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Happy Thanksgiving Y'all!

 I've just got home from spending Thanksgiving with my lovely friend Hannah and her family. It all began with us driving six hours across the state in her sports car, me folded into the back seat, to Ashe County which is buried away in the mountains bordering with Virginia and Tennessee. As we drove nearer to her home town our ears popped with the altitude and we felt the temperature plummet.

Arriving in the dead of night we were welcomed by Charlene, Hannah's bleary eyed yet wonderfully welcoming Mum and a hyper active puppy called Jude who was the spitting image of a toy dog I had as a child that yapped three times and then did a back flip. After a good nights sleep we pulled on our slippers and padded across the road to Hannah's grandma's house who cooked us a delicious southern breakfast with biscuits and grits. Over the course of our trip we got to meet most of her family who were all so friendly and wonderfully southern.

An absolute highlight of the trip for me was when we piled into the Chevy with a trunk full of guns and headed out into the forest. Before I knew it I was lifting this enormous hunting rifle up into the crook of my arm and pulling the trigger. An earth shattering bang sounded as the bullet propelled from inside and set my heart racing. It was equally exhilarating as it was utterly terrifying! Don't worry though, considering the guilt I felt shooting a pumpkin, I don't think I'm going to be posing any sort of threat to mankind anytime in the distant future but I did enjoy my bond girl moment, however temporary.

Back at Hannah's and bullet wound free I spotted what has to be the most amazing car I had ever seen pulled up in the drive. A light blue 1964 Ford Galaxie 500, officially my dream car. It turned out it belongs to Hannah's 16-year-old brother (it used to be his grandfathers) who took me out for a spin. It was completely amazing, and don't worry, I resisted the urge to break into a rendition of Grease Lightnin'.

On actual Thanksgiving Day all of Hannah's family came over to the house and an absolute feast was prepared. In many ways the day, and the food, was similar to Christmas as there was turkey and stuffing but there were also new dishes such as pecan squash and pumpkin pie to tuck into. It was absolutely delicious and I am definitely in favour of attempting to bring this tradition to England. I've always thought we should have more than one Christmas so this seems like the only logical solution!

Where did the summer go?

It's definitely beginning to feel a little Christmasy, The autumn leaves have fallen and my Flip-Flops have flipped their last flop. I've also now finished one of my classes, Media. I had to do my final presentation today which was nerve racking to say the least. I don't understand why the pressure of being assessed makes you so nervous. I knew my presentation inside-out and back-to-front but when I stood up I could barely even remember what the question was. It was okay though, after a deep breathe the nerves were relatively controlled and I managed to carry it off.   I left the class room and exclaimed to Liv "God i need a glass of wine!" only to realise that my lecturer was right beside me. It's okay, she laughed and said she always felt that way. It's crazy to think though that I have now completely finished a class. Christmas songs are being played and i'm coming to the sad realization that this is my last few weeks. Tomorrow, i'm heading off to stay with my friend Hannah's family in the North Carolina mountains for Thanksgiving! I'm so excited to experience a real southern family holiday and apparently it's expected to snow too! I'll update you when i'm back. Happy Thanksgiving!

Pink Hair and Roast Potatoes

Hello all!
Yesterday we went over our friend Sara's house. Long and short of it, I've got pink hair.  It's alright though parents and respective elders it's only a little bit. Completely acceptable you'll find.


We had a really nice evening where we cooked my signature recipe for everyone and we enjoyed roast potatoes, chicken wrapped with bacon and stuffed with cheese and various veggies.

We then sat down, played with her dogs and watched Love Actually, which made me really excited for Christmas at home. Only 4 weeks to go. I don't know whether to jump up and down with excitement or cry!

"Yesterday is History, Tomorrow a Mystery,Today is a Gift."

I've just conducted my first ever interview and I don't think it could have gone any better.
I take a class called Sociology of Aging and part of my course requires me to write a ten page paper based on an interview with someone over sixty-five. I've attended a couple of United Nations talks where I was fortunate enough to get on well with the president of the chapter who volunteered to be interviewed. She invited me over her house where her and her husband cooked me a lovely dinner and even poured me a glass of wine and we talked for ages about their travels around the world and each others lives. Then, after dinner we sat down and I interviewed her for my paper. I just can't believe how interesting her life was! She was a nun for years until the Civil Rights movement where she realized the inequalities in the Catholic faith so she left. Just as she left the south had passed a law that for the first time ever it had become compulsory to educate disabled children so she became one of the first ever teachers, in the south, of children with disabilities. I just found her so interesting, she even ended the interview with a quote from Eleanor Roosevelt "Yesterday is History, Tomorrow a Mystery,Today is a Gift." How amazing is that? So America, I am going to write up this paper then go out there and continue to appreciate every second of this amazing experience.

Work & Poverty

Okay i've found a flaw in the study abroad scheme. If you are foreign and you go to an American University then they are not going to be sympathetic to the fact that you're last month at University is also your last month in America. My god are the piling up the work. I've got nothing but deadlines until I go home. Meanies. I even have an exam at 6pm the night before I go home. I just want the sun to come back so I can bury my troubles away in the sand while I go and have a swim in the sea. Sadly though it is now a bit cold and I've had to put away my florescent pink shorts and tie-dye top (hah) and gone back to the London way of dressing. I even had to buy a coat. All the stress of my beach deprivation is getting to me and I have a stonking headache. I couldn't understand why it wouldn't go away but then I realised I had popped two vitamin supplements rather than ibuprofen...! Tonight I had a really lovely chat with my boyfriend though which made me smile. He's currently in Vanuatu looking after turtles. I love talking to him for many reasons, but mostly it really amuses me that that our conversation traveled time. I spoke to him at 7pm on a Thursday and in Vanuatu it was 12pm on a Friday! I always think it puts some real flaws into those end of the world movies when they say the world will end on a set day... anyway i'm rambling.

Yesterday evening I went along to a Poverty Simulation experiment for my Deviant Class. The idea of a class was that we would be placed into a family and we had to live out a month (3 hours) as if we were them. To do this we had to go to work, pay the bills, buy food, go to school, take my virtual  father in law to the hospital to get his medicine. It was really interesting though for the most part and it definitely did open my eyes to what some people go thorough.... but then the other more immature side of me just couldn't take it seriously, for example, in one week (represented by 15 minutes) I was sold crack- cocaine, had all my possessions stolen, twice. Then our house got reprocessed and I got sacked from work. In a week. I mean come on! It was a good experience though, even if I did get a little to carried away (I citizen arrested the crack dealer then stole all his money). It was also cool that my pretend father was a marine who traveled the world so I kept getting side-tracked with questions for him. Tomorrow evening I have been invited over the house of the president of local United Nations chapter for dinner with her and her husband. I'm secretly hoping this means home cooked roast potatoes. It'll be lovely though i'm sure and they have been kind enough to let me interview them for a ten page paper I have to write this weekend. Keeping busy, keeping busy.

Obama Wins!

Election Day!

Election day is here and in about... 2 hours, according to the news, we will find out who will be president of my home for the last few months. It's been so interesting to be in America to witness the campaign trail and be around the buzz. I've been following all the debates and dutifully pinning Obama badges to my bag and saying "I can't vote, i'm English" at least ten times a day to the campus campaigners. The whole time that I've been watching the debates though I've just been thinking that my God I am glad i'm not running for president. I mean, can you imagine the stress? and no matter what you do it's almost guarantee that half the country will hate you. If that isn't bad enough, you also have to make speeches for a casual audience of the WHOLE WORLD! It's putting my up and coming presentation in front of 28 people in perspective. I have a hell of a lot of respect for them though. That's pretty impressive. The modules I have taken this semester have made it even more fascinating for me. Sociology of Aging has made me think quite a lot about the effects of the health reforms will have. My Media module has put a really interesting twist on things. Anyway fingers crossed for Obama and i'll update later.

Halloween

 Happy Halloween!! (4days ago but shh). Now, I'm not normally enamored with the idea of Halloween. It's always seemed slightly like legitimized blackmail... but that could just be because i'm British and cynical. I did think however, that seeing as i'm in America and it's a really big deal here then I might as well don the hat and paint myself green. The  main party weekend for Halloween was the weekend before which I, as I may have mentioned, was on the beach in California for so I missed that.

On actual Halloween which was a Wednesday, none of us celebrated due to classes etc but I did get to see some unusual activity! We went to Independence (shopping mall) which was full of hundreds of children and their parents dressed in pretty amazing costumes. One family I saw was a  mother and child combo, the mother dressed as the empire states building with a very cute and very minuscule King Kong clinging to her side. Another family consisted of the Dad as Willy Wonka, the 'Mom' as Violet Beauregarde and whole trail of Umpa Lumpas following along side. The thing that amazed me was that these children were Trick or Treating the shops! Each with their little pumpkin cauldrons collecting as many variations of 'candy' as they could from the expecting shops.

 UNCW was in full Halloween spirit too giving us free sweets upon entering the dinning hall and ghostly shaped deserts for pudding. On the Saturday Night we heard of a Fancy Dress Halloween party going on so we had a right laugh getting ready and green. The only problem was the police had also heard of the party and it was busted before we even got there! Ah well, at least I know that next year none of the parties will be hindered by underage drinking!

P.s I'm still green.