Well, here I am! Writing from the good ole’ USofA. Also I apologize for my lack of pictures on this post. I promise I’ll be better about including them in the future. It’s good to be back. A little odd and definitely really really good. I have a pretty jam packed couple of months here, which I’m definitely looking forward to but it’s going to be busy. I’ve been back for two weeks and it’s already been extremely busy! But I’ll get to that in a bit. First, my departure from New Zealand! So in the last post, I had said that it was going to be an adventure getting back to the States. Traveling standby always is. However, on this occasion, it went off without a hitch. I got a seat on the Air New Zealand flight direct to Houston, there was only two of us sitting in our row of three seats, and I actually had an aisle seat. No having to ask people to move or wake up so that you can use the bathroom (insert celebration hands emoji here). I even managed to sleep for about 6 hours of the flight, albeit fitfully. After landing in Houston, I was flying standby to get back to Orlando. For those of you that don’t know what it means to fly standby, I’ll give you a brief rundown. You’re given a boarding pass with no seat so you can get through security. You wait at the gate of your flight until everyone with a paid seat has boarded. If there are any available seats once they’re done, then you can get a seat. This description makes it sound a lot easier than it actually is. More often than not, the plane is full so you get “bumped” to the next flight going to your destination. I have a ton of stories from this, including spending 16 hours in the Houston airport, taking over 48 hours to get to the Netherlands, and a number of times where they tell me to go on the plane but once I’m on they realize there are no seats and I have to leave with the disappointment from being so close yet so far away. It also means that you usually ly first thing in the morning because 6am flights are way less full than 11am. Shocker, right? I mean, if I was buying a ticket there is no way I would choose to be at the airport at 4am. I remember one time as a kid I was so confused because my mom said we were going to drop people off at the airport around 3pm. The only time I had ever left to go the airport was early and I had just assumed that’s what everyone did because that was the only time that planes left! Thank goodness I’ve gotten smarter since then. But I digress. Now that you know the potential struggles of flying standby, the rest of my story will make sense. There were three flights to Orlando after my flight from Auckland had landed. The first to were overbooked (which means that the seats available number was negative. So worse than zero seats. If that’s even possible) at around -9, but the last one had about 45 open seats so i knew I was getting home that night. However, by some miracle, I ended up getting a seat on the very first flight, which meant I was back in Orlando for dinner! So still an adventure, but not as complicated as it could have been. The trip back has also spurred me to try to get back into learning a bit of spanish. I really haven’t touched it since I took my last Spanish class at Macalester in the spring of 2012, so obviously it’s been a while and I wasn’t very good back then either. This drive was instigated by an encounter I had after landing in Houston: this little old lady came up to me outside of security and just started talking to me in very rapid spanish as though I’d be able to understand. I’m not sure what it was about me that gave her that Idea, but all I could say to her was “Lo siento, no hablo bien espanol” which (I hope) means “I’m sorry, I don’t speak spanish well”. Part of me wished I could have been able to help her, but it had been too long. So I’ve downloaded Duolingo, which is an app that you can set a very achievable goal of 10 minutes a day learning a different language. It’s not the best app; if I had to learn it quickly I’d probably try to find something else, but if I’m just trying to be exposed to it every day, it isn’t bad. What I thought was funny was after I’d completed a few exercises, it informed me that I was 4% fluent. I’m not sure how they calculate that, it seems rather arbitrary, but I’ll take it. The funny part is, beneath my fluency percentage, there is an “add to LinkedIn profile” button. Seriously? At 4%? I’m thinking I should get to at least 70% before I hit that, don’t you?? Anyways, it’s pretty funny but it’s also nice to be giving myself something to accomplish each day. As far as being back in the States, things are different but normal in an comfortable way. For example, I still know how to drive on the right side of the road! Just got right back into it like it was nothing. Okay, so maybe I’ve hit the windshield wipers instead of the indicator a couple of times, but semantics. It has been a little strange not having any roundabouts on the road though. They honestly make more sense most of the time. One thing I’ve been missing: SWEET TEA! Oh, the pure taste of sweetness that you know is so bad for you but is so thirst quenchingly beautiful. I had a nice big glass of that when right when I walked through the front door. And Chick-Fil-A. I never ate that very often anyways, but after none for 9 months you get a craving. And let’s just take a second to talk about Target. I don’t think I have to explain how glorious of a reunion that was. People in New Zealand just wouldn’t understand. Along those same lines, thank goodness for the US and having stores open later than 5pm. Or restaurants later than 9pm. Back in the land of 24/7 and I am not complaining. I will complain, however, about our pricing. Why do we not put the tax on an item into the cost? In New Zealand and basically the rest of the world, when you see something that costs $5, it actually just costs $5. That’s all you’d pay at checkout. Here in the US, you see something that costs $5 and you’re like oh man that’s a steal but then when you take it to the checkout, the cashier is like that’ll be $5.35 and then you have to dig around for some coins. Why can’t we just put the tax in automatically so we don’t have to deal with that?! And don’t even get me started on the penny. I’m over it. It costs more than their worth to make them and the rest of the world rounds so you don’t have to deal with that many ridiculous coins. I made it back to the country in time to spend a weekend at Florida Southern College for my sister’s graduation. I’m so proud of her and everything she accomplished in the last four years. I am so glad I was able to be back for it, especially because we had so any family members come into town for the weekend. It was great to be there and to be able to see everyone, including my travel buddy Sam! It had been 6 weeks since I’d put her on a plane back to the US, so it was a nice reunion. And I’m proud of her too! She and her partner are on the potential Olympic kayak team. If they win their race in the Pan Am Championships later this month, she’ll qualify for the Games in Rio this August. Pretty crazy! That weekend definitely beat me though. I ended up with a cold and a hurt toe from wearing heels. Maybe this is my cue to work on the whole being a girl thing. I also got to go to see a musical with my Mom at the new Dr. Phillips Performing Arts Center in downtown Orlando. I hadn’t been yet so it was really cool to see the gorgeous new building. The show was Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, which I had never seen before. It was so cool to get an evening with my mom. And holy cow, I had no idea Carole King had written so many popular songs! And now I’m back in Minnesota! It nice to be back with friends and where I feel very comfortable. I was able to attend Macalester’s graduation and see many of my friends graduate. It’s a strange feeling, being back on campus. It’s hard to explain how it feels; it’s kind of like you’re back where you belong but you don’t actually belong any more. It’s odd, but it’s not necessarily bad. Being at graduation, it brought me back to a point I made in my last post, that a year is not a lot of time. Exactly one year ago from tomorrow, I was the one walking across that stage in the Leonard Center field house. And it feels as though that was literally moments ago. Like I blinked and all of a sudden I was sitting in a different seat. But so much of my life has grown and changed since then. I’m not saying I’m a different person, because I’m definitely still me, but priorities and focuses have changed. Maybe that’s why I feel as though I don’t truly “belong” at Macalester. Plus, they’ve limited the hours on the free popcorn machine in the student center. I mean, I want no part of that. Kidding, kidding. But all jokes aside, it is really great to be back. I also got to see a few of my college friends who graduated with me last night because one of them had a surprise birthday party. I also wasn’t actually sure I was attending until I was on my way, so I was a bit of a surprise too! A couple other things I’ve missed: expansive tap beer options and baseball. Currently watching the Cubs vs. Pirates as I finish this post up. Can you picture anything more American than beer and baseball? I can’t. Nothing too exciting planned for the next week, but I’ll be sure to update you on everything as it comes. Thanks for staying interested! PS. The Cubs are killing it so far this season (despite the loss that literally just occurred 30 seconds ago...) and the excitement is real. PPS. If you want more updates on daily life in real time, feel free to follow my Snapchat! Username is anyaphil. Also I’m better about taking photos on there, so hopefully I can use that to my advantage so you don’t miss out on photos for these posts!
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Meet AnyaHi, Hola, Bonjour, Ciao!
I’m Anya Phillips, a data analyst and travel enthusiast who is always on the lookout for the next adventure! Categories
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