CA - DC - NC - UK.

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.

Then it was all homeward bound from there....

Hey there Delilah what's it like in New York City...

Our first (and last) Spring Break is all over! Whoever invented that was a genius, everyone's exams and most papers due before the break and then a week of fun. Everyone goes somewhere and does something, even if it's just going home. All of the on-campus residences actually close, so people have to leave, and lots of the shops shut down too. The town really is a student driven place! 


So, we started off in Orlando, Florida. Both of us desperately wanted to check out Harry Potter World, in Universal Studios, so we decided that factoring it into our break would be cheaper than going down to FL. on a weekend trip...  And it was well worth the extra spending!

We flew in our Carolina gear, and watched the Duke game in our hotel room, cheering so loudly as we won by a huge margin. GO HEELS!!! (despite their poor poor performance last night.... wont mention that.)

The Sunday was spent in Universal. Such good fun, we just spent the day being complete children and going on all the rides, getting soaked on the rapids, enjoying the sunshine, drinking butterbeer... I'm not ashamed to admit i'm a huge j.k.rowling fan so it was all just a bit too exciting..
:D
Then Monday we flew to Manhattan. 
We stayed in an amazing hostel, with evening events like comedy shows and free tours in the days, along with a huge kitchen, dining areas, sofas, computer room, and tv screen. And really helpful staff too. I didn't really know Kara hugely before we left, but we luckily have similar interests and enjoy doing similar things so it worked well. She's really easy going and kind and enjoys meeting people and making friends, so we had a lot of laughs...!


We went for a long stroll around Central Park the first day, seeing all the statues and fountains etc in there. I'd just studied Tony Kushner's Angels in America, and actually seen a performance the week before leaving, and one of the central places/monuments that feature in the play is the angel Bethesda statue in central park. Its always cool to see places you've read about, I can never really think of things as real until I see them, they rely too much on my mind's portrayal... Then we headed down to pen station and did some shopping. Lots of shopping! 


Wednesday we went to Times Square, and then across to Staten Island on the *free* ferry, there's not much over there but you get views of the statue of liberty and Manhattan etc. on the way across. Then we wandered around the harbour, and went to the skyscraper museum and museum of american Indians. One thing that really struck us was the lack of substance to the Native American exhibitions. There was very little to see at all, considering how much art and memorabilia there must be in the U.S., despite the fact tribes still exist. The museum also took an incredibly romanticised perspective of native american life. It failed to acknowledge any of the damage caused by Americans to the Native American tribes, the imposition of western ideas, the transmittal of lethal western disease, the destruction of their whole culture... The whole place was weirdly in denial of it all. There was a whole section just devoted to the horse, and its spiritual value to tribes, its history, and the development of their use in labour, etc. Interesting, yes, but slightly random? yes also.


We watched the comedy act one night when we were back earlier, which was cool. Nice to have be able to go back and not feel like we were wasting the evening staying in. It gets tricky when your under 21 in the city, they're tough on id. But there's so much to do -- the shops stay open till midnight!

Thursday I went to visit some friends in Long Island and Kara went around the UN building. It's actually my Granny's best Greek friend, who came over to the U.S after the war whereas my Granny came to the U.K. She and her husband are older now but so lovely, and seemed so pleased to see me :) They also have cats. amazing. I took the Long Island Railroad over which took about an hour.15. Was nice to spend some time in an actual family house! And speak to someone who can talk to me about people I know at home... 


When I got back we just hung out in Times Square for the evening, went to M&M world, and inquired about some shows and generally stared up at all the bright lights... The two of us just stood there in Times Square, in silence in the middle of it all for a long while... 
Friday we did some more shopping, went to the photography museum, had a tour of the national library - so cool, they have the original winnie the pooh! he's tiny -, went to the Rockefeller centre, and Lego world.. We also queued up at 9.30 on Friday morning to get Broadway tickets - $26 for Memphis! A definite highlight of the week. And got asked out for drinks by a police officer by the theatre hehe. We had such fun, ended up in the front row, which had "limited views" but we didn't really care, even a short-y like me could still see!
  
The views on the plane home were incredible, too. We got close ups of the empire state building and the Chrysler building etc., and full on views of Manhattan as we flew around it! Amazing.


It was so nice to get away for a bit, I love Chapel Hill a lot but the size of the area which is easily accessible (Campus-Chapel Hill-sort of Raleigh) is so small, and things can get a bit intense and claustrophobic. Its then that I miss London! But NYC definitely gave me my injection of city life again.... 


Brillianttt break, in wonderful company xx  

Charleston in pictures.

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.

~x~

Chilly Washington

A very late update! The snow of DC seems far away now but we had such a wonderful weekend.

And comical from the off.

 We left on the Friday evening, a hair-raising journey by one of the girls’ mentors as we got a bit lost and nearly missed the coach! I was let out late from class so also got back later than expected, & I have never laughed and been so scared in a car. At one point crossing into a gas station she shouted to the incoming vehicle: ‘please don’t hit me’ whilst veering across the lane and stopping to run and ask directions from a lady who couldn’t speak English and didn’t know her right from left. Then the car wouldn’t start as she’d stopped it funnily so we ended up pushing it. [note: everyone here has HUGE cars, even students!] We made it somehow, though.

We got to DC and went out to China town, and the whole place was covered in snow and very chilly! Such a contrast to Chapel Hill. The taxi man who drove us to the hotel managed to fit all of us in his taxi. Somehow. I jokingly suggested I sit in the boot and so he just went, 'ok', and started patting down the bags for me! So all 7 of us piled into the one car... My mentor, Imani, came with us too which was amazing as she lives in Maryland and spends her holidays wandering round the museums on the Mall, so she’s an expert! We could have paid for her guidance. . .

Saturday we were at the Smithsonian castle for 8.30 (suprising, I know). There’s a model of the whole mall in there so we chose the things we were going to do, and mapped our day out a bit. Then Imani took us round lots of the sights: WW2 memorial, Korean & Vietnam War memorials, the Jefferson, Lincoln Memorial – v. grand, and the reflecting pool was frozen! And then of course, the Whitehouse. – Pictures with Obama came later on, too ;) We did the American history museum, the natural history, (not as good as London, wasn’t as cool or realistic. I felt like there were just plastic things all over the place), but the history museum was awesome. Got to see the original star spangled banner, Dorothy’s shoes from the Wizard of Oz film, and the original Muppets! So many interesting things in there.. and went through a couple of the art museums. We packed in a lot, before heading out for dinner.

Sunday we split up a bit, people had different interests but a couple of us went and walked along embassy row, which was really intriguing. Some of the embassy’s are SO grand looking and some are tiny. Tested our flag knowledge too… I found the Greek one and took a photo for my Granny :) We walked to Georgetown after which is a really pretty old place, with nice shops. They have a famous cupcake shop too. It has its own TV show! [only in the US…] I also met up with the friends for lunch! They took me out to a restaurant on the harbor, and we had a seafood buffet. Perfection in a bucket.  And I tried my first Oyster! Ooh er. Was so good to catch up with them, and I may go back and stay with them on my travels after uni… we’ll see. They gave us all a lift after too which was really kind.  We went to a place called Mongolian grill, in Bethesda. An experience in its self. You choose yourself a bowl of stir fry vegetables and meat  sauces toppings etc, then give your bowl to the cooks and they cook it for you in front of you! Was pretty good fun. And the guy gave us a free chocolate brownie/ice cream thing to share after – ohh the perks of being international!

An interesting journey home too… We got back to Durham at 3am to find that the uni taxi company wouldn’t pick us up. Great. It was FREEzing and at that point all you want to do is go to bed… The one taxi cab there couldn’t fit us all in his car [they’re not like the DC drivers here… ;) ] And he was just having an argument with his boss on the phone, when I saw blue and red flashing lights.. So Jane and I ran over and asked the lovely police men if they could give us the number of a taxi firm, and the guy just went “ haap in…”. So we all got a lift home from the 'cops'! The guy got on his speaker phone saying “We’re just assisting some stranded citizens back to their homes…” What an adventure.

So a vunderbar weekend.

It felt so good to be back in the city too. And to the Londoner's out there, DC even has its own Cockfosters:  Foggy Bottom.

Oh metro designers…  

 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx