Arrival

 View from the window

I have been in America for a whole week now but it feels like an age.

My flight wasn't bad! I was sat next to a friendly yet talkative chap who had read up on the wikipedia entry of the airbus we were traveling on and was keen to share that it was one of a breed that had mysteriously crashed on a couple of occasions, so it wasn't exactly relaxing! However the trashy inflight films, as always, allowed my mind to decay for those several airborne hours.

And here I am in Mississippi. I'll do the quintessential British thing and remark on the weather, which has been extreme! The heat is beyond anything a heatwave in England has ever offered and the humidity gives you the sensation of walking into a steamy bathroom all the time. Somehow though, perhaps due to a long cold English summer spent longing for warmth, I've found it bearable so far. We did a walking tour of Hattiesburg today though, which tested my endurance.100 degree heat is exhausting.

We- the international students- have done a variety of things these past days leading up to classes. All first year and transfer students are welcome to join in with 'GEWW' activities which basically involve bonding exercises, learning school chants, tours and orientation. A couple of us tagged along with a group and ended up running with a group of freshman through a giant inflatable helmet across the football stadium, cheering, which is something that would never be experienced in the UK. Perhaps one of the most surreal things imaginable but the lack of students photographing or filming the events led to me assume it was pretty routine in the life of an American Teenager.

A video I took from said event.

Another sharp contrast to the English University Campus is the architecture and scenery. Keele may have Keele Hall, picturesque lakes and the countryside but the student accommodation is about as glamorous as a muddy puddle (which you get a lot of with the considerable amount of rain)
My hall, or as it's called here, my dorm, has pillars!

Rather pretty, yes?

And inside the corridors we were welcomed with cute names on our doors and balloons!

So that's some of my week!