"If it won't fit, don't commit"

...or so I was warned by a poster about driving across train tracks.

It's about 6am but my body clock is still a bit out so I'm wide awake and hungry. In about two hours our complimentary beverages will be delivered to our room which is very exciting! I'm enjoying the poshness of our hotel a lot! There are a ridiculous number of pillows on the bed though, some of which are nearly as big as I am.

My journey here was mostly uneventful apart from when our late arrival into Newark left me with not very much time to make the transfer to my second flight. Of course I ended up in the slowest immigration queue with a large family in front of me who couldn't speak English and couldn't understand how to give their fingerprints. After a mad dash across the airport, rechecking my luggage and changing terminal, I made it to the gate just as my row was being called. I sat down on the plane thinking "at least I can have a nice g&t to calm me down a bit"... forgetting that I'm underage here. Then I thought maybe a cup of tea, but they weren't serving hot drinks (it was only a tiny plane with three seats per row!). In the end, the flight was so turbulent that we'd almost landed before I got anything to drink at all.



After catching the lovely metro from the airport to near the hotel, I found the right road for the hotel and started walking. I say walkng, but the air here is so hot and thick it can feel more like swimming. I was quite awestruck by the tall buildings, and I can't wait to get to Chicago with even taller ones! Unfortunately I was so busy being impressed by the buildings that I forgot to check which way I was walking and ended up heading several blocks in the wrong direction. Eventually I got to the hotel, where Nik was waiting for me in the lobby. When he came over to greet me the concierge said it was the cutest thing she'd ever seen, or something like that.



We're on the seventh floor, or sixth if you count the British way, and since we haven't found the stairs we keep having to take the lift which sets off my vertigo. It doesn't usually last too long though. The views aren't very exciting but that doesn't really matter. The city is very nice even if it is a HEAT ISLAND as they said on the news. Yesterday we walked to the arch which is a lot more impressive than it looks in pictures. We sat under a tree to eat our lunch and met a completely fearless squirrel which tried to make friends with us. Then we discovered that under the arch there's a big museum about the westward expansion of the United States. It's not something either of us know much about so we spent quite a while in there and we'll be going back today. Nik is trying to learn all the presidents in order, but while he's doing that I think I might go watch the museum's puppet show which is probably more on my level...



The food so far has been a little disappointing, probably because I was expecting it to taste a bit more similar to at home. It's all so sickly sweet! I'm a big fan of milkshakes but I had to throw half of one away because I couldn't stomach that amount of syrup. It's also not as cheap as I was expecting - if anything it's more expensive than at home - but maybe that's just because we're in the middle of a city. We're going to a posh restaurant tonight though with someone Nik met at the wedding so hopefully I can have some nice steak. Also on Thursday evening we're hoping to go out to a really posh looking restaurant which rotates as you eat! It's right by the river and the arch, and very high up, so the views should be really good.