I’m so tired I can barely keep my eyes open but….I’m home.  Er.  Almost.  John and I arrived in Iowa early this morning (try 4:30am) after spending 23 hours in flight.  I hate these flights home, but they’re a necessary evil.  I’ve found the jet-lag is always worse coming back than going.

We left Bangkok late Sunday night on an Asiana flight and arrived in Korea shortly after 9am.  I think the Asiana desk must have had me on record from the last time I flew with them.  I swore I never would again after being stranded twice in LA on my last trip home.  I wrote a scathing essay about the airline and mailed it to them and posted it on E-pinions after getting into a major round of arguments with an Asiana surface manager last year.  Sometimes it pays to complain.  The airline ended up refunding most of my return ticket to China but it still took three days of traveling before I arrived at my destination.

We ended up flying with Asiana again this year because it was the cheapest flight and the airmiles we will receive will pay for our tickets to Japan in September.  I was pleasantly surprised with Asiana this year.  The service was great and we were quite comfortable.  Both of the Asiana planes we flew on were a little newer and we were quite comfortable.  We were given travel socks, eye masks and toothbrushes.  John loved the individual TV’s and game systems.  The crew were super nice and extra attentive.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen cabin crew move as fast and as efficiently as the ladies on our flights.  We were really impressed.

The only thing that was a bit of a bummer was the a seven hour layover at Incheon Airport.  I asked if we qualified as ‘distressed passengers’ due to the layover and they set us up in a nice hotel with a free lunch.  We had a few hours to explore outdoors.  If initial impressions are anything to judge by, we’d both like to return to Korea.  What we saw was super clean, friendly and accessible.

We boarded our flight to LA at 4pm and flew for eleven hours.  Somewhere along the way we passed the international date line, which boggles my brain a bit.  It’s hard to grasp the concept that we arrived in Minneapolis on Monday night, but it’s actually Tuesday morning in Taiwan.

We ran into a few delays once we hit the States.  We were delayed for half an hour while we waited in the plane on the tarmac for a mechanic to come and take care of some last minute technical details.  We had to bust our butts to make our last flight in Denver and then waited again on the tarmac for an hour and a half for a thunderstorm to pass.  I swear I thought we were both going to lose it.  We were stiff from sitting and could barely keep our eyes open.  Our flight arrived in Minneapolis just before midnight and then we drove for three hours to reach the farm.

I’m feeling like a bit of a zombie today, but I can’t tell you how happy I am to be here.  In addition to seeing loved ones, we have a trip planned to my cottage where we can enjoy the sun and water.  I can’t wait to hit some beer patios in Ottawa.  Despite having just arrived, we’re thinking about our return to Taiwan and are making plans for this fall.  And, of course, we have a wedding to plan!