World Tour 2002

 Introduction 
 Boston 
 Williamstown 
 Grove City 
 Louisville 
 Calgary / Banff 
 Prince George 
 Vancouver 
 San Francisco 
 Las Vegas 
 Los Angeles 
 New Zealand 
 Thailand 
 Rome 
 Venice 
 Vienna 
 Berlin 
 Oslo 

Williamstown

7th October - 9th October

It took about four hours to bus across Massachusetts, and nothing very exciting happened on the way. I saw some nice countryside, though. Then I arrived in the beautiful little mountain town in the Berkshires, which really doesn't have much more than a college, where Lynette happens to be studying. She was in classes when I got there, so I hung around for an hour or so until we could meet.

In the evening we drove to Greenfields to visit Darien and Mina. We had a meal in the restaurant that Darien worked in. The waitress complained loudly that she hated serving foreigners because they never tipped. She was actually talking about the Swedish couple who left just as we arrived, but I'm fairly certain she meant it as a hint to me. That lead on to a discussion of waitstaff wages and tipping, which amazed me. I can't remember the details, but I do remember being amazed that the situation is legal.

After that, we played Clue!, and looked at Darien and Mina's wedding photos. And we had Mina's home made apple crisp, and the caramel brownies that Leen had made me. They were both delicious. And people laughed at my accent.

Lynette had sorted out the common room on her corridor for me to sleep in, but never bothered to tell anyone else that I would be there, so in the morning some people were slightly surprised to find a foreign guy sleeping there.

I spent the day walking in the woods around town, in particular the Pine Cobble trail. And I saw a snake, I think for the first time ever, in the wild.

In the evening was Lynette's pizza night, so we met up with a load of her friends, and went for pizza in North Adams, I think. Which is the next town along. The pizza place cunningly played the worst music in the world to force people to put money in the jukebox. Lynette still managed to get people to throw things at her when she chose a song, though. I forget what it was now. There was much banter, and a good time was had by all.

I had to get up early in the next morning for my flight to Pittsburgh. So that's about where that ends.