Rowan in the USA

[ceitfianna]

Rowan left Thursday and is now ensconced in a Welsh farmhouse with 18 family members celebrating his grandmother's nintieth birthday. His time here was hectic and wonderful all at once. We started out with an afternoon in Philadelphia seeing the Liberty Bell, Independce Hall and the Reading Terminal Market, which was very enjoyable and Rowan liked Philly and its feeling of being alive and found the history interesting. After that or possibly the day before, we walked around the Swarthmore woods and Rowan talked about having the everyday things be different, like the trees, houses and sidewalks and discovered the fascination of squirrels since they don't have small native mammals in New Zealand. Then my family descended and we cooked and cooked and Rowan met almost everyone, which was quite good though hectic.

Washington DC was the next stop and that was quite chaotic, we woke up early and took a greyhound bus to just off of Union Station, where we had a quick lunch then took the Metro out to meet the woman who was hosting us, Francine Kapur. She is the Swiss wife of a university friend of Rowan's father and she welcomed us with a lovely lunch in a beatiful new built house in Arlington. We talked and got to know her then spent the rest of the afternoon on the Mall. Sadly as we came off the Smithsonian metro station escalator, a homeless man basically accosted us and we somehow ended up paying 15 dollars for a map of the Mall, which cast a pall on the rest of the day since Rowan's never really interacted with anyone quite that awful in his previous travels, honestly I haven't met with anyone quite that bad either. So feeling angry and tired, we walked down to the Lincoln Memorial and walk through the Vietnam Memorial and the new World War II memorial, which we both found grandiose. Then we met quadranip, aglarana and evafriedel for dinner near Dupont Circle, which I think was more enjoyable for me than Rowan since it ended up being more of a girls night out than I was hoping for. Our next day started early as we did museums, Natural History, the Capital, the Botanic Gardens and Air and Space before Sarah drove us to Lewes, where we had some nice days hanging out and walking in the woods. Sarah joined us for a while, and I was happy to see her and Rowan get along well. I spent a lot of this weekend, unhappy about the homeless guy and trying to figure out how to balance what Rowan wanted and introducing him to people who are important to me as he was still quite jet lagged.

The time in Lewes was nice and relaxed and much needed as Rowan, Sarah and my parents all figured each other out. The weather was interesting and Rowan got to see a very different type of coastal town than they have in New Zealand. This ended up being a bit of a strange moment since as a New Zealander, the concept of having to parcel out the coast and see who gets access to it, just isn't terribly well known and so we had a talk about resort towns while walking the beach. Sadly during this time, I wasn't feelig my utter best, I think I caught a stomach bug though the trip was quite good overall.

After that we headed back to Swarthmore and things became easier with DC behind us and Rowan and my parents seeming to get along quite well, since for me its always a great worry that all the people I love will like each other and that's hard to accomplish, but even harder when its the first time for one of the them in the country. In Philly, my father showed us ASB and took us out to lunch, which was a treat and then Rowan and I went to the Academy of Natural Science to see the dinosaurs, one of Rowan's favorite things. I just realized I'm rambling a bit with travelouge mixed with other things, but it was a wonderful and complicated trip since Rowan was seeing me in places I knew and he didn't, while we met in a place he knew better than I, and it turned out lovely. Together we spent a great afternoon in the Rittenhouse Barnes and Noble as I spent a christmas gift than we had an interesting dinner with erinmuse, as my past and present got to know each other over a Persian dinner.

Then it was off to New York via NJ Transit, a bit of an adventure within itself since Trenton may be small, but I always get slightly confused there, not terribly good for giving Rowan confidence, but we got to our hotel right across from Penn Station. Then my credit card had a hiccup, but we found our room on the 32nd floor with a view of the Hudson river and a lovely lunch at the diner in the hotel. New York then just became such a treat as we walked and wandered through the weekend from Times Square and Central Park all the way down to Wall Street. Friday night, we saw Wicked after waiting in the line for cancellation tickets, I know understand why leia1 loves it so, we left the theatre full of energy, life and happiness and walked through Times Square around eleven at night, and both were full of the wonderful life and feeling of New York. The next day was all about walking, all the way down to Wall Street, with stops for food at pizza places, pokey cafes and a sit outside City Hall. We saw ground zero, which left me feeling quite emotinally worn, but I'm glad I've seen that powerful space. In the deepening light we walked up Broadway and Fifth avenue to our hotel, then went out to dinner. Our last day in New York was quite a touristy day, we went up the Empire State Building, a beatiful view, but oh do they try and snooker money out of you. We then bought presents for people and walked around Central Park and went back to the Gershwin theatre, where I bought a Wicked shirt. Then home again, home again for some quiet days before Rowan left.

After New York, the best day of Rowan being in the US was driving with my parents out to Lancaster county to see the Amish and Mennonites and showing Rowan the Wilbur's chocolate factory and stocking up on chocolate. Lancaster county was beautiful and wonderful as we passed children in traditional dress walking back from school through the counryside, we also saw a charming quilt musuem and an awful group of touristy shops. I had that odd sense of being grateful to the Amish and Mennonites for inviting us to roam around their living towns and unhappy that part of them staying living communities requires such awful commericalism and it hurts to see people take advantage of that while others show them respect. Also, the day before, we had a lovely dinner with my brother Robert and his wife Jessica and the little girls. Rowan's last two days were sadly a bit hectic as we went out to dinner with my parents and I ended up organizing my student visa the day Rowan left.

I was quite worried about how this trip would go since Rowan and I haven't seen each for four months and he has never really been to the US and didn't have a lot of time. In the end, things went well as he got to know my family and understand better where I came from, while also I discovered that he's fascinated by the differences but especially physical ones. So seeing his joy in squirrels and the Pennsylvania countryside made me feel wonderful and lucky to have found such a great guy. As did discovering with him, New York City and Wicked. Now he's travelling in Britain and Europe and I won't see him again until the day before I start classes when I'll have been in New Zealand for a number of weeks. I'm ready to leave transition and become a student again and find a place for me and my lovely guy in the windy and far away city of Wellington as I study the ancient world.