chasing rabbits stateside

At last, the time has come. In less than 24 hours I’ll be on an American Airlines plane pointing in the direction of Chicago, head-phones on, head back, mouth open, fast asleep and hopefully not leaning on the poor unsuspecting stranger next to me.

Last Thursday I left the office for the final time, now I can stop pretending to work. I have to admit that it is much harder pretending to work, than actually working, not that it stopped me fine tuning the art of looking busy while planning my trip and stashing any filing I was handed under my desk! Since then I’ve had a couple of days in a local school observing English lessons as part of the preparation for my course. During my time there one pupil asked if Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’ was based on a true story and a member of the English Department – and I’m talking staff here – answered the question ‘who, in 1519, was the first person to sail around the world?’ with ‘Phileas Fogg?’*. Although best of all was the girl who tried to escape through a hole in the fence round the back of the school, the rather large child got stuck Winnie the Pooh style. I’d have left her there until the process of starvation had made her the right size to slip through. And to think I could be responsible for your children one day !!!!

But back to the trip………I have accommodation planned for most of my journey, just a couple of gaps remain. I’ve managed to arrange to spend a week working for San Francisco Pride, found a tattoo artist in San Francisco who’s work appeals to me (tat number 2 is long overdue), and if all goes to plan I’ll have a day in an American school as well. Lets hope things continue to go this smoothly.

All that remains is to pack, get a massage off my brother (finally I know someone who is training in something useful), watch a farewell episode or two of ‘Will and Grace’, spend a few hours choosing which books to take on the plane (a family habit, we can be going away for a weekend break but take enough books to see us through a 6 month relocation) and get a couple of hours fitful sleep before heading to the airport at 7.30am.

For those in the UK, see you in 3 months, for those in the US, see you soon. Xx



*Ferdinand Magellen, for those interested enough to care what the answer was! Phileas Fogg was a fictional character created by author Jules Verne in 1873, Fogg travelled around the world in 80 days. And no, I couldn’t answer the question. But then neither could I answer the question ‘which is the biggest state in the USA?’** and I’m spending 90 days in the country !!!
**Alaska, apparently.

posted by KP @ 5:05 PM