Home!

Well, after a very long day of travel, I am finally home! The final push to complete packing was stressful-both my roommate and I had to redistribute items amongst our bags several times to get everything within the weight limits. Lots of fun. I also inadvertently ended up packing my blankets and sheet before bed time. I only ended up sleeping for about 2.5 hours before hand anyway though.

We left for the airport at 5:30am, and everything went pretty smoothly from there. I had to take a blanket and hand towel out of my checked suitcase in order for to meet the weight limit. After that it was just a waiting game. We left on time and I took a nice long nap before we arrived in Miami. Going through immigration and customs wasn't terrible. It wasn't as spacious and open feeling as JFK, but not bad. This time, instead of having to recheck my bag, the airline company just took it after customs-so awesome! I think it's because I flew with the same company the whole way and therefore already had my ticket and final destination tag. The next step at the airport was to go back through security and find my gate (D42). In Miami, there are multiple concourses and security check points, so I follow the signs and go to the one that says security for gates D1-60. Before you can get in line, you have to have your ticket double checked. Well, one of the ladies checking tickets was in a snit! She was yelling at people left and right, and I was no exception! She told me I needed to go to the left for security, to another check point. And was ranting about how people needed to look at their tickets and gate numbers before coming to her! I was very confused!! D42 seemed to be within that range of 1-60, provided that counting hasn't changed since I went to kindergarten! I checked and rechecked the signs a couple of times before approaching someone who seemed much nicer. She kindly informed me that it was simply closer for me to go to the other check point. Gee, was that really so difficult? No need to be nasty about it!

The other check point turned out to have a mini food court next to it before security. Knowing that the D concourse options are kind of limited, I decided to go to Burger King before going through security. Yum! I ordered a cheeseburger meal combo. I usually order the food and fries separately because I don't drink soda (long story short-raised in a household where it wasn't allowed and now think that carbonation is the worst taste ever!), but in the airport, you don't have a choice. Usually I'd just switch for a bottle of water, but I knew there was no way I'd drink enough to make it worth it before going through security. I was very excited that they were willing to substitute kids meal milk for my drink haha.

Security was easy. Getting 2 bags, 2 laptops, a jacket, shoes, and my box of info is never fun, but at least it went smoothly. I didn't even have to unpack anything for them to go through in Miami (Grenada always has to double check the massive amount of sea shells in my bag). I also went through my first full body scanner. Weird! After that, finding my gate was easy. Too bad I reversed mine with the guy I was walking with and was sitting at the wrong spot! Luckily one of my classmates walked by and asked if I was on the flight that was boarding next to me! Good thing she did-yikes! I slept most of the second flight too. I did stay awake long enough to get my can of cranberry apple juice-I love the stuff they give you on airplanes! We landed early evening to cloudy, dreary weather. Welcome home! Both of my bags made it through all of the trips-yay!

We hit some rush hour traffic that made me miss island "traffic." Essentially, a couple of cars waiting at a traffic circle! Oh well. I got my Chinese food for dinner, played with my puppies, and spent lots of time with my piggie! She is pretty happy to have me back. Spoiled little monster!

Today I met my father at the mall to order a new cell phone. I have an old enV2 (I think that's what it's called) from about 2.5 years ago that has finally decided to call it quits. The front of the phone stopped working years ago, but the keyboard and inside were fine so I just let it be (partly because I hate change and partly because I knew at the time that I would probably be going internationally for school). When we landed in Miami yesterday, I found that it was already mysteriously on. I say mysteriously because the front of the phone doesn't work, so the only way to turn it on is to open it up, and it was well secured from that! I also discovered that the keyboard keys weren't working. I finally was able to get them to sort of respond if I pushed hard enough, but even then, they would usually type out multiples, making it very hard to send a message to someone! The phone also turned off spontaneously a few times in my pocket, and was found on in my bag when we landed the second time. Again, no idea how!

I also did some mall shopping and wandering-first time in four months! I was really hoping to do more fun shopping today with my mother, but my youngest brother was home "sick" today. He looked fine to me, but wasn't feeling well last night. Hmph. It wouldn't matter so much if I wasn't starting work on Monday, but now I only have 3 days left with my mom! Boo.