Back To Life.....

Hello. My name is Erin. I am a recovering world travelor. (Hi Erin....) I've never been a world travelor up until now. Oh, I've been on vacations, for sure. I've spent half my life in Yellowstone. My mom was fantastic for just picking up and taking us off for a fun-filled weekend in places like Yellowstone, Wyoming, Montana, the 4 corners area, Canada, and camping more times than I can even count. But, we never went overseas. Well, I've now been overseas, and am still recovering! I will attempt to paint the picture for you of my first few days on my trip to Europe.

Day 1- wake up at 4:00 AM after having pretended to sleep for about 5 hours. My excitement and anxiety level was up, so I was able to function. We got to the airport and met our choir at the ticket counter. Everyone was soooo full of excitement... well, almost everyone. Some still looked like we were interrupting their dream. I was wondering how I was going to stand 2 full weeks with some of these people!

We flew to Huston, and had a 4 hour lay-over there. Then, got on a great big plane and flew for the next 9+ hours, through the night, to London. It was hard to skip ahead 7 hours like that. We were advised to try to sleep the entire trip over so we could acclaimate to the new time difference, but who can sleep on a plane crammed with people, holding your pee because you can't get out of your seat because the guy next to you is asleep, trying to find the redeeming qualities in "Fool's Gold" you are forced to watch on the plane (incidentally, there are none!), wondering if this is going to be the day you plummet into the ocean and become fish food!

We landed in Londed about 7:00 AM, and began our day of sight-seeing. We drove and drove and drove and drove in a big bus to Stonehenge. We were all soooooo exhausted, it felt more like we were walking in our sleep. ("I had a dream we were at a strange place with large stones all layed out in a strange formation, thousands of years old.....") Our tour guide kept telling us not to sleep on the bus because it would be better, but no one heard him because they were all asleep!

We finally arrive at our hotel. Somehow I make my way inside and crash on the bed, going against everything the tour guide told us about not sleeping! By the way, he was totally wrong! I felt sooo much better after my nap, and still slept great that night! Oh, the hotel room kept losing power and lights, so we had to use the bathroom in the dark. The hotel manager woke us up about midnight to tell us our power was off..... Really? I thought I was just SLEEPING!!!!!!

I won't go into great detail about every day of the trip! You don't need that kind of torture! But, as this posting is about recovering, I will just tell you how the last day went. (I'll do more postings about cool things we saw along the way, don't worry!)

Last Day- woke up at 5:00 AM, Paris time (which is 8 hours ahead of Utah time). Loaded bus at 6:00, drove to airport and stood in line for 45 minutes. Plane trip back was much better. Probably because we weren't flying through the night. I was reading the 2nd book of the "Twilight" series by Stephanie Meyer, so the flight went quickly. We had a 7 hour layover in Newark, though, which was sooooooo long and tedious. The line to get through security was so long, we didn't leave the airport. Then our flight was delayed, so it was even longer. I felt like I was in a bad dream- trapped with people you are sick of in an airport you can't leave, and home is just a few hours away by plane!

The plane trip home was awful. We were stuck in the very back row of the plane, so the seats didn't recline. It was hot and stuffy, and noisy! I was tired and cranky, adn sat next to a guy with horrible breath~ not my husband. Our luggage took forever to be unloaded, and we had people waiting to take us home. I felt so bad they got their luggage first and had to wait for us!

We got home and crashed. Our bedroom looked foreign to us after being gone so long, but our bed felt heavenly! Merritt woke up during the night yelling things like "Not the Museum!" I kept waking up thinking I was on the floor of a dark cathedral. I think it's called "Post choir trip stress disorder" or something! I think it will be quite a while before I am willing to take another long trip again, especially on an airplane.

We are still acclaimating to the time change. Our bodies are ready for bed at 6pm now, but we hold out until at least 10. I still have an aversion to doing housework, I keep thinking the housekeeper will come and make my bed for me, and leave me fresh towels. *sigh* I guess it really is back to life, back to reality!