After 30 hours of travelling, I have finally made it home. The journey began with two days straight of rain in Dar (the biggest rainfall they have had in 50 years). As a result, many roads were flooded and closed down. I almost had a panic attack waiting for my driver to come pick me up from the airport. After 40 minutes he still had not shown up! I finally decided to call another taxi, but had no idea how long it would take him to get there, especially since many of the roads were out of commission. He drove like mad (going 60 mph in Dar is not usually recommended) and we finally reached the airport only an hour and a half before my plane departed. I met up with Chelsea and we were both relieved to finally have gotten to the airport. It turns out that it took Chelsea three hours to get to the airport because of traffic. It was such a relief when we finally got on the plane. We were so excited!...especially for Swiss Airline food! It sounds crazy, but both Chelsea and I had been dreaming of the day when we would get wonderful airplane food. Now I don’t know if many of you have travelled internationally before, but the food is excellent, nothing like the fake stuff they serve you on domestic American flights. We got cannelloni, warm rolls, fresh cheese, vegetables, and carrot cake. For breakfast they served us yogurt, warm croissants, and orange juice. When we got to Zurich, it was freezing cold! We could see our breath walking into the airport! We had a 6 hour layover and managed to kill time in the business class lounge (they didn’t check our tickets so we got in even though we were flying economy). We watched the news, read our books, and ate lots of free food! The next flight was 10 hours long and I managed to watch a ton of movies and TV shows, finish a book, and sleep a little. Surprisingly, I wasn’t really tired on the flight. When we finally touched down in America, it was almost surreal. I remember thinking that it was the first time in a long time that I was able to see real houses in the city…no mud huts or shacks. Chelsea and I headed off to customs and ended up waiting in line for at least a half an hour. We were really excited about the water fountains in the airport. We could finally drink water out of the fountain without getting sick! I met up with my family in the O’Hare airport and we drove home, getting there at about 8:00 pm. I was hungry and went into the pantry only to be bombarded by choices. I got out a bagel at first and starting toasting it, but then realized I wanted crackers, and then saw the cereal. I couldn’t decide what I wanted. There were so many choices! I settled on a bowl of cereal and found that it was a lot more sugary than I remembered. In fact, I have found that about a lot of things here. I ate raw carrots yesterday and thought they tasted like candy. And things that I would normally love, like salad dressing and milk, don’t seem to do hardly anything for me. In fact, I haven’t been able to finish a whole glass of milk yet. I think I am a little lactose-intolerant from not having milk for 4 months. Other observations about being home: I have to constantly remind myself that I am no longer in Africa when riding in a car. My first thought out of the airport was that I had to pee, and that I could just get out and go pee on the side of the road. Hah, also, I have to remind myself to put on my seatbelt. Seatbelts are hardly ever present in Tanzania. I am loving the fact that there is warm water. Having clean water to wash your face with and brush your teeth is a wonderful thing. I have already taken two baths and they have been amazing. Also, I LOVE washing machines. I was so excited to get home and wash all of my clothes. So far, the culture shock hasn’t hit me too much. Of course, I do notice differences between the two countries, but I haven’t been too shaken up yet. I’m still adjusting to the time difference. I almost lost it yesterday after waking up at 4:30 am and being up for the entire day. By 7:00 I had crashed and could not function. And last night I managed to wake up every 2 hours. But, these things will all come back with time. Lately, I have been doing a lot of cooking to make up for all the months when I wasn’t able to cook. I’m sure I’ll think of more things that are different here than in Africa as time goes on, but for now, I am just going to relax and enjoy the holidays. Thank you Tanzania for all of the memories. It has been absolutely wonderful, and I know that this is an experience I will remember for the rest of my life.
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