Vacation

As luck would have it, the airline confusion did not end with my last blog post and we found ourselves flying into JFK with poor weather conditions and…late. This means that we missed our gate spot and since planes were slow in taking off we spent a lot of time flying around in circles over Long Island. But once we landed, I was pretty much waved through every checkpoint.

However, my parents brought a jacket to New York! And, while it was not very cold when we first got to New York, it was definitely rainy which I thought was awesome.  And, what’s even more awesome is how many people made their way to the airport to find me- even two very special friends who had taken a bus all the way from Boston just to be there and, a little puppy too.

Our first stop on the way home was, a diner. I hadn’t had blueberry pancakes in a while so we decided to stop at a place where everyone had something they liked- salads, sandwiches, pancakes, etc.

At home, I have been able to reconnect with friends both old and new and experience meals that aren’t really in Burkina (and drinks too). I also had the opportunity to go to a swim meet to watch my youngest brother race, and then see him at one of his practices too.

Although, I have to say prices here are ridiculous. After Burkina Faso where you can live comfortable on a dollar a day I found myself thinking that paying $8 for a sandwich (even one as good as a Buffalo Chicken wrap) was a bit ridiculous.

As are malls during the holidays; I wasn’t a big frequenter of malls before I left but I have been hanging around with my brother a bunch so we ended up going once or twice and whoa it’s an experience and a half.

But I digress- the weather is awesome. It has been sunny and cold, windy and sunny, cold and cloudy, rainy, etc. And, I’ve enjoyed all of the combinations mainly because they aren’t sunny and 90 degrees. It has snowed twice since I’ve been home and I don’t think anyone has ever enjoyed shoveling more, especially when you accidently throw the snow into the wind and it blows back in your face.

And the holidays were great too. I enjoyed seeing all of my family, and eating dinner with them, cleaning, and yes, a little bit of bickering too. It’s odd to think that next Christmas I’ll be back again with another batch of stories and a year older.

But, three weeks moves pretty fast when you get down to it so on Tuesday I’ll be heading back to Burkina Faso for my last year of service. With health projects such as CPR, family planning, and everything else in between (even tree planting), it is sure to be an activity filled year (I hope).