BACK in the "land of the free and the home of the brave"

So, Saturday morning...

I'm not sitting at a little internet cafe sipping mango juice, or at the lab in the basement of the language center of the University of Jordan....It is with a heavy heart that I write this post from the Sheraton Crystal City Hotel, in Washington DC, at the high tech, brand new business center located on the ground floor.....

I would so take the mango juice and internet cafe over this....

Our last day in Amman was torturous...it was so bittersweet....we had most of the day free, to meet up one last time with all our new friends, do some final souvenier shopping, etc...but then thursday night, we had our final reception and graduation ceremony at the UJ-It was so fun! All our host families were invited, and teachers, and other people we've met and befriended over the summer! It was so great to see my host family again! Minus my brother of course, he had already left for the states...he will be a forieng exchange student this year! He's living in Washington state! It was great to see the rest of my family though..but SO hard to say good bye to them at the end of the night! More than a few tears were shed...and saying goodbye to Dukturra Nadia was rough too (my teacher)-she was amazing, and I will miss her dearly.... It was a great night, I had lots of fun, but I knew I was saying goodbye to some of the greatest people in the whole world for who knows how long.....

But so then....
We left Amman yesterday morning...kind of...my entitre body clock is off-the time difference is 8 hours..so we left our hotel at 8:30 Amman time....then our plane took off at 1:00....we made an unscheduled stop in Ireland!! That was pretty cool, but really just ended up being a pain..becasue it made our arrival time in NYC's JFK airport an hour and a half later than it should have been! SO as I was traveling with a group of 30 people-all of which had to make it through customs and on to a connecting flight to D.C.......we only had 45 minutes to do so...and although we ran through the airport....we still didn't make it :(

SO after waiting around in the airport for a good four hours...we were taken to one of the hotels..where they didn't have any available rooms..so I basically curled up on the cement floor in the lobby, we were finally given rooms at about two in the morning, new york time, which would have been 10:00 am the following morning amman time, I had been awake for WAY longer than 24 hours! But, we ended up leaving the hotel at about four am this morning to make it to NYC's LaGuardia airport for our early shuttle flight to D.C. this morning....

I'm exhausted..and more tired than I can remember being in a long time....we all kind of go off in our own little dazes every five minutes or so! But we're trying not to sleep until its night time here just to help with the jet lag and getting re-acclamated to these time zones....

BUT anyway...so I'm officially back in the U.S....and its so weird...The first mini-skirt I saw in the airport left me so utterly scandalized I didn't know what to do with myself! And everyone here is SO rude! And if you say "shukran!" or "Marhaba!" nobody understands you! Its so weird! And the other thing...U.S. dollars! They're so big! And heavy! And not colorful! hehe...We've been noticing the weirdest differences since we've been back....

Like the toilets, and how much water is used and wasted with each flush, and also how toilet paper is PROVIDED for you in the bathrooms...I had forgotten what that was like, and no joke I took a kleenex with me to the first bathroom I went into in the airport!

I miss little things, like, as I mentioned earlier, the mango juice...and the falafel sandwiches...

The entire landscape of this wonderful country of ours is so different I don't know how to cope...nothing here is brown or dusty....I've never seen so much green I don't think...

Its fun and interesting to compare my two worlds...but its also..hard...

Now that I'm back in the states, I'm excited to be coming home on Tuesday...but..I'm scared too. I've learned so much this summer, I've seen and done and experienced so many amazing things...I feel as if the home I left two months ago isn't the same one I'm returning to...or..maybe its just me that has changed? Maybe a little of both? Either way....its been one unforgettable summer....and I'm so glad this amazing gift was given to me...

I plan on keeping up the blog with more cultural differences I've noticed as well as sharing some other things I've learned....

but for now...I'm exhausted...but I'm happy, well, as happy as one can be who spent over 18 hours traveling in one day...., happy, and healthy, probably a little TOO-well fed over the summer thanks to my host family....but..excited to return home and see everyone...

Leaving this group of 20 kids that have become my new family over the summer will be hard as well...I've made some brand new life long friends, and we already have plans to see eachother over the coming year...I don't know what I'll do without these people..there's Madison, who's been my roomie all summer...and we're perfect together, and she'ss hilarious! Then Nura and Janessa, my two other fav girls, and Bayly and Mapi and Daniel and Garuth! The funniest, smartest guys I think I'll ever come to know..its kind of cruel that we all live so far away from eachother even if we come from the same nationality....its times like these when I wish crossing the U.S. only took six-eight hours like it does in Jordan.....[sigh]..but..as they say..all good things must come to an end...

that's a lesson I've learned a thousand times over this summer. No matter how good a place your life can be at, everytrhing must end, and continue, and change....and only from change can the world become a better place....so, instead of being sad for it, we should embrace change...as hard as that may be sometimes....change teaches us...change heals us....change CHANGES us.....

I've changed, the world has changed, and so has everything and everyone I know and love..

Byut I've never been more ready for it....

In shaAllah...I will be home soon!

See you then!