I hate planes. You'd think that my fear of flying would prevent me from going anywhere outside of the UK. But no, I'm here on a plane to Chicago trying not to puke into the pathetic sick bags provided for me. For some stupid reason me and my best friend Stephanie decided to move away from everyone that we know to one of the world's largest and most scary continents. We both want to be on Broadway, and Steph decided that the first step to success was to leave our family and friends behind and become independent women.
Steph left for Chicago a week before me because she said she wanted to get the apartment ready for my arrival. But I know that when she told her family of our big plan, they kicked her out of the house so she had to live with my family for three months. And since her best friend is going with her, she had no one to say goodbye to. I on the other hand had two halves of the same family and an ex-boyfriend to bid farewell. It was torture. There were people shouting and crying and generally being quite rude so the only person who was excited for me was my older brother Mike. But I know that's just because he'll finally have a room all to himself.
The pilot performs the bumpiest landing in history and I'm finally able to get off this metal death trap. I race through passport, visa and baggage control to get to baggage claim as fast as possible because I know that Steph would have gotten here at least 3 hours to early and I don't want her to wait any longer. Before I can even react I'm tackled by a blonde screaming "ALICE!" at the top of her lungs and just about manage not to fall over.
"STEPH!"
"I missed you so much!"
"But it's only been a week!"
"I know but I've never been away from you this long!"
"Well now you're stuck with me because we live together!"
We decide that we should stop shouting in an airport so grab my suitcase as it comes around the conveyer belt and step outside. I assume we're going to take a taxi but then I see Steph climbing into an old, faded blue truck. I guess she passed her driving test. We talk all the way there about how weird America is and Steph tells me how much I'm going to love our apartment. We get to the apartment block were I'm surprised to find the lift works so we go all the way up to the fourth floor which holds two apartments. Steph rushes over to the door for apartment 4B and unlocks it then looks at me with the brightest smile and says "Welcome home".