We rolled out of bed on Wednesday morning, ready to start the journey home. I was glad about it. "I bet we'll get home and walk into the house and be like, This place is a piece of sh*t." After living the life of luxury for almost 2 weeks, it seemed like a thing.
We had breakfast and then walked off the ship. The driver met us right away and we loaded our luggage into the van and made our journey to the airport. I looked out the window and said my good-byes to Italy.
We checked in and boarded our plane. We had a layover in Morocco again. The kids didn't care, they had internet. After a lot of waiting, we got ready to board the plane to NYC. We wound up standing next to this Bohemian guy. He had linen pants, a patchwork shirt, gages in his ears and dirty blonde hair that was pulled into a man bun. We struck up a conversation with him.
"Where are you from?"
"Italy, Turin," he told us, in broken English.
"That's where we just came from. It was absolutely beautiful."
He shrugged, "It's okay."
Then he told us about how he was coming to the US to work at a camp in Pennsylvania. He was really excited about. I was amused that he was unimpressed with Italy but was pumped to go to Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania is okay, it's pretty but it's still Pennsylvania.
He was telling us that he planned to visit NYC and Philly before going to camp and that he would like to visit a friend in San Francisco. I thought that would be good, he looked like he would fit in San Francisco.
"It's very far from Pennsylvania to San Francisco?"
"Yes. Very far. It will take you like 3 days."
"You think I could hitchhike? What is the hitchhike culture like?"
"Well, it's not a really mainstream way to travel in the US now-a-days."
He told us about his parents who are hippies and his brother and how he just a year in Iceland and how his long term girlfriend broke up with him. He was a sweet kid. He was so cute, 23 years old and he had a kind soul. I prayed that NYC and Philadelphia were kind to him.
We had a LONG flight to NYC and we went backwards in time so when we got to JFK it was almost 2 am. I was tired and grumpy. But we were glad to land in the US. Until we got to the terminal. The people working were just rude and being straight a**holes. But we were in New York, so I expected that. We scanned our passports and my husband was selected to be randomly screened. Probably because of the beard.
Me and the kids were not selected so we went through a different line and my husband had to wait in the long ass line with all the foreigners. When I went through passport control, I realized that my husband and I had swapped passports. The officer told me that I could swap back with my husband in the other line and then just come back through.
That's what I did but when I went to get back in line one of the security ladies was like, "You got out of this line so now you have to wait in the other line with your husband."
I was confused. That's not what we were told. It was 2 AM, I was with my minor children, we are citizens and we were selected for extra security.
"The officer said we could get back through," I replied. I wasn't rude about it. I was just stating a fact.
She smirked, pointed to the line and you know what that b*tch said to me, "Nope. Enjoy waiting in your line."
That was the last straw. I lost my sh*t just enough to not get banned from the airport. "I want to see a supervisor!" I demanded. They are government workers, they don't care. I ranted so loud and so hard, "I cannot believe the way your staff talks to people. Some of the people getting of this airplane have never been to the US before and this is the welcome that they get? This is the first impression? Rude, nasty people on some kind of power trip? This is just shameful. I am so embarrassed and disgusted right now. Your people need to get their act together!" The dude just looked at me like I was insane. I AM insane. I needed to get that out.
My kids were mortified and my husband was annoyed but I didn't care. Who tells someone, "Enjoy your line?" I wished I had a tennis racket to smack that b*tch with. I was heated. We waited in line over an hour and they gave my husband the umpteenth degree. I was super annoyed.
By this time it' like, 3:30 am and our flight didn't leave until 8. We slept in the JFK lobby and then got up at 5 to check our luggage. We had breakfast in the terminal. It was $50 and disgusting. Breakfast burritos wrapped in tinfoil that were $9 each. I unwrapped the toil and looked at it. It was grey and disgusting. "I've taken dumps that look more appetizing than this. This belongs in the toilet." My husband was hating me. "Dude! Just shut up and eat it." How far we had fallen in just 24 hours.
Soon it was time to head back to Charleston, we boarded our last plane and just 2 hours later we landed. It felt so good to be home. My dad picked us up and we grabbed lunch before heading home. The house seemed different. It seemed bigger than I remember it being. After 2 weeks in hotel rooms and cruise cabins my house seemed like a palace.
We've been home 2 weeks now and life has returned to it's normal chaos. It seems like was some kind of dream. Now, we have the bug. We are going to Puerto Rico next June but thinking about a British Isles cruise the year after that? I want to see the world and I want to do it while I'm young and still have good knees. We'll see. Regardless, we'll always have Italy!
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