I told everyone who would listen that I just wanted to teleport straight home from Cuzco. But after hearing about my amazing year they had no sympathy and said deal with it. So Cuzco to Lima, almost missed my connection in Lima and had to sprint to the gate while the announcements called out that my flight was ready to depart. Boring flight to Buenos Aires as I'd finished my book, have had no music since I was relieved of my iphone in Mexico, didn't have a pen to write with and the movie was a Miley Cirus one with the exact same plotline as Life As a House! Usually having nothing to do but daydream on a plane/ train/ bus is luxury to me but today I was just frustrated and impatient!
Had a fun night in a Milhouse hostel in BA; ate some steak and heard hilarious stories from some Dutch girls: them getting caught by border police with an open bag of flour in their pack, the white powder poofing up in a huge cloud, and trying to explain they were craving dutch pancakes and were going to cook some and that it wasn't drugs!
But the next day was a disaster. My flight was at 2am, and all I had to do all day was go to a specific travel agent who is affiliated with STA and get my plane ticket reissued, as it was a paper ticket and it was stolen back in Mexico. Easy, right? At least her English was good; good enough to tell me my travel agent had emailed me the wrong copy of the ticket, that it was missing the most important reference numbers, that he hadn't authorised the reissue, and that unless she could talk to him in the next 3 hours she couldn't reissue it and I'd have to miss my flight, which would make me miss the connection in Auckland. Seeing as it was 3am in Australia I was in a panic.
Ashamed to say a teary phone call home was made from a phone box, waking up my poor parents and stressing them out that I was going to miss both flights home. I couldn't understand why this wasn't easy: she rang the air company and they confirmed I was supposed to be on the flight that night, I had my passport proving who I was, I had emails from STA telling me to go to this particular travel agent to get the ticket (but that wasn't enough authorisation apparently.) Anyway long story short, 4 hours of begging later I somehow had authorisation from STA in London.. because they were awake.. and dredged the correct reference number details up from an old email.. and got the new ticket. Wanted to hug her but I think she was happy to see me leave. In another mindframe I would have loved BA, but I'm sure I'll be back one day to see it properly.
So off to the airport at about 10pm, never been happier to have a ticket in my hand, flight was delayed til about 3.30am. Asleep as soon as I sat down in the plane, opened eyes briefly for takeoff, woke up with customs forms and things placed all over me. It was Aerolineas Argentinas with ashtrays in the bathrooms and only a few TVs on the roof- in 15 hours they only showed one movie and it was Grown Ups. I hate Adam Sandler!
But then Auckland was like an easy paradise dreamland. Speaking English is so easy. If you don't know something, it's the easiest thing in the world just to ask someone! Driving in the airbus into the city on the left side of the road felt really bizarre though.. it felt wrong! But it felt so much like home; walking around the CBD felt so similar to Melbourne, even the same street names like Queen st, Swanston st, Victoria st. Same shops I hadn't seen for 8 months like Cotton On, Dotti, Just Jeans. Easy.
Had bad jetlag that night, slept from 10pm to 1am and then rolled around in the dorm for the rest of the night, feeling like it was Christmas day and I wasn't allowed to get up yet. So excited to see my family. The Qantas flight home was awesome, wouldn't have minded if it was a lot longer! Had my own TV and got to watch Tomorrow When The War Began (loved it! had been dying to see it cos it wasn't released in Europe) and Eat Pray Love. And then roller coaster emotions began as we descended into Melbourne.
I was thinking all these things like all the flights I've taken this year, all the times I've walked straight through airports as other people were greeted by loved ones, all the unfamiliar landscapes I've flown down into, all the times I've headed into places where no-one was waiting and I didn't know anyone and didn't know where I was going.. out of all that, in this little corner at the bottom of the world, I've got these 3 people down there (in the airport already probably knowing Mum), waiting for ME! Missing me! Related to me! Belonging to me.
It was an amazing feeling that I'll always remember. I guess a massive thing I've learnt this year is appreciation of my family.. I mean I've always known I love them, but I've never understood how much I love them.. how lucky I am to be part of this family who love me. I've never been away for long enough to miss and appreciate them before.
Driving home was surreal. Familiar places. Places I'd look at and they'd have memories attached to them. That hasn't happened for 8 months! The smell of my garden and my room. Cuddling Abi. This strange short purple plastic money notes, and chunky silver coins.
It was so familiar, but really really strange. Made me think of this TS Eliot quote: "We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started... and know the place for the first time." I hadn't really expected that to happen, I mean I've lived my whole life here, how can it seem strange to me? But I really am seeing it through new eyes, I wonder how long the strangeness will last before I settle back in and start taking it for granted again.
15 extended family members came over for dinner that night and I was walking on air. I'd seen them the day I left back in May, and here they are the day I get home. Yet again, so thankful to be a part of a big loving, caring family. In the whole world, these are the ones who I'm physically connected to! This really is my spot in the world, where I belong with the people I love and who love me!
I could write pages and pages of reflections now I'm home, on my laptop in bed again, same place I wrote the first post, full circle. But I haven't got my head around it yet. So that will come a bit later.
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