I left Madrid in the early morning of June 30th, flew into Paris, and headed home to New England. Now I'd love to say that everything went off smoothly, but like always my connection in Paris was awful. The airport was under construction and the signage wasn't so great. But on to more pleasant things: A can of Mountain Dew was waiting for me at the airport!!!...oh and my parents. Haha! I have to be honest, going through security and customs at Logan was horrible, uhh hello? I'm an American citizen! Don't make this difficult for me!
Being home was definitely surreal, not having been in an English speaking country for over nine months was quite the challenge. The first thing I did walking into my big, old, blue house was to make sure my parents didn't change anything, they have a nasty habit of doing that. Everything was the same, with the exception of a few storage boxes that made their way into my room. Even better was the three shopping bags of CVS supplies awaiting me on my bed. Yay for American beauty products! Now, the three most important things that I needed to get done were all schedule for the next morning after my arrival. I'm happy to report that my license has been renewed, I now have an international driver's license, and I took off in my little blue car as soon as we left the parking lot. The next appointment was with my doctor. Unfortunately it was unavoidable, but Dr. Carol made a joke this time! What is the world coming to? And finally but definitely as important as the first two...I got a haircut and color!!! No more split ends and NO MORE GRAY!! Life is good. Oh, and my favorite hairdresser filled me in on all the gossip, she's wonderful. With all that accomplished I was finally ready for my month in the USA.
First weekend home was the Fourth of July. As expected I woke up very early in the morning and headed down to the Arnold Mills Road Race. Let's be honest, Mr. Kenwood never even doubted that I'd come home just for that race. Everything was the same; same confusion at the sign-up desk, same lack of change, same questions answered, same old mistakes made (I'm not naming names), and same old aggression felt towards the late arrivals. No puke in the chute this year so really I have no complaints. Afterward the pool party and food were delicious as always, and seeing the family was fantastic. Headed over to the second family (the D'Ambras) for Amanda's graduation party. Caused some trouble over there, nothing new.
Second weekend home was Lindsay's wedding. Britney came home for it so we had lots of catch-up time...NOT. (this comes into play later) The morning of the wedding my mom and I went for manicures and pedicures, me for the wedding and her for fun. Well I think its pretty lucky on my dad's part that we've never done this before because we milked it. Drinks we served to us, dvds were turned on, and blankets put over our feet all for the sake of keeping our nails perfect. The wedding ceremony was at St. John's so I got to talk with Father Ray again, nice to catch up. The ceremony was beautiful with the groom crying throughout the entire thing. With some time in between the church and the reception Nick and I headed to the bar for some pregaming. We were completely overdressed, but the attention got us free beers so I'm not complaining. Being the last to arrive wasn't a problem because we were at table #2, which was right on the dance floor, with the bride's family. Johnson & Wales made the food so it was absolutely amazing and the bottles of wine on the table were great. The Djs were good, with the exception of their ban on 'line dances', they kept the crowd moving and the songs were great. What a great weekend!
Third weekend home wasn't really at home, I flew to DC to see the college kids. I still have a few friends living down there so I stayed with them. We did the usual, gossip, drink, and play around the city. It was nice and chill, and I had a great time seeing everyone again. Now, as I said before Britney and I had no time to catch up on life so I booked an impromptu ticket out to Los Angeles. I flew from Baltimore to Nashville (wow, a whole new world down there) to LAX...wooo my first time in California. Britney was an excellent tour guide. On the first night we did Santa Monica Blvd. and the pier. It was great just comparing the beaches to ours, so much bigger. At night I met some of her friends at her dinner party. We attempted to teach them High Low, but really only one caught on.
On the first full day we did Hollywood Blvd., the Chinese Theater, Venice Beach, and sunbathed at Hermosa beach. I did develop a horrific burn but such is life. We even got to watch the Red Sox game at one of the local Boston sports bars on the beach.
The next day Steve met me in LA before his class and took me to some of his favorite places. I even met his sister and got to experience his favorite Mexican restaurant. At night Britney took me to the La Brea Tar pits, the USC Coliseum (former Olympic site), and to a great wine bar with her friends. The night was great and the trip was FANTASTIC! The trip home was a little chaotic after a delayed flight but I made the connection, had a good seat companion, and was too tired to care about anything else.
The fourth weekend was my grandmother's birthday party. Tons of family, tons of food, and tons of fun. (You'll notice I don't write too much about family events, really its because the majority of you reading this blog were there!)
Overall, my trip home was great. It was nice to see friends and family after such a long time. Being able to sleep in a big bed, not worry about buying groceries, and have my car to take me everywhere were somethings I didn't realize I would miss so much. Oh, well those and my parents' cooking...incredible.
Negative: Raining almost the entire time I was home.
Positive: Trivia guy remembering me on my first night back and asking how Spain was treating me.
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