SUMMER VACATION: PART 1

I have been very lax in my posting of blogs this summer. The reason being, of course, that I have made the move from Moldova to Montenegro! Both in Europe, both countries that start with "M", yet worlds apart. I will soon post on my new country of residence. But first I thought I would describe the journey.

I decided to go to the USA this summer. My grandfather has been doing poorly, so I felt it my duty to see him. Plus, I had a few other things to take care of. So, despite my limited savings and the fact I knew I would have to spend a lot to get to Montenegro, I committed to go to the USA.

I bought a ticket and was all ready to go. I showed up at the airport all ready for my journey. Or so I thought.

I was detained by the police at the airport. Apparently my visa was expired. But how? I had received a year visa last year in August, and this was only July? Did Moldovan years have fewer months than in the rest of the world?

No, get this: in January a new law was passed in Moldova saying that Americans no longer needed a visa to enter the country for 90 days. Yay that. However, for some totally screwball communist-thinking reason, this meant that all other visas for Americans became invalid. Yeah, it's moronic; welcome to Moldova. So, my old visa was invalid, meaning I had stayed past the 90 days allowed me since January, when the new law came into effect.

So, I was hauled to the courthouse, missed my flight, blah blah blah. To make a long story short, the judge dismissed the case (finally, reason!) and so I was free to come in and out of the country. But, I still had to wait a week to go to the USA. My trip was cut to 2 weeks.

Still, I decided to make the most of my trip. I showed up at the airport a week later, showed the judges letter to an obviously flustered border guard, and luckily made it out of the country in one piece. I say luckily, because I flew out in the aerial equivalent of a toaster. See the pic.





Fortunately, this flight was brief, followed by probably the best overseas flight experience in my life: I licked out and got a window seat by the emergency door (extra legroom!) in a two-seat aisle, where my partner was this very cute and sociable girl from Slovakia. We watched the same movies together, drank a few glasses of wine, and whiled away the hours talking: it was my first aeronautic blind date!

I had a few hours layover in Chicago, and as I was eager to make the most of my 2 weeks in the USA I hopped an "El" downtown. I lived in Chicago for half a year many moons ago, so felt oddly nostalgic for the land of hot-dogs and overweight Midwesterners (a connection?)



Many years ago, I attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. I was young and carefree, and dropped out after only a semester. To this day I consider that the biggest blunder in my life and wonder what would have happened had I stayed there. (And now you know something of the real, inner me - don't say I never opened up, whoever you are!) So this was my ultimate destination. Unfortunately, it was closed :(



So, I ate a donut and went back to the airport. My first taste of America.