My trip back to the United States began at 7:30 AM (Warsaw time, aka 12:30 AM Midwest time) on Friday, April 24th. Our group did our final museums and then our big group dinner. While Warsaw rained on us, it still didn't get us down.
Upon arriving back to the hotel, most of us stayed up. I showered and packed and returned to the lobby at 3:30 AM. It's now Saturday, April 25th in Warsaw (and only 8:30 PM on Friday in the Midwest). We were driven to the Warsaw airport and boarded a plane around 6:30 AM. I was so tired that I fell asleep before the flight attendant explained how your seat belt works and where the oxygen masks are located and woke up about half way through the flight to receive my complimentary glass of water and warm pretzel and then finally woke up as the door to the plane was opening and people were taking off their seatbelts. I didn't even feel us landing! Our group had a three hour layover in Berlin and then it was time to fly to Chicago.
I slept less on that flight; watched a few movies (can't go wrong with James Bond Skyfall) and started reading a part of Primo Levi's memoir (he was a survivor of Auschwitz).
So hello Chicago! It was about 12:30 and we had exactly an hour and a half to get through customs and security to make our flight to Cedar Rapids. Let's just say things got a little tight and I got to experience running through O'Hare and jumping most of the security line to get to our terminal.
The entire group made it on the flight and by 3 PM, I was safely back in Cedar Rapids. My good buddy Alison W. picked me up and drove me back to campus. I did a bit of unpacking, threw in a load of laundry, and caught up with my roommate, Millie. Alison and I went out to grab a frozen pizza and spent the night in my apartment catching up. We both got to bed early because we had a big Sunday.
If I wasn't crazy busy enough, after I return home from my international travels, I hopped into a car on Sunday to see Elise, my clarinet buddy and friend at Coe, get married in north western Iowa. Alison and I were buddies and made it there to see the ceremony and then eat and dance at the reception! It was a lovely time and we even snapped a photo of the Coe kids who were there:
Alison and I headed back to Coe on Sunday night. I got a few hours of sleep in and then went to class this morning. It was sort of weird seeing my group in Hickok Hall instead of the lobby of our hotel. We watched Downfall, a German made movie that shows the last days of Hitler and the Third Reich. It was a fascinating movie and after writing this blog post, I'm planning on doing some in-depth research about the movie and the criticism it received. I have the rest of this rainy Memorial Day off and hope to get some good work done. After a semester of working on NYPL's Veterans Oral History and after this May Term, Memorial Day looks a little different in my eyes. It becomes a more powerful day in my eyes and I thank all the veterans who gave their lives for our freedom.
I hope to crank out a few more blog posts this upcoming week. Keep reading!
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