Good Byes, Bad Byes, and the 38 Hour Saturday

We made it home! It is still kind of surreal, and the "surreal-ness" is only further augmented by the sleep deprivation.

The trip home involved about 24 hours of travel: a flight from Manila to Tokyo, then Tokyo to Seattle, then Seattle home.  It was only marginally stressful, particularly when one considers how bad it could have been.  My flight from Manila was to depart at 8:05 a.m., but when we arrived at the airport at 6 a.m. Saturday morning, the flight had been moved up to a 6:35 a.m. departure.  We were hurried through security, check-in, passport control, more security, a race to the gate, MORE security, and made it to the plane just in time to wait in our seats for over an hour while a mechanical error was fixed.  On the bright side, the check-in desk was so worried about me making the flight that they neglected to weigh my luggage, saving us hundreds of dollars since every piece of it was overweight.  The flight was one of the roughest I've been on- turbulence throughout and a landing so hard and rough that sirens in the airplane went off momentarily.  It was hard on the nerves.  We had a long layover in Tokyo- about 6 hours.  We ate at McDonald's, played in the airport playground, watched movies, and did cartwheels until it was time to board the longest flight of the day. 

I saw an American tourist in Japan who brought shame onto ALL American tourists.  She was having trouble because the flight was delayed.  There she was in Japan, at the Japanese airport, talking to a Japanese gate agent, and saying to the agent in the rudest tone of voice you could possibly imagine, "Can you even understand what I am saying???"  No wonder the rest of the world dislikes Americans.

All I can say about the Tokyo-Seattle flight is this:  At least it's over.  Kiki slept for two hours at the beginning of the flight, Kate slept for about 4 hours at the end of it, and I slept for only a couple of hours since I'm paranoid about my children.  I've seen "Flight Plan." 

Kiki said about her cheeseburger, "This tastes like America."
I said, "Hate to break it to you but we are in Japan ."

We cleared customs in Seattle, but not without the help of a couple of burly men at the baggage claim and also not without a mini-interrogation.  I guess anyone who has so much luggage that her small child is forced to push a luggage cart is asking for it.  The girls slept the entire Seattle flight- a definite blessing to my harried self.  I managed about 3 hours of sleep the entire 24 hours of travel, but I kept it together.  Due to the international dateline, I calculated that we had a Saturday that was 38 hours long.  All that Saturday and not a single minute of Conference.

For the record: the first thing I did when I got home was: Cry and hug my mom.

A welcome sight.  Even groceries in the fridge and a pizza baking in the oven, thanks to Janet and Liza.  Later I'll tell more about thoughts and feelings at home.

Kim, me, Kalista, Cathy/Hannah, and Jamie

The Makati branch threw me a good bye party- another sister was leaving the same week so we were celebrated together.  It was tough to say good-bye; I'm terrible at them anyway, but these felt especially difficult.  Thankfully, many of these sisters have Utah connections, and I'm already looking forward to visits when they have home leave. 

The "Branch Ladies."

Kate and Kiki got to see their friends one last time as well- their friend Ellie had a birthday party the Thursday before we left.   It was a Hawaiian party- they were thrilled with their outfits!

They learned to "HulaHula" (as they called it) and went swimming.

I bid something else good-bye my last day in Manila- my most recent pair of Nikes.  I'm particularly sentimental for this pair...They saw me over the hills of Corregidor and the mean streets of Manila in comfort.  However, I'm not sentimental enough to have used precious suitcase space to bring them home- a memorial photograph and then into the garbage they went.  Not before one last run with Jen, though.  We met early in the rain and logged our last run together in the Philippines.  Tears were shed- some of sadness at leaving such a dear friend, and others in happiness that we have had so many awesome hours together racking up the miles. 

Bruce's workmates invited us over for a good-bye party.

First we checked out the new office space: this is the project that is keeping Bruce overseas for another couple of weeks.

Vita is the office admin and she has spoiled my children with her attention.
We had a traditional lunch: two kinds of pancit, spaghetti, meat skewers, fried chicken, and a gelatin dessert.

We played with the Hable kids, but not for the last time.  They have already scheduled their return to Utah in June and I'm pretty excited.  Saying good-bye to Cathy was another bad one though.  I was just overwhelmed with gratitude for her and her amazing friendship and was unable to play it cool.  And unwilling, I suppose.

So, the packing was done.  We had our last dinner at Italianni's.  Yep, Italian food on our last night in the Philippines.  Sue me.

At some point in the near future, I'm going to reflect a little more on what this experience has meant to me and my family. For now, I will say this: I'm forever grateful that we did this. It was crazy and frustrating sometimes, but the positives FAR outweighed the negatives. The hardest good-bye was with Bruce at the airport. It seems like you rush and rush and airports are stressful and all of a sudden it is time to say good-bye and that's rushed too. Maybe it was for the best because it gave me less time to think about it. 

And then we were home.