Israel - 17 April 06

I don’t even know how many hours into the flight I am, but it is not enough. The travel last night was fine except one problem. I didn’t make it to the Tube station before it closed. I had to take two buses to get home, but as I think about it now I realize that taking two buses was actually cheaper than taking a ride on the Tube and a bus ride.

I didn’t see my host family because I got in late and left early. I basically came home for a nap. I am running on five hours of sleep starting at 1 am MST on Sunday. I am supposed to get into Denver around 6:30 pm tonight. I like numbers and statistics so since I woke up on Sunday morning in Tel Aviv to the time I arrive at DIA it will have been 41.5 hours.

I must state my excitement once again regarding my arrival at home and being reunited with all that I left behind. I remember writing to my parents in an email that seeing them again, seeing something that I had never left behind like this, will be one of the more memorable experiences from this trip. I don’t know how to describe what I suspect seeing my parents again and returning home will be like, but I know it will be memorable. This is probably why I can’t write about it now and I will have to sit down at a computer or at a table with this journal and write about it later.

I am returning with just over 600 pictures from this trip. I looked at some London shots while I was in Tel Aviv and they saddened me. I miss the sights, or rather all the times I saw London for the first time. This trip was a short one, time wise, but immeasurable in personal growth on all levels. The time abroad has given me a lot to think about and I know as the days, weeks, months, and maybe even years pass, these three and a half quick months will continue to feed my being as I am absorbed into my country’s grandeur and shortcomings once again, but not without forgetting all that I have learned. Even now I don’t know what “all” is, but I hope that later in my life I can grasp fully the meaning of this time and the consequences of it…the welcomed consequences of it.

I don’t sleep much on planes. I arrived in Denver on time, but hadn’t slept more than two hours on my flights from Tel Aviv, London, and Chicago. I wasn’t tired though when I got to Denver. The anticipation of seeing family, friends, a nice, disgusting American freeway, and fat people once again, frighteningly kept me awake. Being picked up by my parents at DIA was more nostalgic for me than memorable. That doesn’t mean I can’t picture what they looked like when I saw them that day. I spotted my dad from fifty-yards away. He was sauntering toward me with a big grin on his face, happy to see his son again, and me, happy to see my dad again. We clumsily carried my luggage downstairs and mom pulled up in the Yukon. She got out, walked around the car, and hugged me wearing a smile that was full of excitement and curiosity for the journey I just had and the stories I had to tell.

I want to return to London. I have almost been home for 10 months and the pull of that great city hasn’t lessened and my love for it has grown. It is not going to be easy to find my way back there, but I want to; Kate wants to. Somehow we will.