fighting culture shock....

...by studying at Espresso Royale. I simply cannot face the library yet. Taking off for almost 2 weeks about a month before graduation does not help much with the senioritis. But I'm hanging on to the motivation and energy of the conference, determined to finish strong. I'm ignoring the urge to unpack, tackle the laundry, upload pictures, SLEEP, empty my overflowing inbox, or even simply spend hours reflecting on the experience that I'm coming off of...which would be so easy to do.

Leaving Colombia yesterday was SO hard. Much more than I had expected. I'm horrible at saying goodbyes to begin with, but this one proved to be particularily hard, as we watched the group thin out more and more until we were some of the last few left.

For as much as I wasn't ready to leave South America, the NYC skyline out the window was a welcoming sight as we landed at Newark. After starting the day at 4:30 a.m. in Bogota, Anna and I thought we were on the home stretch as we waited for our connecting flight, enjoying some Subway in the airport, studying, contemplating everything that had happened to us, and how we would bring it all back with us to Madison in just a few hours.

The mood changed a little however, as our flight was delayed twice and we realized that by the time we finally landed in Chicago, several hours later than expected we would have missed the last bus back to Madison. Considering that the past 2 weeks have consisted of about 3 hours of sleep a night, we were NOT about to pull an all nighter at OHare until the next bus this morning.

SHOUT OUT to the Chicago land trainees and the power of AIESEC coming through. They were more than willing to let Anna and I crash with them at 1am with only a couple hours notice. Thanks guys :)

And so with a little salsa and Brazilian funk playing on my iTunes, a large chai next to me, I attempt to transition back into "normal life", whatever that may be...