So, we made it.
17 hours of flying, 5 hours in Heathrow, 2 hours in Chicago (although it was nearly not enough… I’ll whinge about that in a bit); and endless hours of flying… And we’re here…and it’s veeerrry pretty.
So, yeah, Nikki turned up at 6am to run us to Heathrow; knowing my luck and London’s infamous traffic we left early. It wasn’t too bad (because we left hideously early) and we ended up at the Airport 5 hours early. But we checked in and checked our baggage and then mooched around the Airport. The time actually went really quickly – I guess the excitement carried (me at least) through. Trey kinda looked bored ;-)
The flight was fine, and we managed to sort out sitting next to each other (our itinerarys got changed and when we arrived we were like miles apart). 8 hours later and we touched down in Ohare airport (or is that o’hare?)…anyway, I was met with the friendly American greeting reserved for foreigners – a hour long queue, being fingerprinted and photographed and asked questions about yourself. I’ve never felt more like a criminal than that experience. The guy doing it at least was nice, some of the other guys from customs or homeland security or whatever they’re called, they were being really shitty to others there.
Just to make it perfect, I got shunted from being in a queue of abobut 7 being served by 7 desks to another queue of 3, which seemed good until I realised that in front of me was the
“I don’t know how long I’ll be staying” guy, he was good, and then the polish couple who speak no English.
Eventually, I scrapped rule following and English politeness (having seen Trey wander past looking lost several times having gone through the US only queue & collected our luggage), queue jumped and ended up meeting a nice guy from Manchester on his way to San Fransico; and getting seen while the polish people were still discussing matters between themselves in an attempt to desipher the requests of the guy at the desk.
Anyway, after sprinting through the Airport, we got metal detected (and not like in the UK. In the UK, chuck stuff + coat on conveyer, walk through detector, collect stuff. In the US: Coat, shoes off. Computer out of bag. Get told off ‘cos I’d got my jumper round my waist, a cardinal sin; then head on through, and put carry on luggage back together).
Anyway, enough whinging. The journey was fine, long, but fine really. And then we got here.
We got here… and at the Airport, Kara and Kaisa met us bringing with them a dead menagery (to keep us warm / shock me ;-) ), and a nice snuggly warm Jeep. It’s snowy here.
No, really. It’s snowy here. They have snow. Not crappy little UK snow, the 3″ that make public transport come to a halt. Oh no. They have *proper* snow.
We headed back through the dark winter night, flakes still falling onto the screen and Kaisa driving through the kind of road conditions we’d not normally consider (or see) – Kara reeling off history and landmarks, and me just soaking it all in.
It’s so big here, so big and so beautiful.
We got back to find that they’d decorated their house (before Thanksgiving) so it’d be all lit up like some fairytale, just for us… Woot!
And then I met Kara’s mom (hey look, ‘merkian spelling). I can see now why Trey’s always talking about them / here. It feels like a home. It’s just really, really nice.
Eventually, we headed to bed…
…the next day Kaisa and Kara took us out touring Palmer (for my benefit…); we drove round, seeing the sites, and local history – suddenly, I feel bad that I can’t do that for anywhere I’ve lived, ever. Never had that degree of attachment to a place, I guess. I dunno. Anyway, it we headed out to the Reindeer farm, where Trey terrorised entertained the Reindeer. Went sledging, something I’ve discovered I’ve not exactly mastered.
In the UK, sledging’s easy. It’s not likely that there’ll be enough snow that you can build up speed, and if you do, you’ll probably run out of hill before you need to steer. Here, you actually slide, because there’s enough snow. Then; when you’ve narrowly avoided the tree / rose bush / fence you fall out. Or I do, because I’m staggeringly incompetent, but it’s still enormous fun :-)
As was snow sho(e)ing. No, I have no idea how to spell that.
Today, we chilled out, went to the store (see, look, I can speak American); I got some MOUNTAIN DEW, um, yeah, Played Apples to Apples with Kara/Kaisa’s grandma, and generally had a relaxed fun day. Watched Ellen. Yeah.
Things that freak me out:
– Spelling centre wrong
– Ads every ten seconds
– How do you put up with NTSC?! The colour is terrible!
– Swiping my card and not having any identity verification
Things which have failed to freak me out:
– Being in America
– Being surrounded by Americans
– Huge, gorgeous mountains everywhere
– Snow! So much snow! (it rocks though, or is that the mountains…).
Trey has photos here. I’ll post some of my own sometime. I’m going to go be sociable now…
