Hobocamp

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Do you guys remember my friend Laura? She's from England. I've posted about her here and here, but considering I just recently had the pleasure of her company at my house for almost a whole WEEK, I hoped she might be inspired to write down a thing or two about her travels.

Hi there, this is Laura, Meg's friend from England. And i am lucky enough to be visiting her for a week in my friend, the USofA and couldn't be happier about it. I got here today and have been travelling for approximately 12 MILLION hours, set out this morning, got here early afternoon. longest day ever. I am so tired and incapable of engaging my brain with any other function. I am babbling, can't type, can't speak, can barely focus my eyes, so meg thought it would be funny for me to tell you about my day.

It's 7pm here so about 1am in London and in an attempt to force me off British time, she has decided to bring me along to her chemistry lesson to stop me from falling asleep at her home. So that's where i am, learning about bonds and chains and Carbon and whatnot while meg and some of the other brightest brains in the midwest studiously take notes. i never understood the periodic table and am still unsure of it's purpose in life, but there it is hanging over me. fingers crossed some of this will sink in.

I can barely remember the beginning of my day it started so damn long ago. I got up early in my usual groggy mess and somehow managed to make it to the airport on time. The plane was pretty empty and i sprawled myself out across 2 seats. When the seatbelt sign flicked off and I got up, i looked down and had realised that I had pretty much forgotten to put on any clothes that day. What I thought was a just above the knee length dress and thick black leggings when I dug them out of my wardrobe in the dark this morning tured out to benothing more than a glorified t-shirt and transparant tights. hmmm. Not ideal.

To make matter worse, no one on the plane understood me. This is a problem that seems to happen to me a lot whenever I'm stateside. Generally, i rely on Meg to translate, even then sometimes she gets stuck, so if she's not around, I panic. So when the flight attendent asked me what i wanted to drink, I tried to think of the most transatlantic drink there was. Instead the words "tomato juice" somehow tumbled out of my mouth. People joke about the tomato/potato UK/US language barrier, but i don't think i'd experienced it myself before. He had no idea what i was saying. Being British i apologised excessively while trying to act it out and saying it in my attempt at an American accent. I was wearing no clothes!!! He just stared at me and walked on.

Customs is another pretty terrifying American experience for me and this was no exception. i waited a long time to speak to this humourless inspector and by the time i got to the gate i was so flustered, I had no idea why i was in the country, who i was here to see, how i knew her, what my name was etc etc. When i finally got to my destination, i was totally thrown, there was no arrival area and no clear exit to meet Meg, who I knew was here to pick me up. I got out at the next exit to give her a call on her "cell" but was so excited by the warm weather, she was sadly greeted by incomprehensible screams and babble. It was so hot I literally didn't know what to do with myself, I was totally overheated. I wasn't even wearing any clothes! It took a long time to get any sense out of me.

So now, here i am, sitting in her Chemistry class, being over friendly with her fellow students as tiredness seems to have temporarily removed my British stand offishness. I've already told her lab partner that he's the reason I came to America.

Labels: friends

posted by A Lover and a Fighter at 6:57 AM -

3 Comments:

At 8:40 AM, peterdewolf said…

If I had a nickle for every time I've accidentally put on transparent tights...

Welcome to America.

Canada is better.
At 10:30 AM, Girl With Curious Hair said…

Welcome, Laura!

I'm not sure why you're sitting in a chemistry class to stave off sleep. I knew people who would show up to chemistry so they could catch up on their sleep.

And regarding your wardrobe, everyone thought it was just the trendy fashion sense of the British making its way to the States. Soon, fashionable women across the Midwest will be following the trend you (accidentally) started.
At 10:55 AM, the gazelle said…

Did you get to put on clothes before chemistry? That is the burning question.

And I agree with the above commenter - soon women all over the US will be wearing long tshirts w/ transparent tights...we love the British & their quirky fashion sense.