all of my lofty goals of faithful blogging have once again been pushed to the gutter. sorry, readers.
let's do a short recap: the last weeks in slovakia were CRAZY. in a good way. i went to a great french party in presov, i had a really nice going away party with my closest friends, and my students said sweet goodbyes. i was surprised by a friend. i went for walks with ice cream. i enjoyed episodes of LOST. and i was actually remarkably sad when the morning came for me to haul down my bags and head to the mcdonald's parking lot for the shuttle to the budapest airport. i feel tears reliving the moment.
i traveled with my friend vesna. the budapest airport was nothing short of a nightmare. our flight to amsterdam was delayed an hour, giving us a 30 minute (expected) layover in amsterdam before our flight to minneapolis. after receiving my boarding passes at the self check-in, i went to check my bags, only to be greeted by a clerk who refused to check my bags because she didn't think i'd make my flight in amsterdam. so then i told vesna to forget her hassle getting her boarding passes. so i went to rebook our flights, and the agent told me there was no reason to rebook because we could make our other flights. so then i went to check in my bags again, i was charged 100 euro for my second bag (which i thought i was allowed to fly with), and then vesna was still having problems. finally we got her boarding pass (without a seat assignment), and then everyone told us we wouldn't make it to our gate in time and that vesna might not have a seat because the flight was overbooked. so we decided to risk our luck. we got to our gate and vesna had a seat (in first class!). thank god. but did i mention vesna hates to fly? she doesn't have an ordinary fear of flying, but a full on panic at the mere thought of flying. an inconsolable panic. as if someone was holding a gun to her head and threatening to shoot her. so once we boarded the plane, we offered the not-so-kind gentleman sitting next to me to move onto first class. he didn't hesitate. so during the two hour flight to amsterdam i exhausted my dwindling patience to keep vesna calm. when we landed, the flight attendants told us that we wouldn't make our connecting flight, so we would have to use a kiosk to look for a flight leaving tomorrow. i thought there was maybe a miscalculation on my part with time differences etc., so i went to the kiosk to change our ticket but discovered instead that our flight was "now boarding" at a gate not-so-far from us. so i took an already hysteric vesna and made her run with me. this did not go well, but WE MADE IT. just in the nick of time. we had twenty minutes to make the flight, but the flight in fact left early. we were lucky.
after arriving home, we met some dear friends (luke and eva) for panera. then we took the longest drive back to worthington. our time in worthington was perfect. it was so. incredibly. good. to sleep in my bed, to drink mom-prepared coffee, to eat good food, to go on walks, to see worthington people, to see family, to see over-stocked shelves in monstrous stores. everything was so good. and then we went to chicago. i could have spent the whole trip walking on the street laughing out of pure joy because everything was so beautiful and so american. i saw black people and asian people and muslim people and pretty people and ugly people and fat people and skinny people. all in one place.
we also spent some time on the lake in okoboji, as well as the children's theater. i felt like a child again. for the fourth of july, we went to pioneer village to look at allis chalmer tractors. i ran into some friends and we went jet skiing. we had a picnic with old family friends. and we watched fireworks from our neighbors dock. one word to describe the fourth: perfect.
finally, i just returned from spending a few days in minneapolis. it was so, so, so good to see people who i've missed greatly. on friday we saw my dear former boss, pam, and had a nice conversation and i remembered all of the reasons i loved working career services. we also met eva and her sister, anna, and brother-in-law, caleb, for mexican food. then i had a small party at eva's for my friends, which included two of my most beloved things: dancing and (good) red wine. we spent a day on grand, we spent time at como, we layed out by the pool, we went shopping at MOA... it was wonderful. vesna left late monday evening, and everything at the airport was peaceful, smooth and calm. people were so friendly and so helpful, they even let me walk with vesna to the gate because she was so afraid to fly alone.
tuesday i went to st. cloud to see mr. and mrs. miller. i miss these people like a desert misses rain. we spent the whole day together walking around st. cloud, eating big and greasy burgers, playing with callie, looking at cool blogs (and thus feeling shameful about mine), making dinner, watching a movie... all of the normal things in life which are so much sweeter when done in good company.
now i'm back in worthington, but not for long. this summer is full of travel for me, though the only thing i long to do is watch LOST and attempt to complete the mountainous task of applying for grad school. i wish that days were twice as long, and the distance between all of my loved ones half as long.
until next time...
xo
