American Soil

My grandma and aunts will be relieved to hear that I am safely back on "American Soil." I'm not sure what's wrong with soil in the rest of the world, but the American variety seems to be favored.

Either way, I'm home. And I'm happy.

Sure it's 7am and the sun hasn't risen yet. And sure it's cold. But I'll get used to it. I just started the coffee - how I've missed making coffee in the morning! And I slept incredibly well last night - fell asleep, just exhausted, in about 3 minutes and probably didn't stir the entire night. I feel well rested, finally.

The flights went well, for the most part. I was travelling for 33 hours. That's incomprehensible to me, but I made it. My parents and Angelina came to pick me up at the airport and I can't think of a better homecoming. I ran to give Angelina a big hug and she ran towards me and let me pick her up and twirl her around. I was afraid she would be distant at first but not at all. She's just a happy little girl - happy to see her aunt. We got caught up on school and skating lessons and how yummy the pink medicine is that she has to take for strep throat. And there's nothing a girl (even a 25-year-old girl) wants more after travelling for so long than big hugs from her mom and dad.

Seeing Blake has been more than wonderful as well. We went to get dinner last night and I was struggling because I knew that anywhere we went on a Tuesday night would feel particularly desolate and without character in comparison to Durban. But we went to Chipotle (burrito-y heaven) on East Hennepin and there was a man out front on the sidewalk playing the saxaphone. And the night skyline was gorgeous, as always. Minneapolis is home. There are great people here. There are great things to do here. It's just a matter of keeping your eyes open.

So now I start my journey back to real life. I'll be taking care of logistics today - resinstating car insurance, going through mail, unpacking, dusting, vacuuming, grocery shopping, and getting in touch with temp agencies so I can hopefully line up a job for next week.

But I'm going to do it a little more slowly than I would have before I left. I'll take a long walk through Theodore Wirth Park this morning (with hat, mittens, and flip-flops - I just can't give them up!) and maybe stop to watch the sun set this evening, if it's out.

I will dearly miss the warm Indian Ocean reaching out for my toes, but this is home. And rumor has it there's no place like it.