Despite my wake up time of 3:45, getting up was barely a struggle. This probably was due to some mix of an early bed time, tempting phone notifications and excitement. It is strange because the end of a trip is usually the worst part. You have all the pain of travelling, but your destination is no longer some place new and exotic. It is simply just returning to your normal life at home. But when you spend four and a half months away from it, returning home becomes almost as exciting as those exotic places once seemed.
I know four and a half months away from homes isn’t much in the grand scheme of things (plus I technically stopped home once during this), but it is a lot when I am only twenty years old. That’s two percent of my life so far!
Long story short, I didn’t have any trouble getting up this morning.
I always have considered myself a morning person, but when you start at 4 AM, that energy only lasts so long. After waking up, I quickly packed all my chargers into my carryon and got changed. I brought all my bags downstairs where Andre was waiting for me. One quick breakfast later, Andre was driving me and my bags to the bus station.
About ten minutes later, we arrived and I said my final goodbye to Andre. I thanked him for all his help and went to meet my friends who were waiting at the bus station. Despite it being early, I could tell many of them shared that same excitement of going home as me. Our bus ended up coming about ten minutes late, which definitely added a little stress to everyone. By the time we all boarded the bus, everything was fine again and we headed to the Lyon airport.
I was considering just sleeping on this hour long bus ride, but I was two days behind on my blogs and needed to catch up. I used this time to write a post for two days earlier. Every once in a while I would look out the window to get some last glances of the French countryside. Part of me was sad to be leaving, but I also have a strong feeling that I will return eventually.
The French Countryside at Dawn from the bus window
An hour later, we arrived at the Lyon airport. This was the fourth or fifth flight out of this airport for most of us and there was no trouble finding our gate.
Nick carrying his two gigantic bags
The check in line went quickly and I was able to hand over my bag with no issues. After a quick trip through security, we had an hour and a half to kill in the waiting area. I immediately bought myself an iced coffee from Starbucks and started working on another blog post. It was interesting to see how differently everyone acted around each other now. When we first flew to France, everyone was super chatty and was trying to make good first impressions. Now no one really cared if you’re classmate was sleeping on the floor next to you or walking around the airport in just socks.
Eventually it was time to board our first flight to Munich. The plane was small and we boarded outside. It’s funny because the first time you board outside, it feels like some special event to be walking down the stairs onto the runaway. Nowadays I just get peeved that I have to go outside.
Since we weren’t able to check in ahead of time, we couldn’t pick out our seats. I possibly had the very worst seat on the plane as I was all the way in the back corner. Not only was I not in the aisle, but I didn’t even have a window next to my seat.
I had someone take this funny picture of me at least.
The flight was only a little over an hour, so I was able to deal with my cramped seat. We arrived in Munich and had less than two hours to make the connection. Most of this time was dedicated to taking a bus from the plane, then a train to our terminal. Some people tried to find a bite to eat, but I was content with just sitting at our gate. About forty minutes later, we boarded our plane for New York.
Our flight was with Lufthansa which is a nice change up after flying only budget airlines 9the past couple months. My random seat assignment worked out well since Nick and I had a three person row to ourselves. The plane had a pretty good movie collection and I spent the first two hours watching La La Land. Afterwards, I watched two-thirds of The Greatest Showman before dozing off for a little bit.
When I feel sleep coming on a plane, I never try to fight it. Unfortunately this nap only lasted forty minutes. I’ll take what I can get. I spent the rest of the flight typing up part of this blog post and a conclusion post. I spent the rest of it watching a movie and talking to Nick.
Eventually we landed in JFK and we were all super excited to be back in the USA. We got through customs super easily and waited for our bags. Unfortunately for me, my checked bag did not make it onto our flight. I was the only one and it was pretty frustrating. At least I didn’t have to worry about carrying my bag. My friends were nice and waited for me until I discovered it was missing.
I said goodbye to my friends and went to the Lufthansa agent to figure out what happened to my bag. The agents said it was still in France, but would be sent over on the next flight. They would it ship to my house at least.
And on that note, I am back in the United States and this is the end of my blog for the time being. I will post a follow up conclusion post.
Here is a picture of my Uncle Ben, one of my greatest blog readers
Foreign Tourist with No Grasp of the Local Language 
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