Finals

The semester is coming to an end now. Last week we were wearing long sleeves and jeans, now we're wrapped in jackets and scarfs. Winter ! Classes are over but everyone is working for finals. Unlike my friends back at Keele, I still have five days until the semester is officially over and my last exam is on Thursday. It's hard finding motivation but easy finding distractions.

Noe and Rosie have been swapping style tips.

1. Last night we had a party at Tanja/Anna/Claire/Felix's new apartment in honor of the finality of the semester and Rosie leaving (emotional :'C ). We tried cooking a roast dinner but it turned out to be a proper student dish of rotisserie chicken, 'mac n cheese', ratatouille and stuffing- an odd combination. Then we drank sangria, danced and somehow, I ended up caroling their neighbours.

2. I can't really say that the four months I've been here (so far) has gone by quickly because it really hasn't and I think if I had opted to only study the one semester I would be satisfied BUT I am still having a lotta fun and I'm still meeting new people and gaining new experiences. Going home for winter break is going to be strange... the change in time zones, weather, briefly assimilating into British culture blah etc.  I just hope that I will be enthusiastic about returning again to Mississippi for January, but I'm sure if I spend one afternoon in a British high street during sales/watch the news/David Cameron does anything, it will be enough for me to head straight to the airport, regardless of whether my flight is that day or not.

3. There was a free SUSHI making class held at the cafeteria that Rosie and I went along to. The creations we made definitely were not especially authentic (steak sushi, hmmm), but we had fun!

4. Sybs and I got some belongings for our apartment next semester. It took a lot of self control (and Sybs firmly saying NO!) to not purchase a Hello Kitty toaster ($20? BARGAIN!) the greatest thing was getting a kettle, tea yay! I still don't own a mattress though :s

5. This is a rather silly coupon I was handed in Starbucks.

Thanksgiving

So last week I spent 5 wonderful days up North celebrating the American holiday of Thanksgiving. I was so glad to get out of Hattiesburg.. don't get me wrong I've had a lot of fun here, but it's a very small town and my assumption that there is little to do without a car in Mississippi has kinda been proved right.

In relevant fashion, I traveled via Train, Plane and Automobile across the country on Wednesday (I realised I actually was in 5 states in one day-MS, Tennessee, Massachusetts, Rhode Island (whilst on train) then arriving to Connecticut)

 I stayed with Alex and Harriet (and a friend of Harriet's) who I knew from childhood. They moved to America several years ago so it was a unique Thanksgiving in that it was mainly non-Americans in the household... JUST LIKE IN THE OLDEN DAYS! We also made headdresses

We had bucks fizz- or 'mimosa' by the American name (which I kept calling osmosis) in the morning. They got up so early to cook the turkey and followed a Delia Smith recipe. It was pretty darn amazing! Definately ate perfectly over these days and my stomach has not enjoyed returning to cafeteria food.

It was really interesting sharing details about college life in the South compared to Boston. A dry campus and visiting hours surprised them and I was surprised to discover Greek Life is pretty much a Southern + California thing. Having spent such an extensive time in one part of the country, it really opened my eyes to how absolutely different the other half is. This sounds obvious but you wouldn't imagine how different the cultures contrast.

Whilst in Connecticut I got to visit my Great Aunt Pauline. She was a GI Bride and moved to America when she was 18. It's a long way to go when you're that young and she still really misses England. It was really lovely to see her and I was surprised to discover she hasn't really lost her accent!

Sunday was spent wandering around Boston where Alex and Harriet live/study. I have really missed being in a City. I don't have the ability to walk around Hattiesburg, it's pretty flat, far from anything and with a slow pace. It was great for 3 months but I have found myself frustrated at how limited I am and really loved walking the streets surrounded by skyscrapers and people. It was a very beautiful city!

It was interesting being somewhere though where my accent was never talked about (in fact, everyone had accents!) Alex worked as a tour guide on a boat over summer so was able to give me a lot of interesting information about the city! I also got to drink tea, eat (non-American produced) Cadbury's and Wagamamas...it was nice to be able to indulge in British goods that I have thoroughly missed whilst exploring a new place.

Above is a video of some of the sites I saw (made using some awkward Ipod app called Videolicious hehe)

I've also added photographs to flickr- which there's now a link to on the side>>>>>

tidbits

 

1. I got $25 in dining dollars for taking part in a survey on Eagle Dining. We have spent as lot of time in Starbucks this week as a result. They're playing Christmas music already, which feels even more peculiar because we're all still wearing summer clothes.

2. We're starting to get small town claustrophobia and finding the inability to drive annoying. Up until this semester I have never at any point felt the need to learn to drive in my life and now I feel trapped and tempted to get in a car and see how easy it is. The bus is fine by day but stops running at 5pm. The one taxi firm in Hattiesburg runs sporadically, costs money and the cars smell of homeless people. A lot of people say 'Hey, if ever need a ride just ask' but it's not British to ask and I'm sure many of them are just being polite. I can't believe I'm wishing I could drive! The only thing to this point that has encouraged me is a) the prospect of a zombie outbreak and b)so I can steer around singing Gary Numan- Cars.

3. It's Thanksgiving break so the whole country is off- I'm going to Boston/Connecticut, yeeep! I'm a bit anxious about the cold though.

New Orleans

For the second time in a fortnight we went to New Orleans. On this occasion, it wasn't for Halloween (though we still saw a couple of people in fancy dress) and we didn't go out for the party (though we still saw many drunk people. At noon.).

When we arrived we got the most amazing Po Boys from this small little place at the outskirts of anywhere. I can't remember what the place was called but it was the best sandwich I've eaten since arriving here- bread actually tasted like bread, rather than some odd dry American brioche! I had beef, it was a dream.

We then looked around a cemetery. An interesting experience and more of the Southern Gothic. However creepy it sounds, it's an interesting cultural experience, seeing graveyards in other countries, places and religions.

We had a nosy around the Garden District; lovely posh houses, including the home of Anne Rice! I would like to live in one of these homes if anyone fancies buying me one?

 

A nice, free thing to do is the free ferry ride, it was quick but the views are just as great as from the steamboat.

The French Quarter is the part of New Orleans I'm most familiar with as I stayed there when I went on holiday (the Hotel Monteleone, where Truman Capote and Harper Lee use to drink in its carousel bar) it was particularly vibrant this Saturday with people getting their fortunes read and selling art in Jackson Square. 

 We ate Beignets at Cafe du Monde, so tasty. 

From the French Quarter we wandered into Bourbon Street, which is a difficult place to describe; A strip that is an odd hybrid of Vegas, the red light district of Paris and a British student village with amazing live music coming out of every venue, a lot of people wearing little clothing and a craving for hand sanitizer after you leave it.

 There were a couple of topless painted ladies holding signs saying 'Tits for Tips', which when I looked away I was facing the Cathedral. This was all at 4 in the afternoon, with our tutor. Surreal. 

  Anyway, I think I maybe content with never visiting Bourbon St. again as I've been a few times and it is a bit of a smelly, disordered tourist trap... I sense that New Orleans is probably full of amazing bars and venues outside the street and it would be interesting to explore these places.

We stayed in the Holiday Inn which had a pretty amazing view

The next day we went to a plantation house but it was $20 to look around so we just took sneaky pictures outside it, hohoho. These photos AND MORE are available on my flickr page!

So there's New Orleans, in all it's sober glory. It is a beautiful city and very different to a lot of other places in the South and in America. It has a really interesting history which really visible.

It kinda sucks that we missed the last Football game this weekend (there's one at Thanksgiving but I'm away and I don't think anyone is tailgating) Golden Eagles are now ranked 20th!

Autumn

HEY I've entered a photo contest which ends on the 15th- if you have Facebook, could you click on any of these photos (<hover over) and 'like' them? :) 

Rosie, Sybs and I

It's been a pretty eventful week all over town. Tuesday was voting day. The main thing everyone was really involved with was Prop 26, which would make contraceptive pills and abortion illegal in the state of Mississippi. It lost to a 56% No majority and it was very interesting watching it all as an outsider, from a country where the current government altering just the counseling requirements has caused outcry. We kept getting asked to vote/if we'd voted which eventually got a bit irritating as it should be obvious that non-citizens of the US are not eligible for US rights.

Thursday we went to Lazer Tag for Victoria's birthday, the second time in a month and I think I'm pretty lazer tagged out now... I always get a bit too involved with the game and competitive... I may or may not have yelled rude things at a random stranger that shot me.

Friday Sybs and I put the deposite down for our apartment for next semester, which we did with glee because the morning acted as a great reminder as to why we're leaving dorms. I spilled a bottle of bleach and the windows are screwed shut, so we basically had to spend the day seeking refuge from fumes.
We're also excited about being able to cook our own food. I thought the frustration of washing up and the luxury of not finding moldy items in the fridge would be worth the money but the meal plan is so restrictive and in all honesty is not the slightest value for money... there was a 'salad' this week in the 'salad' bar that consisted of grated carrots, marshmallows and glacier cherries. ! Errk.

In the evening we went Downtown to Eaglepalooza, a music event and pep rally. An act called Karmin were suppose to play but were replaced last minute. We got really cold and bought some hot chocolate which I'm certain had liquidated bananas in it. Bananas don't belong in drinks. It was a fun evening and the music was pretty good. And on the drive home we saw an owl! Just perched there, enjoying life. Sybs spotted it but didn't know the word for it so was like "Oh look guys! There's a big bird that is!... a brown bird?! Look! I know what it's called in French!'

The weekend was spent in New Orleans, but that's another blog post...

The differences

Here's me in front of the University. I took scenic photographs for the first time since I arrived here this week

I don't want to be a party pooper but I keep seeing 'Happy Guy Fawkes Day!' and 'Celebrate Bonfire Day!' randomly over the internet etc. and I want to establish that it's Bonfire NIGHT, Americans. And hands off our holiday! It's ironic that usually I am bored every 5th of November; eventually get annoyed with the fireworks and how rubbish they are and how they go on for days/weeks/months either side of the day, but this year I feel like I'm missing out.

On that note, this week has marked the closest I've come to being homesick. I've been so lucky in having met and befriended such amazing people since I've arrived and having so much to see and do that I literally haven't been bored in three months. But I found out that chocolate Advent Calendars are a European tradition and that really threw me off! For what I understand, a few people are aware of their existence here and some posh shops sell them, but for the most part, most haven't a clue what they are.

There really is a tremendous amount of less obvious differences between the USA and UK. I haven't met a single American that has seen or even heard of Bugsy Malone. Film nor school production. It's a musical, prohibition-era gangster film starring children with guns that shoot cream, starring tweenage Scott Baio and Jodie Foster, what more could you want? I don't know how this has managed to come up in so many conversations, but it has! And I'm not sure why I'm feeling the need to spread this news but IT SURPRISED ME.

The biggest difference definitely is how people dress. The only people who wear baseball caps in England are criminals and if any student ever wore one to a lecture, they would be ridiculed by the lecturer and made to take it off. I think people do generally express themselves more through clothing in the UK and I kinda feel conscious sometimes that I'm wearing things a little less conventional here. But when I dressed up for the gym one day in a baggy T shirt and shorts, my room mate Sybs said, with strong conviction, 'You're dressed American! You look 'orrible!'. I'm happy wearing my odd British clothes.

A real thing that is causing difficulties is my strong accent which is often a little too British for everyone to understand. I know my French friends have had trouble understanding me and Sybs, spent the first few days nodding and smiling to everything I said- but a lot of Americans also have to get me to repeat things and I've found myself at times talking in a ridiculous Keira Knightley-esq diction to actually communicate with people. Below makes me laugh and expresses a lot.





The other British people haven't had such problems, although the other person from Kent was talking loudly at a party and someone asked me what language he was speaking, haha. Maybe it's the Kent accent? I don't know? But my 'bonus bucks' (credit on my student card to be spent on campus) has been dwindled at Starbucks and there's something about how I say the name 'Maddie' when they take my order, that doesn't easily register...

I quite like Mattie, maybe I'll keep it.

This isn't even a real name..

Just writing noises now

I'm not actually offended by this all, nor even particularly irritated. I know when I return to England for Christmas break I'm going to be fed up that my accent is no longer special and soon get bored of all the things I'm missing slightly and will be eager to return for Spring Semester.

And American chocolate is so bad that even if Advent Calendars were big here, I'm not sure that I would buy one.

This is Halloween

This weekend we went to New Orleans for Halloween, which was pretty darn crazy. It's not the first time I've been there nor the last as we have a school trip next weekend too, so I won't go into much detail. Being at Southern Miss is a good location for its proximity to NOLA and it's a very different world to Hattiesburg.

But anyway, rather than tell of my experiences of Bourbon Street I thought I'd share the spooky occurrences that are very darn relevant to Halloween.

We stayed in St Vincent's Guest House on Magazine Street, around a 20 minute from the French Quarter.
A grand, Gothic building which greeted us with the charming words "St. Vincent's Infant Asylum" on the highest tower; turns out the place served as an orphanage in the 19th century! It really was something straight out of Guillermo del Toro movie.

Inside there are many photographs of nuns and orphans. I thought the kids all looked cute but they scared my friend Rosie, who had difficulty looking at them. I do admit that the black and white pictures of children receiving dental examinations/hair cuts were a little unnerving.

The building has also served as location for some movies and TV shows, the most recent being R.E.D which starred Helen Mirren, Bruce Willis and Morgan Freeman (yet another trip which has bought the Oscar winner and I closer together) and also, the old flick Candyman. Which says it all.

Now I'm not one that really believes in the supernatural and I'm incredibly skeptical about ghosts- no matter how creepy somewhere is, the presence of ghouls is not something that worries me. In fact I'm not even one that really jumps at horror films and was really enjoying the unsettling nature of the place, pretty much unphased by the location and its' history, giggling at its nature and winding Rosie up....

Until I took a photo of an ORB! We were taking pictures of the place and I took two in a row, same conditions as each other, orb presence in one, gone in the other. As someone that enjoys photography (gutted I didn't bring a camera this weekend) I can assure you that it isn't glare from the flash, moisture particles, rain or anything the like

ORB!/ No Orb

EDIT: after looking closer at the no orb photo there's two faint ones in it, possibly indicating more ghosts but more likely indicating that it was some camera thing, chortle.

This is my face after noticing the orb in the pic.

(oh yeah parents, I dyed my hair red for Halloween, surprise!)

It made me laugh but Rosie did not appreciate it. We got talking to a guy that lived there and he said he'd sometimes come back to his room to find furniture moved around... Scooby Dooby Doo, where are you?

Another creepy happening was the theft of my pajama shorts! We went out for food, leaving many valuables, but everything was left untouched, indicating some odd body just wanted my PJ bottoms? We can't work out who it was because there were only two females in our dorm and they seemed nice (and also preoccupied with getting dressed up). I was pretty gutted as they were awesome shorts. Oh well.

Why we keep staying in accommodations that would be fantastic locations for horror stories, I'm not sure but the Southern Gothic reputation definitely has been delivered.

Homecoming

 I just wanna apologise for the spelling, grammar etc. I write these posts in a rush, you see get off my back parents.

This past weekend was Homecoming which I'm still not exactly sure what is about. It was explained to me as the first game of the season post Fall Break, when all the alumni come back. I maybe wrong.

Anyway there was the parade downtown and the game which was all fun, colourful and very American. The British girls and I that watched couldn't find it inside our English selves to wave back at the students on the float without feeling awkward.

We didn't, however, feel awkward about picking up the bead necklaces and sweets they threw out... YAY FREE STUFF!

The parade started with police men (or cops, getting with the lingo, yo) on motorbikes, revving around and swirling about, then there were these posh convertible cars with the Mr and Mrs Southern Miss/Homecoming queens etc people things on them. I'm not sure who they were exactly, nor their different roles (there were a few) but they were all dressed in ball gowns and suits and for the past month you got bombarded all around campus asking if you'd voted and I think they win scholarships and prestige.

I really should research this stuff more before I write about it.

Mid time at the Football game they had a big presentation for them. There was also a dance by the Dixie Darlings past and present, it featured many alumni from the past few decades and even one lady from their establishing year- 1954 (!)- was up there shaking her thing!

Anyway the parade was really impressive and full of school spirit. Living here does make you realise how very reserved Britain is.

Next weekend is Halloween, which I am very excited about. I love it and am so happy to be in a country that will overdo the heck out of it. It appears to be starting Thursday (at least that's when the first party commences) so I'm going to have to sort out my outfits asap.

Fall Break

This week has been a lot of fun. I've done no work but it's been A GAS. We made friendship bracelets, I cut my room mates hair,

Everyone had Thursday and Friday off this weekend for Fall Break, rather than take a trip somewhere we thought we would explore Hattiesburg some more. Since arriving 6 weeks ago, we had only been Downtown once so we decided to change that.

Wednesday we went on a random adventure and wandered about. We found an antiques mall- Calico Mall, opposite Hattiesburg Amtrak station- full of strange and exciting things...

There was also a vintage clothing section downstairs which has some interesting bits and bobs...

...it's by the same people that run Polly Esther's Vintage Clothing Store which is on the highway right next to college and has possibly the best vintage clothing to be found anywhere! Lots of bargains and pretty items- a lot better than the above.

On Thursday we went to the House of 1000 Psycho's on East Pine Street. It was very creepy and good prep for Halloween (which I'm am very much looking forward to), there was a lovely warning before we went in that the weapons were real and we had to sign a legal waiver to enter (BET YOU'RE HAPPY TO HEAR THAT MUM?)

(The waiting lobby)

On Friday we took the bus downtown. It costs 50 cents a journey, which is roughly 30p! A child's fair in England is probably more than double that. But it does host a strange crowd, including a man that looked like the evil dude from Ghostbusters (who looked into my eyes and I'm pretty sure took out my soul) and a lot of people wearing T-Shirts that preached the apocalypse. We went to the African-American Military Museum and ate at the first place we had BBQ on our first visit ever downtown (2 months ago now) it was called The Shed but is now called the Bottling Company, which confused us.

There was also a music event in the park

Then we went to a monster making event at Southern Fried Comics, a comic book shop downtown. SO MUCH FUN! I started painting mine very ordinarily until I looked around and realised it was pretty boring, then realised I wanted to make an Elvis Presley...but alas, it was too late as Elvis never wore orange and I'd already started slapping the paint on, so I decided on the next best thing: an Elvis obsessed Clarence, played by Christian Slater, from the movie True Romance

Then we went to a pub called the Keg and Barrel, then we went around a few of the bars downtown.

Saturday and Sunday... I'm not sure what we did but we had FUN