Midwest - Here I come!

In about June I bought tickets to fly out to Bloomington, Indiana - well to fly to Indianapolis actually, but the final destination was Bloomington. Why?! You ask. (I know you ask this as that is the response I got from everyone I told I was going.) Well, I reply, to visit a dear friend of mine who is trapped in a 20-year long PhD program. Ok, maybe not a 20-year program but she'll definitely be out there for the majority of a decade!

Anyways, Brooke and I met many years ago now when we were both young and spry college juniors studying abroad in St. Petersburg. Since then we try to visit each other on average about once a year, taking turns who will travel out to the other. This time was my turn as she had just come for a fabulous visit to England over New Years. I had originally bought tickets that would allow me to visit her and miss a minimal amount of time off of work, as I had foolishly assumed I'd still be working at STA throughout the summer and into September. Silly me. As it happened I only had a weekend with Brooke and the University of Indiana. But that was more than enough for us girls!!

Arriving super late a few Friday nights back, damn delayed plane!, we returned to her lovely little apartment and talked for a while. Managing to get up fairly early considering our late night we first hit the biggest farmer's market in the country, where we bought some cheese and a beeswax candle. Then we went to a fabulous Thai restaurant and had some delicious lunch! After that fulfilling meal we had to take a break and a little nap. Hehe.. naps are fun.

After the repose we were ready and rearing to go to a local winery and do a bit of tasting. It was my first time to do such a high-fallooting thing and it was fun! We tried a few very interesting and delicious wines and I brought two home with me. After the winery we rested a bit before we had to go to her professor's house for an Anthro department get together BBQ. Never have I seen more wieners. No, seriously, the prof had about a dozen different kinds of hot dogs and other meats. We schmoozed with her colleagues for a time and were treated to a fire-eating show - no kidding!! Anthro kids are crazy. :)

Sunday started out pretty chilled after a late night of socializing and midnight movie watching. We slept in until about noon on Sunday and then just hung around the house, more movie watching until we finally had to go to Brooke's birthday bash at a wine bar. (Notice the theme of the weekend?) I got to meet and speak with her closest friends and enjoy a tapas style meal. Eventually we cleared out of there, walked around the town of Bloomington for a bit where I discovered they have a little bit of England in their famous and popular Nick's English Hut pub.

And of course right across from Nick's was the STA Travel branch in Bloomington. A little twinge of sadness ran through as I remembered my days as a 'Travel Advisor' with longing. But that was soon dissolved in some local brews at Nick's. Yet the night was not over yet! We then went to a friend's house and had some champagne, and then on to another friend's house for a little party which lasted until about 2 in the morning for us (keeping in mind that we needed to leave at 4am for the airport.) At this point it was useless to sleep so we went back to her place and putzed around until the time to leave. I had it easy as I could sleep on the plane home and for the rest of the day as well if I wanted, since I had neither work nor school. Poor Brooke on the other hand had an early morning Russian class, work and a faculty meeting to push through with no sleep. Oh well, that's what friends are for I guess.

All in all, it was a wonderful welcome break from well... nothing. It was also, as always, a great pleasure to see Brooke and talk about life or just veg and watch movies.