The journey to Wisconsin was long and uneventful. We took the Amtrak from Albany to Chicago. From there we took a bus to Rockford, where Codemonkey's recently graduated brother received us, and drove us to Juda. Yeah, it was long and I slept most of the way.

I have never been on an American farm. So this was a pretty neat experience. I was in rural America, where signboards announced the town as "Monroe, 10843".. the 5 digits representing the population of the town.

I liked what I experienced. Its a different kind of lifestyle. There's electricity and stuff, but its still the countryside.. mostly farmland with homes spread out, dial-up internet at home (one of the problems of being at University is that you take Wireless Internet for granted). Codemonkey's parents were very warm and welcoming.

Since we had planned to arrive on Christmas day, we still had to unwrap our presents. I got a box full of assorted candies.. exactly what I needed. I had made up my mind that throughtout this vacation, there'd be no more self-control and I was gonna gorge on the chocolat.