The rest of 2007... 1

Now, it being a year later :/, I want to sum up the rest of my travels in 2007. Two more trips are most memorable - going to the States in July and my trip home to my parents, Taey joining me, for a week in August. Other than that I think I just had to go several times to Ireland. Oh and I went to Amsterdam to present one of SMARTlab's projects!

But this post I shall dedicate to my States trip.

Reason for going there was for work actually - surprise, surprise! I got invited to collaborate with Kate Brehm, a puppeteer from NYC, on one of her puppet shows. This one being called 'My Name is Hal' (http://imnotlost.net/HAL/). After preparations in London we went to the annual Puppeteer Festival of America, this year being held in Minneapolis and staged one version of the show.

Once the show was done I rented a car and drove down to Iowa City to see Anja & Georg. I wanted to go along the Mississippi, and had especially put some right old good country songs on my iPod to get the whole of the feeling. Loved the whole journey, traveling along the river, taking my time. The drive was a bit longer than going straight to Iowa but altogether only 6 hours.

It was very hot in Iowa City, so I spent most of the time chilling out, going swimming with Anja and reading in their back garden. One day we went kayaking, something I've always had wanted to do. They dropped us off somewhere along the Iowa River and we kayaked until we got onto the Mississippi. I was so happy that I actually got the chance to kayak ON the Mississippi as well - how cool! :)
It was a little sad that the Iowa River was so dead. There were actually a lot of dead fish and I've never seen/experienced so quiet waters as there was literally no life in it.
Oh and of course we had a BBQ at Anja's house as well... So I got to know a few of Anja's friends which was great. Oh and I got to see Anja's University as well, where she is still slaving away trying to finish her Phd! We also went on a bike ride, so altogether those 5 days I spent there were quite sporty! But a good preparation for more competitions back in the UK!

I drove back to Minneapolis by the fastest route, so that took about 5 hours. When I got into Minneapolis buckets of rain came down the sky, so bad that I couldn't see the road anymore. I don't think I've ever driven in such conditions. Luckily it didn't go on for that long. And as soon as I got back to London the bridge I had just driven over collapsed - you might remember from the news... So that was a bit freaky.

Great trip though - just too short!