0 Days!!!  Happy Anti-Christmas

Well today is it, our last day in the states. We are very anxious to get started and on the road. I can’t believe how fast this day has come upon us. It seems like no time ago we were counting down from 100 days.

 We spent the morning packing up our stuff, trying not to forget anything. Enjoyed our last shower for a while and tried to sort through my (Saben) still not finished pack.  We were finishing right about the time that Latham (Saben’s brother) pulled in to take us to the airport … but first Anti-Christmas.

Anti-Christmas started about 6 years ago, Lin and I plus most of our friends did not celebrate Christmas growing up and so Christmas day was always a bit of a drag as there is nothing open and nothing to do. So a little over a year after Lin and I got together we started celebrating Anti-Christmas, Which basically involves us and a bunch of friends getting together for Chinese food on Christmas day.

So we went and had Chinese food with Latham and his girlfriend Kate and our best friend and com padre Jared. After a decent Chinese buffet meal we were off to the airport. Saying goodbye was pretty strange. There is not really any salutation that fits our situation. “See you later” doesn’t really qualify when “later” could be years away. So we said goodbye and snapped a quick photo before we went inside.

us at the airport

Check in was super fast and we would have been right on time had our flight not been delayed by a couple of hours. Flight was uneventful (the way it should be).When we got to Miami, we were starving and everything was closed for the night except this little pizza place. Being in Miami was pretty much the beginning of our culture shock because we heard more Spanish being spoken than English. It literally felt like another country (i.e. Not part of U.S). It was getting late and we were trying to find a quiet spot to hang out for the duration of our 9 hour layover. We happened upon a little back corner and camped out for a while. We were hoping to be able to spend the night inside the secure zone but the Taca desk didn’t open until 2:00 am. so we were stuck in the wilds of the public side of the airport until early in the morning.