Part two

It's just taken me about half an hour from getting on the computer to actually being able to start writing this post. What with reading emails, replying to emails, checking my amazon account, checking facebook, and stopping to give hugs on request, it's somehow taken longer than I thought. Anyway, on with the post..

When I got to the right terminal I realised that the first thing I had to do was go through security, and that since I hadn't even started on my second bottle of water I had to drink it while waiting in line or put it in the bin. So even though it was big, I drank it all standing in the queue (and over the next few hours, while waiting at Chicago, I got to use several of their toilet facilities, but that's another story. I so wanted to write 'restrooms' there, but I had to resist! My accent is so screwed up already, what's it gonna be like after three months here?!)
(Oh yeah, the three months thing, can't remember if I ever mentioned that. For anyone that doesn't know, it was too difficult to get an au pair visa given our circumstances, so instead I'm here for 85 days for an extended holiday)

They didn't really have any people telling you what to do, but I just did what the people in front of me did. Here they did everything at once (whereas at Heathrow it was bags and coats first and then shoes were separate), and I actually had to go back and take off my zippy top as well as my fleece to send them through the x-ray machine before I walked through the metal detector.

I was meant to have about a three hour wait at Chicago, but my flight was delayed for another hour. I walked up and down the whole terminal a few times, but then I just sat down against the wall and read my book because I was just too tired to do much else. We finally got on the plane about an hour after we were meant to have taken off, but then just sat there for a long long long time before we finally got to take off. The second plane was a lot smaller, with only two seats on either side of the main gangway. And there was no fancy safety video, but we actually got to see the air hostess and steward doing their thing with the pointing and the oxygen masks and everything.

The flight was kinda long and I was getting drowsy by this point. I dozed a little bit, but was mostly just in a kind of daze. It was great to see the lights of El Paso as we came in to land. You could see big patches of light, but then also huge areas in between that were dark and I wondered what they were. (When we went out in the light yesterday I could see that they were pretty much just large empty desert like areas). I got off the plane and walked down some corridors and stairs and was just starting to head for the baggage collection point when I heard some one calling my name. I looked across and there was Blest. It was great to see her in the flesh for the first time. I have to admit that even though I know she's short, I actually thought that she'd be taller than she was!

We walked together to the baggage claim carousel and eventually one of my bags came through. But then the bags stopped coming and my second bag hadn't come. If that had happened at Chicago I would have totally panicked, but I think by this point I had Blest with me to reassure me that it wasn't an unusual occurrence, and besides I was too tired to really be able to panic. I just had to go into a little office and leave them an address and phone number that they could contact me on. I'd seen it at Chicago, so I knew at least that it was in the country, and I was better off than the guy in front of me because they'd lost two of his bags, and all he had was his baby seat (he didn't even have a baby, but we were pretty sure that they airport people hadn't lost the baby!)

Finally we got to leave the airport and got in the truck. It's actually Danny's truck, and it's kinda funny to see such a little lady like Blest driving such a big vehicle (she totally makes up in personality anything that she lacks in height!) She drove us home, and although it was strange to be on the 'wrong' side of the road I think I was too tired to notice properly. We got home and I got to meet Danny, who was just like Blest had described, and we stayed up talking for quite a while before we finally headed for bed.

In Chicago I'd taken my medicine, but since that was several hours before my Mum and I had decided I would probably need to fit in another dose for the day, so I took some more before I went to bed. Unfortunately I think it was probably a bit too much medicine for my body, and combined with the adrenalin I'd been running off all day my heart was really pounding and I don't think I got to sleep until about 1.30am (by which point I'd been awake for around 27 and a half hours, since I don't count the dozing on the plane). And then my body shouting at me that it was 2pm in the afternoon, combined with the garbage truck outside my window meant that I woke up at 6am the next morning.

And that is where we leave this post, since it was only meant to be about my first day, and besides Blest's already started eating her lunch and I wanna get mine! More about meeting the boys soon. (I got to peep at them fast asleep that first night, but didn't properly meet them until the next morning).