The Image above is my favorite from the whole trip, i know you have seen it before but after i browsed my 4,998 photos in 56 files i kept returning to this image as my fave. my second favorite is this one:
Rain Rose
My Favorite day was obviously the Hard Rock London when i got to hold Gene Simmons Bass:
After spending a week back in Kansas, half of which i was in Wichita with my family and the other half i was home in Manhattan i have had time to reflect on my experience and journeys over the past month.
First I will give you a rundown of traveling home:
The night before we all hung out and had fun goofing around, after a bit I gave in and went to bed to that I would get up at 7 am, I already had all my bags packed so all I would have to do it hop up and put shoes on. I set up my wake up call for 645 a.m. so that I would be downstairs at 7 am as planned. Well the next morning the phone rang and I was expecting it to be the wake up call, and I heard Armon's voice telling me it s 7 am and they are heading to the underground station. I was like CRAP and put my shoes on and headed down stairs, where I ran in to abbey and told her bye and to have fun because she was staying an extra week in London. I rounded the corner and saw Easton and Dani and told them bye and ran to catch up with armon and the group. Jen had already left for Scotland so I didn't get to say bye to her. We got to the subway got our one way pass and hopped on to get to Paddington station to take the Heathrow express to the airport to head home. Once we arrived at Paddington we had to get our passes stamped and get on the train. Kacie and Matt where first in line so the caught the first train and the rest of us had to take the next train. We got to the airport, got checked in and dropped of our check bags and got our passports stamped again and headed to the gate. Somewhere in the process Hanna and I got separated from Jeremy and armon then I got separated from Hanna so I got to the gate solo and discovered Kacie and Matt. Shortly after Hanna and Jeremy showed up and later Armon. Soon we where boarding the plane and getting settled. We were in the middle section again, but this time there where TV screens in the head rests and you could choose movies to watch or games to play. So I watched Valentine’s Day, when in Rome, Extraordinary Measures, Percy Jackson the lighting thief and finished with bride wars and next thing I knew we was landing in Chicago. Where I had a 6 hour layover before my flight home and everyone else had like a 2 or 3 hour layover, once we got through customs and got our check in bags re-checked and allowed back in the country and to TSA to go through to our final gates to head home. I mostly sat at my gate and read a book until it was time to board. Then it was a quick 2 hour flight home where once we landed and I got off the plane, my duffle bag strap broke! WTF? Lol so I literally had to DRAG it through the airport in ICT and after I passed security again I looked upon a familiar sight of my stepdad and with him my mom and finally maw maw. It was so good to see them again. I spent a few days at home with them and came back to Manhattan on Thursday and surprised josh. I rode up with Maw Maw who was heading to KC to see her BF Donna. Walking in the door and seeing my hubby and babies was better than anything I can describe or imagine. My babies have been snuggling me nonstop since I have been home.
Like I said now that I am home and have had time to reflect I had a great experience. For the most part I had a great time! I got to experience things that I thought I would only dream about! It was a whirl wind trip, something new every day. I am sure that as I get older I will appreciate my experience more. But as of right now I know that I am one of ten lucky people who got to go and have a great time. I appreciate Armon organizing and creating this class. I am a very visual learner and getting to see the places that I have been reading about helped bring it all together. I have experienced and seen things I thought I would never get to see, Stonehenge, Eiffel tower, London, The Louvre and Mona Lisa and other things I can’t think of right now. During this trip I have been able to mark a lot off my "bucket list" and I have had to rearrange my list so now in my top five is: Pyramids of Giza, Las Vegas Strip by night, Rome to see the Coliseum, see the blue coastal waters off Miami, and Mount Rushmore.
Anyway I mostly wanted to say how much I enjoyed the overall experience, and things I got to do. Yes there where bumps here and there, but nothing can go smoothly all the time and I think for the most part all the pain and heartache was worth it to have this once in a life time experience.
Next up is getting my assignment together for the class. Armon rented a gallery to have a showing of all our projects together. I am nervous because I have never had my work publicly displayed. I am not even totally comfortable showing it to my friends and family let alone have it in the same room as my peers. Some of them are way better than I am. I think mostly because they have the instincts that I do not, I still try to evaluate everything in a scientific way instead of letting my instincts take over. Something personal I have to work on and I will over time.
This is the last official post for this blog but I will keep it active so that I can reflect on my experience and so that future groups who get to go on this trip can read it and see what we did and how much fun it was. I hope that one day I will get to go back to Europe and experience it with my husband cuz I think that I I will have a much better time with my family and loved ones.
Thanks for reading and keeping up with me over this last month and leaving comments! I enjoyed reading them while I was gone it helped keep me from getting home sick.
Love,
Natasha
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