Headed Home

Michael Buble has a song called Home, and the first words are, "Another summer day has come and gone away in Paris and Rome, but I wanna go home," and that's exactly how I feel tonight!  I'm sitting in my room in Rome, getting ready to try to sleep for a couple of hours before I get picked up to leave for the airport at 5 a.m. to begin my journey home.  I've had a great couple days here, although I don't think I've ever walked so much in 2 days in my whole life!  I am READY to go home!  Lord (and British Airways) willing, I'll be there tomorrow evening.

I promised this update over 2 weeks ago, thinking I'd have time to write it over a week ago.  I severely underestimated how much I had to do before leaving Kenya!  So while I'm pretty worn out tonight, I wanted to take the chance to post this before I get back to the States, especially because several of you have been asking where my update is!

I also decided that in addition to the "Things I'm Looking Forward To" list, I have a "Things I'll Miss" list too.  Please know in advance that many of these things are just silly, I have lived perfectly fine without them for nearly a year, and they are certainly not necessities, or for the most part, things that actually matter at all in the grand scheme of life.  I just won't mind getting to enjoy them again!  Obviously a few are a bit more serious, and those are mostly the people who matter most to me.  :)  And maybe it will help you realize how much we take granted, even little things, in America.  Ok, here goes...

Things I'm Looking Forward To:

• Calvary Christian Church!!!
• ice
• ordering cold water with one word: "What would you like to drink?"  "Water."  See?  Done.
• Tide and dryer sheets...well, and a dryer!
• pollo bandido at Don Senor
• beer cheese nachos
• REAL Heinz ketchup
• friends
• family
• stop lights...more than 2...and people actually stop at them
• less honking (although I've discovered Italians honk more than Kenyans!)
• water that flows continually in the shower and stays the same temperature
• consistent internet service
• smaller potholes
• fewer (or 0?) power outages
• drive thrus
• not paying for parking every time I have to buy groceries
• Target
• being wakened by things other than leaf blowers  ;)
• not having to worry about stepping on a gecko in the dark 
• being able to drive significant distances at decent speeds
• free refills
• no speed bumps!

Things I'm Going to Miss from Kenya:

• mochas from Art Caffe
• Pick N Peel juice (SOOOO good!)
• super inexpensive, really fresh produce and flowers
• dinner at Diamond Plaza and Anghiti...gotta find a good Indian restaurant in Lexington!
• Jico
• the low humidity and temperature
• "my" pool
• cheap "mo-bile" phone service
• the "Hi, fine." conversation  :)
• falling asleep to the beat of drums in the distance
• Kenyan rain
• my "Kenyan" friends
• the Rosslyn guards welcoming me home every time I pull in
• cheap movie tickets
• not being at Joseph and Mary's (yes, that's right) wedding

Well, that's what I have for now.  I'm sure I could add more if I spent more time on it, but that gives you a little bit of an idea of things I'm thinking about.  Like I said, this is meant to be more humorous than anything, so please don't take it too seriously.  :)