Home and beyond.

What a busy 3 weeks back!

I've been working and hanging out with friends as well as babysitting and reading like a crazy person!  I swear that the summer is not longer enough for the list of things I want to accomplish!  Same with a 24-hour day: I need more time!  It's been hard to find a spare moment.  Even now, I should be on my way to a free concert at the Union with friends, but I'm so tuckered out that I pretty much just decided to stay home, do laundry, do a bit of cleaning and organizing, and (of course) reading!  I've got all of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy audiobooks, so I've been listening to it while working/cleaning.  I'm nearly finished with book 2 right now.  It reminds me A LOT of Lemony Snicket's a Series of Unfortunate Events.  Both share the odd qualities of strange names and ridiculously fictitious characters that say and do things that are both serious (adult) and childish.  They both possess an air of a story line that has been well-thought out, but at the same time flows in a lax and drawn-out way.  Characters are unexpected and each twist and turn is both cliche and unpredictable.  Both also possess comedic dialogue/narration that I find delightful (most of the time).  There are definitely some moments in both series that cause me to question why I'm reading it (this is the childish factor I mentioned), but at the same time, the funny qualities are redeeming.

I'm reading Inu-Yasha, The Chronicles of Narnia, Hunger Games, Batman, and a few more at the same time.  I find it enjoyable to spread the reading out.  =)

Here is a quick catch-me-up on the last three weeks, beginning with leaving Leeds.

((Written sometime around July 7th))

     Firstly, I would like to thank you for reading my blog.  As of right now, I've had 2,711 views.  Considering I'm just a girl who decided to live in a foreign country for 6 months and share my daily life on the web, that's not too bad!

     Now, to catch you up.  The night before my flights, I decided not to go to sleep.  I had to check into one of my flights online and I could only do so after 1:20AM.  The day before my return, I, quite literally, ran around campus searching for a 24-hour computer cluster.  Don't trust all signs.  Sometimes "24-hour Computer Cluster" only means "Open from 08:00-17:00."  I found two of them on campus only to discover them closed for the summer before I finally gave in and asked a librarian.  They informed me of one that was supposed to be open still, so I headed over to make sure this information was correct.  It was.  This was good, it meant that I had a place to print out my boarding pass and that I knew exactly where it was and wouldn't get lost trying to look for it later that night.

     With that done, I headed back home and did some packing, cleaning, skyping, and a bit of reading.  At 1:20AM, I went online to ensure that my boarding pass was accessible.  It was, so I took off and went to campus.  Everything went smoothly and I was able to print off my boarding pass just fine.

     "Why," you ask "did you need to stay up all night?"  Well, for starters, when I got home from printing off my boarding pass, it was 2:00AM.  I showered, got ready for the next day, finished up the rest of my packing (with a bit of time unpacking and repacking to make everything fit -- I only had my duffel bag and purse, but I fit A LOT of stuff into both), and did the rest of the cleaning for my flat (all bathroom and shower room materials, everything from my room, the hallway, and the kitchen, including my left over dishes from breakfast).

     I got outside extra early to wait for my cab, but that's OK.  I'd rather be early than late.  My taxi was supposed to come at 5:15AM, I was out there a little bit before 5:00AM.  I returned my key to the main office and sat outside with my luggage to wait.  While waiting, I saw a fox!!  And of course, I had watched the sunrise that morning (the sun came up about 4:15AM).

     The taxi came on time.  I got to ride in the front seat (it was a weird feeling since, in America, it would be the driver's seat, not the passenger's).  I arrived at the rail station early.  Really early.  My train left at 5:55 and I got there at 5:25.  That was fine because my duffel was extremely heavy and I needed all the extra time to slowly walk from one end of the station to where my train left.

     The train ride went fine.  It was a little over an hour from Leeds to Manchester.  I waddled through the Manchester airport connected to the train station and made my way to the check-in desk.  I was forced to weigh my duffel (which was OBVIOUSLY too heavy) and had to check it in.  This turned out to be a good thing considering how hard it was for me to carry it and how bulky it was with everything else I still had to carry (my stuff purse, a travel pillow, a blanket).  The guy at the check-in counter said "Happy 4th of July" to me -- I was pretty stunned, actually!  I certainly didn't expect to hear that!

     The flight from Manchester, England to Atlanta, Georgia U.S.A. was about 10 hours.  We were fed 1 meal and a snack (which included ice cream!).  I sat next to a VERY ambitious 19-year-old guy and we talked for the majority of the flight.  

     The switch from Atlanta to Washington, DC went OK.  In Atlanta I had had to get my luggage and re-check it in after going through customs.  The guy I sat next to on this flight was a 25-year-old Marine Corps soldier who had been in the military for 7 years.  He was stationed in DC and was on his way back there after spending time with family in Atlanta for Independence Day.  That flight was 2 hours (not a bad flight, but the guy pretty much just wanted to talk about himself and the Marine Corps the WHOLE time...!).

     My final flight from DC to Chicago was pretty good.  This time I sat next to an older man, probably in his 50s-60s.  He too, like everyone else I sat next to during the day, was very talkative.  It turns out that he used to live in Wisconsin and he knew people going to the UW right now!  He is currently living in Chicago but was in DC for a funeral.  

     When we landed in Chicago, we were about 45 minutes early.  This meant that I ended up waiting in the airport for about 2 1/2 to 3 more hours (this is also partially due to the face that my parents were late because they left late and got caught in traffic AND when they finally got to the airport, they got lost...).  They arrive and we had a mini-reunion around 9:30PM.  We drove a little ways out of Chicago and stopped at an IHOP (International House of Pancakes) and ate dinner around 11PM.  By the time we got home, it was 1:00AM (or 7:00AM for me in England time) and I immediately went to the couch, laid down, and crashed.  I didn't say "Hi" to my brothers or anything--I was out COLD.  I woke up/got up at 7:00AM the next day and felt pretty good until about 5:00PM when I just wanted to go back to bed.  I waited until 10, but that was difficult for a while.

    

     These past weeks have been filled with Monday and Wednesday night trivia with the Wisconsin Historical Society gang, nights out on the Terrace with various friends, movies (in the theater and on the Terrace), shopping, and just generally hanging out with people whenever asked!  This is all AFTER working 9 hour days every Monday through Friday. It's been good.  I do wish Madison wasn't so humid.  I can deal with the rain, but humidity is annoying...!

   

     We leave for Ohio (cousin's wedding), New York (only a bit) and Canada soon (to visit Niagara Falls).  I'm quite happy to continue traveling in the U.S. after doing so much earlier this year.  Once you start it's hard to stop.