June 17th 2011

Toady's the day when we finally go back home. No one was really thrilled about the 3:30 wake up call, but it gave us time to get our things together and it helped a little with the jet lag. It was sad for us to be leaving the trip, especially since Mrs. Titus, one of the greatest teachers ever, wasn't going home without us. She told us even before the trip that she and her husband were moving out of the country and she wouldn't be traveling back home with us. We didn't manage to get in that many goodbye's in the morning, but it was alright for us in her group. Last night she came by our rooms to give us goodbye letters that talked about how proud she was to watch us grow up. We had enough time that night, so along with the letters we wrote for

Alec and our parents, me and my room mates, Jack and Erik, made a letter of our own to Mrs. Titus. Although I was the last to write in the one paper letter and had the least to write with, the guys said mine was the most touching. So all in all, the ride to the airport went fine, but some of us (including me) hadn't done our inquiries yet, so we had to get those done quick before we could feel any enjoyment of getting home. So while we waited for our first flight, I managed to get the information for my inquiry before the flight. Then we got on the flight and road for a few hours, I watched a couple movies, everything seamed fine. That was until thirty minutes before we landed in Sydney, I suddenly got a sharp and painful jolt in my head. It was worse than a long headache and it was beyond anything irritating I felt. My first idea was that it came to be from the high altitude air pressure, and that didn't make me feel any better since we had to ride another 18 hours of flight. Plus, when we landed I felt in desperate need for a shower and I knew I wouldn't be near one in a while. But before we left Sydney, we had to make our final goodbyes to Alec as well and thank him for being a great tour guide. So to take my mind off the pain, filthiness, and fighting over the arm rest with the kid next to me; I watched hours worth of movies and shows. Then after a couple more hours, we landed in LA and quickly prepared for our last flight to Chicago. At this point in flying, the pain in my head was no concern, my main concern now was how my comfort on the flight would be, in particular the foot space. Thankfully, since we were back in the US so we were riding American airlines, so I could trust the seats would be generally comfortable. That flight had to be the easiest of them all to handle. Anxiety began to spike back up again as soon as we were on the bus back to Grayslake. It was all starting to wrap up now, the teachers were giving us our assignments for the week and we were talking about what we would do when we first got home. Then before we knew it, we made it to the school and there were our loved ones waiting for us. This was a great way to sum up the trip.