Megan Singleton: BloggerAtLarge writer on the realities of travelling to the States

It's an interesting time to be in the US, with protests erupting across the nation in response the the actions of the Trump administration.

Tens of thousands have taken to the streets across all 50 states, with the aim of “rejecting authoritarianism, billionaire-first politics, and the militarisation of our democracy”.

Megan Singleton is in Chicago at the moments - and she opened up about the realties of travelling through the US during a turbulent time.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News TALKSB Travel with Windy Woo Tours Where the
world is yours for now?

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Right, There's a lot going on in the US this weekend.
Of course, you've probably heard in the news that a
state representative and her husband were killed in Minnesota, and
another Democratic state lawmaker and his wife was shot. And
of course the No King's Movement is planning demonstrations in
more than fifteen hundred cities and towns across the US
to oppose the Trump administration. That No King's protest in Minnesota,

(00:40):
they've asked them to hold that off because it does
appear that these assassinations were politically motivated, which is concerning people.
And then of course in Washington, DC, we have the
military parade to mark the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary
of the US Army. So there's a lot going on.
We sent our travel correspondent to Chicago, which where she

(01:04):
walked straight into the protests. Joining me now is Megan Singleton,
blogger at large dot com. Good morning.

Speaker 3 (01:11):
Well, I didn't mean to good morning, right. My plan
was just to go shopping down Michigan Avenue, and I
noticed so many police and Cordendolph streets, and so I thought,
what's going on? Actually stopped some people with signs, and
they were anti Trump signs and stuff. Anyway, yes, it
turns out that then I went into the CVS store

(01:33):
to stock up on the good drugs, which by the way,
is a whole nother story, and came out, walked straight
into ten thousand protesters all marching along quite peacefully, all protesting,
you know, the No Kings movement. And do you know,
of course it's Trump's birthday today, so this military parade
in DC just is a bit unluckily timely or maybe

(01:56):
deliberately his birthday and the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary
and becomes a military parade in DC. So there's a
lot of angst, but there's also a lot of calm.
I mean, you know, I got in through Houston, no problem.
I use the MPC app. We've spoken about that before.
That's available to kiwis to just download and sort of

(02:18):
fast track our you know, getting through customs. So that
was easy, pasy, And then got into the hotel and
it was all fine. People were graduating, so the hotel
lobby was full of excited graduates this morning, and then
they get out on the streets and I'm shopping, you know,
I'm going into nordstream as you do. And then next
minute all this is happening. So it's really a juxtaposition.

(02:42):
Right now. I've been this is my third trip to
the US this year, and this is the first time
even though we've been to DC that you know, I've
come up against anything that resembles discomfort in this country.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
I mean, a lot of people are a little bit
concerned about the process of getting into America at the moment,
but obviously pretty straightforward.

Speaker 3 (03:02):
I think, you know, the main thing it's always been
like this. You've got to just have your paper right.
So if you've got an esther, which means that's valid
for two years of entry as a visitor, you've got
an onwood ticket. That's sometimes what people haven't had. They
make the news they you know, got turned around, but
they didn't have an onwood ticket. Or you need a
visa if you're here for working. Get all that right

(03:25):
and you just whistle straight through and it is easy.
And unfortunately there has been you know, those extra stories
that have come out about people being detained. But actually
when you look at the stats, it's no higher than normal,
so it's actually nothing to really be concerned about. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:43):
Yeah, So I know you've only been in Chicago for
twenty four hours. But tell me about Chicago.

Speaker 3 (03:47):
Oh, I love the city. Well, it started gloomy. June
gloom is a thing in Chicago. I knew it was
a thing on the West coast, but June gloom. I thought,
oh gosh, if you lived in one of those big skyscrapers.
And by the way, Francesca, since the eighteen seventy one
big Chicago fire, this city is the home of the
skyscrape because they use steel. There are nearly fourteen hundred

(04:10):
skyscrapers in this city. If you lived on the top
floor of all days. Yes, And I'm going on a
cruise tomorrow to look at to look at it all,
and so I'll have all that up on the blog.
Fantastic architecture, you know, pictures and stuff. So I'm looking
forward to it. I love the wide Michigan Avenue street
with flowers planted down the middle. I've just been eating

(04:32):
cheesy caramel Garrett popcorn. I mean, I'm gonna go and
have a Deep Dish pizza tonight. I just love it.

Speaker 2 (04:40):
It's all good.

Speaker 1 (04:42):
For more from the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
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