Sweet Home Chicago

I woke up this morning bright and early (about 11pm Chicago time... 6am Amsterdam time) to catch my flight back to Chicago. It's eerie how dead the streets are in Amsterdam at 7am on a Saturday morning. I made my way to Central Station to catch a train out to the airport. The only people I saw were some random weirdos talking to themselves and the people cleaning up the messes on the street from the night before. I would not want that job!

I ended up getting to the aiport way earlier than I needed to... lucky for me there are plenty of shops at Schipol airport! I stopped in the Duty Free shop and picked up some Vincent Van Gogh Vodka (special request from Matt). They were handing out samples of chocolate and I had one and was hooked. So, I bought some chocolate, too. I was looking at some of the other stuff they were selling and saw the packs of cigarettes... in the states, last I saw we just have a small warning label that says smoking is bad and harmful if you are pregnant... blah, blah, blah. Well, in Europe, they are much more descriptive...

Then I boarded the big plane and made my way to Chicago!



The flight was not all that great. The area I was in had like four babies, two of which took turns screaming throughout a lot of the flight. I was also one of about ten lucky people whose sound did not work on their headsets. Yep, no movie for me. I could watch it, but could not hear it. And it was subtitled in Dutch, so I couldn't even follow along by reading. I had brought my parents' portable DVD player and set that up to watch... wouldn't you know it, I forgot to charge the thing up last night so the movie stopped about half way through. So, I listened to my IPOD and did sudoku puzzles for most of the flight. Not exactly my idea of a good way to spend 9 hours of my life, but I made it.

Dan and I got into Chicago and were waiting for our bags to come in and there was a security dog sniffing around. He got a "hit" on my bag so the lady asked me to lay my bag on the ground... apparently, you are not allowed to bring in any produce items with you to the states. I had an apple in my bag that I had planned on eating on the flight, but did not. The dog was so cute and so excited that he found the apple... he was most happy because he got a cookie for his great work! : ) But, of course, I got a flag on my customs sheet, so when I went to leave, I had to go through a special area and they scanned my bag (you know, just in case I was trying to smuggle in a suitcase full of apples or something!). Poor Dan... they asked if he was with me and he said "I guess so" and they made him go through this additional scanning, too. Sorry!

Matt picked me up from the airport and took me out for lunch. Now we're watching some football... Illinois won again today - Go ILLINI!!! I think it's about time for a nap... it feels like midnight to me. : (