Visiting friends

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Tuesday 4th October - Friday 7th October - Staying with Nerys and Peter

After a lovely time driving around New England and soaking up the sights of the Fall colours, I spent a few more days with my parents staying with their old friends Nerys and Peter in Ithaca, New York. Nerys was my mother's bridesmaid and it is the second time my parents have visited them since they moved to the US a number of years ago. We received a very warm welcome and I was persuaded to stay a day longer than I had planned.

We arrived at about 5pm and spent a pleasant evening catching up and settling in. The following day we had a slow start in the morning but did eventually make it out. We started with a quick drive around Cornell University. There wasn't anywhere to park and the campus is big so we didn't walk around. Instead we drove on through Ithaca and on to another town which is famous for its glass production and has an impressive glass museum. We had a quick bite to eat and then spent the next three hours or so looking around the museum. (Three hours was not enough time to see everything that's there but we squeezed in as much as possible.)

They have a number of demonstrations throughout the day. We started with the glass blowing one which included an opportunity to win a vase at the end (which was a generous gift - they were on sale in the shop and they were not cheap!) There was a small group of teenage boys there on a school visit. One of them was so keen to win but unfortunately he wasn't chosen so they were going to stay for the next demonstration to try again. We moved on to look around the display about the history of glass making which spans most of the history of human beings. We then watched two more demonstrations - one about how you make glass durable and one on making glass sculptures by melting a rod of glass. The same woman did both presentations and was very informativ. It turned out that she had started by doing some glass sculpturing as a hobby at the museum and had ended up working there. She was one of those people who had spent a lifetime moving from one unusual job to another.

Before we left we had a look around the glass artwork on display. My parents didn't see all of it because they went off to watch another demo. The piece that interested me the most was a photo of one of the artists as a child growing up in Argentina in a time of terror. There are pieces of glass over some parts of the picture to represent the fragility of life during that time and how quickly it could be shattered if a member of your family or a friend suddenly disappeared.

In the evening we had a lovely meal prepared by Nerys and then watched "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" (such a fun film). Our hosts didn't make it to the end of the film, but they had been working. Earlier in the evening I was persuaded to skip my night in Niagara Falls as Nerys had arranged a party for Thursday evening that she was keen I stayed for. I had not planned to go to Niagara when I had first planned my trip, but when I had come to book accommodation in Toronto, it had turned out to be expensive with limited availability. I found out later that this was a bad combination of Thanksgiving weekend (I knew it was at a different time to American Thanksgiving but had no idea that it was that weekend) and a home game for the Blue Jays. So I decided to add in a night in Niagara Falls because I don't believe you can ever visit too many times. I'm pleased that I stayed for the extra night in Ithaca, but I did find myself feeling very disappointed to be driving past the turning for the Falls on the Friday; which is totally ridiculous because I hadn't even been planning to go originally! It all worked out in the end though because Andy drove me over for the evening on Sunday - yay!

Anyway, back to Thursday. With the extra day in Ithaca, we visited the ornithological centre that is part of the university. My parents had been there before and seen no birds at all. We had a bit more luck this time but we didn't see huge numbers. It was a pleasant place to walk around nonetheless. The impact of the drought was evident as where there had been a lake the last time my parents had visited, there was no water to be seen. The other thing we attempted to do was find a place in Ithaca where I could transfer the photos on my memory card to my memory stick. (This could well become the theme of the year, although I can do it at the school while I'm in Quito.) It turned out to be another fruitless hunt but we did see more of Ithaca and the surrounding area, including a walk around Downtown Ithaca (very pleasant), a trip to one of those mall shops that sells everything you could possibly want under one roof and a stop off at a waterfall that my parents had also visited on their previous trip. The waterfall was more evidence of the draught with almost no water in it at all.

In the evening we had the party. About ten people came - I think they all had some connection to Cornell University. They were an interesting group and it was a nice party. Generally my conversations with people while I was travelling in the States was on the sorry state of the world at the moment and there was some of this at the party as well. (This was the week of the Conservative Party conference so the news from England was particularly depressing.) Everybody you meet while travelling at the moment wants to know what you think of Brexit! It was interesting talking to people about Hillary Clinton while travelling around North America. From the outside you wonder how the American election can possibly be a contest because it is hard to appreciate how unpopular Ms Clinton is. I now have a greater knowledge of this (but I still don't understand it!) (As a side note, I have become totally addicted to The Daily Show over the past couple of months and most of my American news now comes from there - Trevor Noah is my new hero.)

Friday 7th October - Monday 10th October - Visiting Toronto and Andy

On 7th October it was time to part company with my parents. They stayed in the States for another week or so but we were going in different directions. They kindly drove me to Syracuse to catch a bus that got me in to Toronto at a better time than the one from Ithaca (although crossing the border took quite a while so it was still late by the time we arrived). It was sad to see them leave but it was nice to have had the opportunity to spend the time together.

The journey to Toronto was largely uneventful with the exception of the following things:

A tire blew out on the lorry in front of us which wasn't as dramatic as it could have been because the lorry had so many wheels, but it's the first time I've seen it happen in real life so it was a noteworthy event.

I saw lots of Canadian geese and therefore far more birds than we had seen the previous day at the ornithological centre.

There was an Indian couple on my bus who lived in the States and were going to visit their daughter who lived in Canada. They were being far too honest for their own good. When the immigration officer asked them if they had a return ticket, they said no, they were going to buy one in Canada. She then asked them how she could therefore be sure they were going to leave at some point and said, "So I'm going to ask you again; do you have a return ticket?" They still said no! Fortunately she let them through anyway.

The place I had found to stay in Toronto was a self-catering studio apartment. I was a bit apprehensive about staying there because I had read a review that had said that one of the guests had regularly heard rats running over the roof. However my first 36 hours did not produce any evidence to confirm this even though I spent all of Saturday morning there, perfecting the art of procrastination. I was feeling that the reviewer had over-reacted until Sunday morning when I did hear what they must have heard. I left pretty quickly on Sunday morning!

But I'm jumping ahead again. I had been hoping to meet up with a friend on Friday evening but it didn't work out in the end. As it turned out, it was just as well because my bus was over an hour and a half late. I found my way to my apartmen, which was a few metro stops from the centre, and then went back into town again in search of some food. I came across a free concert in town which I stayed for for a bit. I also witnessed people interacting with a street evangelist which I stopped to watch for a bit as usually people just ignore them.

The problem I had with Toronto was that I couldn't decide what to do, and so it took me a long time to get going on Saturday. For me, it's always best to have a plan in advance to avoid faffing. However Toronto is my kind of city as it turns out that many of the main attractions stay open late into the evening, so I was able to make up for some lost time, although I know I was far from doing the city justice. I have visited it before so I know that it's a great city. It was also nice to be back in a multicultural atmosphere where people genuinely seem to live in harmony with each other - something I always used to believe we were close to achieving in most parts of Britain.

I did eventually leave the apartment early in the afternoon on Saturday. I was yet again on the hunt for a place to transfer my photos to my memory stick. While the visit to the library did not achieve this, I did finally find a shop that did it on my walk into town. I walked down Yonee Street all the way to the waterfront and then along to the CN Tower. I have been up the Tower before but I decided to do it again because I thought I might get a good view of some more autumn colours (I saw some) and that I could stay up there for sunset and see the city from the tower at night - which I did. The timings worked out well - which was more luck than judgement because it was sooo busy. I had to queue for about an hour to go up. The views and the sunset were good though. I decided against paying the additional cost to go to the very top (a bit cheeky to charge even more if you ask me) and instead queued for ages again to go down.

All of this part of the city has been done up since I was last in the city and I don't think the aquarium was there at all. It's open until 10pm so I decided to pay it a visit too. It ws a good visit. It's got an extra-long tunnel under the largest tank with lots of sharks swimming over your head and a turtle (amongst many other sea creatures) - always the best part of any aquarium. They also had lots of jellyfish and sea horses and sea dragons.

On Sunday I made my way out of the city to meet up with my friend Andy. He's from England but moved to Canada about 7 years ago. We met up with some of his extended family for a picnic in the park which included Thanksgiving turkey sandwiches. Apparently it's a family tradition and it was lovely to be a part of it. Unfortunately there wasn't a picnic bench in the spot that we found so Andy and I carried one over from another part of the park. It was only a short distance to move it but it was plenty far enough! It had some rain, as all good picnics do, and it was quite cold out of the sun so Andy's cousin got a fire started. After we had eaten we went for a short walk to a great view point and then headed back to Andy's sister's house to chill out there a bit. I stayed in this house when I was last in Toronto. At the time Andy's oldest niece was 3 and Andy's sister was pregnant. It was lovely to catch up with them again and I especially enjoyed chatting with the girls.

As I mentioned before, in the evening we went to Niagara Falls. We had the added bonus of fireworks at 10pm. We had a couple of hours to kill before they started, most of which was spent trying to decide where the best viewpoint was going to be. We went up the Tower, which Andy had never done bef and I hadn't done at night, with the initial intention of staying up for the fireworks. It was a good view of the falls but I felt that we were too far up to see the fireworks properly. Ironically we almost missed the fireworks because we were chatting over a hot chocolate and only realised what the time was because the place suddenly emptied!

I wasn't sure what to expect from Andy's house because I knew that it was bought as a project. However it was very comfortable despite the lack of kitchen. There's no arguing that there's a lot of work to do but I think it will be lovely when it's finished.

Monday 10th October - Friday 14th October - Staying with Meag

On 10th October I came the closest I have ever been to missing a flight without actually missing it. I was slightly late getting to the airport but I've definitely been later. The problem was that immigration was on the Canadian side of the flight and for quite a while the line that I was in had no immigration officer at the end of it! There was a machine that you could use but it wasn't able to read my finger prints - I think because it was too sticky. When I mentioned it to a member of staff he said that it was always a problem and that Canadians who travel through the airport regularly don't even bother trying with the machines. Waiting in the line watching the clock tick by was the most frustrating thing ever. When I finally got through (after the shortest interview I've ever had entering the States - I think the officer sensed my frustration - I ran most of the way to the gate. They had actually taken me off the plane but very kindly reissued my boarding pass. I thought it would have been a major hassle for them to take my suitcase off the plane but the plane was practically empty so it probably wouldn't have been too difficult. They had even started to pull up the stairs and close the doors when I was approaching the plane.

So it was with relief that I finally flew on to Cleveland. I was met at the airport by my friend Meag who I met in Italy at a strange place in the Turin mountains called Agape. It was lovely to see her again and very kind of her to put me up for a few days. I was also delighted to meet her first son (the second one should be with us in March all being well) and her husband. After a bit of a tour of the car park looking for the car, we went to an international food market in Cleveland before going back to Meag's house. Meag's neighbourhood for me is what I picture when I think of a typical nice American neighbourhood. It's beautifully neat and tidy with large houses and the old flag outside the house. Her neighbours all look out for each other too. While I was there everybody was sorting out food and groceries for a neighbour whose father had died suddenly. I can definitely see the attraction of living there.

I had a very nice, relaxing few days with Meag. On the Tuesday we visited a local farm which had lovely spaces for her son to play in. We were given a lesson in perseverance by him. There were some gocarts that were much to big for him that he was very keen to go on. Despite lots of redirection, he kept on returning to them and eventually, when the older children had moved on to other activities, he was allowed on. While he was playing, I had a wander around the corn maze. It only had one path through it so I didn't get lost. In the evening we went out with a couple of Meag's friends for a meal and a movie. We had been planning to see Bridget Jones (a film I have planned to catch several times but I now think I'll probab catch up with on DVD) but we missed it so we went to see a film from the Saturday Night live crew (I can't remember what it was called but it was based on a true story about a robbery in the States.) All in all it felt like a true American cultural experience. Meag's friends were very welcoming and it was a good evening.

On Wednesday Meag kindly drove me towards the Pennsylvania state line so I could meet up with another friend, Heather. Heather was a student in London ten years ago and worked in my class for a term. Her help was much appreciated! Coincidentally the place she suggested we met is home to Meag's parents-in-law so Meag took Shepherd to visit his grandparents and great grandparents while Heather and I caught up over large slices of cheesecake. It also turned out that a Heather job shares with Meag's husband's aunt - such a small world! It was another lovely afternoon and an unexpected bonus. It's odd with Facebook how you can follow the events in someone's life without talking to them and so much better when you have to chance to catch up in person and fill in the gaps.

On Thursday we went back into Cleveland and to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I know very little about Cleveland but I do know that Cleveland rocks! The hall of fame was much bigger than I expected. It had lots of information about the history of rock and roll and plenty of music to listen to. It's such a broad area of music though that it's impossible to cover everything. There was a strong representation from the UK but a noticeable lack of bands from other countries included. ABBA was the only group that we found on the wall of bands, artists and other contributors who have been inducted into the hall of fame. There was also a great temporary exhibition about the link between rock music and politics. In the evening we went out for pizza and then watched some ice hockey.

Friday 14th October - A night in Miami

On 14th October I flew down to Miami in preparation for my flight to Quito the next day. It all seems like ages ago now. I can't believe that it's only been just over a week. I stayed in a nice hotel near the airport which I didn't leave until next morning. It had a nice pool and I was paying more than I'm paying each week for a room and two meals a day in Quito so I made the most of it. I had been worried that my luggage might go missing as I had a tight connection in Atlanta, but it all went very smoothly (apart from almost losing my new cardigan in exactly the same way I lost the first one when I landed in New York!) It would have been lovely to stay for a bit longer in Miami but there wasn't time - South America was calling.

Saturday 15th October - On to Ecuador

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