not ferris

...until I leave for Chicago. 

I've been compiling a list of free or nearly free stuff we can do together over Matt's vacation from school.  So far I've got about 12 things on the list.  We're both on pretty tight budgets, but that doesn't mean we can't find fun stuff to do/see. 

Some of the non-list things I'm looking forward to doing include:

-Going to Earwax for lunch
-Going to Oak Park to see the FLW houses (I missed out the first trip because I got sick)
-Doing lots of quote, unquote "day to day" stuff with Matt that we can't do when we're apart

I'm a little bit nervous about the weather.   See, I'm from Australia and it's summer time during our Christmas.  Even when it is Winter here, it's not a hardcore Northern Hemisphere snow-and-ice-freeze-your-ass-off Winter.   It's a relatively mild Southern Hemisphere Winter, where the temperature rarely drops below 1 degrees Celsius (about 33.8 degrees Fahrenheit).   Finding decent winter clothes here at the moment is near impossible, since all the stores are stocked with Summer clothes.   I've decided to pack the bare minimum and just buy some suitable stuff when I arrive. 

  i've been researching accommodation for the first night in Chicago.  Everywhere is so expensive, even outside the city and near the airport.  I'll probably end up staying somewhere near the airport, simply because my flight doesn't arrive until 10pm and I cannot be bothered navigating the CTA and Metra in the late, late evening after a 20+ hour flight from Australia.  I did that the first time, and I was pretty much hallucinating from tiredness by the time we got out to Matt's neck of the woods and managed to find a place to eat that was still open. 
 These minor hurdles aside, I am excited about my upcoming trip.   Matt is too.  Every day he asks "How many days to go?", even though he knows full well.  Sometimes anticipation can be fun.

Wow, a lot has happened since I wrote in here last. Matt did come out here to Melbourne to visit, but it wasn't until March. Mostly due to processing delays by the (U.S.) passport office. It was really great. He met my parents (which went a lot better than I expected) and my friends. We went on a road trip from Melbourne (Victoria) to the Gold Coast (Queensland) about seven weeks into his ten week visit. I'm pretty impressed that we survived that trip quite happily, despite torrential rainstorms, bridge collapses (which we narrowly avoided) and getting lost in the middle of the Sydney CBD during aforementioned torrential rainstorms. Going on a long road trip and getting home in one piece makes you feel like you can conquer pretty much anything. I also think it gave us a really good opportunity to see how the other one dealt with all sorts of situations. I was impressed that Matt gave driving a go. Granted, the times he drove were on highways where he had a dead straight run, but if the tables were turned I don't know that I'd be game to drive in the U.S. practically straight off the bat.

I am going to Chicago the first week in December and staying with Matt for ten weeks. I am both excited about this, and also somewhat nervous to meet/interact with his family & friends (some I've met before and some I'll meet for the first time). At times I felt very conscious of my voice the last time I was there. Heads tend to snap around when people hear a voice unlike their own.

I forgot I had this journal, hence the lack of updates. A very quick recap, for those of you who missed the first episode:

- In April 2006, I travelled from my home in Melbourne, Australia to Chicago, IL, USA to meet Matt.
- I spent two weeks with Matt.
- It was the best two weeks of my life.

-I came back to Melbourne the first week of May. We immediately made plans for Matt to come visit me here in Melbourne in December 2006.

-Unfortunatley, due to unforseen circumstances, the trip was postponed until February 2007.

-Matt will be spending three months with me here in Melbourne. I am both excited (yay! Matt!) and nervous (yikes, he has to meet my family!) about this.

We have both discussed who will move where. It looks as though I'll be the one doing the moving, since Matt is in the middle of a college degree, and I have already finished college a few years ago. The prospect of moving to another country quietly terrifies me, but I am certain I'm up to the challenge. The whole 'driving on the other side of the road' thing does freak me out somewhat, but again, I'm up for the challenge. Whether the rest of Illinois is also up for said challenge is another matter entirely.

I always find first entries in journals kind of awkward. Like, it's the first entry, but you don't have anything terribly important to say, you just want to make it so you know you've got at least one entry in there, you know?

Just under a month before I go to finally meet Matt. I am nervous but I am hopeful that everything will go well. I think the trick is to treat it like a normal, ordinary vacation and if anything else happens that is positive then so be it. Otherwise I'll wind up a basket case before I ever get there. I bought the first little item specifically for my trip - a Korjo travel adaptor so I can use my cell phone (and my hair straightener - shh!) while I'm there. Luckily my phone is a Motorola Razr, so it's tri-band or whatver that techie word for "will work in the US and countries other than yours" is.

Off to have some dinner and make a list of everything I'll need. I have some shopping to do for the trip and I want to do it early so I'm not panicking about things I forgot at the last minute.