people to people and the 4th
Independence Day is when Rachel was liberated from her China experience (of course she had a great time! But she was getting a bit worn down and homesick). But the pick up at the airport wasn't until 11:30 at night! This presented a logistical problem in that the airport is an hour from us, and the fireworks can be difficult to escape from when they are over (traffic jam-up leaving the parking lot). So Bob and my dad were all "we can't go!" and I was all "But the fireworks! The baby!" And, I just want recorded forevermore, on our way to the airport, we saw much free flowing traffic from the direction of the fireworks. But they were right in that we would have had to get everything ready to go and such for leaving directly from the fireworks.
We did have a small get-together/BBQ with friends and my dad in the evening. Then after everyone left we had an hour to relax (and watch the illegal fireworks a neighbor was setting off) before bringing balloons, flowers, and a banner with us to the airport. When we got there, many parents had already gathered outside the terminal/security exit. I was very glad to see Rachel. I had not missed her greatly while she was gone, because it really was only 17 days and I was busy with Rebekah for some of it and the baby for all of it, but it was definitely time for her to be home.
We've been recovering from jet lag since then. At first Rachel had a lot of trouble going to sleep at all. We got home at 2am and Bob and the baby and I had to go to sleep, but Rachel stayed up watching TV. She continued to stay up until 3pm the next day, and then crashed SUPER HARD. We had been going to take her to the Olive Garden when she got back, but we just let her sleep because she needed it. Then that night she woke up at 1am and couldn't get to sleep again until I finally forced her into a nap at around 3pm again. But we did wake her up for dinner (we actually went to Spinning Fork instead of Olive Garden because I love it there way better), and then she stayed up until around 11:30pm. Today she got up at 9am and it seems like she'll be on the mend pretty quickly. An 11 hour difference is no joke to recover from! Plus a 14 hour plane ride just to get back into the U.S.
The best quote from Rachel about the trip so far: "It was so great getting into L.A. The air was so clean!"
* * * * *
And then here's the post I made to the Europe delegation board a few minutes ago (Rebekah's group):
Rebekah called us yesterday afternoon. It was great to hear from her! We hadn't heard from her since Day 2. I don't think we'll hear from her more than once or twice more as she said that calling increased her feeling of homesickness.
She told us a ton. She said the ferry was pretty neat, and what she thought was cool about it particularly was that she didn't feel like the boat was moving.
Then she talked about going to the copper mine. She told me a bit about the history, how old it was, and then she said that she found some quartz there. And she said some other kids found some quartz too!
She said the toboggan ride was awesome and she particularly loved to go down fast along the curves.
Her icky food experience so far has been that she ate a thing called "black pudding," and she didn't like it, and then when she found out it was sheep intestines and blood she REALLY didn't like it and felt kind of sick.
She still is having trouble understanding about money and I don't think she's getting much help with it. If you recall, she had a lot of money on her because of being told that the ATM availability wouldn't be good and that a lot of stores wouldn't take Visa. ALLLLLLLLLL of those euros (she was proud to tell me) got exchanged into pounds, and then with only a few days in England we're afraid she's going to be stuck or have to exchange again (which does lose a slight amount of money). Oh well, my other daughter definitely had some learning experiences in China that she is now wishing she had done some things differently, so I expect it will be the same with Rebekah.
We did have a small get-together/BBQ with friends and my dad in the evening. Then after everyone left we had an hour to relax (and watch the illegal fireworks a neighbor was setting off) before bringing balloons, flowers, and a banner with us to the airport. When we got there, many parents had already gathered outside the terminal/security exit. I was very glad to see Rachel. I had not missed her greatly while she was gone, because it really was only 17 days and I was busy with Rebekah for some of it and the baby for all of it, but it was definitely time for her to be home.
We've been recovering from jet lag since then. At first Rachel had a lot of trouble going to sleep at all. We got home at 2am and Bob and the baby and I had to go to sleep, but Rachel stayed up watching TV. She continued to stay up until 3pm the next day, and then crashed SUPER HARD. We had been going to take her to the Olive Garden when she got back, but we just let her sleep because she needed it. Then that night she woke up at 1am and couldn't get to sleep again until I finally forced her into a nap at around 3pm again. But we did wake her up for dinner (we actually went to Spinning Fork instead of Olive Garden because I love it there way better), and then she stayed up until around 11:30pm. Today she got up at 9am and it seems like she'll be on the mend pretty quickly. An 11 hour difference is no joke to recover from! Plus a 14 hour plane ride just to get back into the U.S.
The best quote from Rachel about the trip so far: "It was so great getting into L.A. The air was so clean!"
* * * * *
And then here's the post I made to the Europe delegation board a few minutes ago (Rebekah's group):
Rebekah called us yesterday afternoon. It was great to hear from her! We hadn't heard from her since Day 2. I don't think we'll hear from her more than once or twice more as she said that calling increased her feeling of homesickness.
She told us a ton. She said the ferry was pretty neat, and what she thought was cool about it particularly was that she didn't feel like the boat was moving.
Then she talked about going to the copper mine. She told me a bit about the history, how old it was, and then she said that she found some quartz there. And she said some other kids found some quartz too!
She said the toboggan ride was awesome and she particularly loved to go down fast along the curves.
Her icky food experience so far has been that she ate a thing called "black pudding," and she didn't like it, and then when she found out it was sheep intestines and blood she REALLY didn't like it and felt kind of sick.
She still is having trouble understanding about money and I don't think she's getting much help with it. If you recall, she had a lot of money on her because of being told that the ATM availability wouldn't be good and that a lot of stores wouldn't take Visa. ALLLLLLLLLL of those euros (she was proud to tell me) got exchanged into pounds, and then with only a few days in England we're afraid she's going to be stuck or have to exchange again (which does lose a slight amount of money). Oh well, my other daughter definitely had some learning experiences in China that she is now wishing she had done some things differently, so I expect it will be the same with Rebekah.