She appeared nonchalant, as I walked towards her in the arrival hall. Perhaps the disbelief of seeing this day finally come, had her be at a loss for words or reaction. She simply stared at me with a wide grin, wrapping her long fingers tenderly over the steel bars. Even those bars couldn't keep us apart from each other any longer. After all, five years was a long wait to conquer the distance between two countries. I stopped right in front of her, dropped my bags, and opened my arms wide. Elena jumped right in, squeezing me with all her loving strength. I placed my hands on her back — and felt her skin for the first time. I hugged her in return. We had so much to talk about, but first, I was hungry. With a flight that took 18 hours with a booking that crams you into an economy seat with a tiny meal that you might call a snack, I was famished. So I muttered my first words; no, our first words in person: "Elena, I'm hungry." She took her head off my shoulder and lo...