Airplane Scare

I'm finally back at home. After a couple days of packing up my belongings in an endless supply of cardboard cubes, my parents arrived 8 PM last night. We stuffed it into a small moving truck attached to our van, and finally arrived in Wilmette after midnight.

Before I left, I made sure I said my good-byes to Bloomington-Normal. When I left this place for winter break, I wasn't sad because I knew I'd be returning in 3 weeks. But I woke up yesterday realizing that it'll be mid August before I see the area again. It seems as though I'm leaving B-Norm as soon as it's becoming beautiful. The Constitution Trail was an integral part of my life this year--I don't know what I'm going to do without it. It kept me sane. Funny that a road of concrete through trees and parks helped me, but it did.

Today was pretty stressful regarding plane tickets. My dad noticed that I had only an hour between my flight to London and then to Nairobi. After staying on hold for over 40 minutes trying to get ahold of British Airways, I was relieved to hear that I wouldn't have to go through check in again. The flights are "married", and so I'll be going to and fro from the same terminal. PHEW!!

I'm not a fan of flights. There's only one pleasant experience I remember, which was when I was too tired to feel the plane lift off. I slept through the entire thing and didn't believe my parents when they said we had arrived. I just didn't grow up with them My first vacation was when I was 10 years old, to Niagra Falls. Up until then, I nagged my mother every time I saw an airplane. "Amma, when am I going to ride one? I want to fly to!" Psh, fly shmly. I will be riding 8.5~ hours to London, then the same amount to Nairobi. I'm bringing tons of books and hopefully they'll play good movies.

Watching Gilmore Girls has reminded of the bookworm I used to be as a little girl. I'd BECOME someone else, able to go places that I couldn't go. Instead of remembering that I had a 2 year old brother to watch, and a sister one year younger that couldn't read yet, I'd read and read. Then it just kinda waned off as I became bombarded with books in highschool. Now I'm picking up reading for pleasure again. I mean, although Rory is a fictional character, she is somewhat.... real..... I'm just going to pretend she is somewhat because she manages to read for pleasure as well as read for school.

The thought of language comes up. Right now I'm reading "Chocolat". Although I absolutely ADORE the French language, I had started to get sad not learning Spanish for my later teaching experiences. But reading this book made me realize that I got so much more from the book by knowing the language. French is so beautiful--it encompasses the culture, the art, the history of France. My mother said the first thing the Japanese did when colonizing Korea, was to forbid using the Korean language. I can't imagine it being illegal to speak English. What a night mare!

And speaking of Spanish, I've started watching Gilmore Girls with Spanish subtitles. That'll help a little bit. haha I hope I can pick up Swahili!!!!

Well before I babble on further, I'll be off. JUST 3 MORE DAYS FROM TOMORROW!!!

Becky