But let's back up a few days...
Back in London this last week, I had a nice last few days at my internship with loads of Christmas activities! Tuesday was a party for the little kids of the families that come to use the services at our centre, Wednesday I got things ready for the kids to go to the cinema for a Christmas movie that night, and Thursday was a party for the older kids. We also had a basement full of boxes of toys donated for the kids to go through and distribute!
Wednesday night, our programme went to see Billy Elliot, which was mind-blowing! Much jealousy was had of the dancing ability by the kids in the show. Thursday, we had our final exams in Contemporary British Society and Religions in London classes, then at 5pm a going away party commenced which was thrown by our director Mark and assistant director Jen. The party continued into the night with all us Vandoners celebrating our last night together. Much fun was had and memories made. A great last night in London! I had quite a mixture of emotions; sad to leave, happy to be coming home.
By 4:30am, Friday, I left Vandon House on a shuttle to Heathrow airport to begin my long journey home. When I went to check-in at the airport, I discovered that my first flight to Newark had been overbooked. So, they offered me to change my flights to go from London to Houston instead, and then to Des Moines, getting me home 4 hours early by cutting out the 7 hour layover I was supposed to have in Newark. So, I took it! However, the flight to Houston was about 10 hours as opposed to about 6-7 hours to Newark. Luckily I was able to sleep for the first 5! I had also developed a cough the last week, which is worse when I sleep, so I think I quite scared the people sitting beside me as I hacked the whole trip! The best part of the trip though (sarcasm there), was having only about 40 minutes from stepping off my plane in Houston to getting on my plane leaving for Des Moines. This wouldn't have been such a problem if I hadn't had to go through immigration, pick up my bags, go through customs, drop off my bags, go through security again, and then take a train to a separate terminal!! Thanks to my sprinting, I made it to my plane within 5 minutes to take-off! My bags weren't so lucky, but they arrived at my house yesterday afternoon. So, I landed in Des Moines around 5pm Friday evening and was greeted by my parents, Spike, and my brother Josh and his wife Lindsey, with flowers! We went out to eat at Spaghetti Works and then headed home after a short stop in Ames at my cousin's graduation reception. I slept the whole way home, but was wide awake by 7am yesterday morning! Today I am feeling the jet lag a bit more, but still not bad.
Anyway, on to the story you all are wanting to hear: how Spike proposed.
It happened yesterday afternoon, after he and I had lunch in town with my grandparents and uncle and brother. I was quite adamant about driving, as I had not been able to for 3 and a half months, apparently hindering Spike's plan a bit. So after lunch, he directed me to the place we started dating: Prairie Bridges Park. We were being pretty goofy, him telling me to turn right, then left, and then go straight, and me shooting back witty replies. So, we were both laughing when we reached the bridge he on which he was going to pop the question. He began to tell me about how I kept ruining his plans for his proposal: he had a special evening planned for next Thursday, his last day of school, but I was not sure I would be able to come to stay that night as I had a lot of things to do and people to see my first week home, so he was trying to convince me to come that night as he had a "surprise" planned; me knowing this was coming, knew what that meant, ruining the special-ness of it. So, in order to keep it a surprise, he did it this weekend! It was simple but cute, and of course I said yes! It has been a whirl of attention since then!
Still trying to unpack everything. I have all my Christmas presents wrapped and my suitcases put away, but my clothes are still lying in a massive pile on my floor. Maybe I will get to them tomorrow....
Thanks for following me on this journey, it was definitely one of the best experiences of my life! I am so blessed to have gone and to have you all in my life!
Cheers, and happy holidays!
Alyssa
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