Last night with my pals. . . night at Heathrow

The flight back to the UK was uneventful, I think I sat by Daryn? and, shocker, he didn't really talk, so I just slept. We flew into Gatwick, collected our luggage and got on the coach to Heathrow which is where most of us were flying out of. OF COURSE, when we got to Heathrow, my luggage from Harlaxton wasn't on the right truck, so they had to unload the ENTIRE other truck that had Italy 2's luggage on it and mine was in the very back corner. Only me. Perpetually awkward.

So after that fiasco we decided to find a place to camp out, and we found the other 30 people who had the same idea so we made a large camp on the side of a big hallway. Alex and I got coffee and food, had a picnic with Courtney and Lord Kitten, and then hung out with some people. Eventually Danielle and I helped Alex load up all of her stuff and we went to the other terminal with her (this was at about 4am), so by the time we got back from that it was about 5 so I decided to start getting ready for the day. I changed, brushed my teeth, got hot chocolate with Katie, and waited around with Waner after check-in until it was time to board. Waner and I had a deep convo like we always do, it was nice. When it was time to board we waited in line all together, and Katie got searched :). Luckily this time I was seated next to people I knew, so me and Jake were seat buddies instead of an old fat man. At this point I had been up 24 hours with only a few short naps. I did sleep a little bit on the plane, but only the equivalent of about an hour. I watched The Office and Bandslam, and then before I knew it we were landing in CHICAGO!

Customs was a breeze. The guy looked at my card, said "Okay", and I got to go through. For some reason I thought it was going to be a really long walk to Arrivals, but it was only a few feet. And then I was tackled by my sister and I looked up and there was Mom, Dad, Dan and Katie! It was so great to see all of them, I was so dazed and tired and happy that I don't remember much of those first few moments of seeing them besides my mom sobbing in the corner and my dad just holding my hand really tight.

I couldn't really sleep on the car ride back because I was just so excited, they hadn't had a chance to hear about Italy or my last night at Harlaxton so I told them all about it, and then of course we made the customary stop at the Kalamazoo Arby's because it is THE BEST ARBY'S IN THE WORLD, so that was my first meal back in the US!

The weather was awful on the drive back, and I got a text from Mary saying that hers and Chris's flight was delayed because of it, and then Alex was stranded at Heathrow because her flight was canceled! I was so thankful that I was home safe, but I was also thankful that at least the three of them weren't all alone, that there were plenty of our other friends who couldn't make it back on time either. They all made it back well before Christmas so that was awesome!

The night I got home I gave out a few presents, and then of course me and Katie and Dan and my dad had a few beers. I stayed up really late - I think we counted I'd been up for more or less 38 hours. Jet lag was not my friend the next few days.

So that concludes my European adventure, the rest of my blogs will not be nearly as exciting and I apologize in advance for the dullness!