Last Sunday I flew home to the US for a whirlwind visit.  We had many plans to do many things.  While  was able to do most of those things, we had to plan and re-plan ad revise our plans.  This was because of the snow!

I love snow and I miss snow so I didn’t mind.  My parents have so much snow that the mounds from pushing off the deck are snow several feet higher than the four foot deck itself.  The snow now needs to be lifted and thrown. 

When I was home I was lucky enough to see a lot of my family, including several cousins, my parents, grandmother and my darling  brother.  My parents thought it would be fun to take a trip to New York.  One of my aunts lives in NYC, so we headed down to see her.  It was lovely.  My parents and I took the Acela (fast) train from Boston.  It was wonderful and quick, only about 3.5 hours.  There was one small issue though.  On the way home it took 7 hours instead of 3.5 to get back to Boston.  This was because our train derailed less than a mile outside of Penn Station!  We had to be evacuated from the train, they built a staircase and shoveled a path to transfer us from one train to another.  We then had to go back to Penn Station and get on the next train a couple of hours later. No one vas hurt and it certainly spiced up the story.  Why was your train late?  Oh, no reason– it just derailed, slid off the tracks and we were evacuated.  (It was only the first two engine cars actually, but sounds better that way.)

Train wreck aside, the visit was wonderful.  I had an amazing time just hanging out with my parents, going snow shoeing and shopping.  It was so nice to spend time with my family and friends, I really enjoy these trips home. I think the time with my family seems so precious because it is so limited.

I am now sitting in an airport waiting for my plane back to Ankara.  I am happy and excited to be going back, but also glad that the plane has no rails to have issues with.