A Fed-Ex Surprise!

Normally I would have been incredibly depressed after my parents left, but in the middle of May, I decided to buy a plane ticket home to surprise Giff for his graduation from pilot training. So instead of being depressed, I was ecstatic, but trying to play it cool when I talked to Giff so he wouldn’t suspect anything! The morning after my parents left, I headed back up to site for just a day and a half before I had to leave again. Luckily no one was really home at my house (because it was the fiesta in Chota) so I didn’t feel guilty hiding in my room the whole time. My plan was to rest since I was so exhausted from traveling with my parents, but I was way too excited for that. I was driving myself crazy because I couldn’t concentrate on anything so it’s a good thing I didn’t have any more time there. Two of my friends were on the bus with me back to Cajamarca so they did a good job of keeping me distracted. Even though I’m usually a pretty responsible person, I guess all of that goes out the window when I’m excited because I realized on the bus ride that I had forgotten my ticket to Lima! I was smart and purchased it ahead of time, but then I proceeded to leave it in my room! I was worried they would make me buy the ticket all over again, but luckily I just had to pay S/.10 for them to print it again. The last time I took the bus to Lima, I slept like a log, but this time between my excitement and the guy next to me snoring all night, I probably slept a total of 3 hours on the 14 hour trip! I spent the whole next day at the Peace Corps office while I waited until it was time to go to the airport. There were a few other volunteers there who were actually trying to do work on a newsletter, but I kept talking to them anyway. I did try to help them a little bit, but I’m sure I was more of an annoyance than anything. We went to lunch at Pizza Hut and I also had Starbucks so that was a treat! I talked to Giff briefly, but I was so scared to say something and ruin the surprise that I cut our conversation short. He thought I was in Cajamarca meeting with my boss and that I’d be calling him the next day upon my return to Bambamarca. But little did he know, we would be together the next day! I boarded the plane in Lima at 11:30 pm. Once again I didn’t sleep at all (an hour or two at most) because there were little kids behind me that woke up crying every 20-30 minutes and would kick my chair. That was pleasant. It’s a good thing we have adrenaline to keep us going in moments like this or I would have been really cranky. I went through customs in Houston and then waited about two hours to board my flight to Del Rio. I must have peed about 18 times during that layover because I was so excited! It was finally time to go, and even though I tried to sleep during the flight, I wasn’t able to rest at all. I landed about 10:30 am and was met by a woman named Erin who grew up with one of my friends in Peace Corps! Her husband happens to be stationed at Laughlin AFB right now too so Heidi put us in touch and they agreed to pick me up at the airport. Erin even offered her shower to me since I had been traveling for two days. I’m sure Giff wouldn’t have cared if I arrived dirty, but I felt so gross that I wanted to freshen up before seeing him – after six months, he deserves to see me clean. In the car on the way to base I was so nervous. I couldn’t believe this was actually happening after I had been looking forward to it for the past six weeks! To make sure Giff would be home, his parents told him a very confidential Fed-Ex package was going to arrive for his dad from his work and Giff had to be home to sign for it. However, they told him it was going to arrive between 9:30 and 10:30 am so when I got there at noon, he was on the phone with Fed-Ex asking them where his package was! His bedroom faces the street so while he was talking to them, trying to figure out why the package hadn’t arrived yet because he had things to do that day, he saw a silver Honda pull into his driveway. None of his friends have a silver Honda so he was curious to see who it was. Then he saw me get out of the car and said to himself, that’s Kristen, and hung up with Fed-Ex! I didn’t know he had already seen me, so I rang the doorbell and he answered right away. I said, “SURPRISE” and he just looked at me dumbfounded and said “What are you doing here???” I told him I came to surprise him for his graduation and then started laughing because I didn’t know what else to do – I was so excited and couldn’t believe I was standing at his front door! He helped me get my stuff into the apartment from Erin’s car and then told me how he was on the phone with Fed-Ex because he was so mad that the “package” hadn’t arrived yet. At first he didn’t even believe me that I was the package because he said his dad made such a big deal about him being home. Just as I was telling him, “I swear to you that no package is coming,” a Fed-Ex truck pulled up in front of his apartment and he said, “I told you so!” It turned out to be something for his roommate though – hahaha. It was AWESOME – just like I had imagined it. He was really surprised and so happy to have me there (not to mention how happy I was to finally be with him)! He was busy with graduation stuff that day so as soon as I got there we went out to grab some lunch at Quizno’s, where I met the first of his friends – Mindy and Julie. I know you’re probably thinking that we should have gone somewhere nicer for lunch, but Del Rio doesn’t have many options and we didn’t have much time. I was actually really excited about it because we never get to eat deli sandwiches in Peru so it was a treat to me! After lunch we went to do a Sim (flight simulation) because he had reserved it for his family. They weren’t arriving until really late that night so we went alone. I had tried it in San Antonio and was really bad. Apparently being in Peru hasn’t improved my flying skills because I crashed and died! Hey, don’t judge, it’s really hard! It was really fun to watch Giff though because he makes it look so easy. I went back to his apartment to try and rest a little bit while he had a meeting with his commander. I was still too excited to sleep so I was happy when he came home about 20 minutes later. We hung out at the apartment for awhile until he had to go meet everyone for a ceremony. I drove up there a little while later to watch the ceremony – it was really short – to recognize the graduates for completing pilot training, the most difficult training in the Air Force. There was a fly-over of all three planes used during training and then they played the National Anthem. It was really hot so we were glad the ceremony didn’t drag on. Before it started I was sitting by myself, but then one of the wives who I had met invited me to sit with them so I wouldn’t be alone. I thought that was really sweet. After the ceremony we went to the Officer’s Club where they gave away some awards. The best part about that was that I got to meet most of Giff’s friends and some of the wives, including the ones who are going to Japan with us! Their names are Audrey and Eric and I really liked them both (thank God since Audrey is going to be my new best friend). I also met some of the other wives and they all had great things to say about Giff. They all told me how much they enjoyed having Giff around this past year because he’s such a great guy and so much fun to be with (no kidding, why do you think I miss him so much?). I was so happy to meet his friends since I had heard so much about them. They were all just as happy to meet me too because Giff always talks about me (and some of them thought I wasn’t real)! When the awards were over we left to get some dinner and it was the first time all day we had really had time to sit down together – alone – and enjoy our time together! It’s really amazing how easy it is to fall back into the routine of being together. It felt so natural to be there. You have no idea how good it is to just be able to look into the other person’s eyes or watch them laugh after spending so much time apart. I was living on cloud nine for those four days. That night we went to one of his friend’s house to hang out so I got to know some of his friends a little better. His family was driving in from Houston (about 7 hrs.) and had been delayed in landing there because of thunderstorms so we knew they wouldn’t be there forever. By that time I think everyone else’s family had arrived so I was glad to be there for Giff so he wasn’t alone. We left the party around 1 am and were just falling asleep when his family called us at 1:30 am to tell us they had finally arrived! Even though it was so late and I hadn’t sleep in essentially two days, I was so excited to see them! We dropped Chris, Alex, and Elizabeth off at Giff’s apartment and we headed back to the hotel with Giff’s parents to finally go to bed. What a GREAT day! I wish I could go back and do it all over again, but I guess it wouldn’t be as special the second time around. Before the graduation ceremony, they had a breakfast for the graduates and their families. The breakfast was good – muffins, bagels, fruit salad, coffee, etc. – but I felt like an idiot because I was wearing jeans and everyone else was dressed up in cute little sundresses. Giff told me it was casual, but I don’t know why I ever listen to him when it comes to clothes. I only brought one dress though and I had to save it for the banquet that night so I didn’t really have a choice. I figured the day wasn’t about me anyway so it didn’t really matter. The graduation ceremony was really nice (and not too long!). There was a speaker who talked about call signs – it was a good speech and made us all laugh. Then they gave out some more awards and moved on to the most important part – the part when they finally got their wings! They called each person up individually and had their picture projected on a big screen. While they were still up there, they also showed the plane that the person will be flying – in Giff’s case, the KC-135. I felt so proud of Giff when he was up there because I know what a difficult year it was for him (not just academically) and how hard he had worked. It is such a huge accomplishment and I was so happy to be able to be there and share that with him since I feel like I’ve missed out on so many other things in the last year. When we were watching Giff pin on his wings after the ceremony (they don’t do it on stage because it would take way too long), I started to get choked up because I was so proud of him, but I made myself not cry because I knew he would make fun of me. From the ceremony we headed out to the flight line where we took TONS of pictures and then Giff gave us a little tour of the building where he spent most of his time. I love seeing all that stuff because I like to be able to picture the places he talks about, but I’m sure his brothers and sister were bored. We got lunch after that and then went on another tour in the afternoon where they showed us the altitude chamber, how the plane ejects you in an emergency, what happens when you “G-lock” (we saw this on video – it’s when you pass out from too many G’s) and when you come to again, and this crazy chair that is used to cure air sickness (they spin you in it for 15 minutes or until you throw up! Giff never had to do it though because he doesn’t get air sickness). They also used the chair to demonstrate some things that can happen to you when you’re in the air like not knowing which direction you’re going in or not being able to focus in on anything. Giff’s dad demonstrated the second scenario and it was really weird because his eyes just keep moving back and forth really fast while he was trying to focus in on something. At the end of the tour they took us into an air traffic control tower so that was really cool to see too. Giff thought the tour was boring and way too long, but Carol and I loved it of course because we like to see that stuff. We had some free time after the tour so we all took naps and then got ready for the banquet that night. There were cocktails in the Officer’s Club first and then we sat down to a nice meal. During the meal they showed a couple of slide shows – one of their baby pictures and another about the career of a pilot. They also had a speaker and gave out a few more awards. Most of it though was just to celebrate this big accomplishment. After dinner we hung around for a while talking with the other graduates and their families. We talked to this woman, Jill, for a while because her husband is in Giff’s class and he used to hang out at their house a lot. She is from Tennessee and very southern. In her thick southern accent she kept telling me, “Giff is just precious when he talks about you, just precious.” And she also told me, “I love Giff. I could just eat ‘em alive.” Then she kept calling Giff’s dad, “Guido” so we thought it was hilarious. She was a riot. I was glad to meet so many nice people and know he had been in good hands during the year, but I still wished so much that I had been there with him. We finally wrapped things up at the banquet, went home to change and drop off Elizabeth, and then continued the party at Jim and Jill’s house. There were a lot of people there so it was really fun. Giff and I were exhausted the next morning from our late night so we skipped out on lunch with his family and tried to sleep a little more. In the afternoon we went to Lake Amistad, a big man made reservoir about 20 minutes away. Giff and his friends used to rent boats there and go water-skiing and wake-boarding (until Giff had his accident and split his head open!). We weren’t able to rent a boat that day so we just went and hung out on the “beach,” which was mostly rocks, but the weather was perfect and it felt so nice to have our feet in the water. One of our friends from San Antonio, Jared, is at Laughling right now too (a few classes behind Giff) and has a boat. The night before he told us he would take us out on it, but we were skeptical since we were all drinking. Sure enough though, he showed up and Giff, Chris, Alex and I swam out to his boat and he took us water-skiing. Chris tried it for the first time and did really well. Giff did it for the first time since his accident (almost a year) and was really good, but Alex was too tired and I was nervous my bathing suit would come off – apparently it has stretched out a lot and the bottom was coming off when we were just swimming out to the boat so I opted out for obvious reasons. It was awesome to be on the boat though because it reminded me of being on the boat at our lake house. Plus I love the water and the weather was perfect (not too much bathing suit weather in Bambamarca) so I was a happy camper! I did NOT want to leave the next day… By the time we got home from the lake we were all hungry and ready for dinner so we went to this nice Mexican place. It’s a small restaurant with a nice view of the river. It was nestled among the trees with a lot of green surrounding it, which really surprised me because I expected everything to be dry and brown. We got Dairy Queen after dinner and then went back to Giff’s apartment so he and Elizabeth could open some presents (for graduation and birthday respectively). We were all exhausted from all of the festivities so we decided to call it a night. It was Jim and Jill’s last night in town so Giff and I went to their house long enough for Giff to say goodbye and then went back to the hotel. In my head I knew it was my last night with him, but I tried really hard not to be sad and let it ruin our last night. I know the ticket to see Giff was expensive and way out of my budget, but the three days we had together were some of the best days we’ve had together and I wouldn’t trade them for anything in the world. The next morning we said goodbye to his parents and then went to the airport. Giff waited with me until I absolutely had to go through security, and even watched while I boarded the plane and it took off. I didn’t even cry, which was HUGE for me, but he’s coming to visit in September so I knew I’d see him soon. I fell asleep almost immediately on the plane and woke up mid-flight to the captain saying, “I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we’re on our way back to Del Rio.” Bad news? Yeah right, that was the best thing he could have said in my opinion! While everyone else was annoyed and getting worried they’d miss their connecting flights in Houston, I was ecstatic and praying we’d have to stay another day. We all had to get off the plane in Del Rio, and sure enough, they came in asking for volunteers to give up their seats because they needed to take more fuel, and therefore couldn’t take as much weight. They said they’d have to pull the last three people who checked in if no one volunteered and I didn’t think that was fair, so I took one for the team and volunteered – let me tell you, it was a really tough decision. Luckily they put me on the same flights the next day so I just had to email Peace Corps and let them know I had been delayed by a day. Not only did I get to stay another day, but I also got $175 voucher out of the deal. Oh man was I excited. I called Giff and asked if he’d like to spend another day with me because I gave up my seat and was waiting for him at the airport. Twenty minutes there he was back at the airport and there we were, together again. I’ve never been more grateful for thunderstorms in my life! Even though we didn’t do much of anything that day, it was one of the best days we had. We were both exhausted from the weekend so we just spent the day hanging out around the apartment. It was such a tease because it reminded me so much of a lazy Sunday when we lived together – taking a nap together on our bed, eating peanut butter and jelly on our plates, watching TV, laughing and talking. It was so great to not have anything to do and just enjoy each other’s company. We talked to his parents who had finally made it to Houston and found out their flight was delayed because of storms so I was especially happy to have given up my seat because otherwise I would have just been sitting at the airport, when I could have been with Giff. We went out to dinner with his friends Dan and Kevin and then spent the rest of the night hanging out at the apartment and sharing a bottle of their class wine (a local winery designed a special label for them). I of course, fell asleep while we were watching TV, but that made it feel all the more normal since that was our typical routine. The next morning it was back to the airport, and even though I was praying I’d “have to” stay another day, there weren’t any storms in Houston that day. The plane was delayed about an hour and a half though so after checking my bags, we left so Giff could get some breakfast and this greasy and delicious hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant, Ms. Gordita’s – I wish I hadn’t eaten already because the food was so good. It was nice to have a little extra time with him, but I wished I were staying forever. Back at the airport was a little harder this time, but I still didn’t cry. Luckily Giff stayed and watched me go through security because I had my toothpaste in my purse and they let me give it to him rather than throw it away (it’s special toothpaste that costs $5 a tube and that’s a lot on my budget). This time it was the real thing – the only announcement made by the captain was to tell us to prepare for landing in Houston. Up to that point I was doing okay. I had a bagel with cream cheese for lunch so things couldn’t have been too bad. But as I was waiting for my plane in Houston, I started to get sad and wished I were still with Giff. There was another chance to give up my seat in Houston, but I didn’t volunteer because I figured if I couldn’t be with Giff, I might as well go back to Peru. However, I rethought that sentiment once I got on the plane and they announced they were offering $600 to give up your seat! Unfortunately, by the time I called my parents to let them know and got off the plane to volunteer, they didn’t need any more volunteers – turns out a Mexican-American was on our flight, but she hadn’t gotten her Visa to enter Peru so she had to give up her seat. I was ready to give her my passport just so I could get the voucher, but I didn’t think that would work. On my flight back to Peru I started getting really depressed. I kept asking myself what in the heck I was doing going back to Peru. Sure I like it there and have made great friends – both Peruvian and American – but nothing is like being home. I thought going home this time would be a lot easier than it was at Christmas since it was a lot shorter and I don’t have any ties to Del Rio. But I was forgetting that to me, Giff is home, whether that’s in DC or Texas. It didn’t matter that I’d never lived in Del Rio because his apartment had all of our furniture in it and was set up essentially the same way so it made me feel so homesick. It made me feel like that is where I’m supposed to be – with Giff. I realized on the plane ride back that I was happier in those four days than I have been in a long time and it made me want to get right off the plane and go back. I know this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience and that I’m learning and probably growing a lot (even though it doesn’t always feel like it), but for those of you who have never been away from the person you love for a long time, you have no idea how much it hurts. Forget the cultural differences, no water, and lack of sanitation, being away from Giff is by far my hardest challenge here. The other things you get used to and learn how to deal with, but you never get used to being away from the one person you want to be with. You just take things one day at a time until that day finally comes when you can be together again…forever. Giff thank you so much for an amazing four days together. I know you weren’t expecting me at all and wished you had been able to plan for my visit, but I wouldn’t have changed a thing. When I’m with you I don’t care what we do, as long as we can be together. Thank you so much for being so supportive – I don’t know what I’d do without you. I love you so much. Now hurry up and get down here because I miss you like crazy!