Back in Boston

After another long and torturous journey - starting at 11 am Saturday (Japan time) and ending 10 pm Saturday EST (12 Noon Sunday, Japan time), I'm finally back in Boston.

My trip wasn't too bad, except for:

• Feeling nauseous for the last five hours of the flight, so much so that I skipped all meals on board (which isn't that much of a hardship now that I think about it).
• Being delayed for an hour on the runway at Newark (waiting for a plane to pull out from our gate) and then waiting another hour for my baggage to arrive. Then I had to go through Immigration, Customs, Agriculture and Security, check my bags again and run towards my gate as it was supposed to take off at 6:15 pm (the screens showed it delayed to a 6:30 takeoff) and my watch was showing 6:20.
• Having my flight from Newark leave at 8 pm (1 hour, 45 minutes later than it was supposed to), after sitting on the runway for another hour awaiting permission from Logan airport.
• Having my third piece of luggage, which is Andrew's Christmas gift that I paid extra to check on my flight, missing when I landed in Logan. Current status on this is that Continental received the box and sent it out for delivery (apparently, the delivery service is 24 hours so it could arrive at 3 am) so I won't get too nervous about it until tomorrow.

Best part of my trip was seeing Andrew waiting for me at Logan, with a bouquet of white roses (my favorite). First, he had arrived early at my place and shoveled out the walkways from Friday's snow storm and had thoughtfully picked up a breaded eggplant pizza for dinner.

Waking up on Sunday morning, this is the scene that greeted my eyes

My car buried under snow from Friday's storm and a fresh coating from today's storm.


This is how high the snow was on top of my car - I had to clear one of the back doors so I could grab my scraper.



This is the view from the other driveway - Phu's car is buried right next to the house and Andrew's is parked at the end of the driveway. The snow was so heavy that it cause the hedges lining to the driveway to bow over and block part of the access - the first time I've ever seen that happen!



My fridge was pretty empty after being gone for two weeks so we headed for the nearest supermarket, a Shaws. From the parking lot, it was clear that everyone was stocking up on groceries in the middle of the storm.


We spent another 2 hours shoveling out the walkways and clearing off the cars tonight - which would've taken even longer if it hadn't been for my plow service and for my neighbor's snow blower. Quite the welcome, considering I was enjoying 60 degree weather in Japan!