Nott What You'd Expected...

Tailspin

Dang....
6 days and about 5,000 miles later, i am happy to say that the Notters are at home in the flat (67 Homefield Rd, Nottingham NG8 5GH, UK), unpacked and ready to rock





Following a tearful trip up to Luther with my mom (9 months is a long time), it was great to see the luther gang again. Eda turned 21 on friday and the crosscountry team held both the mabe's dinner and the allamerican meet/ all american party.... needless to say pictures were taken (see below).





In general, feelings varried on the trip from home and from luther to chicago... at a certain point you realize that you've been looking forward/somewhat dreading this moment for almost an entire year. How are expectations of what the flat will look like, how university life will be, how the flatmates will get along, etc supposed to live up to a year's worth of created mental images...
it's kindof a daunting idea to have to confront and change the expectations that have been building for a year, and as brandon said when we were on the plane, at a certain point there's a feeling of letdown in knowing that the carrot of a year in the UK that has dangled before us is finally reached.

To "Tarentino" this post, i'll generalize the group as we stand, and go through some stories along the way....
Right now, as jetlagged and confused as we all are, we're happy to be in the UK... I'll admit a feeling of trepedation- an unsure feeling, not quite a lack of faith in our leaders, but a unpreparedness for what is about to happen. We are traveling to York for 6 days on Wednesday, but at this point (aside from waiting around Heathrow for 3 hrs talking to a rabid anti-Bush, f-bomb dropping security guard) I feel almost as if i were still at home.... the scenary was sunny, grassy, farm-like. Anyone who has ever driven from DesMoines to Ames knows exactly what the boring-as-hell drive from London to Nottingham looks like. We don't know our neighborhood or how the house even fits in to the geographic scheme of things (ie, the University as a whole....) and so right now I'm desperately hoping that tomorrow will bring a better grasp of where we are and how we fit into the UK thing.



....

The airport was an adventure. I learned many things--- 1) the terrorist attacks of 9/11 may or may not have been caused by chocolate covered raisins. 2) Indian people smell strange. 3) 2.85 p is way too much to spend on a mochaccino, no matter where it's from.

The following pic is from our OHare AirIndia experience, in which we were supposed to go through a second round of customs (ie, two ladies look through our carry-ons). When we (Brandon, Hil, and girl from NW in Evanston who was our travel buddy) were asked to bring our bags forward, the lady commented on Brandon's sack lunch..
"I get so hungry when you damned kids bring all that food... i could be full until i show up to work and see all you people carrying around all that good food..."
"you know, i have some chocolate covered raisins"
----at this point the lady goes catatonic... literally throws her body around (never once touching brandon's bag-- and goes to the corner of her own bag to grab a small plastic cup..
"just put a few in there....ooooh, too much.... oh, don't let lashaunda see.... oooh, i always get in trouble...."




----brandon proceeds to fill her cup with the chocolatey treat while she stamps his ticket with the APPROVED: AIR INDIA SECURTIY CHECK stamp and moves on to my bags
"ooooh, what do you have in that bag?"
"my grandmother's delicious chocloate chip cookies"
---i give her a handful, she nary even looks at my bag, and proceeds to stamp my ticket
at this point, her coworker looks over and yells at her "are you eating again? what the hell are you eating?"
the cookie monster, who is juggling the raisins, cookies, and stamp at this point, drops what she's doing to pick up the security wand and starts waving it around me like she's doing her job.

my conclusion: if terrorists brought raisins, we'd have a lot more 9/11s going down...

That's going to be all for tonight. included here are travel pics, two videos from the flat, and some birthday pics from luther along with allamerican pics....

much love,,

kevin

posted by Kevin @ 10:01 PM