The 26-hour journey from Almaty to Elkhart, IN was pretty uneventful and other than the redundancy of watching movies, eating and sleeping ~ it was actually and enjoyable trip! Getting off the plane in London I had the chance to help a young mom with getting her luggage and daughter to passport control and then got through security to my terminal with about 5 minutes to spare. Definitely much better than the usual 8-hour layover I get with other airlines!

Because of the direction I was traveling it remained daylight the entire time. Culture shock began as I looked out the window to see the city of Chicago below me with its towering skyscrapers and never ending streets of houses and businesses. I got to passport control and was sure I would miss my bus as I looked at the 150+ people waiting in line to get through. However, after a few minutes of waiting a woman came over and pointed to a sign that US citizens were supposed to be in a different line ~ whew! What looked to be a 2-hour wait turned out to be only 15 minutes. I then got to the area to pick up my luggage only to discover that it didn’t make it on our plane and would be sent to my house a few days later. Found my bus and headed out for the remaining 3-hours of my long day.

Arriving at the South Bend airport I was greeted by mom, dad and Annie who had just arrived a few minutes earlier. After such a long absence, it was so good to see their smiling faces! And although I had seen Annie earlier in the year when we vacationed in England, I was very thankful that she made the drive up to meet me! The long day finally came to an end and the adventure of the next four months was to begin!