The Journey Begins…

 

Greetings from Niles, Michigan!

Well,  it’s been a long and winding journey, but I finally got here last night…

As airports and traveling go, the journey was fairly uneventful (this is compared to the great passport-losing debacle of ‘07). That’s not to say that it wasn’t long and exhausting. My day started at  4am and finished at 6pm the next day – which is 38 hours of fun.

My greatest joy was probably seeing the sun rise twice in one day. Insane. That was when I was flying east to Sydney then to LA.

America is just like the movies, that’s the best way to describe it. I flew over a police station when getting into LA and the cars looked like how they do on tv and the police have those dark blue LAPD uniforms… how funny. I came across two Starbucks within 50m of each other at just one terminal at LAX and had to catch myself that this was a real live Starbucks IN AMERICA… sweet.

Nicole’s friend, Kelli, is amazing because they drove all the way to Chicago (2 hours away) to pick me up from the airport and then we drove all the way back. I am amazed and so grateful for their effort! And as we drove around randomly at 3am trying to find another airport to pick up this girl who is Nicole’s ‘friend’…  I eventually discovered that it was the one and only Ashley from Zambia! Trippy.

She had flown out to see Nicole like they’d promised when one of them got engaged (Ashley) and so timed it to when I was here. So it’s like one big Zambia reunion and it is trippy. We all agree. It’s so strange how here we are together again, hanging out and being us. Lovely. We got home at about 4am and didn’t go to bed until 6am because of all the catching up we had to do. Much sleeping in was done this morning/afternoon however since we weres knackered. I am alive and finally beginning to eat again (YAY) since the last few days I had found it hard to stomach anything. I think it’s just the tension that didn’t want me concentrating on anything except getting to Chicago.

They all love my accent here which I am much obliged to encourage. It’s very easy to pick up theirs since I’m already programmed in with it from all my years of tv and movie watching!

This town is so quaint and it’s warm here. The birds are singing. Yay for losing winter! The houses are smallish which is refreshing because it means there is  yard and BIG trees and nature.

Ashley made me a pickle, ham and cream cheese entrée dish which is my first pickle in America and no doubt not my last. I’m not a fan of pickle, but when in Rome… eat Roman food.

I’m still wary about what I’m eating because nothing is the same. Even the brands here that we have in Australia can taste different so I am clueless about what will taste good. Maybe I’ll just have to sacrifice my taste buds for awhile for the sake of getting food into me. Not that any of it tastes bad,

I’m just too fussy me thinks. Give me stir-fry any day. One without pickles preferably…

The most awesome thing about my 12.5 hour flight to LA was movies on demand (however, by the 11 hour mark, the appeal had greatly diminished). There were tvs in the back of our chairs and so I watched:

Dan in Real Life (Recommended!! As always, don’t go in with high expectations, but certainly a quality made movie. My good friends David and Margaret were quite right)

Jumper (purely for the Hayden Christensen angle because David and Margaret were also right, not a quality made movie)

Juno (was okay, but by that time I was pretty frustrated by sleep mode and not thoroughly impressed with my legroom options anymore)

I also watched a documentary called ‘How to Steal An Identity’ which I had seen talked about a few weeks ago. I have a friend whose identity was stolen and it’s a such an interesting topic. It’s so easy to do and with such dire consequences. Knowing that someone in South Africa has my passport is an interesting thought as well. Oh well, that doco was done in the UK, so I must be safe, right?

Well, time walk into town and upload this (wow, ringing a few bells!). At least the walk won’t take 30minutes and I won’t be accosted by people who want to talk to me because I’m white. They’ll accost me to hear my accent so that is different.

Peace out y’all, hope Australia is coping without me. I’m doing swell!

Kez

P.S. Hershey didn’t get too squashed in my checked-in backpack. He got a bit cold though.