Its raining, its pouring (thanks TS Fay)...

... and its also 4:30 in the morning (darned jet lag!)

I am now back in Florida after two (extremely long) days of traveling. I had exit row bulk head seats for both flights (Dar to London and London to Miami) which helped the time pass as I wasn't sitting with my chin on my knees as I do in other airplane seats. The flight to London was about 10.5 hours long and I was so excited to get off the airplane, through customs and to the hotel I was staying at that I didn't pay enough attention to where I was walking (well that and I am also notoriously clumsy)- as I was walking towards immigration, with a ton of people walking behind me, I tripped on a piece of carpet and literally did a somersault as I fell the ground. Of course, I had my hands completely full and every that I was carrying flew everywhere and I was in a skirt (oh the embarrassment never ends!). I skinned my knees pretty badly and my (good) knee is now rather stiff and sore but other than that I am fine. Everyone was very helpful to me and one gentleman even carried my bag to immigration for me-very kind. When I arrived at my hotel (the Yotel in Heathrow's terminal 4), I was informed that they were having severe maintenance issues at the moment and have moved all of their guests to the Hilton. Well, this Hilton is very nice (and very expensive) and I had a wonderful room (with hot water!) and loved sleeping without the mosquito net.

On Monday morning, I got up fairly early to take the Hilton's shuttle to terminal 5, London Heathrow's newest terminal. I was unsure what going through security would be like so I allowed myself 3 hours. Naturally, I didn't need that much time as I made it through security in 15 minutes but it was nice to wander around the shops and to people watch. On the flight to Miami, I again had a exit row bulkhead, and I sat next to a very nice fellow who was also from Naples. We had some very good conversations throughout the 9 hour flight. Even though this flight was one hour shorter, it felt like it would never end; I was very excited to see my family! It took one hour to go through US Customs and Immigration but when I finally made it through, my dad was waiting literally as close as one could without getting taken away by Homeland Security. It was great to see him and I spent the entire two hour drive back filling him in on all the little stories and details of the summers adventure. When I got home, my granny had cooked an AMAZING meal of different vegetables and cornbread (I was really missing these things) and I told more stories and just enjoyed being in the presence of my family. Kristina made a cute welcome home sign for the front door and I'm telling you that nothing is like a hug from your mom when you have been away for a while. After dinner, I handed out presents and then we went through about 1/3 of the photos that I took (eventually we will make it through all of them).

It is really great to be home (even though there is a tropical storm in the area) but reality hasn't really set in for me yet; being back in the States is rather surreal to me as I expect to hear the dogs fighting and the roosters crowing any second waking me up from some dream. I miss the kids like crazy but I think in a week, when I have adjusted to life in the USA again, it will really hit me that it is going to be a long while before I see them again, if ever at all and I will miss them even more. But there are two volunteers there right now and they are going to be there for the next month and they have promised to email update me on the kids' progress as often as possible, so I'm not completely disconnected. :)

Today or tomorrow I will be posting A LOT of pictures and some video's so please check back for that.