221101, 2348hr, illinois time.

of the 5 days we spent on this road trip, about two-thirds of it were literally on the road, which created this very delicate personality dynamics problem - you either have fun with the people in your car, or you don't. i was quite paranoid about this trip before, i was sure i wasn't going to have all that much fun. to me, it was really an obligation, that i follow through with my original proposal to go to mt rushmore. as the group grew, i grew less enthusiastic. especially when the group arrangements got changed in the last minute, i almost freaked out, so sure i was that i will suffer.

of course, i didn't. thank god.

the first few days of driving was plagued by bad weather conditiions though. on the first night, we were stuck in thick fog in iowa, we couldn't see the next car if it were just 5ft away. alvin had to turn on the hazard lights and go as slow as 30 miles per hour, while the rest of us got our eyes peeled for lodging signs by the road. by the time we finally got to our inn, alvin was exhausted, his fingers almost cramped because he was so nervous. besides fog, we also had to deal with snow. the day when we were going up to mt rushmore itself, it was snowing. because we had an agreement with the other car-group to meet them there, we had to go. terrible terrible, i hate snow. debbie was the one driving, and thank god it's her. think of us three, she's the one with the most experience driving in snowy conditions. the other car had tk driving, and coincidentally, we met the other group halfway up, so we could turn back, but that wasn't the end of it all. on the way down the mountain, we found out that the other car had no traction on their wheels at all, they got stuck because they couldn't go up this stretch of slope. the snow-covered icy roads were simply too dangerous for us to do anything too drastic, so my car-group went down the mountain first to get some help. we tried calling AAA for help, but they were being jerks and assholes, so in the end, we saw that it's stopped snowing and the roads seemed to be more or less cleared up, debs and alvin went back up to bring them down. of course, i was a lazy bum who just sat there worrying but didn't do anything, but i hear it was an exciting adventure.

mt rushmore itself was just a little less impressive than i imagined, i think it's a little overhyped. as i walked through the museum exhibition, however, i was quite intrigued by the politics behind this project. hehe. seriously, it adds this human touch to the monument, so it's not just about 4 guys faces on the side of a mountain, but about the politicians who wanted them there. ahem. interestingly, another place we went to was the crazy horse monument, which was a non-federal funded project to sculpt a statue on the mountain to honor native indians. this one, looked even less impressive, because it wasn't completed yet, but it is a lot more touching, because it's also about the discrimination against the native indians, about the perserverence of the sculpting family and the spirit of the project, refusing federal funds and all.

we also went to jewel caves, relatively dry limestone caves. it didn't stink like i thought it would, i wasn't too intrigued by the geographical formations that our guide pointed out though - never been a geography person. there was a part of the walk in the caves that was quite memorable though. though the path was lighted, at one point the guide turned the lights off, and asked that we kept quiet, to appreciate the complete darkness. gosh, it was so cool. complete darkness. even if i waved my hands just 1cm before my face, i still wouldn't be able to see it. and the relative silence - there were still people fidgeting, creating just a little bit of noise - was crazy, so beautiful. no leaves rustling, a far away plane, little squirrel in the bushes, nothing like that. i could only hear my own breathing. such a beautiful moment.

finally on tuesday, we made our way back to campus. uneventful, though we had some interesting chats in the car. about lesbianism in singapore, about bananas - as in non-chinese chinese people, if you know what i mean, about education policies, about guys, marriage, religion, all the usual stuff.

i was naturally very excited in talking about lesbianism in singapore, i was pleased to see that though the girls were all catholics and christians*, they were at least not adverse to the idea of talking about it - y'know, talking about it is the first step. at one point, debbie asked what i would do, if my own son came back one day and said that he was a gay; or if my daughter came back one day and said she was a lesbian - we were talking about whether people/government/schools/parents should do anything at all to curb the rise of lesbianism in girls schools. seriously, i gave quite a lot of thought to this, so i already knew what i was going to do. to me, if my boy is only 14 or 15, i would ask him to give it more thought, and not close off all his options, because it is always possible it's just a phase for him. if my boy is already 25, however, i trust that he would know what he's talking about, not a matter of sexual identity confusion, and i would accept it as it is. i thought that was what any parent should do, it's not like he would turn straight just because mommy says so - is this the kind of relationship i want with my kid anyway?

one of the girls, however, irritated me by saying, "ok, on this tuesday, 9-blah blah pm, on our mt rushmore trip, cindy said this. let's see what happens when she really faces this problem." or something to that effect. i was quite pissed off. are you saying i'm a hypocrite in saying what i said? do you not think i will be able to do it? is it not even conceivable that there are parents and families who accept their children's sexual orientation without going through the whole big fuss about disowning him/her? i took it quite personally, maybe i'm overreacting, but i don't care. when she said that, i immediately lost interst in discussing gay/lesbian issues, which was a waste, cos i probably could have said more.

anyhow, it was a great trip, both in terms of travelling experience, and interpersonal relationships. i had fun, beyond my expectations.

*****