Travels - Days 7-10

I didn’t sleep well in the night because I felt really unsettled about when I would get to leave. It also seemed like Aunt Jamie was leaning toward the 17 hour bus option because it was half the cost. The thought of 17 hours on a bus after a long intensive was enough to make me cry. I also really hoped Aunt Jamie would decide to stay which meant I could handle travel preparations how I wanted and not have to deal with the awkwardness of trying to tag along with an inexperienced traveler. I also had an awful nightmare about my mom where she turned into a person with demon eyes. 

Kadie was at school until around 3 so Aunt Jamie and I had a slow, relaxing morning. We had good conversations over breakfast. Afterwards, we both took a nap. I was glad too since I hadn’t slept well the night before. When Kadie came home, we talked about the elephant in the room and tried to figure out a plan for our return. Aunt Jamie said she couldn’t navigate airports on her own so she thought we should probably go back together on Thursday. Although I was a bit disappointed to not be going solo, I was ever grateful that we weren’t returning by the bus. 

I let them handle buying tickets. They called a local guy in our city and he made a reservation but we didn’t have a way to pay him. He said he would send his company’s bank information and we could transfer money into that account. The problem was that Kadie’s town didn’t have that particular bank so we couldn’t make the transfer that way. I could have transferred money online from my bank account but my account didn’t have enough for both tickets and the town did not have my bank either. Finally Aunt Jamie called her best friend and asked if she could take some money by the office and we would pay her when we returned. And that was the complex way they took care of buying plane tickets.   

The next morning, Kadie didn’t have to go to school until noon so we had breakfast with her. I was excited about some time with her hoping for some good conversations. Instead, she brought her laptop into the kitchen and put on a movie for us to watch. It took me about 5 minutes before I figured out we were watching Sister Act. I’m not sure why that particular movie was picked but I was glad it was at least something I was familiar with. I was a little disappointed that again I was missing out on conversations. 

After that movie, Kadie left for school and Aunt Jamie said she wanted to watch Sister Act 2. So we did. After that movie, she suggested we go wait at the school for Kadie to get off or else we would just end up sleeping. We waited but again, there was next to no conversation. This started to grate on me. I had come here hoping to get lots of practice in my second language and have some good, deep conversations. I began to wonder why I had come in the first place. It felt like such a waste of time. 

In the midst of this frustration, I found out my really good friend Di was moving to another city. This was a big loss for me and I wished I was back in my city soaking up some last days with her. We walked around a bit with Kadie and then made it back to their house. I called my dad to try to Skype in to my nephew’s kindergarten graduation. It wasn’t working very well. So I was dealing with culture shock, disappointment, loss of Di, and grief that I couldn’t be there with my nephew. After the graduation, I talked to my mom for a few and just vented a bit. Then we had dinner and watched, guess what, Sister Act again. Yep, that was about 7 hours of Sister Act in one day for me. After the movie, I took a shower and checked Facebook. I learned that a friend from back home had passed a way. I journaled for a while processing all of those emotions. 

I finally made it to my last full day with them. I woke up with a different attitude and decided I would make the most out of this last day. I woke up before Aunt Jamie so had some time to listen to a sermon. Over breakfast, we actually had some really good conversations and that helped me feel like my time wasn’t wasted. 

By the end, they finally were letting me wash dishes. Aunt Jamie said that for the first 3 days, I’m supposed to be a guest and do nothing to help out. After the 3rd day, it’s expected that I do my part. I put on some chill music and enjoyed even that. I also decided to use the down time to do some productive stuff like write about life. When Kadie got off work, we went to the pazar one last time. I bought some watermelon seeds to take back for others to try. 

That evening we had a dinner together with Aunt Jamie, Kadie, her boyfriend Marty, her roommate, and roommate’s boyfriend. Afterward we had a fun time talking about what all is entailed in a local wedding. It was a good ending to my time there. 

The next morning, we woke up at 6am in order for Aunt Jamie and I to make it to our flight leaving at 8:30. Our driver picked us up around 6:30. My sister texted while we were making the almost hour trek to the airport. I told her how I wasn’t worried that we would make it to the airport only an hour before our flight leaves. This is how they do it here. Sure enough we made it to our gate with enough time to use the bathroom and grab a bite of breakfast. 

On the plane, Aunt Jamie was nervous as we were taking off. Once in the air, she told me she didn’t think we were actually moving. I told her we were actually moving really really fast. As we were descending, she took out her camera phone and videoed the whole entire landing. So much for the “turn off all electronic devices.” It was sweet that she was enthralled with the novelty of flying. We landed and went to baggage claim to get our bags. As we were leaving, some ladies stopped us asking which belt had the bags for our flight. I forget that not everyone has spent as much time in an airport as I have and don’t know these basic travel protocols. 

We exited the airport and found a shuttle that would leave for the bus station in about 20 minutes. That would mean we would get to the bus station with about 45 minutes before our bus took off. I gave her money for our plane and bus tickets. She scolded me and told her I had given too much. I insisted it was not enough. When we got to the bus station, she insisted on buying my food and giving me some cash back. Whatever, I was done with the arguing. 

The bus ride back to our city was extremely long. When we finally arrived, she said she needed to go pay for our bus tickets. I told her I was going to run to the restroom really fast. I knew we would wait on shuttles and I couldn’t wait that long. In the two minutes I was in the restroom, I think I caused us to miss the shuttles. We ended up having to wait another almost half an hour to leave. I felt a little bad for her but not so much. We ended up on different shuttles and I was glad to be back home and to be on my own again. It had been over a month since I had just been in my city doing normal life. 

I always take American candies on intensives to help me
have a buffer for the culture shock. This time around, I had
to ration out the candies. This was my last night leftovers
and I ate them all.

At the airport heading back. 

This was my reaction when I got stuck on
the shuttle an extra 30 minutes. If I had been
on my own I would have paid the extra cash
for the taxi.