it's the final countdown

The months, the weeks, the days, and now the hours are passing by...and my journey across the globe is coming to an end. It's the final countdown (shoutout to you jazz band for making this one of my favorite songs) and I am a puddle of mixed emotions. As I sit on my last flight headed to St. Louis (guys, I'm in the United States!!!!!!!), I am undoubtedly excited to be coming home. It was really sad to leave Mbita (and I will be going back), but it wasn't nearly as sad to leave Nairobi so I've had a few days for the initial sadness to die down. After almost 24 hours of flying, I am ready to come home (as much as I didn't think I would be). I don't think you'll ever realize how much people mean to you or how much you appreciate spending them with them until you leave and have little to no contact for two months. I'm excited to see my cats, my family, and my friends, but I'm really looking forward to seeing Joey. It's been way too long, my friends. Don't get me wrong...there's still a large part of me that wants to stay in Africa for a little longer and even larger part that fell in love with Kenya and never let it go. But I realize that there are many pros and cons to both home home and my second "home" in Africa and that I can have both -- just not at the same time! My adventures home have been pretty smooth so far. Nairobi to London was a red-eye flight and it was a very packed plane. I sat next to a very nice and hilarious older couple from Canada and they were so fun!  They told me stories of their kids and their lives and what they were doing in Kenya and seemed equally as interested in hearing about my life and siblings. London was fine and I bought a new phone charger at some tech store. The airport is literally like a mall, so there's no shortage of finding the things that you need! Isaac and I ate our last breakfast together as the end of an era fastly approached and I had lemon water for the first time in well over two months! It was SO good. Isaac and I parted ways and I began to immediately board my flight to Dallas. I met a nice man while waiting (this was another overly packed plane!) and he was very kind and interested in the work I was doing. Lucky for me, I had some of the absolute coolest people in my row from London to Dallas. They were two girls around my age and all of us had never met before. One was from Norway and was an 18-year old high school student starting her 2nd year in a two year Costa Rica high school program and the other was from Canada and was studying abroad (I believe) in Argentina. They were super, super cool and as we got off the plane and parted ways we exchanged hugs and well wishes. The Norway girl sat in the middle and she would hold my soda for me if I needed to move my table or push in the button on my seat to get it to recline. We would all share movie recommendations (How to Be Single is HILARIOUS), travel stories, and comments about our food and it was so so so so nice to talk to people who were undergoing similar experiences. I'm glad I got to sit by them and it was a blessing for sure. Many people complimented me on my new African dress, especially those at the Kenyan airport. A few people said "my dress was smart" and I think smart is some form of good and expressed approval. Whatever it was...I'm glad people like it as much as I do! Sure, I've gotten a few extra stares by this mzungu is used to that life after two months in Kenya. Once in Dallas, I had to go through customs and re-claim all of my luggage. There were fair too many people for this to be an entirely smooth process (especially at the baggage claim) but customs wasn't difficult. I just scanned my passport and answered some questions about items I brought back. After that and once I was cleared, I put my bags in a "recheck" section of American Airlines and I hope that they make it to St. Louis. Guess we'll find out in a matter of minutes! I then went through security without any issues (I've become an expert at it by now!) and rode the sky train to find my gate. As I got to my gate, which was at the very end of a loooooong hallway, the Kansas City flight was boarding and there was no acknowledgement of an upcoming St. Louis flight. No worries though! It was the next thing to be posted and I was at the right spot. I sat next to a nice lady named Laura (we were the only ones in the whole gate area at this time) and I'm so glad I did. We talked about my trip and I showed her the videos and photos that I had taken after 2 months of international experiences I had previously only read in textbooks or on the Internet. She told me about her kids and that she was going to see family in Illinois; we talked about the upcoming presidential election and what the Kenyans thought about it. Overall, she was super interesting and made the layover not so bad. I got a Starbucks drink and a snack to hold me over until this evening. I hope Joey and my mom haven't ate yet. Alright, well. We are on top of St. Louis as I type preparing for landing. I'll get my luggage (hopefully easily!) and find Joey & my mom to get some r&r at the hotel before traveling home tomorrow. I only have 4 days of freedom and then I move into college...I hope to make the most of it!I'm not done writing about Kenya so keep following along. :)