Home Sweet Home

I spent a few days in Chicago and then flew to DC for some catching up time with friends and a wedding, which was lovely. It was nice to walk around DC and be reminded, yet again that it’s a great city and definitely where I want to go when I get back to the US. Seeing my friends from college was wonderful, and I was so pleased to find out that even in this crappy economy, they are all doing well, exceptionally well in fact. I got out a lot, and then on my last day it all caught up with me (or maybe it was just a Dominican curse) and I got real sick. When I got back to Chicago my mom and I went straight to the hospital to get me checked out. 9 days after my symptoms started and 4 days after I went to the hospital I was able to find out that I’d caught an intestinal bacteria. By that time my body (I thought) was fighting it off pretty well… a few days later I found out it wasn’t, so I began taking pills and rid myself of the stupid bug once and for all.

I spent some time catching up with high school friends, and did the tiniest bit of shopping. I cooked and baked a lot of delicious food with my crafty mom and sister just before the holidays. Christmas was a blast. I got to see my older brother for a few days before it and he left on Boxing Day; it was hard to say good bye again (we’d just gone 15 months without seeing one another.) My younger brother got home a few days before Christmas so we were all able to be together for the big day. We went to my aunt and uncle’s house and ate TONS of good food, including delicious mac and cheese. Oh, and then I found out my cousin was engaged! Oh, and a few days earlier I’d found out that a friend of mine has a baby! So, yes, life moves on even when I’m not around to boss people around (and tell them to slow down a bit…) Her fiancé seems very nice, I’d never met him before. Later in the evening my older brother dressed up as Santa and made us all laugh, and then as old people tend to do, everyone got tired and we all went home.

I spent New Year’s quietly in my house with my parents and 2 aunts. The Chicago television countdown was quite a letdown but we managed to enjoy ourselves anyways… well I at least I did. Again, it was another early night.

Only 2 days later it was time to leave! Bu then guess what happened?!?! I met up with another PCDR volunteer in the waiting area (what luck, right?) and on our flight to Miami, we had some maintenance problems which led me to (correctly) predict that we’d not make it to our connection in Miami. So, I talked the flight attendant into letting me and my new friend off of the plane and onto flights for the next day, with no extra charge. I just didn’t want to get stuck in Miami, and we would have otherwise. Good work me! So now I’ll be back in my site 2 days later than predicted because my bus doesn’t run on Sundays.

I can’t tell you how nice it was to see everyone on my trip home. Obviously the nicest thing about coming home is the people (no matter how much I tend to talk about the food) and don’t get me wrong, the food was great too… and I miss these people… but I know 10 months will go fast, and then I’ll be back. Hear that? I’ll be back! See you soon Chicago!