Summer Break Back Home

After not being back in the great country that is America for almost a year, I was ready to come home. There were a lot of reasons for this. Here is a quick rundown of my two weeks stateside.

The 32-hour door-to-door trip home started on an ANA flight to Tokyo with my good friend Nate (featured in the Aussie posts).

ANA was great, but not nearly in the class of Qatar Airways. The ANA flights I was on had their own personal entertainment screen in the headrest in front of you. Their movie selection left something to be desired, though. There were 87 movies, but most of the movies were listed in 3 different languages (usually English, Japanese, and Portuguese or French). That left me with roughly 30 movies to choose from. Not ideal. I did get to watch Mr. Peabody and Sherman as well as a thrilling 20-minute feature on the 2011 PGA Championship.

The only international flight I had that was not operated by ANA was my Tokyo-Chicago flight back home. That one was run by United and did not have the personalized entertainment system. That was a long 12 hours.

The worst part of the travel home was the 6 hours I was stuck in O’Hare just chillin before the flight to Wichita. O’Hare only offers you 20 minutes of free wifi; for someone without a US SIM card, that sucks. I did, however, get to see the US-Ghana World Cup game, so I had that going for me.

I got home at around 11pm to a warm welcome from my parents and my buddies Chance and Adam.

After spending an hour at home chillin with the ‘rents, it was off to Chance’s place to reclaim my throne as king of FIFA*.

*Chance is good. Ian and Adam suck. Well, that’s not fair. Most people suck compared to me. I’m awesome. You might think it’s arrogance. I think it’s fact. Prior to moving to Asia, I had only played Chance twice and he beat me by 1 goal each time. Great matches, no doubt; he is a worthy opponent. During this trip back home I only got to play Chance twice. Both 1 goal defeats. Smh

The first meal back home was a 3am McDonald’s run. I was really hoping for Taco Bell but they aren’t about that 24-hour life.

The first week back home was mostly dedicated to Ian’s wedding that was coming up that Saturday. It was a great time and I felt so honored to not only be in attendance, but to give a speech as the best man. I hope the speech wasn’t too bad.

(Super Mario)

(great seein this dude !!)

(#regime)

(#weddingSZN)

(the beautiful couple)

I can’t stress enough how honored I was to be Ian’s best man. He is one of the few life-long friends I have and I hope he knows how much I love him.

Other side notes from the first week back home:

-        Chick-Fil-A is still heavenly.

-        My dad still sucks at golf*.

-        I have great friends and family friends that came to my welcome home party.

-        I would do awful things to have American-quality Internet in Indonesia.

*He had the audacity to text me a few days ago that he shot a 39 on the front 9 of a course in Topeka. Yeah, okay, dad.

Week 2 was spent in San Antonio. The purpose of this trip was to spend as much quality time as possible with the family. Michael and Emilie brought the princess of the Phillips family, Ellie, to San Antonio so that grandma and I could meet her. She is a cutie.

(we stopped at a sunflower field on the way to SA)

(so blessed to call these two my parents)

 

My uncle, aunt, and cousins from Phoenix were also nice enough to make the trip to SA to spend some time with us.

(Liar's Dice)

Dad and I snuck in another round in SA. My game had regressed, obviously, but not too bad. I would say I was playing at about a 15 after a year off. Not as bad as I thought I would be.

I usually loathe the drive to and from SA, but this time it wasn’t too bad. I had really missed driving and it was really liberating in a way.

After getting back to Wichita, I jumped back into the car about an hour later to head up to KC to visit friends and my grandparents.

The first night in KC included…

Better than I remember. After that we headed out to Westport where the Lawrence gang was nice enough to come out and enjoy some adult beverages. I remember thinking before I left for Asia that I couldn’t believe I was going to “throw away” these great friendships I had and start fresh in a new culture. Being around that group again reminded me of how blessed I was to spend my college years with such great people. I can’t tell you how great it was to see everyone that night. The fact that they all took the time and effort to come and see me while I was home meant the world to me*.

*Special S/O to Breezy. Chris was my best friend in college and is also on the short list of life-long friends. What a great dude. He went out of his way to make sure that I felt comfortable the two nights I crashed at his place. From morning after Chipotle to stumbling home to watching Entourage, it was awesome being able to spend time with such a great guy.

Other necessary S/Os from the time in KC:

-        Grandma and grandpa – my dad’s parents have always been incredible to me and it was great getting to see them again.

-        Uncle Carl – my dad’s only sibling was in KC at the same time. It was great seeing him.

-        Grant – I have mentioned that Grant is the one who introduced me to the UNI International Fair and that without him I would not be where I am today.

My last night in Wichita included my favorite meal in the world:

(mom's lasagna tho)

I was also lucky enough to have my good friend Thomas and his beautiful wife Janet over for dinner. Their baby, Lincoln, was born after I left for Asia, so it was nice meeting him.

The last night was chillin with the homies Chance and Adam one last time.

My trip back to Jakarta started off very hectic. I was originally supposed to leave Wichita at 6pm, spend the night at a hotel in Chicago, and then head back to Jakarta via Tokyo at 10am the next day.

 (I am allotted 50lbs.)

Chicago experienced a lot of thunderstorms that night and my original flight to Chicago was cancelled. My dad is always on top of everything. I am very grateful for that. He rebooked so that I would leave Wichita at noon, stay in Denver for a couple hours, and then go to Chicago. When I landed in Denver, my flight to Chicago was cancelled. I rebooked onto another flight and eventually got into Chicago at 2am. Somehow, my bag made it to Chicago on the correct flight.

(the joys of traveling 10k miles)

My dad was nice enough to use some of his points to get me a hotel room in Chicago (pictured below).

(#hotellife #baglife #mylife)

Unfortunately, I was only able to sleep about 3 hours there until I had to head back to the airport and catch my Tokyo flight.

There were no problems on my way to Jakarta (except the US got bounced in the World Cup while I was somewhere over the Pacific) and I got back to my apartment around 1:30am with work starting at 7am that morning.

It was a long day, but it was nice getting back and being around my fellow BBS teachers for our Teachers’ Conference.

It allowed me to be reunited with my good friend, Eli, teaching in Semarang (pictured below).

It was a great time back home, but it is back to work for Matty P. This year I will be teaching two P6 English classes. The first week of school went well and I am looking forward to a great second year abroad.

Holla at a playa (mattsphillips@cox.net) if you see him in da streets.

God bless