I have officially been back in America for a full week now and it has both been very comforting and taught me a lot. Even when you have been away for 3 months in a completely different continent, your muscle memory kicks right back in as soon as you get home. You drop your bags in the same place, go through your night routine the same way, hear the exact same creaks on each stair as you walk down. Home is such a big part of our lives that even with a long time away, it sits here and stays the same waiting for your return. Our travel home was long and tiring but not as bad as we had made it out to be. A lesson from the well-worn traveler: layovers may be annoying but they are much better than sprinting through airports or worrying about delays causing missed connections. No matter how long a boarding took, we never had to be anxious about getting to the next connection. Now, this comfort may not have made our overnight layover in Boston any less uncomfortable or exhausting, but at least we always knew we would be on time. Another quick tip: security closes at a certain hour! Once we arrived at the domestic terminal from the international terminal, we were too late and had to sit in pre-security. To pass the time, we went to a sports pub and ordered as slowly as we could. Funnily enough this Boston sports pub was one of the best places we could have gone to for our reentry into American life. Sitting there eating fried mozzarella sticks listening to American Christmas music and bar patrons bantering with relaxed servers in sweatshirts: it really felt like we were home again. Everything warm and American was right there with us and we felt so comforted. Somehow you miss the ambient noise of a televised football game even without being a football fan! Spending a few hours of our overnight layover in Americana central really helped us get through it and adjust to being back home that much quicker. Our final plane back to Philadelphia went smoothly (although we had some lost and delayed bags to deal with afterward). Reuniting with parents and siblings in baggage claim was just as sweet as you imagine it to be and that’s when the slipping back into normal routines happens so quick, you don’t even realize it. You reunite with other family, lots of big hugs and the constant question of “how tired are you? I bet exhausted”, to which you can only sigh and agree. I found that being back home wasn’t quite as system-shocking or overtly magical as you build it up to be while abroad, but it’s not any less wonderful to be back somewhere comfortable. I’ve been working through my list of foods that I missed and that is definitely fun. I’ve also caught myself a couple times feeling that sense of safety and comfort and realizing “that’s what I missed all that time”. I do miss things about my time in Spain and am sure I will miss more as time passes, but for now home is definitely where the heart is.
1 Comment
Keli Emmons
12/9/2021 03:10:02 pm
Hannah,
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