America Week 2: Road-trippin' across the US

 Howdy, y'all!

Hope everyone's doing well! I've had a busy week, but it's been a lot of fun!

Murrells and (some) Festens getting ice-cream!

On Friday, Karys and my parents arrived in America. The first thing we all did as a group was have dinner with Christi and Matt, though the children didn't join us, as it was their bed-time. (Immanuel was still up when we arrived, and very excited to meet new people, but he went to bed shortly thereafter.)

Happily, my parents got a better chance to meet Immanuel and Raphael the next day, as they came round to the Festens' for the day. (An event which also occurred on Sunday and Tuesday!) On Saturday, the gathered Murrell-Festen-Prechter clan had supper with an old friend from Africa. Just as Karys and I had tutors in Bilolo, so did Kylie and Christi. One of those tutors, Miss Becky, came round on Saturday, except she didn't know that we (the Murrells) were in America, so we hid until after she'd arrived, then surprised her. It was very nice to see her! We spent much of the evening reminiscing on old times in Africa, which was very fun. We also did a recreation of an old photo from Bilolo.

Back in Bilolo... (Front row is Uncle Brad, Aunt Maria, my mum, me, and Karys. Middle row is Kylie, Christi, and Marie Colette, a colleague of my parents. Back row is Miss Becky, my dad, and Pastor Mathurin, another colleague of my parents.)

...and Wheaton, Chicago, nearly 20 years later! We tried to be in the exact positions we were in for the previous photo. Marie Colette and Pastor Mathurin couldn't be there, sadly, but we do have two intruders from the future in the form of Matt (taking the photo) and Immanuel (standing next to Aunt Maria).

On Sunday, we went to church, which was pretty interesting - it was very different to Church of England Anglican churches. Architecturally, it was a block of concrete, but inside it was spacious and quite nice. The service involved a fair bit more procession than most Anglican churches. It was a nice new experience, though.

We got our first experience of Chicago proper on Monday - Wheaton, where the Festens live, is a suburb quite a while away from the centre. Kylie came with us as a tour guide. Our first taste of Chicago was...unexpected, to say the least - practically the first thing we saw once we got out of the station was a woman wearing an outfit which left very little to the imagination. Once we'd recovered from the shock of that first impression, we went for a stroll along the river, which was considerably more enjoyable. The river walk was quite fun. We then went to a very tall building, which had 95 floors! Thankfully, we took a lift, rather than having to walk the entire way. After relaxing and enjoying some drinks, we went back down to street level and walked along part of Lake Michigan and found our way to a Chick-Fil-A for lunch. (Lake Michigan, by the way, is about the same size as the entire United Kingdom!) We went our separate ways after lunch, with Kylie and Karys going to an art museum, while my parents and I explored a bit. The highlight of the exploring was going to a science museum called Mindworks, where we got to explore various experiments relating to psychology and how our minds work. I got a souvenir water bottle! At around 5, we met back up with Kylie and Karys and made our way back to Wheaton, where we relaxed for the rest of the evening.

Tuesday was pretty fun! In the afternoon, the Murrells, Festens, and Prechters (minus Matt) visited the local fire station - my mum, who is a firefighter, got in contact with the fire chief and asked if we could have a tour, and he agreed. It was quite interesting - though I do think Raphael and Immanuel were the most fascinated. In the evening, we had supper with the Prechters, which was very enjoyable. My highlight of the evening was probably sitting outside in the sand-pit with Raphael and Immanuel before supper; it was nice to just relax and spend time with my cousins. Raphael did insist on trying to eat sand, though, so I had to keep an eye on him.

The Chicago skyline!

Frowning cause we're all sad to leave Chicago!

Part of our plan when we came to America was always to travel around a bit and see more than just the Chicago area. (Humorously, when we first started planning it, my parents had an idea to go on a day-trip to New York, then pop over to the other side of the continent to visit San Francisco. I'm not quite sure how they underestimated the sheer size of America.) So, last Wednesday, we embarked on a road trip across the United States! The Murrells and Uncle Brad, Aunt Maria, and Kylie went one direction, while Christi, Matt, and the boys went another. On the first day, my group travelled south to St Louis, where we stayed with Uncle Brad's mum. After dropping off our stuff, we went to visit the St Louis Arch; due to time constraints, we weren't able to go up the Arch, but it was still very interesting! We then met up with Uncle Brad's sister and her husband to watch a baseball game between the home team (St Louis Cardinals) and a visiting team, the Astros. It was quite fun, but loud and occasionally confusing. Sadly, the Cardinals did not win, but they did do very well for most of the match.

The next day, we had breakfast with Uncle Brad's mum and sister, which was very nice - the food was yummy!

The St Louis Arch!

The baseball match!

After breakfast, we drove to Nashville, the City of Music! It took most of the day, and we got there at about 4 or 5. Almost immediately, we went into downtown Nashville, to experience the music. We walked for a while, before going to a place called Roberts, which had been recommended to us. Unfortunately, they wanted ID, and neither me nor Karys had any, so we couldn't go to that one. (Personally, my beard should have been ID enough, but...) We went to a marginally quieter place then, stopping on the way to get supper, and listened to a jazz band perform. When we got home (at 11 at night), we watched a movie (The English Game). Impressively, I stayed awake for the whole thing!

The next morning, we went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast; I had sausage patties, eggs, and loaded hash-brown casserole. Loaded hash-brown casserole is basically omelette, with potatoes added (cheese, egg, bacon.) There were also 'biscuits' (the American term for scones), and gravy, shared between all of us. It was one of the most delicious breakfasts I've ever had - and that includes the breakfast burger and Oreo milkshake I had at Cafe Yolk a while ago! So filling, in fact, that I managed to go the entire rest of the day without any food except snacks!

Night in Nashville!

From Cracker Barrel, we drove to the Rabbit Room, which is a manor owned by the author Andrew Peterson, serving as a museum for various famous writers, including Tolkien. We stayed there for an hour or so, each pursuing a specific creative activity. I did poems; I ended up writing three - one of the St Louis Arch, and two commemorating Nana and Great-Uncle Stuart. It was Nana's birthday on Friday, so she was on my mind. 

After an hour or so at the Rabbit Room, we continued on our journey, travelling east to the Smokey Mountains and the place we'd be staying for the next few days. We arrived at 8, to a cabin in the woods. It's quite cozy here, though the WiFi's so rubbish that it can't even handle two people using it at the same time.

On Saturday, we just relaxed for most of the day, though everyone but me went to a lake to go swimming in the afternoon. I stayed at home to bake Battenberg cake, which is complex and time-intensive. It came out very well, and the Festens all enjoyed it. (As did the Murrells.)

The next day, we had church, which was just the seven of us singing worship songs and reading the Bible; it was very fun! In the afternoon, we went canoeing on a lake, though we got out of the canoes to swim for a bit half-way through. I enjoyed it a lot!

Monday was mostly more relaxing. I spent much of the morning writing my blog, and also sharing the WiFi with Kylie, who was working on ideas for a nature walk that Matt's going to do in a few weeks. (Hence my comment on the WiFi- it was agreed that she'd have the WiFi for a bit, and I'd have the WiFi for a bit.)

A scenic view of the mountains.

Overall, my second week in America's been very fun! I've enjoyed the opportunity to experience the vastness of the United States, and I've really enjoyed spending time with the Festens! What's sad, though, is that Saturday marked exactly two weeks before I head back to England. This time in a fortnight, I'll be back home...though I will hopefully be starting my new job, and that's definitely exciting!

Random stats

-Something funny that happened last Tuesday: I carpooled with Christi and the boys, because my parents were stopping off at Walmart for bits and pieces, I wanted to go straight home, and Christi was also going straight home. On the way out of the fire station, we drove through a Target car-park, and Immanuel promptly decided he wanted to go shopping.

-Distance travelled in the last week: 1,351 km, rounded to the nearest kilometre!

-Baseball games attended: 1

-Hours spent driving: About 12, split across 3 days

-Poems written: 3

    -St Louis Arch:

     Soaring, grand, and magnificent,

     Tall and curving.

      

     Locally called 'Gateway to the West',

     Officially 'St Louis Arch',

     Under blue skies and golden sun.

     Inside, expansive and chilled,

     Slim, skinny, and sun-baked outside.

     Arch of St Louis,

     Resplendent and majestic,

     Cardinals call it

     Home.

    

    -Haiku for Nana:

      Auburn hair, warm smile,

      Gentle as silk, hard as steel,

      Kind, loving, much missed.

    -Haiku for Great-Uncle Stuart:

      Learned, wise, ever-smiling,

      Firm of hand, gentle of heart,

      Now gone, sorely missed.