Little One Returns

 

After four whirlwind months (which actually flew by), Little One returned late, late, late last night. Despite flying all across Europe, visiting something like ten countries, the only struggle she had was getting from Newark, New Jersey to the Dallas-Fort Worth airport. Powerful thunderstorms all evening up north, and massive flooding down here in Texas around the airport conspired to make her seven or eight hours late in returning to her home here with us. I’m the only one working today, so I went to bed around 11:30, but the Mrs. valiantly stayed up and picked her up sometime in the wee hours of the morning.

This was the second half of her sophomore year at college, and the vast majority of her class spends it abroad at the school’s sister campus in Rome. She took courses in literature, philosophy, art and architecture, and took field trips to the Vatican and to Greece. Imagine reading Plato’s dialogues while sitting at the Parthenon! She did. Imagine spending an Easter vigil in an 800-year old Irish monastery! She did.

She also, like I mentioned above, took advantage of her location, and she and her friends spent many weekends flying out to various countries to explore and experience (a weak Euro really helped with this part). At my recollection, in addition to the Vatican and Greece, she visited Austria, Germany, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Czechia, Ireland again, and finally France only few days ago. I was worried for her in light of the immigrant crisis many European countries are facing, but they always travelled in packs and her girl pack usually travelled with a corresponding boy pack. The only sketchy situations she found herself in happened on a ferry in Greece and the town of Nice, France, which was not very nice, especially with the “no-go” zone surrounding the train station they had to circumnavigate to stay safe.

Anyway, she’s safe back at home. I’ll have to wait to debrief her later today, maybe much later. Have no idea what time zone her body is currently in, but knowing her she might sleep all day, make an appearance at dinner time, then go back to bed. I may not have an intelligent conversation with her until sometime this weekend. But that’s okay, and she deserves some rest after four months of pretty intense study, essay writing, and never-ending on-the-go backpacking through Western Civilization.