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Author Topic: My exciting American jaunts!  (Read 23595 times)

valley_parade

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Re: My exciting American jaunts!
« Reply #100 on: 18 Jul 2012, 23:28 »

I think St John is the biggest Anglican cathedral in the world

We're even better at being English than England! USA! USA!
« Last Edit: 19 Jul 2012, 09:08 by valley_parade »
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Wait so you're letting something that happened 10 years ago ruin your quality of life? What are you, America? :psyduck:

Carl-E

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Re: My exciting American jaunts!
« Reply #101 on: 19 Jul 2012, 18:44 »

Bigger is not automatically better. 

It is, however, more impressive.
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Papersatan

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Re: My exciting American jaunts!
« Reply #102 on: 19 Jul 2012, 18:49 »

Bigger is not automatically better. 

Only people with small churches say that.
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bainidhe_dub

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Re: My exciting American jaunts!
« Reply #103 on: 23 Jul 2012, 03:41 »

Agh May I totally forgot that yesterday was your show until like 2pm when I was most of the way to Baltimore. :( But! If you're going to be around here a bit longer, the DC Fringe Festival is going on & there are 2 shows I'm planning to go to next Sunday afternoon. Interested? (Anybody in the area, actually?)
« Last Edit: 23 Jul 2012, 08:33 by bainidhe_dub »
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Barmymoo

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Re: My exciting American jaunts!
« Reply #104 on: 24 Jul 2012, 17:18 »

Sadly (actually not sadly, but in the context of meeting people in DC) I am now in Indiana for the next two months. I did sing in the National Cathedral, it was our last service - and it is a bloody hard space to sing in, that high ceiling just swallows sound. There is a point at which the size of a church stops being for a purpose other than just "look how big we built it" and gets annoying.
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Redball

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Re: My exciting American jaunts!
« Reply #105 on: 24 Jul 2012, 17:56 »

My group sang in a large meeting room of a large Presbyterian church in one of Detroit's wealthiest suburbs, and after some of us were offered a tour of the rest of the building. As we were shown the huge sanctuary, I suggested we sing on the steps leading up to the altar. There were about 20 of us. We were swallowed up. Just as well you didn't sing in the sanctuary at St. John.
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Lines

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Re: My exciting American jaunts!
« Reply #106 on: 24 Jul 2012, 18:33 »

Ask Edith if she'd like to meet sometime before GenCon! Maybe the three of us can meet somewhere halfway and spend an afternoon together?
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Elysiana

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Re: My exciting American jaunts!
« Reply #107 on: 25 Jul 2012, 08:02 »

May, if you ever make it to the southern states, let me know! I wish I'd had the opportunity to head up there as I've got family in Virginia and DC, but I didn't have enough vacation time to do that this year :(
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dr. nervioso

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Re: My exciting American jaunts!
« Reply #108 on: 25 Jul 2012, 17:46 »

Welcome to Indiana! Please pardon all the brown, we are in the middle of what appears to be a drought. Luckily some storms passed through this week and some are supposed to come tomorrow.

Also, if you ever find yourself in Central Indiana with nothing to do, let me know. I know a few good places to go to for bars, eating, or just to have some fun
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jwhouk

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Re: My exciting American jaunts!
« Reply #109 on: 25 Jul 2012, 18:38 »

...Must... resist... obvious... shot...
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Carl-E

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Re: My exciting American jaunts!
« Reply #110 on: 26 Jul 2012, 11:23 »

Never resist an obvious shot. 

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jwhouk

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My exciting American jaunts!
« Reply #111 on: 26 Jul 2012, 14:09 »

Indianoplace?
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Carl-E

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Re: My exciting American jaunts!
« Reply #112 on: 26 Jul 2012, 19:09 »

And that's just the capitol! 

[rimshot]
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Lines

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Re: My exciting American jaunts!
« Reply #113 on: 26 Jul 2012, 19:23 »

But that's one of the few places in Indiana with stuff to do! Maybe one of a couple. Ft. Wayne had some stuff to do. The rest...eh? I imagine it to be like where my grandpa lived - nothing but corn, old people restaurants, and the occasional Walmart. And Nature.
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Carl-E

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Re: My exciting American jaunts!
« Reply #114 on: 26 Jul 2012, 20:00 »

There are the big university towns, too - South Bend, Bloomington and (West) Lafayette (Notre Dame, IU and Purdue, respectively.  I spent seven years in each of the latter two).  Lots of... bars.  And good food. 


And research libraries, if that's your thing. 
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Lines

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Re: My exciting American jaunts!
« Reply #115 on: 27 Jul 2012, 05:28 »

I have been to Bloomington. I wasn't that impressed, because I feel like a lot of college towns are the same. Then again I am also used to an urban campus. I don't really go to bars a whole lot, so that's not really an interest for me. (The bar I used to frequent had a quieter, older crowd and decent food, the other bars in the area were far too loud and full of annoying people.) And the thing about good food is you can pretty much find it anywhere if you just look for it and/or ask around.
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Redball

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Re: My exciting American jaunts!
« Reply #116 on: 27 Jul 2012, 06:07 »

IU has a good performing arts program, I recall, although I don't know what opportunities to see and hear exist in late summer.
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Elysiana

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Re: My exciting American jaunts!
« Reply #117 on: 27 Jul 2012, 07:06 »

I went to college in Indiana, Valparaiso University. Not much up that way, and too close to Gary for my taste haha.

My sister, Lynn, majored in French and minored in German and had quite a few friends from different countries because the college's international program was pretty big. So one time, some of her German friends flew to America to visit and they drove partway to our house (we lived in Illinois). When they finally got to our house, they were telling my sister that they saw "Indiana police". Lynn said, "Yeah, they're everywhere," and her friends said, "No, we were IN Indiana police!" Of course the wrong realization dawned on my sister and she thought they meant that they'd been picked up and ended up in a police station. She freaked out and it took some explaining for her to finally realize that they meant the capital, Indianapolis.
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Barmymoo

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Re: My exciting American jaunts!
« Reply #118 on: 27 Jul 2012, 09:32 »

Compared to the alternative places I could have spent my summer (basically either parents' house), this is a thriving metropolis. Within walking distance there are two parks, two or three cafes with wifi, a library with ditto, an outdoor swimming pool and several interesting shops, and the church I'm planning on attending is only 15 minutes away by bike. Plus hopefully I'll be able to drive Edith's car sometimes (it needs to go to the garage first, it's being badly behaved) so even more things will be close. This is exciting!
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Carl-E

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Re: My exciting American jaunts!
« Reply #119 on: 27 Jul 2012, 13:53 »

May, I forget - where in Indiana are you? 


Please don't say Terre Haute...
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Lines

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Re: My exciting American jaunts!
« Reply #120 on: 27 Jul 2012, 15:24 »

Ft. Wayne. Which actually is a nice place! And there's much more than a bunch of Fightin' Engineers*. ;)

*For those of you who don't know, the college in Terra Haute, Rose Hulman, their team name really is the Fightin' Engineers. I kid you not.
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Carl-E

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Re: My exciting American jaunts!
« Reply #121 on: 27 Jul 2012, 16:18 »

I taught at Rose-Hulman for a year after I got my masters.  It was a blast!  They're the ones who persuaded me to go on and get my Ph.D. 


Terre Haute holds fond memories for me, but it's a pretty dreary (ad stinky) place (there's a creosote plant there, just downwind from the sewage treatment facility...). 
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dr. nervioso

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Re: My exciting American jaunts!
« Reply #122 on: 27 Jul 2012, 20:08 »

I visited Anderson today, really run down. It is like a mix between a classic midwestern town and a city, combining the worst aspects of both.

I haven't been to Ft. Wayne for years. Well except for that one trip last year, but I never got to see anything there really.

And Bloomington is pretty cool. I mean it's just a university town, but it has a lot of stuff there that's more interesting than most other Indiana towns. It also has a Taiwanese resturaunt called the White Tiger (At least I think that's the name). If you do go there though, be sure to be prepared to either share food or bring leftovers.

Where I go to school, Ball State University, is very nice. But its town is very lackluster. As you get farther away from the university, the more the town degrades. But it is a pretty campus.
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jwhouk

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Re: My exciting American jaunts!
« Reply #123 on: 04 Sep 2012, 16:45 »

Visited with Redball and Barmymoo this afternoon. Kinda weird to meet some of the strange people we have on this board IRL.  :psyduck:

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Barmymoo

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Re: My exciting American jaunts!
« Reply #124 on: 04 Sep 2012, 17:13 »

Who are you calling strange, matey? ;)

Currently Bob and I are on something of an adventure, on our way to a prison which hasn't 100% officially agreed I can visit, but I will just turn up and insist they do. Then another, more official visit on Thursday. My travel grant has been validated at last! Only two weeks left in my American jaunt. I'm looking forward to university starting up again in a month but not to leaving here. It's been almost uniformly excellent.
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jwhouk

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Re: My exciting American jaunts!
« Reply #125 on: 04 Sep 2012, 17:16 »

I just think it's strange you didn't notice the "TEH" shirt I was wearing. ;)
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valley_parade

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Re: My exciting American jaunts!
« Reply #126 on: 04 Sep 2012, 23:14 »

Ft. Wayne. Which actually is a nice place! And there's much more than a bunch of Fightin' Engineers*. ;)

*For those of you who don't know, the college in Terra Haute, Rose Hulman, their team name really is the Fightin' Engineers. I kid you not.

Eh. I'm near Renssaler Polytech Institute, hockey powerhouse for some reason, home also of the Engineers.
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jwhouk

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Re: My exciting American jaunts!
« Reply #127 on: 17 Sep 2012, 14:40 »

I'm assuming May is back in the UK by now?
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Redball

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Re: My exciting American jaunts!
« Reply #128 on: 17 Sep 2012, 18:24 »

I believe she's leaving Ft. Eed Tuesday, back in the UK Wednesday. I'm sure she'll correct me when she logs on.
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Barmymoo

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Re: My exciting American jaunts!
« Reply #129 on: 18 Sep 2012, 10:48 »

I'm in Indianapolis airport right now. My flight is meant to leave in twenty minutes, but is delayed by an hour. Or maybe the gate has been changed.
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Lines

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Re: My exciting American jaunts!
« Reply #130 on: 18 Sep 2012, 10:51 »

Hopefully you're having a safe flight and can read this once you've landed.

Unless you haven't left yet, then, well, have a safe flight! :mrgreen:
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Redball

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Re: My exciting American jaunts!
« Reply #131 on: 18 Sep 2012, 10:59 »

Wx today looks to be cooler and wetter in UK than Indy. Surprise?
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Barmymoo

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Re: My exciting American jaunts!
« Reply #132 on: 19 Sep 2012, 06:23 »

OK so here is what happened. I got to Indy airport with plenty of time and had no problems (although they did search my hand luggage because it "looked dense" on the scanner. I'd say it looked dense, it contained 40lbs of textbooks. The woman searching it was very friendly though). Then I sat at the gate for hours and we finally were allowed to board at about 3pm - an hour after scheduled take off. At 3.30 we were updated by ATC that we might be able to take off at half past four. So we waited for another hour and I think we did take off then. When we got near Newark we were put into a holding pattern for an hour, and the pilot said "we don't have enough fuel to hold for an hour" so we went to Hartford instead.

The landing into Hartford was very turbulent, and I passed out.

When I came to, I discovered that the man across the aisle from me had a doctorate in nursing, which was rather handy, and he took care of me until we finally landed (to applause from the rest of the plane). Once everyone was off the state police turned up, for some reason, and took my details down. Then the airport fire service arrived and took my blood pressure, my blood sugar, my blood electricity, and probably some other things too, both sitting and standing. The numbers were sufficiently similar, and sufficiently close to normal, that they said I didn't have to go to hospital if I didn't want to, and I certainly didn't want to. So I signed a medical waiver stating I had refused medical advice (I'm not so sure I did - if they had said "you need to go to hospital" I would have gone).

Then we all got off the plane, after I'd cleaned myself up and changed from my urine-sodden skirt into the pyjamas I'd luckily packed in my carryon bag, because my bladder couldn't cope with the landing either. The nice airport man prioritised sorting out what I was going to do, and got me on a flight via London back to Manchester on Wednesday night. There were earlier flights to London, but there was nothing earlier to Manchester so I'd have been stuck somewhere whatever I did. He also made a note on my file that I was to be comped a hotel room.

So then we all got back onto the plane, which a team of efficient cleaners had already dealt with, and flew rather less eventfully to Newark. It still confirmed that I was right not to be flying across the Atlantic that night though, because I almost fainted again on the 30 minute flight and perfectly smooth landing. Once we got off the plane we all queued up to ask the woman at the desk where to go next. I was sent off to a different terminal by bus to speak to the customer service centre. The queue was nothing like as long as the ones I stood in when I was snowed in at Heathrow for five days - they weren't giving out bottles of water and sandwiches either. When I got to the desk I explained to the man what I needed and he checked me into the flights for Wednesday night and gave me my new boarding cards.

I mentioned the hotel and at first he started talking about me going to a different queue to talk to someone, and said "do you have a credit card? Because the hotel will need one". I told him I had exactly four dollars in cash, and an English debit card £400 into its overdraft. Then I said something about my itinerary, meaning that I needed a printed version so I knew what I was doing, but he said "oh, wait, was it already sorted?". He looked at my file again and suddenly became even more kind and concerned, and gave me a voucher for a hotel and three $10 vouchers for food.

I trekked off with my vouchers to the other side of the terminal and joined a queue to use the two working hotel shuttle phones (there were two out of order, typically). I never actually made it to a phone, because the woman in front of me had got through to the hotel we'd both got a voucher for and managed, after four different phone calls, to discover that they would be sending a shuttle for us soon. So we stood in a rabble of people as a dozen different hotel shuttles went past (some of them three times) before ours arrived. Twice as many people as could fit jammed into the bus and we rattled off to the hotel. Then we stood in another queue as a panicked and harassed-looking man tried to check us all in and get rid of the people who didn't have vouchers. I made it up to my room by half past eleven, and once I'd dumped my bags headed back down to buy a pizza from the 24 hour cafe. Thank goodness, because nowhere else had been open.

On my way back to my room a man in the elevator started chatting to me, and asked if he could come and eat pizza with me. In another life I might have said yes - he was quite attractive - but the new and improved May does not allow strange men into her bedroom at midnight and anyway I hadn't had a shower since the skirt-wetting incident and I didn't really want to be propositioned. So I ate half my pizza on my own, washed out my clothes in the hotel bathroom sink, and went to bed.

This morning I woke up to find a reply to my emails letting my friends and family who were expecting me know that I would be a day late. My mum's broken wrist has turned out to be worse than initially thought and she's going into hospital tomorrow morning for an operation. She might get home on Friday morning, but she might not. I'm going back to Cambridge on Saturday. So I will, all being well, fly back to Manchester and get the train straight back to mum's. Luckily the train station is very close to the hospital, so assuming that I can carry all 100lbs of my luggage across there I will go and see if I can see her. I won't have much else to do; my stepdad is visiting his mother and can't pick me up from the station until late afternoon.

Quite an adventure. Now I'm off to dry my skirt with a hairdryer and hopefully get it in a wearable state before I have to check out at noon. Then an exciting six hours in the airport before (please!) my flight leaves and gets to England uneventfully. Touch wood.
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jwhouk

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Re: My exciting American jaunts!
« Reply #133 on: 19 Sep 2012, 06:38 »

...and her last day has more drama than the entire three months prior.  :psyduck:
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Redball

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Re: My exciting American jaunts!
« Reply #134 on: 19 Sep 2012, 06:55 »

... and she copes.
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