We're back! We landed at Ohare this morning at about 10:30! Yesterday was a simple day - hence the no blog post. We read our books in Starbucks for most of the morning to avoid lugging around our big bookbags. Then we checked in at our new hostel and made a quick trip to the Ugg store to buy shoes we'd picked out the day before. We ended the evening in the pub below our bedroom watching the USA vs. Germany soccer game. This morning, we were up at 4:40am London time to catch the express train to the airport. Once there, we decided to finally check our bags so that we didn't have to worry about carrying them around before and after the flight. We grabbed breakfast, and hurried over to the gate just in time to start boarding. We also had the good fortune of having ONE person in front of us at security, yes ONE, it is possible. The almost nine hour flight was easier than the way to Europe. Despite our expectations that we were too awake to sleep, both of us ended up asleep for almost 6 of the 9 hours! What a welcome surprise that was, because even just the final two hours we were awake seemed to drag by. When we landed, we went through customs. It's true, the USA is ridiculous compared to other countries (this is considering the fact that Italy, Spain, and France didn't even bother checking our passports when we arrived). We went through the first line to get the machine questions over with. Then the machine printed us a receipt. We took that to another line where boarder control police checked our passports and receipts and travel cards. Then we picked up our bags and went through ANOTHER line where another police man checked everything once more. Finally, we were in Chicago! My dad met us at the airport to bring us back to my place, because, even though we have landed in the country, our adventure continues into tomorrow when we celebrate our friend Autumn's wedding in Fort Wayne, Indiana!!!!
For our final conclusion, here are some fun facts/things we learned or saw while abroad:
1. Exit signs are indicated by little green running men
2. In Paris, lane lines on the roads basically don't exist except to divide traffic going opposite ways, and even then it's questionable
3. In Rome, due to the tight roads, mopeds are the primary choice of travel - including for business men in suits
4. London was the only place we went where cars drive on the opposite sides of the road
5. In Zurich they speak Swiss-German
6. When riding escalators, stand to the right so that anyone wishing to climb up or down can pass you
7. In Europe, pedestrian crossing signals include a green walking man and a red standing man. In London, these signals fade so you know time is running out. In Rome, the green man blinks when the light is close to changing. In Paris, it goes straight to red - hopefully you aren't in the middle of the road because drivers (hence the no lane lines) will just swerve around you.
8. In London especially, but most of the other places as well, they call "lines" that you would wait in "queues"
9. One in three people smoke (or atleast thats what it seemed like), and they don't care about blowing the smoke in your face
10. Waffles are sold at every food stand in London
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