USA

It is such a relief to finally be at the home of Karen and Ben, my good friends from university, in Media, Pennsylvania.
It's been a bit of a drama getting here - my flight from Heathrow was delayed by 2 hours, and customs at chicago airport took quite a while - to fingerprint and take photos of every person arriving! I was steeling myself for the 20 questions i had seen several other passengers having fired at them, but when I told the security guy I was a vet, he sincerely told me that must mean I'm a very caring person, for animals and people, and that he had a couple of dogs that he had to give away and that he was surprised I was travelling on my own, being such a caring person!! I smiled and nodded and wondered if this was a weird interrogation technique, but I think he was just a nice (though slightly odd) guy!
Overall, I spoke to lots of friendly people while I was waiting at Chicago. There were lots of people in the same boat as me, and it certaily give a sense of comradery when we are all sitting waiting for our names to be called on a standby list for the last flight of the day out of Chicago. Even more so when you realise you're not leaving on that flight and have to find somewhere to sleep for the night!
I had a tip off that one of the terminals had some 'cots' took me a while to work out what they were - camp bed type things, with blankets and pillows for people who had to stay around. I didn't fancy finding a hotel in Chicago on my own, so I checked them out and they were ok! it was like bedding down on a big school camp in the middle of one of the concourses in a massive airport! It didn't seem to be common knowledge, and it was free, so I was very grateful that someone mentioned it to me!
So early up today and back on the standby list - hooray, my name was called and I made it to Philadelphia!
On first impression of the USA - I was struck by the size of the cars (especially after the UK!), the friendliness of the people (I sneezed on the plane and the guys on both sides of me said bless you!) and the houses that really do look like the ones out of the movies!
so all I need now is a good night's sleep and I'll be a bit more ready to explore tomorrow.