Smell the dairy air

Back from yet another whirlwind trip home to the US! This time for Susie and Chima's wedding, which we combined with an opportunity to visit my family in Wisconsin, take an exam and plan our own wedding!

We flew to Madison on a Saturday, with a layover in Detroit, and rented a car at Madison to drive to my family's farm in Coon Valley, Wisconsin. I drove this leg b/c I was too wired to study, and I knew that Matt would be the driver for the rest of the trip. The drive wasn't too long - just under 2.5 hours - but we were really impressed with ourselves for lasting the massive journey. We had left our apartment in Amsterdam at 6:30 am local Amsterdam time, and arrived at the farm at 3:30pm Wisconsin time, which is 10:30pm Amsterdam time.

One thing I realized in Detroit is how incredibly rude the Dutch really are when you compare them to Midwesterners. One lady stepped on my foot and shoved me while on the security line, and I was confused - Midwestern people don't act that way. Turns out, she was Dutch. Of course - I should have known!

My mom had flown out the week before to meet us in Wisconsin, so it was great to be able to spend some more time with her. On Sunday, a bunch of my family came for a picnic. The night before, my aunt said she was making a carrot cake, and I hooted "carrot cake is my favorite!". And she says, "really? Ok, I'll make two" :-)One thing about Wisconsin people - they love their sweets. After you're finished with lunch or dinner, you're just getting started - often there will be more dessert than actual food. On Sunday we also had our first taste of the Norwegian dinner-slash-dessert rommegrot. It's like pudding that you put melted butter, cinnamon and brown sugar on. We had it for dessert, but apparently Norwegians will also eat this stuff for dinner.

On Monday we went to the Amish auction. I'm really confused by the Amish. I know that there are different kinds of Amish, and you can tell this by the color clothes they wear. Some can use electricity, some can't, things like that. But I had always thought they couldn't deal in money. But they certainly do - they were selling flowers, quilts, food and furniture, and these things weren't cheap. And they also had a cage with some sad looking puppies with a sign on it that said "Free Puppies". We got my mom's cousin on the case - she rescues cocker spaniels. Unfortunately these weren't cockers so she couldn't really bring them home, but it's so messed up that these puppy mills are still allowed to go on. Apparently the Amish are very big into these puppy mills too.

My family sold all their cows a few years ago and decided to lease the farm land. Since there was no farming action for Matt to see, my uncle took him to a friend's farm nearby. Matt had a good time there, and learned that the organic business is good business for the small farmer - they can charge higher prices and yet have lower costs, since they don't spend money on the chemicals to clean the wheat. He also confirmed what we had heard about free-range chicken - it only means that chickens have ACCESS to an outside field for 30 minutes a day, and most of the time, the chickens prefer to just stay in the cage. What a rip! Matt then earned his farmer badge by driving a tractor, and then speeding down the road on the 4-wheeler with me hanging on for dear life in the back.

On Wednesday, we left to make the trip to Milwaukee. Since Chima and Susie's wedding was going to be on Friday, May 30 and my Law exam was scheduled for the day before, I arranged it so that I could take it at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. I studied the entire drive, and by that point I was confident with the material. We arrived in the afternoon at our Ramada hotel. American hotels are all the same! It's so funny to notice things like that when you've been gone for a while. They all have 2 big beds, a big TV, a desk and internet connection - things you'd be pressed to find in Europe unless you're willing to drop some coin. And they also have these shiny vomit-colored comforters. We asked the concierge what there was to do in Milwaukee, and he said the Brewers were in town. Well, why not! We had some time before the game so we went to the Fridays in the stadium - we had a pretty legit meal of wings, meats and Miller High Lifes. And very American - especially since as we sat down the waitress told us we had the table for exactly one hour! You'd NEVER hear that in Amsterdam. The game itself was pretty boring until the 7th inning, but then the Brewers got some runs to win the game.

Thursday was exam day! Matt dropped me off around 9:45. Unfortunately there were freshman placement exams also going on - not in my testing room but I could still hear the announcements through the door. I also had a moment of panic when I saw that 2 of the topics I studied heavily didn't appear in the questions at all! But I recovered and think I definetely passed, so no worries. After 3 hours of some cramping essay-writing, I was done. The drive to Madison was short - especially since I napped for most of it. That evening Matt had to go to the rehearsal, and I stayed in the hotel watching Oprah and doing my nails before the rehearsal dinner.

The dinner was at an Italian restaurant in a converted church. It was a really beautiful place, and we were able to put some tables together so all of us friends could sit together. It was really great seeing everyone. After the dinner, we kept the party going out on the town in Madison. There was a jukebox at one bar - I miss those! The next day while Matt went for a run with Ryan and Kootman, I celebrated my new freedom from studying by watching a marathon of MTV's The Ex-Factor. Later that morning a bunch of us met up for brunch at a Greek diner. We had what I thought were delicious omelettes, except everyone but me thought they were nasty! Guess I really miss diner omelettes. Afterwards, Matt had to go try on his tux - turns out that when the Chima gave the tailor the measurements that Matt's tailor had provided, converted from cm to inches, the guy laughed and said there is no way a person could have these measurements. While he went to do some damage control with the tux, I dragged Kootman and Ryan with me to Urban Outfitters, where I had what could only be called a shopping spree.

From what I thought I knew about weddings, guests are told to come at a certain time for an "invite" which usually is 30 minutes before the ceremony. So I guess not in Wisconsin, b/c when we walked in, half the wedding party was preparing to walk down the aisle and no one was returning our smiles and cheery "hellos". So we rushed to our seats while the whole church looked on. The wedding was very nice, except I had a "I wore the wrong shoes" moment. It felt like my feet were in a vice! Luckily I had time to change out of these evil things before the reception.

The reception was great - we all danced up a storm! Chima and Susie looked fabulous as always and it was so nice to be able to come and celebrate with them. Since Agata's wedding in Poland, Matt and I have made vodka our drink of choice for wedddings. It's so clean that it goes down easy and you don't get sleepy like with beer and wine or mixed drinks with sugary sodas. Problem was that we were not allowed to have shots, according to the bar staff. To get around this, they gave us vodka neats in what were supposed to be smaller portions, but these were huge shots. Luckily everyone was fine and no one made a spectacle of themselves.

Saturday we spent the morning walking around the capitol for the weekly farmer's market. We sampled lots of delicious treats - cheese curds, cheese bread, cream cheese pockets, pepper jack cheese scones, carrot cake, and ostrich slim jims. If you ever find yourself in Madison on a Saturday, this farmer's market is not to be missed. In the afternoon Susie's parents had a BBQ at their beautiful home on the lake. More brats and cheese products and beer. Later that night we went out to a bar and I tried to wingman Ryan, but I didn't let him talk to any of the girls b/c they were either too young or too cheesy or both. Wingman-ing is when you try to start converstations with girls to hook up your friends, or when you stick around and talk to the ugly friend. I guess I'm too picky to be a proper wingman.

On Sunday we had to say goodbye. Matt and I flew together to Detroit and our connections boarded at the same time, so we had a few minutes to sit together - Matt was going back to Amsterdam and I to Laguardia to spend some days at home to plan the wedding. I arrived without event in NY, curled up on the couch to watch bridal shows on A&E and eat lasagna. This is the life. The next day was sunny and gorgeous and so I headed right to the beach, with a pit stop to get sunscreen and Us Weekly. The beach was completely empty - the beaches in the Hamptons are absolutely stunning, I can never get over it. It was windy, and after a few hours I headed back home to lay by the pool and eat a turkey on rye sandwich. At 4 I went with my parents to meet Matt's mom, aunt and grandma at Atlantica, our wedding venue, for a tasting. Let me tell you, the food here is phenomenal. No detail is spared. We got to try one full plate of everything on their menu. We really couldn't go wrong with our choices. And they threw in some wine, coffee and desserts. The day was still beautiful and we sat in the tent where the ceremony and cocktail hour will be. I really hope it's not too windy on our wedding day and we can keep the end flap of the tent up - the views to the beach are so stunning. Either way it'll be beautiful.

The next day was full-on. I went back to Atlantica in the morning to meet our officiant, Reverend Don. He has a great personality and his New York accent is killer. I'm sure our international guests will get a kick out of it. Then I met up with Matt's mom and grandma to go meet with our invitations lady and florist. After a busy afternoon of making decisions, we ended it on a high note with a slice of yummy NY pizza. The fun continued the next day - my mom and aunt joined me for another trip to the invitation lady to finalize a few things, then for my hair and makeup trial. This I was nervous about - one, I had no idea what I was going to do with my hair, and two, makeup people always pile on too much and I really want to look like myself on my wedding day. Luckily, these girls were great - I'm confident that they'll be able to do what I'd like on the day. Then we headed to some home stores to find frames for our table names and a few other things. Everything is coming together so smoothly! By this point though, I was exhausted. I had planned to go into the city and see some friends, but the thought of that just made me want to go to sleep. And the next day was busy too - my mom and I drove to Huntington Station about an hour away to meet my photographer. I'm really excited about him - his pictures are amazing and he is so easygoing and friendly. He does a lot of the photojournalistic style that looks really cool. The weather turned sunny and warm at around noon so I got to spend some time in the sun before my flight back to Amsterdam that night.

Overall, a fantastic trip - though my time at home was a bit short. This was my longest trip to the US since I moved to Amsterdam, so the jet lag was at its worst. But it's nice that I can now relax - no more tests and the wedding is nearly all planned.