Home for the Holidays

I know that i'm always saying this, but life has been especially busy lately.  In the past 9 days, i've gone from Ohio>Rome>Irsina>Rome>Paris and back to Rome today. Whew! I'm tired just thinking about it.

I flew home on the 17th of December.  Travelling for me is never that simple, so of course I encountered a few problems along the way.  I showed up to Fiumicino Airport and waited in the check-in line for 1.5 hours.  Why you ask? Because there was a line of about 100 people and halfway through my wait, 2 of the workers got up, walked away and never came back.   That's Italy for you! The flight was delayed 1hr. 45min. due to the delayed check-in, problems closing the cargo doors, long line of planes waiting to take-off and there was also a thunderstorm.  Roughly 2 minutes after take-off, our plane was struck by lightning...sparks and all.  This doesn't cause any harm to the plane or anyone on it, but it still freaked me out.   I was determined for the first half of the flight that the plane was going to crash. After landing in Philadelphia 2 hours late, there was no other flight to Cleveland, so I had to stay the night at the Ramada Inn, paid for by US Airways.  That was nice of them and all, but it was 1. the crappiest hotel i've ever stayed in and 2. all I could think about was how I was missing out on one of the nights with my family when I only had 12 to begin with.

Christmas morning at the Smith house

Not a great way to start my trip, but I had a wonderful time being home.  It was nice to see a number of friends and my family when I was there.  The time flew by and was not nearly long enough. Every day was jam-packed with things to do.  I did get to eat sushi, Mexican and Thai food while I was home; a few of the things that i've missed while living here.  I also got to cook some great meals with my mom. Abby was home for Christmas break and leaves to study abroad at Cambridge in London this Thursday.  We're already starting to talk about which city we want to visit first.

Our Christmas cookies

I was really glad that I got to go home; it was more important to me than ever to be there for Christmas this year. It was a bit of culture shock at first, but I had only been away for 4.5 months, so I quickly fell back into old routines.

Tom and Andy

I was excited to get back to Italy since my friend, Shelly, has now moved here and is living with me. We came back on the 30th...separate flights, but on the same day, just in time for New Year's in Roma the next night.  More on that in the next post.