So I've returned to my blog to recount not my own adventure, but that of my boyfriend Dany. He has made his first trip to the United States to visit with my family for the holidays. After months (arguably years) of planning and anticipating this trip, we finally departed yesterday morning. One of my best friends (and one of the most fun people on the planet), Charlotte has been with me in Italy for the past few weeks, and was joined by her equally fun brother Drew. Please refer to Charlotte's fantastic blog for a play-by-play account of our past few adventures. I highly, highly suggest it.
So, after scraping myself off my pillow at 4:30 a.m. we collected all our belongings and packed ourselves up into big Fiat to head to the airport. We saw Drew off, had a few goodbye Pringles and hugs with Charlotte, and then Dany and I hopped on our plane to JFK. Due to a sudden onset of heavy snow that morning in Milan, our plane sat in line for a healthy de-icing for a couple hours with us onboard. We finally departed and passed a very pleasant 8 hours on the airship; we played games and watched movies on our individual tvs (I got over 65,000 points on BeJeweled and watched the cute, if predictable Going the Distance), took a 2-hour nap, and ate delicious pre-cooked air-fare. Due to our delay, we had to race to catch our Cincinnati flight so Dany didn't get to enjoy New York. That flight was nothing special -- Dany slept while I played on the net a bit (free internet on flights and in major airports for the holidays!).
Finally we landed in Cincinnati and I got the best group hug ever! My whole family was there to greet me and Dany! It's fantastic having the whole family together again! We went out to IHOP and Dany got his first American chain restaurant experience. He was amazed with the amount of choices on the menu, but then again, I'm always a bit stupored myself at IHOP.
Then we went home! I was so excited to present my house to Dany -- in Italy, even stand-alone houses are in the style of apartments. Many Italians have told me that the stereotypical American house is a dream for apartment-bound Italians. Dany's reaction was very satisfying (I can't wait to show him my aunt and uncle's house, that looks like a small palace).
After a quick tour, sleeping ensued.
