The Long Journey Home

After our final dinner, we all went to bed early. We were supposed to meet and disembark at 7:05 am so that meant a horrific 6:00 wake up call.

As expected, the wake up call beckoned early but my Dad got up and showered first so that meant that I could sleep in a little more. I got up shortly after 6:15, showered and did my last bit of packing.

We had decided the night before that leaving at 7:05 was a dumb idea since our tour guide was not going to meet to pick us up until 9:30am. Either we could leave the ship early and sit in the harbour terminal amid 2000 tourists, or relax comfortably in our rooms. We decided to hang out on the ship. We didn't care if they were angry with us for not leaving at 7. After getting up so early, we had a leisurely breakfast and sat around and chatted about things until 8:45.

We disembarked the ship without queuing up and when we arrived at the terminal it was dead easy to find our bags because almost all of the others had already been picked up. We zipped through security and found our guide rather easily. She and our tour van driver had our bags packed and were on the road by 9:25. I expect that if we had left the ship at 7:00 that we would have waited in line for such a long time that we likely would have not been much before 9:30 anyway.

We toured the city for a while and saw a bunch of sites. We stopped at a huge antiques market and the old harbour area of the city. We saw an assortment of old buildings, and monuments as usual. The day was very hot, but our bus was nicely airconditioned. We had lunch at a restaurant called The Happening. It was a vrey swish restaurant and we had an incredible meal of empanadas and sausage, steak frites, ice cream, with a hefty amount of beer.

After our meal, we headed to the airport to catch Air Canada flight 93 from Buenos Aires to Santiago, Chile. The airport was nothing unusual, but we waited in line for a long time to check in and then in to pay the airport tax and then in security and then in immigration. By the time we made it through we had only 30 minutes before take off. We pooled all of our Argentine money together and bought some water and a few beers. I left everything extra in the tip jar.

We boarded and found our seats. I decided to crack open on of my newly purchased beers, and start a sudoku. Everything was fine until a flight attendant said, "Is that your beer?" A dumb question, sure, but I responded "yes" and she proceeded to inform me that I wasn't allowed to drink my own beer on the flight. Then she took the half empty bottle away. I was surprised since they serve beer anyway, but I wasn't angry or anything. It felt much the same way as it did in high school and university when the police would make you pour out a beer if you were drinking in public. At least there wasn't a fine this time around. I was a little embarrased too because I had offered one to the guy sitting beside me and he had declined.

The flight was about as good as it gets. The meal was awful and I ordered a gin and tonic so that I could keep and take home the little mini gin container. It came already mixed, and I didn't feel like drinking it. I had only ordered it for the bottle.

When we landed in Santiago it was about 8:15pm. We had to leave the plane so that it could be refueled, security checked, and then restaffed. In the airport, I changed from shorts and a tshirt into jeans and a sweater so that I would be ready for Toronto. I considered shaving, so that I would feel a little better, but the bathroom wasn't a place that I wanted to spend much time for frivolities.

We waited to board our plane and did so at 9:15pm. I got right back into the same seat that I had been in from Buenos Aires, which made the stopover all the more ridiculous, but that's just the way things go. I worked on some sudokus for a while.

I had a terrible flight. I was in the middle seat and my Dad hogged the armrest. There was a stranger on the other side so I didn't want to hog his armrest. He just read The Davinci Code and listened to his iPod. I was also very self conscious about my body odour. I had been up so long and it had been such a hot day. I had also run out of antiperspirant a couple of days prior and had been forced to resort to using my Dad's deodorant. That junk never works for me.

I wasn't able to sleep much at all. I watched the in flight movie, "In Her Shoes" which wasn't altogether terrible, but certainly not a life altering piece of filmmaking. I tried and tried to sleep but I just couldn't do it. I was so uncomfortable, that I ended up just being really antsy and squirming in my seat from 12:30 until 7:30. At 4:30 I was psyched because they had said that they were going to give us breakfast shortly before we began our descent to Toronto. I knew that we were getting close and that we were almost home. I realized that I was still on Chile time, and that I had to put my watch two hours back. That was very demoralizing.

We did land on time, and we touched down at 6:25am. We went through customs without any problems, and it didn't take too long to get our bags. We said all our goodbyes and headed out to meet my brother-in-law. We found him easily and drove downtown.

I arrived home with my Dad at about 8:00 and the reality of things began to hit. I had been able to escape the horror of my mother's death, but now had to begin my life again. I haven't really been home since January 27th, and when I walked into the apartment exactly the way I had left it, I was saddened to have everything come rushing back.

I decided that I needed to clean up. Job one would have to be the laundry situation so I started that: it wasn't pretty. I need a shower so I did that. I also needed to do the dishes, but since they've been sitting where I had left them three weeks ago, I needed to soak them first. I filled the sink and couldn't stay on my feet anymore, so I went to bed.

I woke up at 12:24, and finished cleaning. There was a lot of dusting, and vaccuuming to do, but I managed it. I switched the laundry up a few times and it's finally done. I also managed to get some filing done while I watched the Olympics.

I'm feeling better now that my place is organized. I have a bit of an emptiness as I usually do after ending a vacation. This one is a little different, because I also have the emptiness of this being the first real moment that I've had alone since my Mom died. With the rush of the funeral arrangements and the trip, I haven't had a chance to really contemplate what my life is going to be like without her. The last time I woke up in my own bed was to my father's telephone call about the crash.

I had a wonderful time in South America and it is a place that I hope to return. My father's friends were wonderful, caring, fun people who I had some great times with. Now that I am back I am looking forward to reconnecting with my own friends all of whom I know are going to help me through this.