Home at Last!

Well,...I'm HOME! :-)

I left Slovakia and arrived in Minneapolis, Minnesota as scheduled on August 18th, a week ago today! Apologies for the delay in writing, and for the lack of blogs all summer. I still fully intend to post more blogs, and to write and post an August newsletter, so I hope you will still check back with me from time to time. I have a lot of things I would still like to tell you about, and now have the time to write to you all! So I'm not finished yet...check back in with me sometime soon! :-)

The big "coming home" was really exciting!! My day on the 18th of August started early, at about 4 am. (The goodbye in Slovakia was really difficult, but a memorable experience in itself. I will also write about that later.) I arrived at the airport around 4:15, checked my bags and went through security, and then I was on my way! My first flight was about an hour, Bratislava, Slovakia to Munich, Germany. Following a pretty reasonable wait there, my second flight was from Munich, Germany to Chicago. The O'Hare was stressful and crazy...BUT I managed to successfully get off my previous flight, go through customs and security checks, collect my bags, recheck my bags at a new airline, take the tram to the other side of the airport, go through security again, RUN to my flight gate, and make my flight. I had about an hour and 20 minutes to do all of this, and I had doubts I would even make the flight. Even the desk assistants I talked to at the O'Hare were like "No, you're not going to make that...here's the next flight time." But luckily, my flight departed nine minutes later than originally stated, so I lucked out and made it! Phew!

When I got to Minnesota, I was welcomed by my parents, my brother Jake, my best friends from college Megan and Kerry, one of my best friends from high school Chris, and my aunt and cousin Wendy and Brianna. Wow, so many people to welcome me!! It was really fun, and they had balloons and welcome signs (in both English and Slovak even)! We stood around in a big circle for over an hour talking, it was so exciting!!I'm really lucky. I've been so blessed in my life, and days like these (that remind me of that in a big way) are wonderful, and sometimes overwhelming.

It feels strange, but wonderful to be home. I'm SO happy to see all of the familiar faces, and I'm having a great time catching up with everyone! It's still all a bit overwhelming, and being home still feels really new. I'm curious as to how I will feel a month down the road. I'm currently organizing my life (and my room), job searching (anyone have any suggestions for me, writing/editing/publishing related, in the twin cities area?), but mostly just spending time with my family and friends. And still working on sleeping off the jet lag, believe it or not.

Ok, well I will be in touch again soon! Happy Monday!
-Ashley