The last couple of days in Haus Erasmus were very emotional. I think that I signed more books and wrote more notes to people than I did at my high school graduation! Julien had me in tears when he gave me the biggest French hug ever. I am going to miss everyone SO much, and will definitely never forget the past four months. Our big group of friends had one last dinner together at a Mongolian restaraunt, which was absolutely delicious!!! It was also Connie's birthday, so we had a double celebration. After dinner, all of us finished packing and the girls and I sat around and talked for a while. Nina and I layed in our beds and had our typical nightly conversation and just laughed until the wee hours of the morning. I finally fell asleep around 3am. Studying abroad in Vienna has been the absolute BEST experience ever, but after 4 months away from my family, friends, and the Kentucky Wildcats, I was quite ready to go home. Amber and I woke up at 6am and stuffed the last bits of our luggage in and headed out the door. The first person that we met when we came to Vienna was Srdjan, so, naturally, he wanted to be the last person that we saw! Surge helped Amber and I lug our massive tons of suitcases to the Westbahnhof bus station. Saying goodbye to Surge was a really hard thing to do. He was so fun!!! We met up with Steve, Ralph, Kelly, and Kristine at the airport...... and the frustration began! We were first in line, and I think that the KLM airlines hired a bunch of elementary school kids!!! It took the 6 of us almost an hour to get through the line. (My luggage was only 3 kilos over the limit, so I didn't have to pay nearly as much as everyone else) When I got up to the counter, the lady told me that when we connected in Amsterdam, we would have to print off our tickets when we got there for some reason.... I dunno! Then, when Amber got up to the counter, the lady notified our group that bad weather was going to be on an hour delay!!! This was not good, because mine and Amber's layover in Amsterdam was very short originally... so we would be cutting it very close. -- As we were walking toward the gate, a girl that was beside us in line was running back to the counter and stopped us. She said that we had to rebook our flights from Amsterdam to Detroit, because of the hour delay. The two of us turned around, went back to the counter, but then had to turn right back around. The lady told us that we would only be able to rebook when we got to Amsterdam, but to see if we could make our original flight first...... grr..... ok. Over an hour after we were supposed to, we boarded our flight in foggy Vienna, and were off to Amsterdam. I immediately fell fast asleep, since I was running on very little sleep!! When the plane landed, I looked on my watch, and it was 12:55.... and our next flight was supposed to take off at 1pm!!!!!! Um... not good. When we got to the terminal, Amber and I said some very very quick goodbyes to the Bostons, and then rushed off to look at the screen to see if we could possibly make our flight. Amber saw our flight number first. We looked at the time, and our jaws both dropped. The flight was long gone. WHAT WERE WE GOING TO DO? We ran over to an information desk and asked the cute little info guy where to go. He pointed us in the direction of Transfer Desk 2 and said, "Get in line, girls. It is a disaster." Well awesome. I've only been gone from home for 4 months, and in a few days it is Christmas time.... but there's no rush... not at all. I was beyond frustrated when I saw a crowd of several hundred people standing around this transfer desk. We took a number from the automatic number machine and sat down on the floor. We started talking to people, and learned that because of the bad weather in Amsterdam, tons of flights had been canceled.... and they were all in the same spot as we were........ and the wait began. We could tell that we were going to be there a while when the airline people brought out free water and sandwiches. They feared that we would STARVE or DEHYDRATE before we got our flights rebooked!!! That definitely not a good feeling. The numbers that we got were split up between the business class and the poor college student aka economy class. Our number was in the 700s, and after 2 hours of waiting, the desk people had only begun to creep through the 500s. We knew that there HAD to be other flights going out to Detroit. That wasn't the question. The real question was if we would ever even get to the desk to catch one of these flights. FRUSTRATION!!! Amber and I just plopped down and waited it out, when we were approached by an older English guy. He asked us what number we had, and said that originally he had an economy class number, but picked up one of the business numbers, because the desk people didn't check!! SWEET! We quickly found a discarded number and hopped in line behind some Sweeden people in suits! After 6 hours of waiting in line, we got up to the desk to rebook. The next flight out to Detroit wasn't until the next day!!! WE JUST WANT TO GO HOME!!! So.... we finally had our tickets.... but NOW what? This girl was not, under any circumstances, sleeping on a bench by the nearest Starbucks. Noooo sir. The KLM airlines woman told us to go down to the KLM counter at the exit, and they would hook us up! The KLM lady called a hotel for us, gave us a pack of free things (including soaps, 5 minute phone card, and socks!) We went outside and caught a shuttle to the hotel after waiting some more in the freezing cold. Amber and I just laughed at this, because we had been waiting in lines for most of the day... why not wait some more?? lol. While riding to the hotel, I just pictured in my head two Kentucky girls huddled together, shivering, under a brown sheet in an Amsterdam roach motel. Bleck! However, when our bus pulled up in front of our accommodations, our jaws dropped. This hotel was awesome! There were huge Christmas trees and snowmen decorating the lobby, and well-dressed people walking all around. This place was looking sweet! We navigated our way through the halls and finally reached our room..... and OH, how glad we were to see a bed. I didn't even care which country I was in... I just wanted some sleep!! Amber and I rested and relaxed, took baths, called home, and watched CSI (in English) on our huge flat screen tv! Oh, it was wonderful. The next morning, we got up super early, caught the bus, and headed off, once again, to the airport. When it was time to line up at our gate, we were kind of confused. There were 4 airport workers at different podiums. They called people up one by one and kind of interviewed them! I had never seen this in an airport before! Amber and I looked at our tickets and saw that we were GOLD MEMBERS (heavenly sounds!). This meant that we got to skip the HUGE line and immediately board the plane. Amber's step-dad, Eric, bought our tickets, and since he travels a lot for his work, he got to use his gold member status on our tickets. Thank you, Eric!!!! We boarded our flight smoothly enough, and snuggled down in our seats. On almost every flight that I have ever been on, the people helping have been women. I had never had a male flight attendent before, but EVERY helper on this plane was male. Amber and I made friends with Jerry, who made us fresh coffee upon request!! :) We didn't sleep much, but watched some great movies and just got even more excited to come home. The flight went by relatively quickly, and before we knew it, we were in the United States!!!! More specifically, Detroit. -- We had one hour to get to our next flight, which would have been fine, had we not had to go through customs (along with a million other people). Amber and I had to wait for our luggage, pull it off the conveyor belts, and get through customs before the flight took off.... and our gate was pretty far away. Needless to say, we were stressing. I found both of my huge bags in about 5 minutes, but one of Amber's big bags was no where to be found!!! We waited until the last possible second, but eventually had to leave the bag that had most of her clothes in Detroit. We were not about to miss another plane and stay in Detroit for another day!! I went in front of Amber and got through customs, and then hurried straight ahead to re-check my bags to Lexington. Bob (the suitcase security man) helped me, probably because he could tell that I was frazzled about having only 20 minutes to get to the plane. I turned around, and Amber Dillon was (like her suitcase) NOWHERE to be seen. I flipped out! She was right behind me!!! After about 6 or 7 minutes of wondering where the heck she was, she appeared out of a random door to the side of the room. The bald customs guy had gotten mad at her because she was rushing, and made her go through the food and live animals checkpoint (even though we had no fruit or squirrels in our luggage, I assure you!) After we finally got her back, we got Bob to fast track us through the next series of lines and give us directions to our gate. And then we ran..... As we were hustling through the airport, this young American guy kept looking at us. I guess he heard us talking in our country accents to eachother, because he started chatting with us. He was pretty cool, and we walked with him and talked about our travels until we reached our gate and he kept walking to his gate (which was taking him to Alabama). Amber and I were QUITE relieved to sit down by our gate knowing that the next time our plane landed..... we would be in KENTUCKY! But, of course, the plane was delayed (as was beginning to be custom with this trip, haha). Finally, about 40 minutes later, we got on the plane, sat down in the front, popped in the ipod, and took off for Lexington. The plane was a small one, so we could see out the window. The terrain started looking ever more familiar, and I was so excited that I couldn't contain myself! :) About 5:30, Amber and I felt the plane touch down at the Lexington, KY airport. OH MAN! We rushed off the plane (I had just about enough of flying for a few months!) and went...... into the bathroom! We had to freshen up to make sure that we looked as good as possible for our little families! Plus, this was the first public bathroom that we had used for free, so we wanted to take full advantage of it! As we came down the Lexington escalator, I almost jumped out of my little Ugg boots! My entire family was standing at the bottom, with colorful signs in hand! I ran to hug my little mom, and then dad. Dad started crying, so of course, I did, too! Then I went around and hugged the other 15 or so people that were waiting to see me: Mom, Dad, Sara, Danny, Bryce, Meem, Phil, Pam, Keith, Brent, Angie, John, Haley, Adam, and even Rhonda, Jeff, and Alyssa! Alyssa looked just about as happy as I was to finally be on American soil!! -- The last, and probably one of the most exciting, things was the present that Rhonda and Jeff gave me. I opened up a little wrapped box...... to reveal a University of Kentucky Music City Bowl 2008 shirt! This got me super pumped for the next installment of my life..... American Football! YES! After leaving the airport, my entire family went to my house for chili and story time. I can tell you that I am unbelievably excited to be home, see my family and friends, and just relax for the Christmas season. My trip to Europe is something that I will NEVER forget. I had an amazing time, and will never be able to describe all of the things that I saw, people that I met, and experiences that I had. I LOVED Study Abroad 2007....... let's do it again! :)