YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY~~
Hello there!
:D The weekend in
We actually were in the Quad Cities, so there was plenty to see. The ride took us 3 hours from Algonquin near 
Kumama's Mums house was awesome (I forgot to take pictures >_<'''). It had closed porches, a big yard, an extra guest house (where Kumama, Stiltz and I slept in), a music room (as Debbie - Kumama's Mum - is a music and orchestra teacher), an actual library (I so wanted to take with me XD), and lots more. On the first day in Moline we visited a used book store before Kumama's Mum was back home from school and after she came home and we introduced ourselves (so to say) we went to see some other shops in Davenport, right over the river and already in Iowa. Since Debbie always tries to save up errands she can do with her daughter, we went to a lot of shops (A LOT!!! and I hate shopping TT_TT but I survived the trip).
On the next day we started out really early; woke up at 6.30am and we were out the door at 7.50am. We were on our way to the Farmers Market, right at the riverbank and sample the local foods and watch the river in the morning. 
It was really soothing and Debbie bought me breakfast and fresh lemonade, while Kumama bought me an egg roll (the food was awesome and nearly every stand had samples we could taste). THANK YOU GUYS!! XD Later that day we went to Chick filet for lunch and visited a bunch of other shops, because Kumama and Debbie wanted to buy some stuff. Stiltz and I were really just going with the ride and we kind of felt like decoration (which was fun anyway). 
When we finally got back to Debbie's house we did some stuff around her house before we left for the evening to go eat out at the TEXAS ROADHOUSE. A W E S O M E food, by the way. I had the 1/2 size rips with Caesars salad (for some reason it was topped with parmesan cheese) and a backed potato on the side. The salad I finished, but I wasn't able to finish the potato or the rips so we packed it up and took it with us. After we went out to eat (which was actually really cheap for the amount and taste of the food) we decided we wanted to see a movie, so we went to see "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" (which I already saw back in
On the next sunrise we decided to sleep in and start the day late (as the day before we woke up sooooo early). I actually really just wanted to hang around and maybe watch a movie (I was desperate to see "Mama Mia" on DVD, but I didn't get a chance), but we decided to do something outdoors. So we went on a ride on the 
We also visited the 
Debbie seemed really annoyed with it and shortly after we shipped to the other side of the river to have lunch there in a "jazz bar" and later catch a ride to our car.
All in all, the day was awesome. After that we didn't do much anymore. Kumama drove us to Borders again, as I wanted to grab another book I forgot the other day and then we went off to our ride home to Algonquin.
Well, that's it for this tale. There's more to come soon!
Still tired and thirsty...
Later I realised that I'm stupid, because I did have a credit card and I could just buy my water that way. So shortly before the flight to O'Hare Chicago left I stalked one of the stores located on this side of the airport and got myself a whole bottle of water which I chugged halfway down in a few minutes. And then it was waiting time again. But finally they opened the gates and we all boarded the bus to our plane. Luckily the lady at the boarding station told me "I'm very sorry, Miss, but there seems to be a problem with the entertainment unit at your seat. If you want to use it, please talk to one of the crew onboard, so they can maybe relocate your seat and you'll be able to use the entertainment unit."
Dreading this particular conversation with the crew I just sat down on my place and hoped for the best. I had a book and music so I figured I might not need it anyway. After getting all my stuff packed up and sitting down on my place I just waited till everyone boarded the plane. Funny enough, but my entertainment system worked just fine when the security measures of the plane were announced and later the announcement form the captain. Since this worked, I figured the entertainment unit would work for everything else too - and it did.
After taking off I decided to check out the movies on board and I have to say I was really pleased. First, the seat next too me was empty, so I had room to move around. And second, they had all the new movies scheduled to come out on DVD somewhat this autumn. 
They also had movies I had wanted to watch at the cinema but never came around to actually watch. So taking my sweet time I re-watched "Angels & Demons" (the second movie featuring Robert Langdon, which ran for 2 1/2 hours and I needed nearly 4 1/2 hours to complete, because our very yummy late lunch arrive - pasta with chicken, a salad, chocolate mousse with mandarin sauce, water, coke and tea - and I was having a conversation with the girl sitting 2 seats beside me). Later I also watched "The Fast & the Furious 4", as I totally missed out on that movie. After that I switched to soothing music to get some rest and I actually slept for 2 hours while trying not to have cramps in either my feet or my back. After that I woke up and got something to drink again and started watching some kids program till our breakfast/dinner arrived - 2 yummy sandwiches. Munching it I started watching the latest Star Trek Movie but only got finished an hour of it, because we were going to land in
The fight over the city of
... Too bad, I couldn't speak for the next 2 hours, because I was brain dead and not used to talking in English at all. Otherwise Kumama and Stiltzkin are doing their best to help me out, explain things to me and talk to me, so I get used to talking too. Unfortunately XD I mix up words, start forming sentences with weird words and generally forget to think before speaking.
YAAAY!
The flight from
So, I started out pretty early and drove with my friends to the airport after I got my blood-thinning shot at my doctor's office. Esther and Philipp accompanied me, so I wasn't alone. The check-in went fairly fast, though we had to wait a few minutes till the check-in crew showed up. After that (I had checked-in my flight the day before so I only had to leave my bag at the bag-drop area) I was able to just drop off my bag and we waited around a little bit. The waiting area was really tiny and Esther soon had to go back to the city because she had things to do and didn't sleep very long the night before. Philipp stayed with me and we chatted around a little and walked around the premises. Since we really couldn't do much at the airport I soon decided to go into the duty free area to check out how everything looked and go through security in time. But to be frank; there was no need to do that, because my flight was late...
The boarding should have been around 1:40pm that day so the flight for
Well, finally sitting in my seat at the window and waiting for the flight to actually start I stared out at the window, finally realising that I was going to leave the country by plane for a very long time and that I actually might find something I want to pursue later in life. 
The flight to 
Finally taking my leave from the plane, I stumbled through customs and security in less than 30minutes (which is really fast) and was left alone with my hand bag and purse at the airport in London Heathrow. And it's effing H U G E!!!
Since I couldn't do anything else and I was messed up enough because I forgot to actually change some money into British pounds I was walking around the airport exploring and finding this charming "little" restaurant called "Wagamama" (which also means "selfish" in Japanese). I had to pause and take a picture of it.
After locating a toilet, using the facilities and walking around a little more I finally found out which gate I had to locate at this airport and took of in search for Gate B35.
It turned out to be a gate at another building so I had to use the underground transport and a 20 minute bus drive to arrive at the right building and start the painstaking process of going thru border and security checks again. After that my fellow travellers and I were sitting around waiting for the boarding to start, which was delayed...., by 40 minutes (so I actually had to wait 2 hours and I still didn't have any money to buy something to drink).
God, was I tired and thirsty... (more coming soon)
