this morning brought with it an early wake up, and a change of city. we emerged downstairs at 7:30, met by an asian, spanish speaking taxi driver. he was a real character- spent the time mocking our australian accents in his thick asian accent. we smiled and nodded as we ha no idea what he was saying.
getting to the airport two hours early, we thought it was overkill and that we were worrying unnecessarily. however, after stepping into a baggage check-in line of hundreds of people that coiled around like a snake, we began to rethink this. with little or no idea what was going on, we followed the others like herded sheep until we got to security after waiting in line for about forty minutes to check in our bags. another delayed line, and we were finally through to the gate lounge and could breathe easy. after we had breakfast, we got on the plane headed for chicago.
nearly a four hour flight, it felt like it was much longer- dazing in and out of sleep. even with an empty seat next to me to spread out, the fact you're cramped up in the back of economy is hard to ignore. and even harder to ignore the small child with sore, popping ears who screamed in pain for quite a majority of the flight. getting into chicago was turbulent- and i very quickly realized it was a bad idea to have eaten a king size bag of mini reeces pieces cups during the 4 hour flight. in my defense- it was calm whilst i was eating them. i thought i was safe- how nauseously misinformed i was.
arriving in a new city and train system, we once again struggled to obtain 'farecards'. asking a young man for assistance, we very quickly realised a shift between the citites. the people were no where near as kind and helpful as those in san francisco. we are very clearly not in the laid back west coast anymore. we're also not in kansas anymore, we flew over that earlier today.
from the train we caught a bus- so crowded people were squashed against the front door. the driver kept telling people to move to the back- with clearly no room back there to squeeze another person. mum was somewhat abused by an elderly lady for having such a big backpack on the bus- and we felt like we were part of the big chicago family. such hospitality!
finally arriving at the apartment, we got the keys off our host (organized through airbnb). the apartment is compact and well furnished. a film and writing student, the place feels cosy and like the sort of home i hope to build for myself someday. it really is beautiful.
dad- mum wanted you to see this
we had dinner at elly's pancake house, and headed to the local fresh food market. being fresh food- i bought mini carrots. with milwaukee only an hour or so away, i couldn't help but feel i could sit on the hood of a cop car and flirt with a lovely policeman (bridesmaids- thought of you, maaike!).
i now sit in the apartment on the day bed. it's midnight and very humid- but i dare not complain knowing the weather at home. our apartment is five stories up, and i have spent the evening lying here, listening to the buzz of traffic and people below. being serenaded by the sweet sounds of jeff buckley and thinking of him playing at the metro in 95'- not far from where i lye.
NB: apologies for less photos this post. spent a majority of the day on plane or in airport.
