Welcome Home, Minus Luggage

I slept a little bit in the terminal in the early hours of Monday morning. I was awoken by airport personnel to tell me a few gates over there were blankets and water if I wanted them. I packed my stuff up and went to get some blankets because I was freezing. I think the cold outside plus the lack of bodies to keep the airport warm contributed to the cold inside. I also felt a bit sick, from traveling from exhaustion, and jet lagged. At 5:30am Starbucks opened up and I ate a banana nut muffin and a venti hot chocolate for breakfast. Boarded the plane around 7am and we took off about 40 minutes later. I napped on the flight and was soon descending into metro Detroit. It felt surreal, to finally be home. I wondered if I was dreaming and would wake up either in the airport or the plane somewhere. But we landed and the flight attendant welcomed me to Detroit. I grabbed my stuff and headed out the jetway towards the baggage claim. It took me about 10 minutes to walk to the baggage claim where I saw my parent waiting outside the glass doors before they saw me. It was good to see them in person, but again, felt unreal. I hugged them both and we waiting around the carousel for my luggage. But it never came. Neither did the luggage of about half the plane. We all waited in line to file a report. Thankfully, the baggage claim personnel knew the exact problem and when I'd get my luggage. With the grounded planes the night before the airport just could not retag all the luggage quick enough. JFK had a backlog of luggage that it just could not handle. So they put all the rerouted luggage on a plane to Atlanta where there was more personnel to untangle the mess snow caused. Thankfully I was returning home so I had everything sitting in the house and my souvenirs in my carry-on. I left the airport, frustrated, into the cold.

I spent the day with my parents, opening presents and talking about South Africa and events that transpired here while I was gone. I went to bed early and slept through the night. One of my bags, the larger of the two suitcases arrived during the night and the second arrived around noon this morning. I have started to unpack, but I've been busy updating my music library with music from South Africa and putting the CDs my parents bought me for Christmas on my computer. This way I can update my iPod. Been listening to the same music for the past 3 months and I'm ready for some new music.

I'm feeling better now, still a bit jet lagged, but doing okay. Right now everything feels like a dream. I cannot believe I'm home but all my experiences in South Africa feel like a dream now, that maybe I wasn't there. But then I try to do something here and everything feels wrong, familiar, yet wrong. I turned on the right faucet in the shower expecting warm water, but that is the cold water here, not warm. The cars are different, I say different words, and I feel like a foreinger in my own house. I can't remember which drawer my sweaters are in. There are a few changes to the house since I left, but I feel like a guest. But one thing that felt right was my bed. I slide in last night and it was heaven. I sorely missed the memory foam on my bed. It is very comfortable.

I'll update again in a few more days to let you know how I'm feeling. Cheers.