SURPRISE!

So you may have noticed the lack of blog entries for late December. Hmmm…where did Scotty disappear to? Did he fall off the map? Well, that’s partially true…he did, in fact, fall off the European map…

…and then reappeared on the North American map!

Yes, you read correctly, Scotty went home for Christmas this year!

In mid-November my parents surprised me with the ultimate gift – a free plane ticket home for the holidays! I was so shocked with this offer, as it was completely unplanned and we had never talked about me going home for Christmas prior to this. The funny thing is, I had really, really been wanting to go home for Christmas this year, but wouldn’t allow myself to seriously consider it. At one time I had thought about splurging and buying myself a ticket home, and then make it a surprise and not tell anyone and then just show up at home one day… But, looking at the prices, I realized that this was far out of my reach thanks to my meager Czech wages.

Sooo, when Mommy-Mo said she wanted me home for Christmas, I jumped at the chance! Together we researched online and found a ticket that wasn’t too exorbitant, and with an extra week approved as time off from my school, I had a full two weeks off for Christmas! WOO HOO!

To make it that much more fun, and to keep some bit of a surprise element in the trip, I decided not to tell my friends that I was coming home. (And that’s also why you didn’t read about this in the blog beforehand!) I couldn’t wait to surprise them by showing up at their door completely unannounced. SLEDD is gonna go wild!

I woke up at the crack of dawn on Saturday, Dec. 16th and made my way to the airport. I had a long journey ahead of me, but overall it was smooth sailing all the way. It was only an hour and a half on KLM to Amsterdam, and with just a short layover I thought I could hang out and take some time to meander through the ginormous Schipol Airport. Well, security had other ideas for me… The American security was absolutely ridiculous – it was bloody ‘Level: Orange’ in the States while I was traveling, which meant huge line-ups for security and than a private interview for each passenger before getting on the plane…WTF?)

After dancing through the security hoops we were finally able to board the big bird that would fly us all the way from Amsterdam to Minneapolis – a 9 hour-long journey that took us over the North Sea, Scotland, just south of Iceland and Greenland, and then over Labrador, Northern Quebec, Northwest Ontario (‘ello Thunder Bay down below!) and then finally into Minnesota.

And, I have to confess, I have a whole new level of respect for Northwest. I used to seriously dislike the airline, even going as far to call them ‘Northworst’, the catchy nickname for them I picked up from my Korea buddy Michael. But, I have to say, this time I was really impressed. Northwest has bought new Airbus A330’s for all of their transatlantic flights, and so each seat comes with your own personal entertainment centre. You get your own little screen, and a choice of at least 30 movies that you can start and stop anytime, plus hundreds of songs where you can make your own private playlist. They even have a few computer games, and for the geography geek in all of us, cool maps and satellite images of the globe, so you can see exactly what the plane is flying over. Way cool! I was entertained the whole time, and the food was pretty good too. Maybe Northwest isn’t so bad after all! ;-)

I had a six-hour layover in MSP, but no need to be bored! My good pal Becky, who I’ve known since high school, lives in the Twin Cities with her son, and she was sweet enough to meet me at the airport and take me out for dinner with her new man. The four of us had a lovely meal at IHOP and it was great to be able to catch up with Becky. On the way back to the airport I even got to have a quick peek at Becky’s new home. And then I was back on the plane – again – for the last leg to Thunder Bay.

I landed just before midnight and it was so completely wonderful to walk through the doors and see my excited Mom, Dad, and sister waiting for me in eager anticipation! I had missed them dearly while away and it was a big happy reunion in the middle of the airport, very Kodak moment, very airport arrival scene from ‘Love Actually.’ :-)

Home was fully decked out for the holidays, and I stayed up a bit before finally crashing. I had been awake for just over 24 hours at that point (other than a few short naps on the plane) and really, really needed to go to sleep.

The next day was especially wondrous and memorable. After a delicious breakfast with the family, I decided to head out into Thunder Bay to try and find my friends. I couldn’t wait to see their faces when I surprised them! I had no idea where they’d be, but I figured that Starbucks would be a good place to start. That turned out to be the best idea ever…

As I was walking up to the big glass doors of the café I looked in and saw Danielle out bussing some tables, and Derek (who now lives in Toronto, and was also just home for the holidays.) Wow – two birds with one stone! This is gonna be good…

Derek saw me just before I entered the store, and there was a short two-second delay, as it took a moment for his brain to process the image of me…in Starbucks…in December…when I’m supposed to be in Prague. He let out a huge “WHAT!!!???” that caused everything in the café to stop and every single head turned towards the scream, and he ran and attacked me with the most massive of hugs, a flying fury of beard and hair. Danielle turned to see what all the fuss was about, and then I think she went into the Ninth Level of Shock at the sight of me! She walked over and threw herself into the unbelievably joyous HugFest, and then she started crying, and I started crying, and even Derek got all teary-eyed… It was a very amazing, emotional moment that I’ll certainly remember for as long as I live! I couldn’t have asked for a better reaction from the ‘Double D’ component of SLEDD!

With two more missing componentg of SLEDD still left to find, Derek and I made our way to the mall to try and surprise Emily. Derek attempted to lead her out of the store eyes-closed to maximize the surprise factor, but Emmy and her suspicious/uber-curious nature wouldn’t have any of that! I jumped out from behind the corner and we had another huge warm public embrace!

Lydia was a bit harder to track down… She wasn’t at work, and when we went and buzzed her apartment we got no answer at all… Where could the girl be? Her car was in the driveway so she should be home… We tried buzzing and knocking some more, and then finally a very sleepy Lydia poked her head out from the window upstairs, stared for about five long seconds in silence, and then yelled out “What the fuck!” Once more hugging and dancing took place a few moments later. SURPRISES ARE GREAT!! :-)

With word out it didn’t take long for the news to spread, so in fact a few surprises that I had planned, including Eric, Emma, Wendy, and Ellen found out before I got to them. But I was still able to surprise Jason, Karen (sorta, she actually surprised me in the line at Starbucks one day), Carley, Sarah, Cindy, Kate, and Ryan & Mandy. It was so wonderful to see all my friends, and I got to spend a lot of time with them hanging out and catching up.

The two weeks at home fly by in such a flash. I hate how holidays always move along at such a mach speed! There was virtually no snow this Christmas, but I got to spend the holiday with my whole family so it didn’t matter to me. We had our traditional ‘Toblerone Night’ and spent some time playing games as well.

And as for my friends, well most of my time was spent just relaxing around at someone’s house, but I did host a party at my camp that was a total blast! Lots of music, lots of dancing, lots of drinking, as well as rousing game of Cranium (including some *hilarious* guesses from Danielle!) and some good ol’ fashioned story-telling in the kitchen. Yes, the party had it all, and everyone had a blast. I have lots and lots of incriminating photos…perhaps a few will make it onto the blog site soon! ;-)

Before I knew it, it was New Year’s Eve and time to go back. Sad goodbyes all over again, but less emotional this time than when I first left in August. I know I’ll be seeing my parents soon this summer, and Lydia and Danielle have promised to come visit me this spring, so I have lots of guests to look forward to. I doubt I’ll be back in Thunder Bay any time soon – probably not at all in 2007 in fact – but this visit was one that I really needed, and I now feel strong enough to be away from home for quite a long time.

New Year’s Eve 2006 (or is it 2007? Which year do we use?) turned out to be as non-existent as could be. My plane took off from Minneapolis at around 11pm Central Time, and then next thing I knew we were being served dinner, and it was already 1am Eastern Time (shit! Did we miss it? Or do we use the time zone that we’re currently over? I’m so confused…) and then, unexpectedly, after dinner I fell asleep…and woke up as we were descending into the Netherlands! Shit! Wow! I slept the whole way across the Atlantic! So….uhhh….welcome 2007….? Very strange indeed…

My Czech buddy Stepan was kind enough to pick me up at the airport that evening and drive me back to the flat, but the ride turned out to be a lot longer than we imagined. Prague has a fireworks show for both the 31st and the 1st, and I had arrived just in time to get stuck in the traffic jam for the show. Beautiful fireworks exploded in the sky and it was a nice welcome back to Prague. It’s time to go back to work tomorrow…blah…holiday times are over. But what a great one it was!!! :-)