Back in January, a few of us from King's swapped the Land of Hope and Glory for the Land of the Free, leaving familiarity behind for the next half a year.
As I exchanged hot tea for southern sweet tea, this blog is me writing about my experiences with college, the nation, and those people they call 'Americans'.
The Beach-Boys loved it, so did we, but the time came to leave California State behind and make our last long flight together. To DC!
DC
Chilly DC was no longer chilly! We stayed with my friends who I saw back in January, and met up with the ever-insane Imani. Oh how I will miss this little bubble of cheer in my life... We went around DC in the lovely sunshine instead of trudging around in the snow, saw the Jefferson Memorial and went on paddle boats.
As it was close to my birthday, my friend bought me my very first ice-cream cake. Apparently these are common birthday occurrences in the states but I had never heard of them and was pleasantly surprised with its appearance this year!!! --> Looking like a normal cake, with candles on like a regular cake, cut like any old vanilla sponge, it was an odd experience to eat a cold piece, but oh-so good.
It was nice to go back once more. Central DC just has this amazingly clean, official feel to it. As the home of the capitol and the president, I suppose it should. And I suppose it was fitting that we parted our ways as a travelling threesome in Obama's own state of residence.
NC, returning home at last.
So, I made the final trip back to the south alone, contemplating the whirlwind of a month we had just had and the incredible past half of a year....
My good friend from Alabama picked me up from the megabus station and I returned to Chapel Hill once more.
It was weird to see the campus so bare, yet there was still life on it. So many students do summer school over here that the working campus never really sleeps. Its not just tours and official looking people wandering around, its students stuck in May-mesters or first/second session summer semesters... The school system is just so flexible here that if you want to improve your grade, do classes so you can study abroad, retake a failed class or just simply boost your credits so you have less to take next year, its all possible during the summer months.
Last sights of the campus
I had various errands to do, saw a couple of friends, and then went to stay with another friend Melissa for my very LAST night in the states. Staying with her family was lovely, her parents area lot like mine and being in a family-home environment again made me really excited to be seeing my own parents...
Melissa's brother quizzed me on what TV I watched, (apparently he asked Melissa what she was going to do with me... you know, as Brits are so weird and hard to entertain..!! haha), and he was impressed that I love top gear and said I live near Richard Hammond! win there.We took a trip to the beautiful Duke gardens (sorry UNC), in the most humid weather I have EVER experienced in my life. The heat got up in my last month or so in the hill but blimey this was just something else. It wasn't noticeable in the house as it is so well air-conditioned but I was dripping before we'd even got to the car. Wonderful. The week after I left was set to be around 100 degrees... I don't know HOW people live in that, Melissa said she just stays inside. Wise I should think.
So a couple of lovely, chilled few days before coming home. I had my last bski's (AMAZING wrap store on Franklin that I don't think I've ever mentioned, but its awesome), my last visit to Sugarland with my friend Ryan, my last american movie night, and last walk around the campus... for now.
This, alongside the equally awful Miley, accompanied us across the States. It's aptness in this post made it too hard to resist putting it in .. :)
Cali -San Fransisco
So. California brought all it promised. Jodie and I had both been to San Fransisco before so we were especially excited, but I have to say I had a very different experience to when I travelled California with my parents, particularly in San Fran. Now the hippyish side to the city really shone for me...
We spent our first day wandering around Union Square, going to see the UC-Berkeley campus, checking out the hippy Mission street and the Golden Gate Bridge, and finishing the day at the Cheesecake factory.
Now, if you have never been to the cheesecake factory, know two things.
1. They are the ULTIMATE exemplar of sheer American gluttony.
2. The best one you will ever go to (and we have tried a few between us) is this one. San Fransisco. Union Square. At the top of the multi story Macy's building. It is magical.
3. (I know I said 2 but I just thought if another); their strawberry Martini's are awesome.
We prepared ourselves all day for the meal, its not entirely a student budget one, but filling up on half a main and leaving room for only a few mouthfuls of desert (a must... its a factory FOR dessert...even 'weird' people like myself who don't like cheesecake can find yummy things to eat), this meal is definitely worth asking for a doggy bag and taking home for later (or next days dinner, in our case).
When Britain clocks onto the whole idea of the doggy bag, as miss Natasha mentioned in her foody-blog, (check it out: http://thetable-top.blogspot.com/), then it'll be a wiser place.
Day 2 we met Aoiefe, an Irish exchange student who was friends with Faye at Carolina, and headed off to Haight-Ashbury. We went to Amoeba, an old music shop which is set up in an old bowling alley... We wandered around the Golden Gate Park (WARNING: passive drug abusive is unavoidable here). I'd read about a garden dedicated to the flowers of Shakespeare's plays, so we spent quite a while trying to locate it... -bearing in mind the park is about twice the size of Hyde Park, at over 1000 acres.
We actually saw a high school graduation whilst we were wandering, which was interesting! They were all stood in this impressive marble dome, with their gowns and hats and going up to collect scrolls.... they are SO INTENSE. But it was cool to go and crash the ceremony for a little while, see how the high schools roll over here.... We did find the Shakespeare Garden, too.
You can follow the park on twitter, if you so wish:
Exploring China Town was another high point of San Fran. Of the ones I have seen in the US, this one is definitely my favourite! [[DC wins on the gate front though. Hands Down, it is beautiful!]]
We cautiously stepped over the thin line drawn between the familiar road of street lamps and the street of lanterns, dangling between us and the cloudless California sky. A little box of Asia within thick American walls, the Chinese bustle around in their markets and bargain stores, hanging up dead meat and shouting about how unique their umbrellas and sparkly purses are... The only thing it lacks from the real thing, so I hear, is the smell -- so I'm not complaining! We found a tiny fortune cookie factory, which looked like how I imagine Roald Dahl's chocolate factory to be like had he have been born Chinese. There were mini metal conveyor belts and little flat cookies whizzing about, with a pot full of empty fortunes ready to be thought up and folded inside. You could watch it all being made and take a photo for a dollar, and the "bad" cookies were not thrown down the garbage shoot but instead handed out in a wicker basket as tasters. Yum.
The concept of China towns, or indeed Japan towns or any other "town" intrigues me. We were talking about what an English town would include, and its interesting that people would chose to walk down a street with rain machines no matter how much they wanted a cream tea...
LA, Hollywood.
So, 12 hours later we reached celeb-land. Hollywood was touristy, cheap and not so cheerful, -just as I remembered. Ironically, our hostel was the best we'd stayed in and we were only there for one night... We had a wander around when we got there and saw the walk of fame and Chinese theatre, etc...Had some sushi...then escaped.
Once you have seen 50 stars on the floor you begin to give up looking for the one you really wanted to see and then there's nothing left for it but to take some photos with the footprints in the cement, and perhaps a movie character or two (for a fee, of course.)
The best part was getting to see my good friend, Ashley, who did her masters at Kings during our first year. "Why are you staying there? No one in LA goes to Hollywood!" she said as she pulled up to Madame Tussaud's in her typically American gIAnt car. She showed us the celebrity hang-outs and some houses, casually namedropping people she's partied with and dated (oh the life of an intelligent yet hills-lifestyle young woman!), then took us to Santa Monica. We walked along Venice beach ("get-your-marijuana-prescriptions-here"-land) and to Sprinkles, - the incredible cupcake shop! Better than Sugarland's and maybe even wholefood's.... Such a lovely day.
LA - Laguna Niguel.
Laguna Beach? Yep, you got it.
Jodie's internet pen-pals she made years ago writing online journals live in south of Hollywood and let us stay there for 3 nights, which was awesome. They literally took us everywhere we said we'd like to go and were the best hosts we could have asked for. And they are twins. Awesomeawesome. For some reason I have always had an unusual love for twins and all things double... they just fascinate me!!
We went to Knotts berry Farm, the first ever themepark! Pretty awesome even for a roller-coaster-wimp like myself. I went on some flipping ginormous big spinny flippy fast things. 'nuff said. Also got churros and went on a stupidly steep get-soaked-in-30-seconds ride just before closing time. At least the car was warm....
They took us to a drive in movie theatre, too! OHMYGOSH. It was just like Grease, but better. We saw the Hangover II and then Bridesmaids, all for 7 bucks.So good!
It was also memorial day whilst we were there, and one of the twins is married to a soldier who is recently back from Afghanistan. It was interesting to drive down the highway, passing one man with a huge banner saying "Good loves you" and another saying "hoot for veterans" or something along those lines.
You know, he has a point. Since moving here I often wonder the same thing, as my head is daily filled with the southern accent, as I put shorts on to go to class and walk home smelling the smells of a Greek summer evening, walk into a baseball game, past students in my hall's pool between classes, watch friends go off to cheer lead... It all sometimes feels a bit unreal.
My parents came to visit this week which was so so lovely. Having them here made me feel a bit more like I was on an extended holiday, as it was their holiday. Talking to them about home, and uni, and summer jobs, and holidays, and housing plans, etc., -- all the "real" stuff to sort out back in the U.K, made me feel all that bit closer to the reality of coming home.
AHH.
Noo, I'm not ready yet! I miss my friends heaps, and there are many times I wish I could just transport them here, particularly when they're going through tough times. But then I sit with some of my friends here, and it really panics me that there might not be many more times I'll sit and study with ___X___, or have ice cream with ___Y___. I do not like change, as I said when I left home.
The week's been really nice though, and made me miss home a little less having a touch of it here! I forget how much fun I have with my parents.
We took a trip at the weekend too which was cool. To Wilmington. Its a coastal town, with beaches -- Saturday was about 80 degrees so that was niiiiiiice -- and seafood. And downtown has a harbour and shops markets etc.And you can see across the harbour a huge WW2 battle ship.
We also tested lots of Chapel Hill restaurants - Mama Dips = amazing down home southern food for anyone who finds themselves here! (Margaret in particular have you been??) I took them to Topo (top of the hill) on St Patricks day, and mum had a suitably green beer! And we went to the Mediterranian that Andrew took Nick and I to on our first night, I haven't been there since and forgot how amazing the food was there, shall have to make the most of that before leaving!
It was just really relaxed, and lovely to go to class in the morning, then meet them on Franklin for lunch and spend the afternoons with them... They actually explored more than I have so far, so showed me some cool places! Students just don't have the time to stop, and stare...
Sad to see them go home today :(
Ooh also v. ecxiting news, my story for the DTH is going on the front page tomorrow! So exciting. I have written quite a few now, the weekly articles add up. Here are a few links to the ones that went on the website, if anyone's interested!
This was reaaally cool. I had to interview the writer who was rehearsing another play in Chicago, and I had to do a joint conference interview with 4 people over the phone, and the director gave me 2 free tickets to go see the play! So nice. It was quite an interesting play, too, I enjoyed it. They had a really cool space to use, as it was all on the stage part of a stage, and the actors came through the audience, like a catwalk.
Eek, kind of nervous about the article tomorrow, but it's exciting all the same.
Anyway watch the above clip if you have 2 minutes, it just generally made me chuckle, a lot.
-- In contrast to Rebecca Black's "Friday", this is one video I am glad I helped go viral.
Charleston was so beautiful so I thought I'd show the weekend through a few photos..
Its the oldest city in south Carolina, and home to Fort Sumpter, where the first shots of the Civil War were shot. We had a boat trip over to see the fort which was interesting. I did the Cvil War in AS levels so it was all coming back and was really interesting to actually see the places we'd done those silly source analysis questions on...
Beau-tiful weather, too! We've had it in the 70's this week in Chapel hill as well. SO nice. I didn't bring hardly any summer clothes with me, -- who'd have know it would be this warm in February. So of course that induced a little shopping.....
We found a hippyish shop with loads of jewellery and nic-nacs, yoyo's, that sort of thing -- and these amazing masks... hours of fun in there :)
Rainbow row! Aside from Fort Sumpter we went and saw the town market, and this little row of houses called rainbow row. They were such beautiful little towny houses.
We also had fun on the Charleston tiles, too! Of course. It was Sara's birthday on the Saturday, though that didn't stop anyone enjoying Friday night perhaps a little too much... All 23 of us we went out to a fish restaurant and then to a club on the Saturday, these flaming shots were given to us to drop into a glass of *#insert sweet drink here#* and then drank in jager bomb style. Needless to say the 5 hour ride home on Sunday was interesting...
This is Rainbow row again. And a couple of the other internationals.
It was cool to spend time as such a massive group, and we didn't try to stick together the whole time which made things a lot easier. I think studying abroad attracts a certain type if person, just with their own twist depending on which country they're from... The Spanish girls had everyone speaking Spanish the whole weekend! Everyone is pretty confident and willing to just go out and do everything whilst we're here, most people are pretty nice too; makes the whole experience a good'un.
As it was close to my birthday, my friend bought me my very first ice-cream cake. Apparently these are common birthday occurrences in the states but I had never heard of them and was pleasantly surprised with its appearance this year!!! --> Looking like a normal cake, with candles on like a regular cake, cut like any old vanilla sponge, it was an odd experience to eat a cold piece, but oh-so good.
