Home for Christmas!

I made it home safely! My plane touched down at the Waterloo airport at about 11:50 pm CST on Sunday, Dec. 21, right on time. Since my body was used to European time, it felt like almost 7 am to me. I had left my hostel in Prague at about 9:30 am Europe time (2:30 am CST) that morning and took a shuttle bus to the airport. I tried to get to the airport about 2 hours before my flight, since it was an international flight (to Amsterdam). However, with the European Union and the Schengen Area, it is now different. The Schengen Area includes most of the members of the EU and a few other countries. The purpose of Schengen is to eliminate borders in Europe and allow for unrestricted travel between countries (removing border checks for passport free travel). Essentially what this has done in terms of air travel is to make international travel to other Schengen states basically domestic travel, which means me getting there early was unneeded. Oh, well, so I puttered around the Prague airport until I found a friend of mine whose flight was changed and so I talked with her for awhile while I waited.

I was still afraid of getting home on time. I had heard that airports had been closed the day before and there were many delays. I had planned for this (assuming I could get to the Minneapolis airport at least). I had arranged to be picked up by a friend from the Twin Cities if my flights were canceled/delayed and the friend I had talked to in the airport had a hotel room her parents had gotten near the airport (assuming they could drive to MSP to pick her up). After going through security in the Prague airport, I had bought a Fanta for about $2.50 (using up some Czech money). I didn't open it because I figured I would save it for the flight to the US. My plane took off from Prague at 12:25 and landed in Amsterdam at 1:50 p.m.

I got to the airport and saw that my next flight was loading, even though it didn't leave until 3:30. So I ran to the international terminal, but I wasn't able to buy a postcard or wooden shoes (which several of the airport shops sold). I got the to the gate and then had to go through specific security for just my gate. I thought this was overkill, since this was already past the main airport security and was for a single gate. I went through and they made me throw out my unopened bottle of pop, even though I had bought it in an airport past the security counter and it wasn't open. I wasn't happy about that. Past this security, the only amenities were some bathrooms--no stores or anything to buy something else to drink or a book (which I had planned to get at this airport). There wasn't even enough seats for everyone on the flight, so I had to stand for about an hour until we actually got on the plane. My seat was toward the back. The far back section of the plane had seats in a 2-3-2 layout, and I was in the very middle seat. The flight from Amsterdam to Minneapolis was 9.5 hours and pretty uneventful. I was able to choose from about 20 movies to watch or music to listen to, and I also played Solitaire on the individual seatback entertainment console. I also read a few magazines, but unfortunately, I can't sleep on planes, so I was awake the whole time.

Once I got to Minneapolis, I had to go through security yet again, this time for US customs. I had to pick up my luggage, declare anything I had in it and then put it on a conveyor belt to be sent to my next plane before going through security yet again. Back in the US, the first thing I bought was a bottle of Mountain Dew and a slice of pizza at Sbarro. I had gotten off the plane about 5:50 pm CST and my flight to Waterloo didn't take off until about 10:40 pm. So I just camped out near the gate and watched Christmas movies on my computer. My gate moved several times because of changes to other flights and airplane problems on another plane. I got on the plane and as soon as we got up in the air, we were basically starting our descent into Waterloo. When I got to Waterloo, my family was waiting for me. After getting my luggage, I went out in the cold. I had left Prague when the temperature was about 45ºF during the day with light rain and when I landed in Waterloo, there were several inches of snow on the ground and the wind chill was -27ºF, actual air temperature of about -3ºF. Quite a shock to my system, with a 72º change in the "feels like" temperature.

After leaving the airport, we went to Wal-Mart where I got a lot of food I had missed, everything from chips and salsa to M&Ms. I got home around 2 am (9 am to my body) and went to bed. I was the first one up in the morning, and was then able to get into my normal sleep routine right away and was unaffected by jet-lag.

A few days later, it was already Christmas and I was able to enjoy a white Christmas at home with my family. Overall, I had lost about 19 pounds while I was in Europe, from a combination of losing muscle mass and just eating European portions. I weighed myself the morning of Dec. 22 and again on Dec. 29, and in that week alone, I have already put 10 pounds back on.

I'll continue with blog posts for a while. I have a lot of pictures to put up still, even though I am home. I don't know how often I will update as I am back to my Amish existence at home with just dial-up Internet (and network TV). So the only time I can really load things to my blog is when I go in to the Traer Public Library or to school.