.: The American has landed…

The original plan for picking Tyler up from the airport involved my dad and I driving to the airport. Somehow when the car pulled out the drive we were loaded with 7 of us (My dad, Jani, Flo, David, Riley, Roïc and I.) Not sure how that happened, but left 7 of us squashed into a car and trying to make a welcome sign for him. We had a little joke before I left the US that everytime he was mean to me, or didn’t listen to me that I would add an hour on to his wait time. Well jokes on me, I never got his updated flight information and he ended up waiting at the airport for apparently an hour before we showed up. (Although I think an hour was a little bit of an exaggeration…on his part.)

Tyler arriving at the airport (with my family)

The funny part is we arrived at the airport, looked at the flights trying to work out if his flight had landed, then devised a plan of when we saw him to start “ululating” to welcome him to Africa. I was facing away from the terminal exit discussing flight times with Jani, when suddenly Flo starts nervously “HELELE-ING” at which point I went “What? Oh HELELELE”. I guess his was a great way to welcome him! (In case you are confused by the term ululating watch this YouTube clip which may clear a few things up http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Md7OvU5JIcI&feature=related, although be aware I sound a little different, and hopefully look a little different too. This is a another example http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMEGlNNBWzU&feature=related)

Tyler and I at the airport

Next we had to pay for the rental car (a teeny tiny car), and then headed back home for a swim and a wonderful Christmas Eve meal.

Waiting to rent our teeny tiny car

For starters an hour is no exaggeration, however in her defense after finally figuring out what happened it was my fault that I did not send her the updated flight details as I myself didn’t realize I was arriving an hour earlier as I had booked the flight four months earlier… that being said, being welcomed by the whole Wiggill crew was a bit flattering. Considering my normal travel schedule consists of mainly business travel which is very lonely it was very nice to arrive to seven people who were genuinely excited to meet you… even if they were “ululating” and causing the entire airport to stare. I have no idea who all contributed to the sign, however that person deserves considerable credit if it was created in a car because it was pretty neat.

David, Jani, Les and Lindsay

My wonderful gran and I

After the aforementioned short drive I experienced something’s that I have never been able to do before. For example, swimming on Christmas Eve is a very crazy idea for me…when you consider Wisconsin had an average temperature of -4C in December and everyone was saying it was an uncharacteristically warm December here (in Wisconsin) one can understand where I am coming from. Of the things not mentioned above by Robyn another new item I was introduced to was the Christmas cracker. I will fully admit I am jealous, we do not have anything like that here, but we should. Other than that Christmas Eve was very similar to what you would have found in your typical American family… except the funny accents ;)