The first days

When my alarm sounded at 5 o'clock this morning I for once did not press snooze. Instead I leaped out of bed and took of my sheets right away. I was determened to leave my room spotless. Then I hopped under the shower for the last time in a time to come. By 6 o'clock everyone in the house was up, dressed and filled with a descent amount of coffee.

On the way to the airport, in the backseat of my parents car, I looked out the window and it took it all in for the last time. Because I can already say, that after this trip, Holland won't look the same to me anymore. I felt sereen and peacefull as we listened to the music and drove into the sunrize.

Nearing the airport I could see the first planes coming and going from Schiphol. Nerves suddenly appeared, but still I felt light and even proud. I had really made this happen. This is really happening. But before you can start any journey, before taking that first step away from your known and familiar home, you have to say goodbye. I didn't think I would be the one to let the first couple of tears spill out of my eyes. But as soon as my daddy told me that they couldn't go any further and that that would be where we had to say goodbye, I instantly felt homesick. And I hadn't even left Dutch soil yet. I hugged everyone goodbye, told them I loved them and would miss them and walked away thorge my gate. And that was easier then I had thought.

Sitting in the plane waiting for lift off I felt numb. How I hate taking off. But still not as much as I hate the slow process of landing though. Yet as soon as I was in the sky and looked out the window, my peacefull feeling had returned.

Seeing as in there was nobody seated in the aisle seat right beside me I had a very comfortable flight. And apparently watching 3 movies and eating helps the time to go by fast. But even with that it was a long flight. And all I really wanted after just being in the air for 3 hours was a sigaret.
Every now and then I looked out the window of the plane and this gave excellent inspiration for a new poem. You almost feel like an angel flying high and looking down onto the fluffy snowy white clouds.

Nearing Chicago, the mass of clouds below is less thick and spots of land can be seen through them. As soon as we start descending the first thing to be seen are the many baseball fields and large parkinglots and big parks to break the picture of many linings and clusters of houses.

Landing turned out not to be the most dreadfull thing in my flight to Chicago though. Once we landed I actually had to stand in long cue just to collect my bags. Some people standing in line with me actually missed there linked flight. As soon as I finally got my bags it wasn't over yet though. There was another security point where they checked my bags, then another where they just checked my bags and then yet another one to check my bags in again for my flight to Atlanta and then another security point where I even had to take of my shoes and belt. What made this all a bit better was that the people there were all really friendly. And as soon as I walked to my gate I saw the one thing that could have lifted my spirits. A starbucks coffee stand. I never had a Caramel Apple Cider before, but it was really good.

My flight from Chicago to Atlanta turns out to be slightly less comftorable then the previous flight. On this flight I am, yes seated on a windowseat near the wing again, just like the previous flight. But this time I am seated next to a man who doesn't seem to realize that other people would like a place to rest there arms as well. He also keeps scratching himself all over (and I mean ALL over). After hearing the arrival time in Atlanta he even gave a whoo-hoo movement with his arm.
The girl next to him seems to be ignoring it all though. Perhaps I should too. I mean, the flight is only 1 1/5 hours so how bad can it be, right?

But seriously, question, why are people only ever seated next to really cute, single, straight guys on movies and television-series. Why can't it be that way in reall life. I mean, I saw plenty of cute guys at the gate. And yet, I'm seated next to a middle-aged who keeps scratching himself on every part of his body, eewh. Ok, so the guy is pretty kind. But every time you think he's stopped all that scratching, he starts again.

Landing after a flight within the USA turns out to be way better than when coming in out of the country. There were no weird lines to stand in and no extra security points here in Atlanta. I walked straight to the baggage claim and found Dawn and Jim already waiting for me. We set of to collect my bags and then went to the car for the 3 hour ride home in Knoxville, Tennessee. My plan was to stay awake and enjoy the scenery but 30 minutes later I was asleep on the back seat of their Tayota ( where I later learnt Jim is a cardealer at).

We were almost at the house we decided to get something to eat. So we went the drive in by Taco Bell. Coming home we turned on the tv, ate our food and enjoyed our glasses of root beer. It wasn't long after I finished that I went up to bed though.

My room is nice. It's big with a kingsized bed in it and a tv. I have a lovely view of the backyard from there. I have my own bathroom one door down the hall. There's a bath in there, a toilet and two sinks. Really nice.

I had set my alarm for 10 o'clock that night, so that's the time I woke up on the morning of the 11th of march. It was a cloudless, clear day with a temparture of 70 F. I thought it would be colder here but it turns out Spring has come here and I missed the snow and the ice by a week. Instead I'm walking out in the sun without a jacket on.

We set of for a lunchdate with Evan and Jamie around 12 o'clock. We went to a bbq restaurant. Everything on the menu looked big, and it was. Dawn and I shared a Sampler's platter and even then we couldn't even eat half of it. Evan and Jim spend the whole lunch talking about bikes and cars.

Out here it's reall Hill-Billy country. Almost everyone here carries a gun with them at all times. Almost everyone rides an a motor and almost everyone attends to one of the many, many, large (super big) Babtitst' churches. Dawn and Jim are the out laws here because they don't attend church. And the houses here are so lovely. Dawn and Jim have a really lovely house as are all the houses in there neighbourhood. And they are really cheap too. Then as we drove into the mountains today we saw these little shacks that some people apparently call home. According to Dawn some shacks up in the mountains even have out-houses and their only heating is that of the fire-place.

Like I said, we went into the mountains after lunch. We went to see a beautifull waterfull. I even dared to look down over the edge and that when being afraid of hights (yeeh me). It was lovely though. After viewing it from the top we climbed down to the little creek it ended in and walked and climbed around there. The water was so unbelievably clear. Lovely.

We drove back taking the longer route so I could see more of the scenery. And it was beautifull. We spend the rest of the day watching tv. Owh wait, I almost lied. Dawn and I set of for the supermarket after visiting the waterfall, and got all kinds of stuff I've never really heard of before. Really cool are the pizza-rolls. Sort of loempia's with pizza filling. During and after 'dinner' we watched the Jackass movies 1 and 2. But then in the wrong order. And 2 is way more fun then 1. After those movies we were all beat though and we set of to bed. I'm still a little jet-lagged though. So so far I've woken up around 3 o'clock every evening. Put my alarm on 10 o'clock again. Have to wake up on time so I get over that.