When I first got to the airport in Cincinnati, I was rushed at the gate by Abby, my younger sister, and Allie, my cousin. To hear Abby tell it, she only lost the race to me because she didn’t want to sprint down the arrivals gate with a security guard standing right there, but Allie claims it wouldn’t have mattered if Abby hesitated or not. Me, I’m not taking sides on that one, I just know that it was the best feeling in the world to be crushed by their collective hug. My parents waited patiently and, well, I cried again. We all went home together (first moment of reverse culture shock: freaking out to be driving on the right side of the road again!) where we found my Aunt Karen, Uncle Mark, and cousin Melissa waiting to say hello, and I distributed Australia presents almost immediately. Then the cousins all settled down to watch Just Friends, which over those few weeks, became my new obsession.
Over the next week, I spent a significant amount of time with my family, and then set off for Fort Wayne for a slew of academic meetings and caught up with a bunch of the good friends I was lucky enough to meet over the past few years. Thanks, BRoy and Kari for putting me up for the few nights I was there and making me feel right at home with you guys all over again, as well as KMac for completing the roomies reunion! To Amy Jo, Doris, Layli, Aaron, and all my Writing Center friends who I saw however briefly, you made me feel like a super star or something coming back to the WC and I was so glad to see you all!! Matthew, Allyssa, and Vinnie, it was so fun to get to see you guys and hang out for an extended period of time and catch up. And of course to my advisers, Dr. Cain, Dr. Corbin, Dr. Virtue, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the help you provided me while I was in Fort Wayne, not just with study abroad, but with looking ahead to grad school and being the strongest support system I could hope for while being away from the university. Melissa and Dr. Visalli, I’ll be sure to catch up with you as soon as I make my way back to Fort Wayne, and I so appreciate the occasional messages I’ve received from you since I’ve been away.
After a few days in Fort Wayne, I drove just a bit farther south to Muncie to visit Jackie and try to repay the favor for visiting me all the way in Australia. What fun! Jackie and I celebrated being in Muncie just like we did being in Australia, and I got to see a Ball State basketball game win big against Butler (the same day as that fateful Xavier and UC game…why Cincinnati? Just, why??) as well as the Heorot, which I’ve been wanting to see ever since taking Old English. What a beer selection they had! And delicious too. I was also introduced to some of the best late night food: buffalo chicken bites. Imagine a chicken nugget covered in buffalo sauce with, wait for it, ranch dressing in the middle. So good! Thanks, Jackie, for showing me an incredible time in Muncie, Indiana. It was the best!
After the weekend in Fort Wayne, I prepared for my visit to Chicago with the French Consulate so I could continue the visa application process. Abby and I took off from Cincinnati that Thursday after her exams to stay with our cousin, Tiffany, and her husband (my cousin-in-law? Is that a real thing?) Joe, who so kindly put us up and took us to come delicious restaurants. The trip was mostly so I could go to the Consulate, but also for shopping, and I happened to stumble across an off for Teaching English as a Foreign Language. I ended up walking in and getting all kinds of information on the program and might actually be thinking about taking a year or so after my undergrad to do a bit more traveling and figure out what exactly I want to do for my master’s. Lots to think about with that though!
I spent the rest of my time in Cincinnati hanging out with my parents and sister for the most part, but I saw a whole lot of the rest of my family, too, despite our being fairly well spread around the country now. I just began to write out a list of you all, got to the tenth name, realized I wasn’t a third of the way through, and have instead to just tell you all I love you equally together! Suffice it to say that my mom and her nine siblings, as well as eleven of my twelve cousins plus some spouses and family friends managed to get together over the holidays, including Veronica (the collective name my girl cousins and I have come up with that identifies us as one person.)
I also spent some decent time with my dad’s side of the family, which is a fraction of the size, but claims an equal piece of my heart. For Christmas for my grandma, I put together a photo album of my Australian adventures, because she’s been so, so significant in helping me out and making these once in a lifetime opportunities possible, just as my parents have. I actually got to sit down with her for a time and look through the pictures while telling her some of my stories. She returned the favor as we sat in her kitchen talking about her side of the family and sharing stories of her past and about some of my extended family on that side, which I always love to hear about.
I don’t think I’ve gotten the chance to spend so much time, quality- and quantity-wise, nor see that many family members in years, both sides included. Though I somewhat neglected preparation for France, as well as some grad school application things that I’m still working through, I wouldn’t have traded the family time for anything. It made leaving this time around that much harder, too.
Aside from family, I had the chance to catch up with plenty of local friends, though I still missed quite a few and didn’t get nearly enough time with others, unfortunately. Over the break, I got to have drinks and dinner with Jenn, drinks and an overnight with Jill, a mini high school reunion with Jenn, David, and Will (who I hadn’t seen in six months or a year, respectively, and it was so, so good to see!) and Kreimer, go to dinner and hang at my place with movies with Jackie and Avni, spend a few much needed nights catching up with Shata, and have multiple sleepovers and lunches out with Allie. I failed a bit on the picture end of things while I was at home, but I have every intention of righting that as soon as I get home again and get to see everyone.
And on top of all the face-to-face time I got with everyone at home, I think I managed to stay in decent digital contact with the friends I made in Australia! Between Whatsapp, Facebook, and Skype, I managed to talk to quite a few people, so guys, keep the messages coming, and I’ll be sure to keep in touch with you, too. Hopefully, while I’m here in France, I’ll get to see some of the Europeans I was able to make friends with, so here’s to continuing to stay in touch!
Basically, it was so good to be home. As soon as I got back to my yellow bedroom, my overexcited dog, Sebastian (my car!), around all my friends and family, it felt like I'd never left in so many ways. I felt so welcome by everyone, and I was genuinely excited to see each and every one of my family members and friends. I don't know if I'm growing up or if the time apart changed things just enough, but I felt even closer with my family that I don't get to see too often. I didn't realize how much I love my city and how big of a deal it was to finally be in my hometown (random memory: the first Sunday I came back to Cincinnati, Allie took me to a Bengals game where, obviously, they played the Star Spangled Banner. It was the first time I'd heard the national anthem in at least five months, and the music literally brought proud tears to my eyes and made me realize how much I love my country.). Then, I felt at home in Fort Wayne, though I was crashing with friends both nights. I can't believe, either, how quickly Australia felt immediately and completely like home, and I miss it as much from France as I do any of my other homes. What a funny idea, the concept of "home".
I’ve realized this alone is a decent sized post, and I’m going to try my best to scrunch down my posts in terms of length and instead write more, shorter posts that way I don’t have to sit down and catch up on weeks’ worth of events – I know how many times am I going to hope and promise that? But, it’s a new year, so maybe I’ll have some luck! So, I’ll cut it here with the home stuff and instead start a new post right now about what’s happened in France these last few days, and hopefully post that tomorrow. Preview for that post: flying (and driving through London on the left side of the road which felt so right that it felt weird), bread, meeting lots of new people, more bread, headaches and exhaustion from having to constantly translate, heaps of more bread, and moving into my new (yellow!) apartment with my new roommate! Should be a good semester, even though I can already tell it’ll be way different than anything I was used to in the states and anything I experienced last semester in Australia, but here’s to new challenges and new friends! Hope you all are well back at home…and by home I mean Cincinnati, Fort Wayne, and Wollongong.
Here and there,
Kiley
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