Home for the holidays!!

After 10 months in Ecuador, I returned home to Illinois for the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. My flights home were uneventful until the last leg of the trip where snow had canceled my last flight from Chicago to Springfield. I was supposed to land at home by 5:15 pm on Christmas Eve. After delaying the flight every 15 minutes, finally, at 7:00 they told us the last flight was canceled and the only way to get to Central Illinois was a bus to Bloomington (which is little over half way of the 3.5 hour trip). I boarded the bus and sat next to an old woman from Trinidad, who spoke broken English, and told me her life story and all about Trinidad, which I didn’t mind. Then after several offensive comments and a never-ending conversation about religion (which included 20 minutes of bible quotes), I ended the conversation with headphones. I thought it was funny how I come all the way to Illinois just to ride in a multiple hour bus ride across the state talking to a woman from the campo of a 3rd world country. Life is a hoot.



I met my dad and brother in Bloomington and we made it home by 1:00 am on Christmas. While I was exhausted I stopped by a small family welcoming party before falling asleep. I woke up early the next day and drove through snow (first time driving in 10 months!) to watch my step-nephew, Rory open gifts. I got to wake him up and tell him Santa and Aunt Leah Lou have come! (Luckily he slept in because he was up most of the night trying to wait for me.)

Christmas day and the next day were full of family, food, gift exchanges, snow, and hunting down my luggage (which I picked up Christmas day). It was the best Christmas in memory! There is something special about combining a homecoming with such a great holiday.

My boyfriend, Steve, met me in Springfield, Tuesday, after visiting his family in Philly. We visited the Frank Lloyd Wright house in Springfield called the Dana-Thomas House with my friend Christen.

I took the GRE while I was home. Which while taking it felt like the test from hell (it’s crazy how a timer will stress you out after living in the lax environment of Ecuador), however I did just a little better than the practice tests. So I was glad to be done and was able to focus on new Year’s Eve and enjoying my time with Steve and my family.

On New Year’s Eve we had a family game night. Cony brought spray hair dye and helium balloons. How could this not be fun! We played Catch Phrase, Pictionary, Apples to Apples…a great night!



Then Steve and I said goodbye to the family and headed to Chicago. We saw the musical “Wicked” and had a fabulous dinner. I was also able to meet up with some friends for meals, do some shopping, and EAT! I went to visit my old place of work, Civiltech Engineering. I had a great lunch with my coworkers and walked around the office and didn’t get to see quite everybody…but was happy to have visited, they are great people.

So today I am traveling back. After a small hiccup in Chicago (I was sitting at the next gate watching the news and reading and almost missed the flight because the speakers around me were not announcing my flight), I made it to Washington, D.C. My next plane was late arriving and lost even more time taking off and then storms in Florida made our plane reroute and land from a different direction and once I got off the plane I had 5 min until my next plane was scheduled to take off. Of course, I didn’t make this connection after running through the airport…but they booked me on a later flight and I should be getting into Quito around 10 or 11pm.

I am coming back to Ecuador, prepared for the experience (compared to the first time). I know what to expect and have a decent grasp of the language. I know many people and have friends meeting me at the airport. Saying good bye is tough but I feel as though I am approaching the turnaround point to my service. I am almost halfway. And everyone says the second year is much smoother than the first. I believe this, and after a conversation with my friend (and inspiration for joining Peace Corps), Danila, I feel that I will embrace the second year and complete something that will make this experience worthwhile.

My grant has hit its first road block. My managers have decided to push it back to the next grant deadline, which is in March. The project is rather time sensitive, so I may search for other options. I will talk to my managers over the next week. I was hoping to have this to look forward to, but Peace Corps is all about falling and getting back up.

New random thought about America:
The fast food “help your self” methods (ie cups, fountain drinks, ice, plasticware, condiments, trash cans and such) are very different. Well…really they don’t exist in Ecuador. There fast food is more of a luxury for your average Ecuadorian. Therefore, it does have a bit more class and costs easily twice what a typical meal would.