Illinois: 6/13-19/2008
Let's try this again, now that the browser here at Brandeis University flipped and destroyed my entire post.
Peoria, Illinois: June 13, Friday
At 3, Kipsuko took Kiler and me to the airport and said their good-byes, part of which involved too many damn hugs. Suspiro. I love my friends, I just don't love hugs. I'm okay with glomps, I like drapes, but hugs? No-no.
After some time of standing around outside, I entered the airport. However, I ended up behind a HUGE, obnoxious group of travelers-- there were probably around 10 or 15 of them-- just by being, like, twenty seconds behind. Suspiro. I got my ticket, bought myself a drink and snack for breakfast, and waited.
At shortly after 6 AM, the plane took off. We flew from PDX (Portland, OR) to O'Hare (Chicago, IL). On the flight, I sat beside a pretty young woman of unknown ancestry with dark brown hair, just a couple of years older than me. On the other side of her was a middle-aged Caucasian man. We didn't speak during the trip, the other two sleeping for virtually the entire flight while I listened to music, tried to doze, and played on my computer. (And yes, we were all native English speakers.)
As we stood to get off, however, the topic of foreign languages came up. Well, I study Japanese + un poco de español, and bastardized Konglish. The girl beside me-- Raina, who apparently graduated from PSU in 2005-- had studied Italian and was on her way to Vermont to participate in an immersion program to learn Arabic. The man, whose name I never caught, had recently returned from a trip to Mexico, where he'd also done an immersion program.
We said our good-byes and got off the plane. Entering O'Hare, I stumbled about, trying to find my gate, when I happened to run into Raina again. She suggested that we have lunch, so we did. We chatted about languages and school and work and names and past travel experiences. It was a groshing time. Her flight was due to arrive half an hour before mine, however, so we said our good-byes and I continued on to my gate (which turned out to be quite nearby).
The shuttle from O'Hare to BMI (Bloomington-Normal, IL), however, was pretty lame. The air conditioning was broken, so the entire shuttle was sweating like a pack of dogs running under the sun in summer. The man beside me, however, was quite cordial. He had gone from Las Vegas to O'Hare, returning from a five-day business trip and eager to return home to his wife and kids. He pointed out the Chicago skyline to me, and the wind mills, and a few other things.
Finally, we descended, and I arrived in BMI-- a teeny-tiny little airport. Quaint, really. But Anika had mis-remembered the time I was supposed to arrive, so I sat around waiting for around 20 minutes before she and her boyfriend came and got me. There were no tear-jerking sentimens or anything melodramatic like that when we saw each other again for the first time in six years-- it just felt like time hadn't passed, and we were just meeting up again, as we'd always done before.
And thus, we began the hour-long drive back to Peoria, where Anika and I were staying at a Super 8 Motel. We went by her boyfriend's house first to pick up some anime, then went to the motel. We ate dinner at Perkins Restaurant and Bakery, watched some Noir, stayed up talking-- or rather, stayed up with Anika talking about her characters and stories ^_^;-- and drifted off to sleep.
Peoria, Illinois: June 14, Saturday
We woke up annoyingly early to head off to play D&D in the middle of nowhere. (I knew we were waking up early; that just doesn't make me love the hour any more. xD) D&D was... D&D. O_o; *shrug* Then, around 10 or so, we drove back to Peoria. We watched some more NOIR and part of the first episode of Otogi Zoshi before going to bed.
Peoria, Illinois: June 15, Sunday
We woke up and drove up to Joliet to see Anika's dad and mom and sister for Father's Day. We had lunch at Outback, a wicked delicious steakhouse, and then went to go watch Kung Fu Panda. After that, Anika and I headed home, where we proceeded to finish off watching NOIR, talk some more, then sleep.
Peoria, Illinois: June 16, Monday
We woke up to some confusion, as we weren't sure if our lunch plans were still on, since Anika couldn't get a hold of her boss. But lunch plans were indeed still on, so we drove over to Caterpillar HQ to have lunch and tour the areas where Anika did her internship as an electrical engineer. She's so impressive! *o* Coool.
We watched a few episodes of Wandaba Style as background noise while I drew our former characters and Anika coloured in her colouring books. Then we eventually went to sleep.
Peoria, Illinois: June 17, Tuesday
I can't remember us doing much this day. We went for sushi, swung by Best Buy, and watched some Prétear. We miiight have gone to Perkins again, or that might have been Monday-- I can't quite recall. All in all, very chill.
Peoria, Illinois: June 18, Wednesday
I can't remember us doing much this day. We went for steak and finished watching Prétear. We did, however, get a hold of a Playstation 2 and played some Karaoke Revolution. For some reason, I kept getting perfect scores singing Heartbreaker, a song I didn't even know prior to this game. o_o; That's odd. The really funny thing was, when Anika's boyfriend played with us, I was third place. When just Anika and I played, though, I was first. Wonky.
Peoria, Illinois: June 19, Thursday
We woke up, went to Bradley University to look around, got Italian grinders for lunch, swung by a candy shop, went to a Kohl's for Anika to get a bracelet, then proceeded on back to BMI. I bid them farewell as I got on my plane for O'Hare, and then Massachusetts.
As the plane was backing away from the terminal, I saw some sort of hawk hopping around on the concrete. That's odd, I thought. Then, are there two hawks?
Then the hawk lifted off the ground and flew off, carrying a rabbit carcass with it. Why the hell were a hawk and rabbit that far away from any grass, and right up by an airport building and planes?!
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