Here we are in the good old US of A. It has been so lovely to reunite with family, and enjoy some American delights. This is Narelle with her two brothers, Brad (left) and Geoff, the Maddock children....all growed up and together again. It has been six years since we were all in the same room at one time.
Geoff, with his wife Sherry, and their almost 3 year old son Isaac work in Lexington, Kentucky with a group called communality. (They have a blog at
http://theashram.blogspot.com/). Brad is about to launch into some post grad studies at the University of Kentucky.
We had a few days in Atlanta with Sherry's lovely parents... we got over our jet lag, bonded with our little nephew and visited the Atlanta Aquarium (
www.georgiaaquarium.org). If your ever in Atlanta, make the time and go and see it - fabulous stuff (Slightly confused, but very impressed that the biggest aquerium in the world would be such a long way from an actual beach). We also spent a day by a lake north of Atlanta, where we swam and walked and enjoyed the woods. Green, lush, beautiful country.
We then said goodbye to Georgia, and travelled the 6 hours north to Lexington. Geoff and Sherry live right downtown in the inner city, so we walk everywhere (thank goodness, just too scarey to drive on the wrong (other) side of the road).
Now you would think, that with all the traveling and moving around our family does, culture shock in America would be the least of our worries. So we found ourselves a bit suprised (and rather amused) to experience a good dose of that dizzy, confused and bewildered kind of foggy feeling that comes when you plonk down in a totally new part of the world.
We are the kind of tourist that drive the locals nutty. We take forever to pay for our latte at Starbucks, slowly counting out our american money (they really should make the notes different colors....the visually impaired must get ripped off all the time!). We love to stand in the street and take photos of fire hydrants and very large family cars. More than once, Narelle has been heard to say ' its just like Sesame Street....but with drug dealers' (downtown is pretty rough).
A large part of our cross-culture experience here in America, has revolved around food. This is not uncommon in other lands, food is pretty important everywhere you go. But never before have we had it in such vast amounts at such good prices. How do they manage it?! We have not shyed from the cross culture expericnce. Lattes and iced tea at Starbucks, wings at the Buffalow Wild Wings, pizza at Pazzos....and hot dogs and popcorn at the baseball last night.
Laura and Brad (good friends and housemates with Geoff and Sherry) got us tickets to see the Lexington Ledgends play the Greensbourough Grasshoppers. It was a hoot! Not sure what happened with the actual baseball game, but the inbetween entertainment was excellent. I thought someone was off to the surgery rooms when a ball got hit straight at us, but years of cricket practice out in the back paddock paid off when Geoff leaped - screamer style, caught the ball, one handed and child in the other, in mid air and saved the day. Fantastic stuff.
All in all, having a fabulous time. We have just three more days here. On Wednesday (14th), we are flying to Texas to see our good friends from our Lesotho days, Dave and Roxi Owen. We will spend a night with them, then head for Australia the following day. Dreading the 23 hour flight to Melbourne, via Hawai and New Zealand - wish we were stopping, but its just for a couple of hours. Looking forward to seeing all our Australian family and friends. Love to all!
Wilsons.
