monday, one week after we had returned. We also sold the condo that day at noon. I noticed that I started to get a few headaches when I woke up in the morning that week. By Tuesday when I came home from work, I went straight to bed and slept through to the next morning. After 12 hrs in bed, my headache had still not gone away. So, we decided that we had to go to urgent care. I felt really bad because here it was my 3rd day after returning to work and I was going to call in sick. I didn't feel so bad later that day when urgent care told me I had to go to the ER and the ER had determined that I had viral meningitis, and subsequently checked me into the hospital. Yes, I went all around the world and then ended up in the hospital 10 days after my return. The Dr.s told me that I had probably contracted it in the States too. Can you believe it? So, that meant that I didn't really work all the next week. But at least I was getting paid not to work this time. And the best part was the health insurance. See, Matt and I had gone the week in between returning and me starting work without health insurance, which made me very nervous, but there wasn't much we could do about it. Thank goodness, I stuck out the illness until I started work.
I am fully recovered now. We are just working on our shopping list now, which looks a little bit like this, car, washer and dryer, vacuum cleaner, another car, house. Not exactly the itesm that you check off your list at Target. But we just keep remembering all that we learned on our trip, and we know that we can make it just fine with what we have right now. We have learned lots of tricks to get things done without the "necessities" that we thought we once needed. So slowly, but surely we will acclimate to our "real" life again, but I would be lying if I didn't admit that I hope it takes quite some time to get back to "real" life. I don't want to lose what we gained in these six months, which was love, understanding, and respect, for each other, our lives, and the lives of everyone else around us.
posted by Cecelia | 7:57 PM
2 Comments:
Glad to hear you made it back safely!! I am glad that you posted again. I think you need to do weekly installments recounting the trip. That will allow you reflect on all that you experienced. I can't wait to hear about it in person and see pics.
Welcome Home! We've really enjoyed reading about your experience. We hope everything goes well with the house hunt and getting back into the groove. We'll check back periodically for new stories/updates.
Take care,
Kevin, Kim, Sami, Tyler and Becca
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