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

Trip

Back from the trip this weekend, it was so fun! Had an amazing time.

We stopped off at the B.B King Museum on the way to lunch, which was a pretty emotional place. As a bit of a music nerd, I loved it but I think anyone would appreciate the place, it documents more than just B. B King's rise and influence but the connecting events that have had an impact on life for African Americans and overall was a great reflection of how society has progressed in one persons life.

I ate so much real Southern food. I had fried green tomatoes, alligator, elk, catfish and Mississippi Mud Cake (not all together). Alligator didn't taste of anything much, but then it was deep fried, it had a rubbery consistency and a generic white meat flavour. MS Mud Cake, which I ate at the Ground Zero Blue's Club, was possibly the best dessert I have eaten in my life, and I am not exaggerating. My roommate Sybs got their Fried Brownie slices and said they were equally great. Considering she's French, from a land of fine food, praise from her really is a stamp of approval.

We hung out at Ground Zero Blue's Club, in Clarksdale, also known as Morgan Freeman's club. It was a really awesome place, the band were amazing and as mentioned above, the food was brilliant. The customers over the years have been let loose with marker pens and there's all kinds of graffiti and names tagged across the walls and tables (and unlike scribbles that would be in anywhere in England, they were all clean, fun comments) The co-owner came up and wished us a good time which was really great! He said Trevor McDonald had been filming a documentary there a couple of months ago which I'll have to look out for when I'm back in the UK. He also told me I was a good dancer, which really, I think we can all interpret this as Morgan Freeman supporting my decision to take up a career as a dancer, right?

We stayed in old sharecropper houses.  Probably the most creepy, historic place I have ever gone to sleep- when we arrived we kinda decided how we were all going to be taken down if we were in a horror movie (very suitable location) but when we got back to them at night we were all so tired we collapsed before we had the chance to analyze the likelihood of local serial killers and had a rather fantastic night slumber.

 

And lastly we stopped off at the Delta. We sat and watched the river flow.

Overall I had an amazing weekend! Really has been amazing, I would recommend seeing anything of the above if you ever have the chance!

I have added photos from the trip to my MY FLICKR

blackout

Last weekend was the Blackout Game at the Rock, where everyone's meant to wear black clothes. We kinda looked like we were heading out to a rock stars funeral/goths.

This weekend we're going on a SCHOOL TRIP! Visiting the state a bit and staying in a sharecropper house, rather excited!
I told my Mum I was going to the crossroads where Robert Johnson traded his soul to the devil in exchange to play the blues and her genuine reaction was "Don't you go doing anything like that while you're there"
OK MOTHER, have a daughter who can only play one song on the guitar, IT'S YOUR CHOICE.

The past week I have
1. Gone to the game
2. Been to a party store (or rather the 'Ultimate Party Store') which puts any other fancy dress shop to shame
3. Had a test, it was True or False which seemed rather crazy but at the same time, it was pretty hard.
4. Noticed the Sushi on offer at the local stands- Cream Cheese, Fried Chicken. . .
5. Gone to a Cowboys & Indians party (I own too much plaid not to go to one)
6. Gone to another party.
7. Got sleep deprived.