Chapter 2018 begins

Well, hello there.

It looks like I left off in Boston in 2016. Well, after Boston I went to Sacramento, California, to visit my uncle before heading back home to Australia.

It's two years later, but I'm once again in Sacramento, CA. I flew in yesterday, but had family obligations after the long trip, so I've just sat down to open this new chapter of the blog.

This trip will consist of a 10-day stop in Sacramento for a birthday celebration and family visit, then -- guess what? A week in Vancouver, BC, Canada! Yes, Donzerly Light now includes bonus Canada! 2 for the price of one! Get yours now at...

The 13-hour flight was smooth. Ordinarily I would read a book, or get out my laptop and write, but owing to some significant sleep deprivation I mainly watched movies.

The recommended list:

Frozen (five years late to the party; I'm sure you've all seen this one)

Murder on the Orient Express

Year Million (Nat Geo documentary series on the future of the world thanks to science/tech)

The not-recommended list:

StarTalk (hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson)

Puppy Dog Pals from Disney Jr. 

I got stopped by security at SFO and had to have a quick pat-down and the 10-sec explosive-testing because I left my Opal transport smartcard in my back pocket, oops!

Sniffer beagles are just as cute as normal beagles but probably just as evil inside. 

The animal relief area at the domestic terminal looked tiny to me, but it's good they've got one. I notice these things now that I'm in the dog training field.

When we reach the US the major cities will be labelled and I will wish I could visit all of them

Whenever I see the flight map over the US, I wish I actually planned for my trips and not just tagged-along or jabbed a finger at a random city that I've heard of. Don't get me wrong, I love every place I've been to so far in the US, but I could probably make better use of my time by choosing carefully.

An already long (planned) stopover at SFO turned into a 10-hour one thanks to delays (the captain was AWOL, apparently... Dammit, Jim!). Ordinarily not an issue, but I was unable to contact my uncle, who had offered to pick us up. It was a comedy of errors -- my SIM card hadn't activated as requested, so I didn't have mobile service, only airport WiFi. For a lot of people data is enough to get in touch... but my uncle doesn't have a mobile phone. Never mind, that's what the courtesy phone at the airport is for, right? ... Except when you get a disconnected tone on dialing his landline!

10 hrs at SFO: Desperate times call for desperate measures

I later found out that the night before, his landline and internet (which are connected) had suddenly stopped working. They did, of course, resume normal service once we contacted a bunch of other family members who finally got a message across so we were eventually picked us up from the airport. Hah!

Anyway, with that all done -- time to get onto the visiting and seeing part!

Loin d'ici

I get the feeling plane trips are going to be blog updating time on this trip!

I'm on the plane IAD -> BOS, which is Washington DC to Boston for those who haven't been to this corner of the world.

I spent the past few days after arriving in the US in northern Virginia. I was just a hop away from DC but I was never tempted to head down there (I was there in 2012). Instead, I stayed in the lovely local area where my uncle lives. It's suburban, incredibly green (especially to those of us from a sunburnt country...) with large houses on large lots. I am lucky to have family living in such nice areas and it makes visiting them that bit nicer. (Note to self: clean up my space at home so it's a sanctuary rather than a sacrifice for people to visit me!)

Great Falls, VA

It was also gorgeous sunny weather, so a trip to the "local" national park, Great Falls, was a delight. Naturally, in the two years my family have lived in the area none of them have actually made the trip. It really was a lovely space that I would LOVE to have local - I'd grab a dog and head there at the first sign of good weather! (Kirsten, you'd lend me Fozzie, right?)

View from my window seat

I love flying over land because there's something so much to see. Or along the coast in this case -- best of both worlds. God, everything is so beautiful from up here. (Zoë's Loin d'ici is also a great flying song.)

Omg captain just announced we begin our descent in 12 minutes. This is the shortest flight ever!* Talk to ya later!


* As an Aussie any flight shorter than 4 hours seems short to me!

We meet again!

Uh, hi guys!

I’m writing to you from somewhere in the Pacific. Or, more accurately, 37 000 ft* above the Pacific Ocean. I don’t think there’s many recognisable landmarks here, or at least they’re not shown on this flight map.

Since I’m here – yes, I am on my way to the USA again. I don’t really ever plan trips, but when my mother decides to visit her family, I tend to go along. I mean, why not?

I started this blog in 2012 when I visited the East Coast and in fact the USA for the very first time and people really seemed to enjoy my naïve observations of the US, so I thought I’d continue it. Only thing is, I visited in 2014 too – and spent that trip on the West Coast. I guess I must’ve assumed that since it wasn’t my first trip to the country, I wouldn’t have anything interesting to add. Or perhaps I just plain forgot about this blog… my point is, I didn’t blog at all that trip. (You must have been simply desolate without my blathering.) But actually, every time I’ve come to the US I’ve been somewhere new, and of course discovered something new. Thus, the chronicle continues. So hello again, from 2016, where I visit both East and West! Whoo!

The next post will be a quick catch-up on the highlights of 2014’s West Coast trip, so no one will be left wondering what they missed. (I know you won’t sleep until you find out.) Then it’ll be straight on to real-time updates from USA 2016!

* Don’t ask me how much that is in metres. They’ve only given me feet and I haven’t paid for WiFi…

I'm home.

What can I say? I had a good trip. I saw a lot of things, most of them touristy, but a few of them not. I met relatives, and made observations on strangers. 

(Conclusion on that, by the way, if you insist, is that all the people I met on the street were very helpful and friendly. With storepersons and securitypersons, it varied. Yes, America does seem to have some issues with safety and security, both in inadequacy and overcompensation. But I never felt unwelcome, and I certainly discovered some very human, compassionate things.)

Goodbye, 'Murrica! 'Bye, all! Thankyou for coming on this journey with me. Let's do it again sometime!

Melon

I’ve obviously grown up with American media because the American accents sound so familiar and comforting. I was happy the minute I settled in to see Delta staff, and smiled inwardly at the woman’s voice heard announcing instructions at LAX. I’m surprised to find how much I actually enjoy hearing the American accents!

Imagine my shock when I picked up my luggage in LA and found the lock unlocked. You can guess where my thoughts went immediately. I asked the only person around, an airline representative, about it, but she only suggested that it could have been TSA, except that Australia doesn’t have a TSA. I took a quick look; nothing appeared to be missing, and more importantly, nothing appeared to have been added.

Surrounded by signs about the criminal impact of smuggling, and about to go through Customs, I decided to ask the customs officer. He only advised me on how to make a claim to the airline, should I wish to. I actually voiced my concern about tampering but he only advised me to make sure nothing was missing before checking it in for my connecting flight.

Well, if no one else was going to be concerned, then I wouldn’t either… if that was possible. I did another check, more thorough this time, but images of illegal substances hidden in the shopping bags in my luggage I hadn’t bothered to open still flashed through my mind. I got through Customs without incident, though, so Iguess if I’m carrying anything I shouldn’t be, it’ll either be gone by the timeI get my luggage back and we’ll all be none the wiser, or it’ll come with me to a suburban house to NJ. Both Customs and Security in the US intimidated me. I didn’tlike all my fingerprints (all 8 fingers and 2 thumbs!) and retina being captured by Customs, and unfortunately I hadn’t been thinking quick enough to get out of the x-ray. And even then the x-ray didn’t seem to be enough for them…They picked up something on me which meant I earned both the message “the female has a zip on her sweater, does that make a difference,” delivered inmonotone through the walkie-talkies, and a pat-down from another officer. In transit, I spent my first (and only) four dollars on a bottle of apple juice to take meds with, and ended up unexpectedly with a handful of change – some silver, some copper tiny coins. I had a quarter, though! How exciting. I’m in America! :D

As I fly over Georgia on the way to New Jersey (still not having set foot on US soil outside of an airport), I think, I’m in another country. But what is another country anyway? We fly all this way to be in adifferent country, but countries are all socially constructed. Nations, borders and the like are all socially constructed. So is culture, and history…Okay, I think it’s time for me to sleep.