A lil bit of my world

Homecoming trips

So I wasn’t home for long after Ecuador. I applied for jobs, went to my sister Chelsea’s graduation from Cosmetology school, visited my grandparents, called friends [all of whom are either in Manhattan or out-of-state:( ], and started running.

I got home on a Wednesday, and Sunday afternoon I left for Dallas. That afternoon Chelsea left to move up to Lawerence to attend KU and start her job at a Salon/Spa. Emily had come down for the weekend, but she left too, to go back to Manhattan, and Ann was at her mom’s, so after a whirlwind weekend my parents were left kidless again. Abby, a fellow-Quito exchanger, picked me up at the airport. I was so happy to see her! It was great to be with someone so soon again in the States who’d been with me in Ecuador. She’d been home a week, but we could still share that this-is-strange sensation about the little things like paying with a twenty dollar bill for a $3 chai tea and the clerk not even minding. (Two conclusions from my time in Quito: ready availability of large amounts of change, and always having toilet paper in public bathrooms are convenient luxuries, not to be taken for granted. )
Anyway, we went for coffee (it’s a saying of course; I don’t like coffee), she showed me her house and we joked about suburbia, and then we went to the evening service at her church. I’m really glad we went. Due to lots of weekend trips and frequent laziness, I hadn’t been to church in quite a while. I loved her pastor; I would have liked to talk to him for a while. He gave an interesting sermon on Nehemiah, appealing to intellect and providing historical context, things I appreciate when it comes to faith. Abby said he never went to seminary, and in fact was an atheist for over 25 years, but has since educated himself entirely through massive amounts of reading and self-education. We hung around after church for a bit and I met some of Abby’s friends, and then we drove out to meet Travis so he could pick me up. After a brief tour of his apartment, we went out to dinner in the college hang-out section of town, and then Travis proceeded to embarrass me by trying to go to a club that was 21-to-enter, meaning I got stopped at the door. Boo. I didn’t feel that great anyway for some reason, so we just called it a night.
Monday was a lazy day. Travis had plans to show me around Dallas, but neither of us woke up to our alarms (surprise surprise) and ended up sleeping in substantially. We lounged around for a while, I met his roommate Ron and chatted a bit, we walked around his campus (Univeristy of Norhern Texas; he lives right across the street). Later we went to Tapas, a Spanish restaurant that Travis loves (did I mention he’s a Spain-ophile?). It was incredible; I was literally overwhelmed being there. I should have expected it I suppose, because for the last couple years, anytime someone asks about Spain I can chat casually about whatever, but as soon as we start talking about food, I almost just can’t because it makes me want to go back so badly. I think love and food are fairly synonymous concepts in my family, so maybe such a strong reaction isn’t so surprising, but I really was beside myself with enjoyment and overcome with such intense nostalgia that at several points during the evening I actually got teary-eyed. Conclusion: I must get back to Spain, soon (I’m planning to go next summer).
Tuesday was somewhat more productive. I slept in while Travis went to traffic court, then he had to run some errands for his work and we got stuck in traffic for 2 hours—yay Dallas. We took advantage of the time though and had a lively political debate. I realized I’d barely had debates with anyone the whole semester(!) so I thoroughly enjoyed it. We grabbed lunch then met one of Travis’ friends at the Italian restaurant where she works, had a scrumptious chocolate cake, hung out with her at her apartment for a bit, then went iceskating:). I called Abby to come with us but she had to work, bummer. We went to the Galleria mall, pretty ritzy, shopped a little, then skated for an hour or so. Turns out Travis and friend don’t actually know how to skate much, so I skated around and just circled by to chat with them every now and again. After that we were going to go to a club to see one of Travis’ friends do a stand-up gig (I love stand-up comedy!), but by the time we’d stopped by Travis’ apartment, the guy had called to say his gig had been canceled. Since we had to get up early the next day so I could catch my flight, we decided just to stay in then. Good choice; 7am came awfully early. It was a fun visit kids, thanks for havin me!