Back in the U S of A

Well, as the title suggests, I am back in the good ole U.S.A. As much as I didn't want to come home, I guess it's good to be back. It feels so weird, like this whole past month has been an incredibly awesome dream. However, I have about 1000 photos on my camera and a low bank account statement to show me that it was real. I still wish I could have stayed for longer, but I guess life has to intervene at some point, right?

I travelled for a total of 26 hours yesterday, so I guess I proved it's possible to have more than 24 hours in a day :D And the shitty part about the time change is that it is 2 am here and I am not tired, even though I slept as soon as I got home last night. This is going to screw me up for a few days now.

I started my Friday morning in Paris by getting up and taking the metro to the airport, which was about 40 minutes by train. My flight wasn't until 1:30, which was nice because then I didn't have to get up super early to make my flight. Got there with 3 hours to spare, and ended up making friends with a girl who was going to be on my flight. All in all, it was pretty painless. Not to say the same for the flight, though. I was sitting behind this lady who found it her mission to comtinually see how far she could put her seat back so that it would jam perfectly into my knees. And every time I shifted, she would turn around and give me a mean look! I mean, seriously, I'm 6 feet tall and she's sitting in the bulkhead row so she's got all the room in the world! Give me a little break please! And of course, the seats on the international flights for US Airways are slightly smaller than the domestic ones, so I am squeezed with my knees at my ears. But at least this time around my tv worked! I watched 3 movies and 2 tv shows, it was pretty awesome like that. That flight was just about 8 hours, and miracoulously, 2 hours later we reached Philadelphia....yay for 6 hour time change.

So, I got through customs pretty easily...but US customs and passport control is the bitchiest of them all. I got to my gate for my flight to SFO just about the time they were to begin boarding, and guess what? The plane has problems. So I really don't have a problem with how long they take to fix it, because I'd rather there be a problem on the ground than a problem in the air. However, they had also overbooked the flight, so they were looking for people to stay an extra night and take an early morning flight to SF. I would have done it, but I was just ready to be home and ready to stop traveling. Finally 2 1/2 hours after we were suppose to leave, we finally boarded. It was a relativley easy flight, you know I slept and watched the in flight movie. FInally got into SFO around 11:30, and by the time I got my bags, got picked up, and made it home it was 1:15 am. Hence the travelling 26 hours in one day comment.

So I'm back, and I guess I have to enter real life again. I am starting work again Monday morning, and will be working a lot so I can pay my parents back for this. I really am grateful that I was able to go abroad for as long as I did...I wish I could do it again!

So, this is the last post from the American in Paris...who is now an American in America who just wishes she were an American in Paris.