In Charlotte

My flight was over an hour late getting into Charlotte, and when I got there I couldn't find Vanessa so I was getting a little worried! I finally found her right at the wrong end of the airport though. She made me a cool sign that I'll upload later - it's in her car at the moment though. We went and got dinner at a place called Wild Wings Cafe which was in Charlotte. It was really cool and it was just like a TGI Fridays or something (except it was authentically American). They also were doing Miller Lite (apologies Brits for drinking Lite beer) for $2 a pint. Pound a pint baby!

After that we went back to hers in Huntersville, North Carolina. Her apartment is in the suburbs (apparently), and it's really cool. It's on the 3rd floor of some new apartments, and they have some really nice facilities there in the complex. The apartment itself is pretty big and spacious. I'm not allowed to take any pictures of it though because she hasn't unpacked everything yet.

This morning we've been out for coffee and to get some stuff from the supermarket. I'm absolutely amazed at how many varieties of everything they have. I'd definitely be super fat if I was American. It's really strange in the supermarket because the check-out girl unloads your trolley for you, and someone else packs it up, whilst you just stand and wait. It felt really weird to me to just stand there while other people are doing everything for me!

I've just been for a look around the pool, gym, and lounge areas of the complex. They're really great and I'll try and put some pictures up at some point. I don't think people here realise how fortunate they are with a lot of things. For example, there are chairs and tables just around the pool, and I was thinking how cool it'd be to just sit around them with friends and play some games of cards or chess or whatever. It seems so trivial to Americans, but in England it's always too cold, windy, or wet to be doing things like that.

Later on we're going to Brian's (BTimm) house. I think I'm going to sweat him playing some poker and then he's grilling us some food. Hopefully I'll be sinking a few beers too!

I'll leave you with a picture of me on Vanessa's balcony. Hope everyone's OK and speak soon.

MC