Finally Home!

After 54 days of packing, walking, taking pictures, and sweating, I can honestly say it's good to be back home. I landed in Kansas City on Wednesday around 6 and have already eaten bar-b-q 3 times. Nothing wrong with that.

Hopefully you all enjoyed looking at the blog and felt like you got a little taste of my trip. However, do realize that I took over 1000 pictures over the past 2 months. I am going to try and get everything organized before I start work on Sept. 5. I will send links to you all with pictures that you can view at your leisure. I will try to cut these photos down substantially. I am also thinking about starting up a blog that will cover the first few weeks of work that you all can enjoy looking at too! Wrong.

So as I was flying home from Madrid, I put together a few stats about the trip that I thought were fun to think about:

• Visited 7 countries
• 23 different cities and towns (10 Asian/13 European)
• Encountered 14 different languages
• Over 23,000 miles of flight time via 14 different flights
• 14 train rides
• An undisclosed, but substantial amount of money spent!!

Overall, this trip was one of the highlights of my life as I saw some amazing things and had the chance to meet some great people. A lot people have asked if I have changed much after the trip. While I don't think I have changed my thoughts or beliefs much, I definitely feel more in touch with the world community. For example, after being in Phuket and talking to a guy about how he avoided drowning in when the Tsunami hit 2 years ago, the event doesn't seem so far away. It's no longer a story that I read in the newspaper, but it's an event that affected a common guy that could've been me. More than anything, this trip has taught me to appreciate the US and all the opportunities were given. While the US does not have everything figured out like we often think, we are pretty lucky to be in a country where we have freedoms and opportunites that are simply not available to everyone around the globe. While it's important not to flaunt that, it's great to realize it.

For those of you that have stuck with me this long, thank you so much for the comments and notes and prayers that were sent my way while I was gone. It was great feeling that I had 40 people take this trip with me. While I was certainly excited to get back to American culture, I was most excited to get back and spend time with such a great group of friends and family. I am surely blessed to have you all.

-bw