bumpily back to reality
our transition back in to life in our other paradise was (practically) seamless, save for that little instance of lost luggage in newark. getting to the small airport in punta cana about 90 minutes before our flight, we were met curbside by a porter escorting our luggage to the US agricultural check. under my breath, i debated with wow whether the banana twins i had in my backpack should be extracted before this process, but before we knew it, our stuff was taken from us and thrown on the scanner's belt. while our bags were coming out the other end, the officials were increasingly interested in our stuff, and stopped the conveyor. imagining a stint in the local jail for trying to import illegal fruits, i actually volunteered the info about the forbidden fruit in my backpack. my voiced concern was totally disregarded as they attacked wow's bag and pulled out... a bath pouf. confused, they threw it back in and we were on our way to the long check-in line where we approached by an airline representative collecting passports, as their system was down. not surprising, considering how many times the power had gone out at various points on our trip. so he hand-checked us in to our flight, and we watched our bags conveyor belt themselves away from us. by the time we got through with that process and airport security, we were about a half hour from flight time. i had to change my DR pesos back to US dollars, so i found the cambio/exchange while wow hunted for some food. 25 minutes later, i was finally done exchanging (oh island time, what a blessing and a curse. there was only one person ahead of me in line, and yet, it still took a long time to complete. the lady at the counter was... well, we'll call her "methodical" about her job.), and we started to amble about the small terminal. after deciding to pop in to the small duty-free shop, we both stopped suddenly, having heard a strange but somewhat familiar sound... "harpow" was the one that grabbed my ear, followed by some garbled version of "breetro" and the very clear "THIS IS YOUR FINAL CALL." we looked at each other, then bolted across the room to the gate to be met with the icy stares of the airport staff. as one snatched away our boarding passes and passports, 2 others sifted through our bags for contraband? stowaways? clearly not illegal bananas, as those were passed right on by. we were finally given clearance and walked to our plane on the tarmac, when i got in trouble again (this time for crossing over a painted red line while walking... the way to get one's attention in the DR is to shout an emphatic "HOLA!" at someone, and then gesture wildly. it took me a second to realize this guy wasn't introducing himself).

at the bottom of the stairs, our passports and boarding passes were checked again, and we asked to be able to board the steps at the back of the plane. we were given clearance, but yelled at again, as we walked a little to close to the underside of the plane. those steps checked our passports and boarding passes for the 5th time that day, and we were finally able to get on the plane (where our boarding checks were examined AGAIN). the plane ride home was mostly uneventful; surrounded by brash new jersey/yorkers was irritating but tolerable. we were told to collect our luggage for customs and recheck once we got to newark, and i started to get nervous about making the flight on time. after going through the motions, we hauled our bags to recheck where a dreadlocked man stuck barcode EWR stickers all over our bags. we brought up the fact that we were actually headed to SAN, but he shut us up quickly by letting us know that these were our "don't lose my luggage" stickers.

funny.

it's always a sad thing to be left at the baggage carousel, watching the people around you reunite with their precious cargo and you looking desperately at that magical opening where bags usually appear. eventually, you resign yourself to the fact that it's not coming, and you head to the counter to inquire. "oh yes, your luggage is still in newark" she said matter-of-factly. necessary info exchanged, she promised our luggage a ride over on the first flight, arriving about noon. "expect it to be delivered between 1 and 4:30 pm"... wow closed the door on the delivery man at 10:40pm.
so back to reality, with our "stuff" back in hand. we're both still recovering from the fact that we left our new padres friends a week ago... so long ago. but we have the pictures and the memories to keep us company until we can see them again.

current mood: recflecting on an indescribable experience