A Detailed Account of my Trip Home

Bus from Siena to Rome
I drop my phone and it falls to the floor behind me. I turn around to ask if the person behind me could grab my phone for me and stare into the face of another blonde girl wearing the identical sweater I was wearing and the identical earrings. We both only said, “… this is really weird…”

Rome Airport
I go to an information booth and ask in Italian where my terminal is, how to get there, etc. The woman, who clearly spoke English because she works in an airport information booth, never once breaks into English and doesn't slow down her speech. I follow along. At the end as I am leaving she yells to me and says “Ottimo Italiano!” (“Excellent Italian!”) with a thumbs up and a big smile. Best way to leave Italy, ever.

Plane A: Rome to NYC

Seat Partner A — American priest who has been working in the Vatican for the year and decided to go home for the holidays. He was great because he stayed out of my way. I, however, did not stay out of his way because I somehow discovered a way to lose all of my belongings one by one while only sitting in the same seat for nine and a half hours. I lost my cell phone, rummaged around in all of my bags and on the floor until I found it. Lost my lip gloss, rummaged around. Book, same. Pillow, same. Plane tickets, same. Blanket, same. Glasses, same. How I did this is beyond me but anyone who has hung out with me for more than five minutes should understand how I am capable of this.

Favorite Window View — The Alps covered in snow. Wow, wow, wow. Unbelievable. (The priest however was disinterested when I tried to bring them to his attention.)

Plane B: NYC to Minneapolis

Seat Partner B —A medical student from Rochester headed home for the holidays. I learned about his family and his feelings on medical school, traveling, snow, and various books. Overall, I liked him.

Minneapolis Airport
At this point I had been traveling and waiting for almost 20 hours straight, hadn’t slept or eaten much at all. I decided to eat but all of the places I wanted (bagels… bagels… bagels…) closed right before I could order. So instead I wandered over to my gate.

This was the first real time I felt like I was back in the U.S. In New York I spent most of my time clearing customs and then boarding again, but here I had a while. I wandered around before going to my gate and felt just as overwhelmed by everyone speaking English as I was warned I would. I had grown accustomed to hearing a beautiful melodic word symphony in the backgrounds everywhere in Italy that I completely ignored unless I tried to listen or tried to read. Here, everything was coming at me at once. I suddenly understood everything again and could read everything again. It makes it hard to not listen to small talk and not listen to those advertisements and not listen to that extremely loud news they feel is necessary to play constantly in the airport.

Anyway, at this point I disoriented, tired, hungry, wander over to my gate that would eventually take me to Rapid City, South Dakota. I was thinking - these are my people... real South Dakotans, like me, returning home for the holidays. So I sit down and continue to listen to everything everyone else is saying. I hear someone say “baggage” like ”beggage” and I know I’m in the right place. The more I listen, though, the more I notice the accent of the people around me sounding so much stronger than I remember. I started thinking, Have I really been gone that long? Yes I must have been... All these people sound so different than I remember. I sound just like them. This is what I sound like when I speak… This is how the world hears me... I finally board the plane and a boy sits down next to me, one in the group I was listening to. The accent suddenly hits me as sounding just too thick to be from my home state. Finally I say to him, “You’re not from South Dakota… right?” “No, we’re all from Tennessee.”

That’s how disoriented I was. I mistook a Southern accent for my own, subtle, Midwestern accent. This is not an easy thing to do.

Plane C: Minneapolis to Rapid City

Seat Partner C— A fifteen or sixteen year-old boy from Tennessee reading a book entitled something like, “Proof the Bible is True”. So my second question after realizing he wasn’t a South Dakotan was, “So you’re all here on a missions trip right?” “Yeah.” “…You’re going to Pine Ridge aren’t you?” “Yup.” “So, you’re a junior in high school, right?” (These questions were all asked because I was disoriented and very, very bored. I had finished my book and had nothing left to do. I now realize that this was a huge mistake as this caused this boy to think that since I had asked him three random, pointless questions we were now best friends.) “Yeah, I am.” He proceeded to point out every other person he came with on the plane (a lot) and to tell me all of their names and what year they each were in high school. I pretended to care because I kind of led myself into this anyway. Then he started asking me all about everything I was doing. “What are you writing?” “Do you write a lot?” “Are you a writer?” “How did you get that cut on your hand?” “What are you drawing now?” “Do you want some of these raisins?” “What would you do if the plane crashed right now? Would you sit here or jump out the window? Would you keep your seatbelt on?” “Do you trust this plane? … I have a bad feeling about this plane…” “What music are you listening to?” “How old are you? You look like you’re in college.” My short responses didn't help. About 20 minutes in he decided that we were close enough that it was appropriate to fall asleep on my shoulder. He then woke up with a strong desire to discover whether or not I am ticklish. (not a joke.) I did not laugh, I semi-screamed because I am not used to seat partners I have known for half an hour grabbing my sides suddenly and asking “Are you ticklish?? Are you ticklish??” Although this was the weirdest flight of my life, it was fortunately also the shortest flight of the trip. And as strange as he was, he made for a very entertaining trip.

Favorite Window View— Seeing all of South Dakota from above. The entire state was covered in snow and it was a full moon so I could see everything. I could distinguish the small towns and flew directly over Pierre. It was amazing to see the way the state is completely flat on the eastern half and suddenly hilly on the western half from above. It was fascinating to see the route I’ve rode on so many times from the sky. The stars were incredible. Right out the window I was staring directly at Orion. Loved it.

It was only after I got back that I heard about all of the airports shutting down in Europe and realized how many of my friends had been stuck in random airports for days. I can’t even imagine how horrible that would have been. I’m just so lucky that I went south and flew directly out of Rome to America. I’m happy to hear that most of them are back by now although it sounds like its been a crazy (awful) time. I'm just happy everyone is okay and finally back home.

It has been so nice to be home in a place with bubble baths, bagels, MY FAMILY, and my mom's cooking! I felt so lucky to be in such an unpopulated area as South Dakota during the lunar eclipse too. (Although we actually ended up driving to Montana in order to find an area more visible...) Anyway, it has all been great!

Here are some photos from a picnic Maggie and I had in Siena during the last week: