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Published: January 10th 2011
The Whole Family
Immediate Family... wow we are getting bigWell I am back in the UK and I must say I am much worse for wear after that journey. I can’t believe how bloody long that direct flight from Chicago to London was. I mean come on this was non-stop, with the wind flying and it still took almost as long as it did for me to get home to America for Christmas. By the way I went home for Christmas! It was a truly wonderful trip filled with family, family and more family time.
My flight home from London was a nine-hour ordeal from Heathrow to Raleigh North Carolina. I say next to a five year old girl who could not sit still, be quiet, or stop bouncing. Furthermore I made the fatal mistake of making friends to early. In my mind at hour five of the plane ride after failing to fall asleep multiple times, I thought that making friends with the five year old next to me would at least entertain me for a half an hour to an hour and then I could watch Harry Potter or read Doing It or fall asleep or do any number of less exhausting and more age suitable things.
This seemed life a good plan except I forgot to remember that children make all plans go to hell. Needless to say three and a half hours later the entire plane heard “I love you Anna, you are so so so so so so so so pretty. I think you are the most beautiful lady ever” which would have been a pretty nice ego trip if I hadn’t been so so so so so so tired. Thankfully we separated at Customs, where I was also told that I was a pretty girl. Although that compliment was a little less appreciated.
I made my connection in Raleigh after enjoying cheese curds at A&W – truly an American experience – and spent the next two and a half hours murdering the Spanish language while attempting to chat with a woman traveling from Colombia. She knew little to no English and surprisingly with extreme patience on her part we had a wonderful plane ride.
Warning: slight rant about American Airlines. I have to say that my experience flying American Airlines was not the best. On both my flight to and from the states I flew on a 767, which I believe
was the up and coming airliner in 1999 when I visited my sister in Africa. The flight attendants were not helpful; they rushed all of the services and rudely dismissed any concerns. I must say that the only reason I would fly American again is for the very cheap tickets, which unfortunately they were.
After arriving in Chicago I was picked up by my eldest brother, and although there was no serenade ala Heathrow t-Mobile commercial (watch it if you haven’t it almost makes me cry every time) I loved seeing him and his family. From Chicago I traveled up to Madison where I had major culture shock and couldn’t get over how weird it was to be there. A bright part of that stop was when I was able to meet my youngest nephew. Luckily I also got to catch up with some friends and make an amazing meal with my other brother!
Finally home to Wausau! Now I won’t bore you with the details but by my count I celebrated Christmas 7 times at different family gatherings. I also celebrated the fact that I got to see so many of the wonderful people I danced with
After the flight back
taken around 1 am GMT growing up!
After that Christmas thing came New Years Eve, a night that I would rather not remember, and then it was a rush back to England. My journey back was filled this time with a one and a half year old’s screaming, the movie Eat, Pray, Love – which totally was not true to the book and ignored some of my favorite parts – and the last Shrek movie. I know that some of you are gripping your seats wondering what I forgot or lost this time; and I am happy to report that I lost nothing on the flight over.
Happy to be back, happy for my wonderful Christmas break, happy for friends, and family I love!
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