3 (Random) Things I Miss.
1. Bread that isn’t sweet.
No, seriously. All bread here is sweet. Yeah. Even white, sliced bread. Which isn’t so bad if you’re eating it with a bit of butter and jam (“jelly”). But a tuna mayo sandwich? It’s just not right.
2. TV.
I miss Jeremey Kyle. I miss Coach Trip. I’ve never not watched Eastenders for this long in my life. And now the Christmas episode is not going to be nearly as exciting for me as it usually is, but such is life eh?
I have been keeping up with The X-Factor though; Rebecca Ferguson I lovelovelove she is right up my street. BIG fan.
I’ve also been watching…..The Only Way is Essex! I noticed everyone’s been talking about it and so I had to see what all the fuss was about. Gotta say, it’s made my list of guilty pleasures, it’s hilarious.
3. Shopping.
Primark. H&M. New Look. Tesco. I feel like I can’t shop properly here. I know England shoping, I’ve had 8 years of practice and Birmingham (UK) is a shopper’s dreamland. I even miss Bedford town on a Saturday. It’s not that the stuff is awful here, it’s just different and harder for me to get to… so I’m pumped to come home and hit the shops. Maybe get some Fish n Chips on the way home ;).
2 things that make up for the things I miss:
1. Cheap food.
When I say cheap…I mean ridiculously cheap. Mo’s has a $25 cent chicken wings night every Monday. I went last night and got 5 chicken wings in barbeque sauce and a bottomless drink for $1.29. Now, if you’re unsure on the exchange rate, let me tell you…$1.60 is a £1.
It does make me think though; if I’m able to buy them that cheap then how cheap are they buying them for? And why is it as cheap as they’re buying it for?
2. The weather.
It’s crazy, I just bought a winter coat and this guy was like “Why? It’s going to be 27 degrees (celcius) next week. WTF!? We’ll be lucky to get 27 degrees in England in August! It has got colder generally though and it’s rained a couple of times…but NOTHING compared to England. I’m sleeveless most days and can get away with a cardigan in late afternoon...hoodie at night. I’m gonna freeze when I come hoooome.
3 Things I’m looking forward to:
1) Las Vegas.
We’re leaving Wednesday next week and I cannot even describe how excited I am… watch out for that blog (which I hope will be up as soon as I’ve recovered from the trip!)
2) Roasted chestnuts.
This needs no further explanation…you know I love my roasted chestnuts.
3) Coming home for Christmas.
I love this place, I really do and I have to say the whole semester has flown by. But. I’m sooo ready for some home time...I miss you guys like crazy, I’m craving Nonna’s food and I need a break from work, these are some long ass semesters!
** 24 days till I fly home!! **
Friday, 19 November 2010
Wednesday, 10 November 2010
Halloweeeeen!
I was really looking forward to Halloween this year, normally it just creeps up on me and I'll get some standard cat ears from Claire's Accessories and go to some overpriced club night full creeps who think that because you can't see their face, they can act like bigger pricks than usual. But America, I knew, would go hard on Halloween.
About a week before we went to the Halloween store (yes, there is such a thing) to pick our costumes, get props and decorations and then went to buy a pumpkin from WallMart. Me and Raquael (my flatmate) competed at pumpkin carving, whilst Kolin and Becki roasted the pumpkin seeds and we all watched scary films. I was definitely feeling festive.
We continued to watch scary films all week, old ones with baaaad effects, re-makes and the new ones.. and when the weekend rolled around we ventured waaaay south, to the Gulf Coast on a spontaneous road trip!
Our friend DJ plays on the Alabama football team and he is a celebrity across Alabama and this rich white couple (maaasssive fans) he knows offered us their beach condo for the weekend :D
We drove through Mississippi and there was cotton and corn fields most of the way, it was great to see because that's what I expected from the south, road trips and plantations!
When we got to the beach condo night had fallen and we were pretty scared, it looked like a perfect setting for a horror-movie murder and we'd all been watching too many scary films but it was cool to feel scared on Halloween, it felt right lol
We settled in, ate, and waited for the rest of the crew to arrive..when they rung to say they'd got here, we thought it'd be fun to play a lil prank:
On Saturday we went to the beach, it was a really nice day (bizarre to me, for late October!) and it was sooo good to be by the sea! The sand was so soft and white and the water was clear. We dipped our toes, wrote our names in the sand and collected sea shells (as you do). Then, as we were walking along the shore we notice some washed-up dead fish and some tar balls (from the oil spill) I hadn't expected to see anything like that. When we were stopped looking, I turned to Arie (6ft 5 and 350 lbs- another football player) stared him down and then kicked a load of water at him. I don't need to tell you that I got completely soaked in return, as well as everyone around us! So..we ran into the sea fully clothed and it felt really good.
(Orange Beach, Gulf Shores)
Once we'd dried off, we met the 'rich white folks' and they took us to the best seafood buffet around. Now, I'm not really big on fish usually, but I have to say..it was delicious. There was baked fish, fried fish, shrimp, calamari, clams, jambalaya, mashed potatoes..everything and anything fishy and yummy. I loved it.
That night we donned our halloween costumes and we drove to Mobile, Alabama to go clubbing. We were with DJ so, naturally, we jumped the queue that went round the corner, we all got free entry, we all got '21' wristbands and….you could SMOKE…IN THE CLUB! :-D
People kept coming up to us and wanting photos with DJ, wanting to shake his hand, touch his shoulder etc and they kept buying him loads of drinks…but he's an athlete. A tee-total athlete. And so…we all got drunk for freeee :)
It was a really great weekend, I'll remember it for a looong long time. It's good to have friends in positions of privilege ;)
About a week before we went to the Halloween store (yes, there is such a thing) to pick our costumes, get props and decorations and then went to buy a pumpkin from WallMart. Me and Raquael (my flatmate) competed at pumpkin carving, whilst Kolin and Becki roasted the pumpkin seeds and we all watched scary films. I was definitely feeling festive.
We continued to watch scary films all week, old ones with baaaad effects, re-makes and the new ones.. and when the weekend rolled around we ventured waaaay south, to the Gulf Coast on a spontaneous road trip!
Our friend DJ plays on the Alabama football team and he is a celebrity across Alabama and this rich white couple (maaasssive fans) he knows offered us their beach condo for the weekend :D
We drove through Mississippi and there was cotton and corn fields most of the way, it was great to see because that's what I expected from the south, road trips and plantations!
When we got to the beach condo night had fallen and we were pretty scared, it looked like a perfect setting for a horror-movie murder and we'd all been watching too many scary films but it was cool to feel scared on Halloween, it felt right lol
We settled in, ate, and waited for the rest of the crew to arrive..when they rung to say they'd got here, we thought it'd be fun to play a lil prank:
On Saturday we went to the beach, it was a really nice day (bizarre to me, for late October!) and it was sooo good to be by the sea! The sand was so soft and white and the water was clear. We dipped our toes, wrote our names in the sand and collected sea shells (as you do). Then, as we were walking along the shore we notice some washed-up dead fish and some tar balls (from the oil spill) I hadn't expected to see anything like that. When we were stopped looking, I turned to Arie (6ft 5 and 350 lbs- another football player) stared him down and then kicked a load of water at him. I don't need to tell you that I got completely soaked in return, as well as everyone around us! So..we ran into the sea fully clothed and it felt really good.
(Orange Beach, Gulf Shores)
Once we'd dried off, we met the 'rich white folks' and they took us to the best seafood buffet around. Now, I'm not really big on fish usually, but I have to say..it was delicious. There was baked fish, fried fish, shrimp, calamari, clams, jambalaya, mashed potatoes..everything and anything fishy and yummy. I loved it.
That night we donned our halloween costumes and we drove to Mobile, Alabama to go clubbing. We were with DJ so, naturally, we jumped the queue that went round the corner, we all got free entry, we all got '21' wristbands and….you could SMOKE…IN THE CLUB! :-D
People kept coming up to us and wanting photos with DJ, wanting to shake his hand, touch his shoulder etc and they kept buying him loads of drinks…but he's an athlete. A tee-total athlete. And so…we all got drunk for freeee :)
It was a really great weekend, I'll remember it for a looong long time. It's good to have friends in positions of privilege ;)
Homecoming Weekend.
First and foremost I wanna apologise for not updating this in a while.. I've been really busy with uni work and things happen so quickly around here that it's been hard to keep up.. I wrote this one a while back but I'm gonna keep them coming until we're up-to-date!
Okay. So the football season is in full swing and this week was the Homecoming game; people had been talking about it for while and girls were campaigning like crazy to be Homecoming Queen (I know..very American!)
On Friday night there was a 'Pep Rally' on the Quad and thousands of people turned up to hear the football coach, Nick Saban (a legend around these parts) and some of the best players talk and rally up the die-hard fans.
It was…interesting haha. Americans, especially American football fans don't really hold back and everyone was chanting and whooping and it was quite intense to be honest..but it was fun nonetheless.
Then we moved over to the other side of the Quad where there was a HUGE bonfire. I swear, Americans do not do things by half! It was so big that I could feel the heat to the point where I could stand outside, on an October night, sleeveless and be warm.
On Saturday there was a big pre-game Homecoming parade; the weather was beautiful and again, thousands of people turned up to see the 'Million-dollar Band' (who really do sound like a million dollars), baton twirlers, cheerleaders, military, pageant queens etc as they made their way down University Boulevard. I've added some photos to this post so you can get a feel of what it was like.
Despite the fact that I had tickets to see the game in the stadium..I didn't actually get the chance to do so. The security man (I swear, people in positions of authority hate me!) refused me entry because my bag was too big. Typical. So I walked alll the way back to my apartment, then back to the stadium with a smaller bag- 20 mins each way. I thought "Oo let me get a drink out here were its only $1.50 rather than $4.00 or whatever ridiculous price they charge in stadiums. The machine only went and swallowed my money. I was getting really fed up. So I get to the stadium and I couldn't get back into the section where my friends were sat, they wanted me to go all the way to the very top. I thought fuck that, I could see the game better on TV. So I sat on the wall outside, hungry, tired, frustrated. I cried a little bit, rolled a cigarette and walked home..
Okay. So the football season is in full swing and this week was the Homecoming game; people had been talking about it for while and girls were campaigning like crazy to be Homecoming Queen (I know..very American!)
On Friday night there was a 'Pep Rally' on the Quad and thousands of people turned up to hear the football coach, Nick Saban (a legend around these parts) and some of the best players talk and rally up the die-hard fans.
It was…interesting haha. Americans, especially American football fans don't really hold back and everyone was chanting and whooping and it was quite intense to be honest..but it was fun nonetheless.
Then we moved over to the other side of the Quad where there was a HUGE bonfire. I swear, Americans do not do things by half! It was so big that I could feel the heat to the point where I could stand outside, on an October night, sleeveless and be warm.
On Saturday there was a big pre-game Homecoming parade; the weather was beautiful and again, thousands of people turned up to see the 'Million-dollar Band' (who really do sound like a million dollars), baton twirlers, cheerleaders, military, pageant queens etc as they made their way down University Boulevard. I've added some photos to this post so you can get a feel of what it was like.
Despite the fact that I had tickets to see the game in the stadium..I didn't actually get the chance to do so. The security man (I swear, people in positions of authority hate me!) refused me entry because my bag was too big. Typical. So I walked alll the way back to my apartment, then back to the stadium with a smaller bag- 20 mins each way. I thought "Oo let me get a drink out here were its only $1.50 rather than $4.00 or whatever ridiculous price they charge in stadiums. The machine only went and swallowed my money. I was getting really fed up. So I get to the stadium and I couldn't get back into the section where my friends were sat, they wanted me to go all the way to the very top. I thought fuck that, I could see the game better on TV. So I sat on the wall outside, hungry, tired, frustrated. I cried a little bit, rolled a cigarette and walked home..
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