"The world is full of opposites and reversals, that to find something new you must first admit that you are lost, that it’s the hard ways that lead to a new future and the easy ways to repeating the past, that ignorance allows you to attempt the impossible but that familiarity is the birthplace of respect, and that finally and most importantly, in an increasingly frantic world without walls, with fast jets and superhighways for body and thought, to speed up you need to first slow down."
Patrick Donohue
Being home is as much of an emotion-rollercoaster as being gone was. After my last day of work, I sort of felt numb. I slept well that night, and the entire drive to the airport in the morning, it didn't really hit me that I was leaving. Nat and I held hands and cried as the plane was taking off. I was asleep within minutes thanks to the two gravol I had cleverly popped, and slept the entire flight.
After we got off the plane in Amsterdam and got out of our gross flying clothes, we hopped the train for the city center. It was on the short ride that it hit me: we aren't in Africa anymore. I was flighting back tears the whole ride, feeling completely devastated. We split off in the city, with Heather heading for a hostel, and Nat and I going off to meet Marleen, my new friend in Amsterdam. Once we met up with her, we headed to a cute little alley filled with little restaurants, and settled on Greek for dinner. We polished off a litre of wine in a hurry, and quickly became good friends by sharing boy tales (what else brings girls closer quicker?!). Then Nat went off to meet one of her friends, and Marleen and I hopped the train to her house for the night. She lives in student residence in an old container! It's like a shipping container that you'd see on a boat or train! They have made entire buildings out of them. It was truly the most original and totally awesome apartment I'd ever seen.
The next morning, she headed to work, and I met up with Nat in the city center, where we did some serious shopping before heading back to the airport. The flight home was 9 long hours of boredem. I was stuck on an aisle seat, beside an elderly Israeli couple who needed to get up and stretch their legs on such a regular basis that I didn't sleep a wink the entire trip.
Landing in Vancouver was incredibly bittersweet. I loved seeing the mountains as we cruised into the city, and it reminded me of the beauty of home! It didn't take long to get our bags, and before long, Mom, Shan and I were headed towards home! We stopped in Langely at Dennys for a quick dinner, and I was home by about 9pm, which is almost 48 hours after I left my house in Nairobi. After an AMAZING hot clean shower, I spent a few hours with Mom and Shan going through my suitcases of souveneirs and sharing photos. As I was heading off to bed, I was checking my email, and Elly signed on Skype, and I was able to video chat with a bunch of people from the ARO, which was EXACTLY what I needed at that moment!
I woke up today and was hit with a wall of sadness when I realized that I wasnt' in Africa. However, I had an inbox filled with a few really kind messages, and they totally turned my mood around, and so the day was off to a good start. I spent the whole day running all around town doing about a million and a half errands. However, now the car is aircared and insured, I have new glasses (Oops! Stepped on the old ones in Amsterdam...), I got "debreifed" with Cherie and the interns, I saw a ton of friends, and I got to see the new and improved Ryder Lake Hotel aka Grandma and Papa's new house.
Now I've been home for about twenty four hours, and in a way, it feels like I never left. I've had alot of insights into what will clearly be the biggest struggles of being home, but jet lag is taking it's toll, so the deeper thoughts will have to wait until another day!
-Delaney xo
No comments:
Post a Comment