I'm home!!

And it is so good to be home. There is NO PLACE LIKE IT.
Every time I go away, coming home just reminds me how much I love NZ, my neighbourhood, my house.

My plane arrived at 6.40am yesterday (Sunday) and I have to say that walking through that arrivals gate and seeing my boys waiting for me was the BEST feeling in the world. I was so excited to see them, and they were just as excited to see me. And considering Rob had woken the boys up at 6am and taken them from their nice warm beds into the cold morning air, followed by a 45 min drive to the airport, they looked good! I could tell they were still a bit sleepy though :-)

My trip home was loooong. I arrived at Toronto airport 4 hours before my flight was scheduled to leave. This was "just in case" it took a really long time to get through security and US customs. Which it did. Then I had a 5 hour flight to LA, another 8 hours at LA airport waiting for my 12 hour flight home. 30 hours without deoderant, toothpaste, lip gloss and moisturiser. Boy, was that tough!! Needless to say, I chewed a LOT of gum and the first thing I did when I got my bags in Auckland (before going through to arrivals) was crack open my deoderant. LOL. But I wanted to smell nice for my honey! And he noticed :-)

I had a really great time in Canada. I loved Toronto, and I'd love to go back someday. I especially enjoyed meeting Jenn, Chris, Duncan, Matthew and Joey. What a neat family! I'm so blessed to call Jenn my friend, and even more blessed to have met her in real life.
I have to say that I liked Canada a lot more than the US. People were friendlier and it seemed more like home. A Canadian guy I talked to on the plane home said that NZ is often likened to Canada, while Australia is likened to the US. And there is that rivalry between the countries just like between NZ and Aussie. That was interesting to me.

There were lots of things I really loved about Canada.
1. Quizno's. I had it twice and both times I was sad when my food was gone. I really wish I could have taken a Quizno sub home for my sister who is a huge Subway fan, just to prove that it is yummier!
2. The accent. I really like it!!
3. Wal-Mart and Sears. Great stores! I went a bit crazy in both of them, buying clothes for the boys. I got some cute stuff for them!!
4. Maple syrup. I'm glad we have it here, too.
5. Chocolate (oops, I mean candy) bar selection. I tried a few different ones, most of them got The Big Tick of Approval from this chocoholic!

There were some things I didn't like about Canada though.
1. Not enough fruit & vegetables! I was going through veggie withdrawal when I got home and last night Rob cooked a whole lot of broccolli and peas for dinner and they tasted so good! And I didn't eat any fruit while I was there. I couldn't find any!
2. The volume level in conversations. I didn't notice it at all with Jenn's family, but most other people I talked to spoke so loudly all the time!! My uncle (who passed away last year) was a Kiwi who lived in Canada for most of his adult life. And every time he came to visit I would be scared of him because of his bellowing voice! I noticed lots of people over there talk really, really loudly. Why?
3. The crowds. I'm just not used to them. I'm not used to jostling people as I walk down the road or through the mall. I definitely could have lived without that.

I missed certain things about home. Just to name a few: Weetbix, Vegemite, Coke Zero (couldn't find it anywhere!), my TV shows (I didn't find much worth watching over there, even with 58 channels to choose from) and most of all HUGS! I can totally understand those studies that have shown people who don't receive any physcial affection can actually die. I went for over a week without any physical contact with other people (apart from being pushed and shoved while queuing up for things). After I left Jenn's place, I didn't hug another person until I saw my family. You just don't think about those kind of things, but it really affected me! I hugged everybody lots more yesterday :-)

Ah, home. I love it. And I'm not in a hurry to go anywhere else.