Matt's parents came round at lunch time the other day, I was sitting on the balcony, so at first I didn't hear them banging on the door. I think they probably think I'm a little bit on the mad side, sitting on the balcony in 90+ degree heat, but there we go, I'm trying to make the most of it. The weather and my time left here in America.
After a while Matt returned from work and we all headed over to Sam's Place to do a bit of shopping, grocery shopping that is. Sam's is a big place, packed high with pretty much everything you can imagine a shop to have from plastic sheds as big as some hotel rooms I've stayed in, to 64 inch flat screen TV's to diamond rings, to 12 gallon water tanks. This place seems to have it all, plus that 'all' is at low low prices. Get this, 2.5 pounds of fresh asparagus (yes Sam's sells food too!) for less than a couple of quid, a 3lb bag of prime Atlantic Salmon fillets for 5 quid. Brand new Levi jeans for £18! I so could get used to living here with these kinda prices, plus there is so much choice, it kinda puts our 'super'markets to shame.
Oh there was one of those slightly embarrassing moments, I opened a door on one of those upright freezers, jumped out of my skin when I saw a man inside it, stacking the shelves! I didn't realise that it had no back, that's right it was a massive walk in freezer, with doors on the outside! Betty and Steve seemed a little amused, or rather bemused by my actions, it was a little chuckle. Matt's folks are really spoiling us, they are so kind and generous, it's breath taking.
Today, Monday Matt and I went for a drive, I even managed to get him to go a different way, a road he'd not been down, in a direction he knew not where it lead. That for Matt is pretty adventurous, he hates, and I really do mean hates going on unknown roads, so doing a detour was a big thing for him. However, he wasn't in the best of moods after that so, we turned around and went back the way we'd come. We drove passed the SIU campus, that's the Southern Illinois University, the place that Matt's going back to this fall. It's a massive place, a huge campus, has a student population of around 40,000! The three tower block student halls loom high above anything else in Carbondale and are the tallest buildings I've seen since St Louis!
Matt's gone out on his own this evening, with friends to the movies or something, I'm glad he's seeing his friends, going out, it's good for him, although I'm missing him a great deal, it's also got me thinking about what I'm going to miss most when I have to go back to England, which is coming up way too soon.
I'm not sure, it needs some thinking time, OK had some thinking time, firstly there is Matt, he maybe lazy, he may be selfish, he may drop a wet towel on the bed and leave it there, but for all his faults I really do love him with all my heart. So, missing him goes without saying. Secondly I guess would be the country itself and everything that encompasses, the scenery, the vastness, the America-ness. There's Matt parents too, who have been incredibly kind and generous that goes beyond bounds. I mean, it can't have been that easy for them, meeting their son's first boyfriend, especially given the difference in our ages, but, they've been great, and so warm that I know I'm going to miss them dreadfully. I'm also so gonna miss Betty's chocolate cheesecake. But, also pretty high up there on the list of missing things would be shopping! Not just clothes shopping, sure I'm going to miss trips to American Eagle, Hollister and Abercrombie, but also food shopping, which has been a mix of pleasure and confusion!
I'm going to miss gallons of milk, 5 litre boxes of wine, bread with sugar in it, big cheesecakes 18 inches around and 7 inches high. I'm going to miss the range of coffee coming in jars the size of my head, I'm going to miss vast vats of juice and squash that would last me a month or more. I'm going to miss buying cans of soda pop in packs of twelve for the price I'd pay for two back home! I'm going to miss strange looking vegetables that I haven't got a clue what they are. I'm going to miss exotic fruits that are grown in the open air less than 50 miles away. I'm miss hash browns the size of a novel, and the biggest melons I've seen since the days of Samantha Fox! I'm going to miss so much food, so many cakes and sweet things that have helped turn my waist from a 30 to a 34 since I've been stateside. I'm going to miss all those things I wanted to try but just didn't have time, or the guts. I'm going to miss food with my name on it and strange things that I can't even begin to name.
Fancy a nibble??
Gosh, I'm going to miss soo much when I go back home, more than I thought I would, perhaps that's why I'm going to be coming back as soon as I can. It may not be to the same exact spot, but yankee bound I will be just as soon as visa applications will allow. While one part of my American dream may be coming to an end, another one is opening up!
I'm starting a poll on how long it takes me to get a visa to stay in America, indefinitely. What do you reckon, a month, two months, six months, a year, never? Let me know and in the end, in any event, the winner will either get the contents of my English life or the fragments of my broken dreams!
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