Boarding: Back to the States

Waking up in a panic, Christine realized right before bed that the itinerary was wrong and that our plane left an hour earlier that we had thought. She woke us up an hour earlier that we thought (not like we knew what time it was anyways), we pounded on the volunteer house door and woke them up to take us to the airport. They were not really happy campers!

We made our plane with plenty of time, and the culture shock already hit, even while sitting in the Guayaquil airport. Televisions, cell phones, RUNNING WATER... it was all too much. Thankfully we had no problems or delays, and things ended up working out really well coming home (which was kind of sad!). We all slept a lot and journaled, and attempted to ready ourselves for our return to the United States.

Flying back to New York

Upon boarding our flight from Miami to LaGuardia, we got a real reality shock when a group of about 25 Fordham students, tanned and hyper, were on our same flight... they were coming back from Punta Cana (lucky them?). And when we landed at LaGuardia, we were right back into things, almost like we never left. One of the ram van drivers, a friend of mine, picked us up at the airport, and it was almost like we had never been away. It was a crazy feeling since we had just gone through some of the most amazing experiences any of us had ever had. It was hard to not forget, but at the same time, being back in the States slightly forced us to get right back into normal life.

When I got back into my room... all alone... by myself, I sat in front of my turned off computer and cried! I was so overwhelmed, and called my mother to let her know I was back. I hopped in the shower and couldn't help but start crying again - I wanted to turn off the water while I showered! I was wasting water!... but I really wasn't, in US standards. "I pay for this water", I thought, "it's okay, Sarah... just take a REAL shower." The smallest things, since i have been back, still seem to amaze me, like running water and the small things we have that they don't. But as I have been told, in a story by one of my chaperone's, "you can't send the water to them!"