Last week I spent a few days in Birmingham at the Festival of Quilts but never had enough time to write about what was going on. I had a lovely time there, meeting many people, saw some wonderful quilts, although I did not get to go through the rows with the competition quilts at all, and then a long an interesting meeting of the EQA International Reps on Saturday.
Sunday morning I left Birmingham on a
very early flight after having slept rather badly. I guess I don't
travel as easily any more as I used to, certainly early morning
departures seem to be a bit of a problem. Don't know whether I am
afraid I might not wake up on time, or whether this time it was the
special arrangement of getting back in the afternoon of one day and
leaving for the States on the next morning... I used to be able to do
things like that. The most extreme arrangement I had was when I spent
the Millenium in New Zealand – remember the discussions whether
computers would be able to change over into the new century without
any problems? - and I did not know whether I would be able to get
back to Europe at all. But I had to teach on January 1, at a quarter
past two in the afternoon. And my plane landed in Munich around noon.
Of course, they had lost my luggage and it had to be delivered to my
home because I had to go to the university... I had deposited clothes
in my office and went directly to the university from the station and
only had minor problems keeping my eyes open during the class before
I could go home (to a very cold apartment). I wouldn't have minded at
all if the computer problem had actually happened and I could have
stayed in New Zealand, but it didn't happen. In any case, that's many
years ago and after this recent experience I have realized that I
won't make such tight arrangements any more.
So on Sunday morning the airport in
Birmingham was very busy and the line for security check seemed to go
on forever. But it was nice to be walking around the piano which is
standing in the middle of the hall, waiting to be played. That's when
I regret that my piano playing is very much tied to sheet music. It
would have been nice to just sit down and play.
At home I repacked my bags, took my
child and left again the next morning. I had been a bit late with
entering our ESTA-application, so lived through a scary moment at the
airport when the employee almost would not let us check-in. But
everything went well, we got on the plane and had a quiet flight. We
flew through Philadelphia where we had another long and exhausting
amount of security checks that seemed to go on forever and then
another two hours of waiting for our connecting flight.
So we were
very tired upon arrival but have been enjoying ourselves in
Louisville, KY since.
We have walked across the pedestrian
bridge that used to be a railroad bridge and crosses the Ohio River
into Indiana.
We have had American style ice cream, seen a basketball
and a baseball game,
and today we went to the Kentucky State Fair.
And it has started to rain a bit.
Everything is bigger in the USA...
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