Trains, Museums, and Losing Daddy

I enjoy Chicago and have been there several times. One particular Chicago memory I have is from two years ago. My husband and I decided to take a one-day vacation in Chicago with our three kids, who were 6, 7 and 9 at the time.

When we got downtown, we wanted to go to the Museum of Science and Industry. On our map, we saw that we could take a train from downtown to the museum. So, we went looking for the train station. It took us a long time to find the station. Finally, after asking several people for help, we found out that the station was actually underground. We had to go into a building and down some stairs to get to the station. We were so happy to find the right train and get on it! We enjoyed our ride to our stop.

When we got off the train, there were a lot of people, and I was worried about keeping my kids with me. On the platform, I was happy to see my three kids. However, my daughter said, “Dad didn’t get off!” I said, “Of course he did!” and looked around. He was nowhere to be seen. He really hadn’t gotten off the train before the doors closed! Unfortunately, he also didn’t have a cell phone with him. I quickly thought that he would be okay—he was a smart man after all—and that the kids and I should walk the few blocks to the museum and wait for him there. I even thought it was quite funny that he had gotten left on the train.

My kids, however, saw no humor in the situation, and my youngest daughter sobbed, “We’ll never see Daddy again!” I had to carry her, hold on to my other kids’ hands, and try to console all of the kids with the fact that yes, we would see Daddy again. It took about a half hour, but we finally saw my husband running up to the museum entrance. We were all happy to see each other again--and we enjoyed the museum.

Even now, if you ask my children about that trip, they will say that they had fun but we almost lost Daddy!

Different Ways to Get Around Town

I think the many types of transportation available in different countries are fun and intriguing. In Iowa, I almost always drive my minivan where ever I need to go. With the cost of gasoline, I have been trying to limit the number of trips I take, but I enjoy the freedom I have with my own car. When I was in the Philippines (many years ago), I used very different types of transportation on a daily basis. The first kind was called a “jeepney.” It was a fancy, colorful, decked-out kind of mini-bus that had a few rows of seats. Jeepneys held about 10-15 passengers. Instead of pulling a chord to indicate where I wanted to get off (like on an Iowa City bus), I would hit a coin on a metal part of the seat in front of me. The driver (amazingly!) would hear that sound and stop for me. The second kind of transportation I often took was called a “tricycle.” There is nothing like this in Iowa City. A tricycle was a small motorbike with a covered side car on it. The side car could hold one or two people. I could hire one to take me wherever I wanted to go. While these two types of transportation were really fun, I am glad to have my own vehicle here.

Mistaken Identity

Whenever I have traveled to another country, I have encountered funny experiences. One such experience happened in Germany. I couldn’t speak German, but I tried to learn helpful words like “please” and “thank you” from a German-English dictionary. I also tried to learn German words from my experiences. One time I went to a McDonalds and I wanted to order an ice cream cone. The cashier told me I couldn’t have one because the machine was “kaput.” Now, I had heard that word in English, but I hadn’t realized that it was a German word that meant “broken.” Later that day, I was at a train station and needed to make a phone call. One of the public phones was broken. After I figured that out, I saw another woman try to use the phone. I tried to be helpful and told her, “Kaput.” She looked at me and started talking to me in German. After a little while, I finally had to tell her that I couldn’t speak German; I only spoke English. She stopped and said, “Oh, I am from California!” It turned out she was a bilingual American and she had thought I could speak German.

A Little Bit About Me

I would like to tell you a few things about me so that you can get to know me better. First, I am married and have three children. My husband’s name is Kurt, and he works at a bank. I have three children, who range in age from 8 to 11. My family is very important to me. Second, I have lived in Iowa most of my life. I was actually born in Iowa City while my father worked on his PhD in Engineering, but I grew up in a town an hour east of here. Finally, although I have lived in Iowa most of my life, I have traveled to many countries. I have been to Austria, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Spain, Switzerland, and Venezuela. In conclusion, I think I am a typical Iowan, but my life experiences have stretched beyond Iowa’s borders.