Forgoing Duty Free Alcohol...

for the premium lounge. Well, it was either $45 for alcohol or $30 for five hours in a lounge with internet access, free food, showers, and a place to nap in front of the beautiful mountains in Vancouver, so I chose the latter. It sucks leaving home after a visit. I'm all gross from crying.

Food Glorious Food

The Gold

So I think I've babbled on about the old girl scout song before ( I bloody hated the girl scouts by the way ), but these are some of the golds. It's great to catch up with old friends:)

Spoilt for Choice

I'm seriously taking advantage of the deals here. Would you believe the above bottle of beer was only $1.50! I don't think I'll ever clothes shop in Australia again. As long as I come home every couple of years or less, I'll just stock up here. I've gotten 4 pairs of work trousers, 5 tops, 3 pairs of shoes, 1 pair of jeans, 1 pair of King sized pillowcases and a set of pillow protectors, various toiletry type items from Walmart, some candy for the family, and probably some other things I can't remember at the moment, all for under $400! And, it's going to snow again tonight. It couldn't get better;)

I Don't Belong Here Anymore

Of all the travelling and living abroad I've done over the past few years, this is my first time home that I feel like I've changed to the point where I really don't fit in here anymore. Aside from turning the windshield wipers on when I intend to signal a turn, I can tell I've changed, a lot. There is an anonymity with people here, a distance, that I used to appreciate. Now it just makes me feel like people don't care about each other. People here seem to have a little bubble around them, aside from the immigrants, who I feel more of a connection with, even at the fast food places and shopping centers. Genuine friendliness is few and far between. I'm a walking novelty, as everyone wants to talk to me about the bushfires and anything else Australian (or Kiwi, as it's close enough right). I don't think I could ever live here again, yet at the same time, I'm still learning to live in Oz and don't fully fit in there yet. Oh well, at least I had some proper nachos today;)

Snow and Shopping

Ok so my friends think I'm nuts for being excited enough to jump up and down over the snow, but it is gorgeous and I hope it snows lots more (I may be sorry I said that later). I'm off to the mall in a few to take part in shopping session #2, wondering if my confusion will be any less this time.

Reverse Culture Shock

Welcome to the world of American sized portions (that is the giant cookie above). And everything is severely cheap too. It's like I died and went to Christmas heaven;) I'm too tired to write a proper post. Been sleeping at night but not enough because my clock is off. More later...

Last pics of Chicago

We spent about 6 hours Thursday walking all over downtown Chicago, from the loop, to Navy Pier, back to Grant Park, and on to the Art Institute for the free late night on Thursdays. Only then did we realize how our inactivity over the past two months has affected out muscles, as we limped all over yesterday:( Well worth it though...I'm quite lucky to be from one of the best cities in the world;)

Click on the photos to make them larger. Clockwise, they are: a painting on a building in the Loop, Union Station, the city from Navy Pier, somewhere in the loop, night time in the city, the Art Institute, the Bean in Millenium Park, a close up of the Bean, the El, Cultural Center, Navy Pier, and the Chicago River.

Doing the big pack

Countdown is now 13 days and it's time to organise and pack up, yet again. I've spent part of this morning cleaning my shoes and sponging off the wheels of my suititcases. The former included taking a small screwdriver and scraping out bits of muck and little pebbles from the crevices of my sandals. I'm not being anal---these are Australian environmental rules. I guess if your shoes etc have any traces of soil and whatnot, they get tossed...as would your suitcase!

Steve's American experiences

Interesting-nesses:

1. Steve: "Susan, quick come down here for a second."
Susan: "What?" (upon reaching the front door)
Steve: "It's gone now."
Susan: "What's gone?"
Steve: "A rabbit!"
Susan: "Um, so...they're all over."
(I guess they don't have them in Australia. There were so many they built a fence to keep
them out, so you only see them out in boopity-bop-ville.)

2. At Dunkin Donuts one night
Steve: "What flavour is namon?"
Susan: "What?"
Steve: "Namon, see over there (pointing to the Munchkins)."
Susan: "LOL!"
Steve: "What?"
Susan: "That's Cinnamon! The first few letters are covered over by the other one."

Cold as....

I forgot how cold it gets in Chicago...and it's not even as cold as it could be, which Steve is having a hard time comprehending;) Just spent a week in the city and got to run around my own like a tourist, which was fun. Lazy at writing, so here's some more pics.

Pics from Chicago

We've been fairly lazy since we got here, only making it into the city twice in a week. Here are some pics from Science & Industry, where we saw the Christmas Around the World & Holidays of Light exhibits.