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It's been 3 weeks since I left McMurdo, it feels like it's been 3 months....
I finally made it home! After tons and tons of airport fun! My flight from Christchurch landed in a Auckland at the same time my flight to the states started boarding, and in New Zealand you have to pay a departure fee which to leave the country, which means waiting in a line...so I didn't really get to say goodbye to Katie and Tirzah so much as wave at them through a crowd of people as I ran for the international terminal. There was no way I was going to miss my flight to LAX, and what a flight it was. Usually I loooooooove Qantas flights. They have decent plane food, movies on demand (a serious help in enjoying your flight), and they give everyone those little hot towels at the end of your flight (not just first class). I usually love Qantas flights so much I tend to get at least 4-6 hours of sleep on the, which is saying a lot for me, but this flight was a bit of a challenge. There was a screaming 3 year old across the aisle from the entire 12 hours. That little girl had a serious lung capacity and (sadly, for the poor man sitting in front of her trying to sleep) a habit of kicking her chair as she was throwing these tantrums. Not to sound completely inhumane, but they have to drug small dogs if you bring them on a plane, why not children? Seriously, it would be better for the kid too, I know they don't enjoy the whole flying thing. Anyway, the overhead lights and call light for the flight attendant were broken and stuck on in my row so, even with my earplugs and little eye cover thing they give you in those little pouches, it was a bit of sleepless flight. No worries though, that's what the on demand movies are for. Plus I slept through most of my flight from LAX to SEATAC. Speaking of LAX, I was having trouble getting service at the Alaskan counter in LAX because all the desk people were crowded around one guy, it turns out it was Kenny G. I had no idea there were so many Kenny G fans out there. I mean there wasn't one employee of Alaskan Airlines working the desk that day that wasn't crowded around him shaking his hand and taking pictures on their camera phones...that's just weird.

Anyway, like I said, I made it home to my family and my bed and my cat. Though it has taken some getting used to, it's not nearly as hard as to adjust to as it was last year. Sure it's still a culture shock all of it's own but a familiar one all the same. I know it won't be long until I am back to my old super introvert, project obsessed mode...it only takes a little settling in. And in the mean time, before I start work or unpack any boxes, I'm just going to take some down time and catch up on movies, sleep, news, and my friends (yes, in that order).

And that's that. Second season done. Hopefully I will be picking up this blog again next year for chapter three...So until next year....