Vegas

I've been to Vegas once before and it is an extremely odd, intriguing and artificial place. A city that was founded by Mormons, constructed by mobsters, imports everything (even the tap water!), is devoted solely to unwholesome pleasures, has few laws and few locals, it is incredibly unnatural and it feels that way. I find the place fascinating and perhaps may use it as a cultural observation subject for my dissertation, but it is definitely not for everyone and I always feel uncomfortable seeing children there.

On this trip I had intended on seeing the other side of Las Vegas; visiting the Atomic Museum (as part of Vegas's small history; nuclear bomb testing took place nearby), the arts district, the Neon Graveyard (a lot where the massive broken neon signs are left) as well as a trip to the Grand Canyon... this isn't how it worked out.

It was a really early flight, 7am from Biloxi, where I had stayed a couple of days with my dear friend Jill and her lovely family. It was a very smooth flight, full of nap time. When I arrived and got the $2 bus to the hostel, some weirdo grabbed and ran off with my notepad... a notepad that had cost 50 cents at Walmart! While I appreciate that it wasn't anything valuable, I was annoyed mainly because I had written all my itinerary for the following weeks in it, including addresses, meaning I had to rely on the kindness of strangers in finding my hostel (it was only across a road but I got lost without knowing street names) I really am confused as to why anyone would steal a random notepad; maybe the street value of drugs has become incredibly low.. or someone mistook my identity?

Hostel Cat

My hostel was pretty cool. It was full of friendly people from all ages and walks of life but was also incredibly secure, which is all important when you're traveling alone. The neighbourhood was quite edgy; $10 tattoo parlors, Wedding chapels, adult stores, motels... it was in the art district so there were galleries and a Thai BBQ joint, creating an obscure balance.
I struck up a friendship with two girls in my room, Anna from Ukraine and Elaine from Australia, we all decided to explore the Strip together. Pretty much everything exists within the hotels that line the same stretch of road (they're so big they fit shopping malls, casinos and nightclubs inside) but they're all crazy, imitating Egypt, Paris, New York City, Venice, fairytale-ish castles... they're sugary, fake versions of each but fun.

Main sites we went to:
Circus Circus a 'circus' themed hotel, mainly aimed at families with a show taking place every fifteen minutes and arcade games for kids to enjoy/start 'em gambling young. We saw a group of acrobats from American Idol perform which was fun
Welcome to Vegas Sign a fifteen minute walk from where the bus will take you; you also have to jaywalk across the road to reach it which is dangerous and highly illegal- I'm not sure why they haven't created a crossing? It's pretty fun to see
The Luxor fake Egypt. Here we saw Cirque du Soleil Criss Angel show 'Believe' which was based around illusion and magic, there were some eyebrow raising tricks but I thought it seemed over-performed, poorly scripted and bit lackluster, I saw 'Love' the Beatles Cirque du Soleil show last time and was blown away. We also went to the Titanic Artifact exhibition which had items claimed from the wreckage in a recreation of the different cabins (One man cracked us up when he asked if the wooden stairs were actual set from the ship itself) I was surprised to discover how expensive the very cheapest ticket was in today's money- more than half an annual wage of a low income earner- I was taught something in Vegas!
Bellagio this is a rather fancy hotel which houses a botanical garden that looks like it has been dreamt up by a child, incredibly strange!

So... I had planned to continue spending time in Vegas, then in LA and NYC but I was sitting in the youth hostel watching Braveheart and thought, boy I miss the people & Hattiesburg- maybe it'd be best to do the travels with friends another time.. and so I returned back to Mississippi! But my adventures haven't ended just yet

I've uploaded further photographs on my Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/maddiesayshey

Perdido Key, Florida

This week some American friends and I went camping on a beach in Florida. It was a national park so we had to walk a distance from where we parked the car and there were no facilities to use- pretty primitive! (And also tiring since we had to carry everything)

Perdido Key is a small island in Pensacola, we camped at Johnston Beach where the sand was white and the sea was clear and it was pretty close to the Naval Aviation base so we got to see the Blue Angels train every morning. There was heaps of wildlife
I saw
-a sea turtle
-pelicans
-stingrays
-a small shark
-hermit crabs
-dolphins
-fish jumping out of the water

The first time stingrays swam by us, only a couple felt/saw them, they screamed and ran out but the rest of us thought they were playing a prank and continued swimming. Later we saw around 35 swimming along the shore haha.

It was cool in the morning so I was stupidly lax about suncream and although I only went an hour before I started applying it, my face is red and really swollen, except where my sunglasses were, which has left me looking somewhat like a Thundercat. Unfortunately there was no shade so I think the lack of shelter made it a bit worse, but at least it'll fade!

look at the bird print next to my foot print :o

On the last night there was a sudden, large thunder storm that passed over us. Pretty scarey considering we were on a flat beach in a tent, after twenty minutes it had passed along and the sky above us was clear so we made a fire... it was really beautiful sitting under the stars, toasting marshmallows on the fire, seeing the sky around us lit up with great forks and clashes- felt rather mystical!

On the way home we went to the Naval Aviation Museum and saw lots of planes, blimps, space stuff and helicopters. I saw a bit of the moon, sat in some cockpits and stood in the Presidents helicopter (it was Pres. Nixon's/Fords, not the coolest presidents, but still a pretty swanky helicopter)

So overall it was a great little adventure!

As of Wednesday I'd officially completed my year as a USM student. Since then has been the mixture of
-relief that work is done
-frustration of packing, sorting things for third year abroad, making sure I'm organised etc
-stress of everything that comes with a year ending, let alone one abroad.

A friend took Anna and I shooting in the woods on Thursday, which was loud and not easy. I tried one shot and it blasted me backwards haha!

A lot of people have left or are leaving tomorrow, I've said many goodbyes in the past few years and I've fallen into the routine of sucking in all the emotion and just hugging someone as if I'll see them in a couple of months. Maybe it's the British in me not wishing to express any sort of feeling. It'll probably hit me at some point and I'll be a watery mess. But I am excited about my last year at Keele! But I have also started having nightmares about waitressing.

Looking forward: I don't return to England for a month and between then and now I am camping in Florida, going to Vegas, Los Angeles then finishing in New York... so a road of adventure.

Looking back: my year spent at Southern Miss has been beyond all my expectations. I've gained so much and changed in so many ways, I can't even begin to explain. In addition to learning a lot about myself and what I've been taught in classes, I've learnt a enormous amount about British culture and what it means to be Southern. Life in Mississippi has been great, interesting, weird... and I've gotten two different perspectives of college living on and off campus. I would strongly recommend studying abroad to anyone, it's the best opportunity I've ever had and something I will remember and talk about forever...

Some pictures of my favourite memories

This week concluded my last ever class at USM which felt pretty emotional plus it's all getting stressful with finals and sorting stuff out so I'm quite exhausted all round.

Since my last update I have
Gone to a 'Crawfish Jam' (or crayfish if you're calling it by its non-southern name). Not as good as a crawfish boil where you pay a selected amount and eat as much as you like, but there was a fun cover band playing.

I went to a car show which was a bit rubbish but American. It was basically just a load of cars parked in a car park with their engines on show. Some were rather nice vintage automobiles, others were regular Honda's with flames painted on them...

 ....speaking of cars, someone entrusted me enough to drive (first time ever) around their car park. I was actually pretty good if I do say so myself.

Anna, Tanja and I went round an American friends house where we played with kittens and ate Southern food- beans, gumbo, cornbread mmmmm

AND

My brother Joe and his gf Anna came visited me yesterday! It was really nice seeing them, I showed them round campus, downtown and Walmart (ha). We went in some strange doll shop that was creepy beyond belief and laughed at the odd . They've spent 2 weeks in the states and spend there last day here. Like me, they're both found people don't understand what they say easily, but then a lot of it is down to using British phrases such as "where abouts is this?"


So this week is my last week as a student at Southern Miss, although I don't have to technically enter a classroom here again (just essays to submit electronically) I've started taking books back (or leaving them in the library if the bookstore won't buy them back... I don't want to throw them out haha) it feels like I've been here for a long time but at the same time, it's gone by very quickly!

I'll probably do a summative post of everything later this week. Beyond the end of the semester and my return to England I have camping, Nevada, L.A and NYC to look forward to :D