Home sweet home

Whenever I'm walking to my gate at the airport, I think it's fun to try and guess where people are flying to -- based on what they're wearing or what they look like.

I'm usually completely incapable of distinguishing between nationalities. Costa Ricans (or "Ticos") can be very fair skinned and sometimes even have blue eyes. (I keep thinking that I could pass as a Tica but my Grecia family assures me that there is no way I will ever blend in there). Sometimes I have a hard time knowing whether people are Ticos or Americans or Europeans. Especially in places like airports, stores or hostels, I can't decide which language to speak because I'm not sure which country people are from.

However, when I'm playing the "guess the destination" game at an airport I can usually pick out a crowd of mid-westerners. For some reason there is just a different, familiar look to them. Once I got to my last gate yesterday the people that were waiting to board the plane all looked vaguely familiar.

Although there was a fair amount of grumbling about Minnesota cold from my fellow passengers I was excited when I started to see the patchwork of fields from the plane window....indicating that I was almost home. I love the Midwest. It's somewhat disappointing that there is no snow on the ground, but I'm sure that's coming.

It's a relief to be home and sleep in my own bed and know that I can leave my stuff somewhere for more than a few days. In the last 3 and a half weeks I've slept in 14 different beds.

I'll most likely continue to process via blogging for a while. Since I'm such a delayed processor I don't really see this as the end, but rather another turning point in the trip. Hopefully I'll get some pictures up soon as well.