After 28 hours journey, I'm finally there

It's been a real tough 28+ hours to arrive at Ann Arbor, but I'm finally there.

Following up from the Narita post, I flew ANA from Tokyo to Chicago, on an absolutely packed flight, with me seated on the aisle next to a big sized whiny China guy and his flabby mother. I can tell you, 12 hours of that isn't exactly the most comfortable experience around.

Chicago O'Hare airport is probably the most run down airport I've seen so far, with carpeting full of stains and crumbs and the ceiling cladding rusting in many places as well. You would expect more from an airport near one of the major financial centers and cities of the USA, amirite? Strangely, Detroit Metropolitan was newer, more intelligently laid out and has more facilities as well.

Rented a car from Hertz. Including Loss Waiver clause, a 72 hr rental ended costing me about $200 USD, which is about $100 a day. Horrendously overpriced, and thats already with the 20% citibank discount. But it's a definite must to have.

Because to my totally expected horror, 1696 Cram Circle Apt 11 is a really dusty place with dirty carpets and an absolute minimum of lighting. Such as none in the living area (though theres an overhead light in the adjacent kitchen area) and none whatsoever in the bedroom. Zero. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Looks like the priority of purchase now is a vacuum cleaner, a mattress, more than a few stand lights and a desk and chair to work from.

As at this moment, I've gone about 36 hours with 5 hours of sleep. Will most probably turn in early tonight and attempt to reset my body clock. Ann Arbor is still amazingly bright at 8pm in the evening... looks like 645pm Singapore time. Oh well, it'll be dark much earlier in the winter.

And yes, driving on the right side of the road is a major pain. Especially since the stick controls are switched around (i.e your signal switch is swopped with your wiper controls). Gotta mug up on the Ann Arbor Basic Theory, cos I have no idea whether I'm allowed to u-turn on certain streets.

Will post up some pictures when the digital camera is fully charged. Tomorrow is gonna be a full day of buying and cleaning. I might even have to stay a second night at the motel. We'll see... some costs are hard to avoid.