Final Weekend

I can't believe that this was my final weekend. It's gone so quickly, but then feels like I've been here forever at the same time. I'm going to be sad to leave, but really excited to come home too.
The theme of the semester has been 'Go Big or Go Home' so this weekend we didn't stop!
After my first goodbye over coffee with some of the girls from church, I spent a couple of hours in the library doing my second to last (wohoo) essay.

When I say I'm at the library, this is what's really happening...

On Friday, the English girls went downtown for the annual Christmas parade. It was also First Friday, I think I've wrote about this before, all of the shops and galleries stay open late and give you free wine and cookies whilst shopping. It's always really good and probably the busiest downtown Knoxville gets each month.

Befriending Knox policemen

When we came back Michaela randomly turned up at mine with face mask stuff, so put them on whilst playing Christmas music (thanks mum for the cheesey CD!), Joanna joined in which was really nice, she loved it and hadn't heard of any of the Christmas classics, the only one she knew was Jingle Bells! 


Facemasks

On Saturday, me and Georgia did a spot of gift shopping on the strip, nobody get excited, it's mostly orange merchandise; big orange country and all. Then went for lunch at Jason's Deli seen as neither of us have any good food in trying to get rid of it all before the end of the semester. Then we joined a few of the other internationals and went to a party off campus. David and Alan who's party it was have had sooo many parties for the internationals and they always give us free booze, they're too good to us! It was a really fun one though because it was Christmas fancy dress. I went in a Christmas tree t-shirt and stuck a gingerbread man to it. Needless to say, I looked special.


Alan, David, Jade & Gingerbread

Americans from my class at last week's Pirate Party

After a busy weekend, I had an essay to finish, so I got back from handing that in and Lauren was holding tea party for her rugby friends in our halls. Then, Shannon and Michaela made dinner and we had our secret santa swap. I got a placemat with all of the Presidents on and a 'Tennessee girl' window sticker, I think I was the winner!


The Knoxville Tea Party

I've only got one small essay left and classes are all finished now, so I'm just enjoying my last few days here before heading back to Eng-er-land in FIVE days!

Thanksgiving in Nashville

Happy Thanksgiving Day 2012

Wednesday
After a day of classes, Kelsey picked up me and Annabelle in her little beetle and we headed over to Nashville (about a 3 hour drive West) into central time zone. It was Kelsey's birthday last weekend so her mum, Melissa greeted us with pizza and birthday cake. We were also greeted by their two GIANT Corgis. I didn't even know corgis could get that big, but they were hyper and excited to see people from their homeland, so I spent the weekend conquering my fears with two dogs Maddie and Sophie who wouldn't leave me alone, think they could smell my fear! Me and Soph were best mates by Sunday...

Sophie, the world's largest Corgi

We went to the local $2 cinema with John, Kelsey's brother and his girlfriend Ashanti to see Looper. I hadn't heard of it before but it was a really good film.

Thursday
Happy Thanksgiving y'all! We convoyed with the family to Smithville where their great-aunt lived who was cooking us dinner. Kelsey had told us that they had a lot of money but I don't think me and Annabelle were quite prepared to arrive at a millionaires house with a swimming pool and gym in it. There were about 30 people round for dinner and there were still left overs so you can imagine how much food there was! Everyone was lovely and one of the uncles had been to Leeds before on business, small world!

Thanksgiving Dinner Home

Jade and Annabelle with Kelsey's parents and grandparents

Birthday, Murica Style

We also weren't prepared for the Delaney family tradition of toddling down the road for Thanksgiving dinner number 2 just a couple of hours later. We arrived at Kelsey's grandma & grandad, Carol and Tucker(!)'s house just down the road which of course had a swimming pool too. Carol had made a full dinner, which nobody could eat because we were still full, as well as not one, or two, but three Birthday cakes for Kelsey! So we had tea and cake by the pool whilst playing Trivial Pursuit and a cheeky game of Bingo. Ha it was one of those 'how did I end up here' moments, they seem to happen to me a lot recently ;)

Thanksgiving afternoon by the pool

Friday
It's bound to be a good day when it starts with Thanksgiving dinner leftovers for breakfast. The day after Thanksgiving is called 'Black Friday' and is like our boxing day; all the shops open at crazy o'clock and there are sales everywhere. We were too tired to get up, but still managed to grab some bargains from Urban Outfitters. Some things never change, still love a bargain more than ever!
We made our way to the main street, Broadway and somehow managed to spend nearly all day there just being excited and taking pictures of everything. It's a strip of cowboy boot shops, tat shops, cafes, restaurants and bars with live music, but it's got such a great atmosphere. I'd love to go back and have a night out there...when I'm old enough! The only other thing we had time to do Downtown was go to the Country Music Hall of Fame, we didn't go round the museum, just had an apple cider and did some people watching in there.

Big Boots Shop

 

Annabelle, Kelsey, Jade - Downtown Nashville

We then went to meet Kelsey's friend Jasmine, who I met in Manchester and her friend Walker who's dad is from York! Yet again, small world. They wanted to show us the Parthenon; some giant monument that's like something from Rome, it looks so random in the middle of Nashville. Then the best bit came when we drove to Gaylord (hehe) Opryland hotel to see their Christmas lights - check it out, it is beautiful! www.gaylordhotels.com/gaylord-opryland/index.html We stopped on our way back at an American Diner called Logan's.

Opryland Hotel

Nashville, Country music capital

Saturday
Guess what I had for breakfast? Thanksgiving leftovers, again! We drove out to East Nashville at lunch time and met Kelsey's friends, Hunter and Kara who go to Uni in New Orleans for a spot of boutique shopping and a coffee stop! It was really good to see the little neighbourhoods, rather than staying in the city centre all the time. Hunter and Kara are in a band, so we went back to theirs for pizza, a few beers and then went to watch them play at a gig. Not my cup of tea (punky time music) but it was a good laugh and we met up with some other people who go to UT in Knoxville. We finished the night in a good old American way...at Waffle House! So so good.

Hotdog Van!

Sunday
It only feels right to tell you what I had for my breakfast on the final day too. English muffins and English breakfast tea! Kelsey's mum had gone on a special mission to Aldi to buy them for me and Annabelle. We all headed over to Carol and Tucker's again for a 'back to school' dinner. On Thursday we'd somehow got talking about how we'd never made a Gingerbread House, so grandma only went and bought us the stuff to make one whilst she put the Christmas tree up! Christmas is coming...

Gingerbread House in working progress

Celebratory Milkshake for our Union Jack Gingerbread House

 So, I definitely must have gained about a stone this weekend, but I've had a great first Thanksgiving and hoping I get to experience it again someday.

Barn Dance & Dickson, TN

Another week's gone already?! 

I've got good friends with a girl from one of my classes, Lauren. She studied in Swansea last year (where Georgia & Phoebe go) with her friend Devin so I'd said we should all do something so that they can meet. So in a typical friendly Southern way, they invited us all to their house for dinner on Thursday and then to a barn dance! Lauren picked us up from our halls and drove us to their where they'd ordered in pizza and pumpking beer for us which was really great of them. We had a good laugh all sharing one thing in common - our love of Nando's!

Seasonal Drinks

After being fed (which was lovely) and watered with pumpkin beer (which was not so lovely) we drove about 20 minutes away, in our checked shirts and boots, to a random barn owned by one of their friends, where there were about 100 students and a live band. It was another one of those "I feel like I'm in a movie" moments. We were straight into it and once again the 'Muricans didn't disappoint with their sober dance moves. I even had to sit one of the dances out because the clapping got too intense and I was worried about re-breaking my wrist!

Phoebe, Jade, Devin, Lauren, Georgia and Annabelle

 We finished the night off with smores and hot chocolate around a bonfire!

British Barn Dancers

On Friday I nipped Downtown to sort my bank out, I love wandering around there, there's always some kind of festival or parade going on. They'd just finished putting up the Christmas tree and it looks great. It's the first mention of Christmas that I've heard so far, seen as there's so much other stuff going on, but I'm looking forward to going to some of the Christmas events over the next couple of weeks.

Christmas Tree, Downtown Knoxville

Then, before I knew it it was the weekend again and I was heading to Dickson, Tennessee with some friends from Church. We were heading to a retreat centre, but got to stop in Downtown Nashville for lunch. We ate at a place called Noshville, which amused be greatly. I had a really nice, relaxing weekend with some of the lovely people I've met from Church here and the place where we stayed was beautiful! The weather once again came up trumps for the weekend and we even got to sit outside to eat dinner in t-shirts on Sunday.

Bethany House, Dickson TN

There looked to be so much to do in Downtown Nashville so I would have been sad not to get to spend time there, but I'm heading back on Wednesday/Thursday to spend Thanksgiving there! :)
Speaking of Thanksgiving, I've just had my first dinner at the International house - we watched last years Macy's Day Parade which looks great and learned about the history of Thanksgiving from some old Knoxvillians. Lots more to look forward to this week!

Elections, Earthquakes and Exams

The title definitely sounds more exciting than it actually was!

First of all, today Knoxville had an earthquake, everyone who were in the halls felt it and the beds were shaking, but I was out at the football match and it certainly wasn't strong enought to be felt in a stadium of 80,000. Either way, today I survived my first American earthquake, even if I was totally oblivious.
Secondly, the election was this week! People really got into it around campus (of course, they love giving their opinions). As a non-voter it was quite funny to see how hyped-up people got about it, but I enjoyed listening to the debates and getting a slice of Obama cake and a Romney lolly - I've got to say, Obama won it for me on that part. There were 10 of us squeezed into the living room to watch the election show, all 4 hours of it. We managed to get chatting and missed the actual point where the votes went over 270! Haha but it left us with two happy Americans and one unhappy. It seemed that way all over campus the next day, even though Tennessee had a massive Romney majority.

Thirdly (is that even a word?), I've got so much work due in at the beginning of next week, as well as an exam, that I've been having to knuckle down. But, I'm still doing welll and even the test I thought I'd epically failed turned out to be ok. Everyone had complained that it covered things we hadn't learnt in much detail, so the lecturer felt bad and turned up to the next lesson with Dunkin Donuts for us all. Only in America.

All that being said, I've still managed to loads this weekend including going to a basketball game and a football match... I've changed!

The Basketball game on Friday night was the first of the season for the men's game, so Shannon (sports mad) talked me and Georgia into going early with her to get front row seats.

First in line for the UT vs Kennesaw State basketball game

There's only one other game whilst we're here so I went just in case we don't get another chance. We arrived mega early and got Shannon's top seats that were literally court side right behind the net, we even got filmed for some sports channel, thank God you don't get it at home!


Best seats in the house - Thompson-Boling Arena

It's similar to the football that there's a student section that is really lively and gets all the chants going. They also have cheerleaders and their own band (no wonder it costs so much to go to Uni in America, they spend a fortune on sports events!) so that's always fun to watch. Tennessee Vols were play Kennesaw State and we won, can't remember the score 60something - 50something.

Chatting to Smokey at the Basketball

Unlike the football game today where we lost against Missouri 51-48.


Jade, Annabelle, Michaela & Shannon at Neyland Stadium

Nervous as it goes to a next touch-down wins

It was so close and went to over time, was well intense but I was just shattered by that point and couldn't really care less who won! It was 25 degrees with the sun on us for 4 hours. Lovely, but I'd had enough by the extra time.


25 degree sunny day in November

Highlight of the day was the British accent once again working a treat and helping me to bag a picture with two of the cheerleaders! haha it had to be done. I've managed to get one with the cheerleaders, Smokey the mascot and a band member now... think I am a true VOL.

T - E - Double N - E - Double S - Double E - Tennessee!

Friday night with a Floridian grammy

An evening at Cracker Barrell with a grandma from Florida. That's how I spent my Friday night.
Michaela's 'grammy' Sandy and aunt Shelly came over to visit from Florida, so we all went out for a meal (along with her mum, Wendy and brother, Caleb) It was so nice and slightly crazy that they had travelled so far just so they could meet us before some of us leave at Christmas.


Grammy, Shelly & Wendy visiting from Florida

I think I wrote about Cracker Barrel in one of my previous blogs. It's a country restaurant where you can order anything, the menu is huuuuge and it takes a good 10 minutes to decide what to get, but all the food is great so don't think you can go wrong.


Cracker Barrel round 2

After we headed downtown where it was 'First Friday'. I think we've managed to make all of them since being here now; every first Friday of the month the art galleries, museums, cafes and shops stay open until midnight and they have street entertainers. It's a really nice atmosphere and I love seeing the local singers on the streets (this month there were fire throwers too!)

On Saturday morning, me and Annabelle got up early to go and make history at the homecoming parade by witnessing the slicing of the World's largest moonpie, with the added bonus of getting a slice too (Moonpie is kind of like a wagon wheel - sooo good). I'm still not 100% sure what 'Homecoming' is, but I think the general idea is that alumni come back to the University and they try to relive their college days. This included ex-cheerleaders and ex-band members leading the current ones in a parade, it was really great to see, I love that they do that here. I think it's something really good that English Universities are missing out on.

World's largest moonpie from Chattanooga bakery

The rest of the weekend was pretty quiet, because everybody has essays and mid-terms this week and next. It was nice to just chill out on Sunday and catch up with people from home. I got to Skype Luke and Catherine in Manchester and I spoke to Rosie too. Not sure if it's because it's been quiet, or because I'm starting to make plans for when I'm back, or because I'm a little bit jealous of everyone celebrating Bonfire night ... but I've missed home this weekend.

Skyping Luke and Lizzie!

Still loving it here and I'll be sad to leave, but I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone again too!

Tomorrow is election day so sure it will be crazy around campus!
I also spoke to Kelsey today, a girl from one of my lectures. She invited me and Annabelle to hers for Thanksgiving a couple of weeks ago (which I really wanted to go to) but then we haven't spoke about it since so I wasn't sure if it was going to happen. But, she said she's told her family we're coming now and they're busy planning stuff for us! So ... I'm going to Nashville for Thanksgiving! Wohooo! Really looking forward to that in 2 and a bit weeks.

Halloween

After 40 trick or treaters in our halls (some kids from a local school on a trip), me and Annabelle, dressed as a cat and a skeleton went to the International house for a chilli dinner and halloween disco. You would not have believed some of the dance moves that were being thrown to say it was a sober event! It's always a good laugh in there, putting people from over 30 different countries together in one room is guaranteed banter. We didn't stay for too long but managed to eat some chilli and tacos, as well as winning a bag of free 'candy'. One of the women who works in the I-House was there with her husband and little boy, Leo dressed as Simba. Cutest thing ever.

I-House friends Nami and baby Leo

We headed back to halls and 'pre-gamed' (American for pre-drinks) whilst the others got ready to go out. Between us there was a cat, a bunny, spiderwoman, a witch, 2 skeletons and Cleopatra! I would love to say "only in America" but I know that's not true.

Cleopatra comin' at ya

Team GB do Halloween, America style!

The Brits finally got to introduce the American's to some of our Uni drinking games which turned out to be hilarious, and for once I think it was them thinking that we were mad, instead of the other way around!

Obama came to Knoxville for Halloween

 We went out on the Strip and it was crazy. Everyone was dressed up, mostly not scary though, apparently you just dress up as anything on halloween which brought lots of amusement as we met Barack Obama, Big Momma, Napolean Dynamite, a hot dog and many many more. They made our random bunch seem pretty tame.

Big Momma!

10 Weeks, 22 states & countless new foods

I decided to play a little game (with myself) whilst I'm here, to see how many different States I meet people from. So, here's my 10 week update. So far I've met people from 22 of the 50 states. The odds are against me to complete all 50 in my remaining time here, but I'm still on the lookout!

 

1)      Alabama – Kady, Catholic chaplaincy

2)      Alaska

3)      Arizona

4)      Arkansas

5)      California – Sr. Marija Joseph (who’d have thought a nun would be the Cali representative!)

6)      Colorado

7)      Connecticut – Vanessa, Connecticut retreat

8)      Delaware – Caroline, Connecticut retreat

9)      Florida – Michaela, next door

10)   Georgia

11)   Hawaii – Jocelyn, lives on same floor

12)   Idaho

13)   Illinois – Andrea, Catholic chaplaincy

14)   Indiana – Nate, Raven’s friend

15)   Iowa

16)   Kansas

17)   Kentucky

18)   Louisiana – Mallory, Catholic chaplaincy

19)   Maine

20)   Maryland – Natalie, Connecticut retreat (from Baltimore!)

21)   Massachusetts – Ben, guitar player & singer

22)   Michigan

23)   Minnesota – Dr. Mark Hulsether, Contemporary Political Theologies lecturer

24)   Mississippi

25)   Missouri

26)   Montana – Cody, Philosophy class

27)   Nebraska – Anne, Dan & Elizabeth; my American family!

28)   Nevada

29)   New Hampshire

30)   New Jersey – Tyrin, RE class

31)   New Mexico

32)   New York – Yris, Connecticut retreat

33)   North Carolina

34)   North Dakota

35)   Ohio – Sierra, flatmate

36)   Oklahoma

37)   Oregon

38)   Pennsylvania

39)   Rhode Island

40)   South Carolina – Virginia, Connecticut retreat

41)   South Dakota – Leah, Connecticut retreat

42)   Tennessee – everyone else I’ve met!

43)   Texas – Nate, David’s birthday party

44)   Utah

45)   Vermont

46)   Virginia

47)   Washington – Sophie, lives on same floor

48)   West Virginia

49)   Wisconsin

50)   Wyoming

As well as this, I've now travelled to/through 9 different states: New York, Tennessee, Georgia, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, Maryland, Connecticut.

I've also been keeping a track of new foods that I've eaten here..
My all time favourite is hashbrown casserole (in the process of learning how to make it so I can have it at home!) Other contenders are Corndogs, hush puppies, jalapeno poppers, grits, ranch, smores and candy corn.

There's so many sayings and different words they use for everyday things.
One that tickles me every time is when you ask someone the time, they don't say 'one o'clock' or 'half one' they say the top or bottom of the hour.. also, they like to be very specific and don't round up or down, so you get a precise 7.14 or 8.22 which sounds funny to me.

Sporty Spice

A quiet weekend in Knoxville has turned out to be pretty chaotic!

Two of the American guys who we met in the first week had a party on Friday night, they live in THE biggest house I've ever been in. It's like a mansion split up into 10 apartments, but because they're friends with the people in all the other apartments, they opened it all up and you could go in any of the mini parties, it was so good and once again ... the girls drink free rule was in place, a solo cup with unlimited beer from the keg or punch, WINNER!

On Saturday morning I went on a mini road trip with Michaela and some of her friends to watch the University of Tennessee women's rugby team play against Alabama. Lauren made her debut appearance and was really embarassed at us on the sideline with union jack flags and homemade banners haha - After we stopped at Cracker Barrell; a traditional Southern style cafe where they serve THE best breakfasts, I was feeling adventurous so I went for some Tennessee foods; biscuits(scones), grits, scrambled eggs and hash brown casserole. Soooooo good.


Cracker Barrell Breakfast




Jade and Phoebe's big orange day out

It's another big orange weekend on UT Campus.As soon as we got back it was time for the 'Vol walk' where all the football players parade through the campus, we always find it really funny because people treat them like celebrities and we're clueless as to who's who! But they have loads of tents up all over campus where you can get souveneir photo posters printed and free tshirts, so I always enjoy wandering around there. We even got to meet Smokey, the team mascot!


Brits meet Smokey

After a hectic day we finally headed to the Neyland Stadium where floods of orange poured in for a 7pm kick-off against Alabama. The atmosphere is always great in there, it fits 100,000 people and there weren't many spare seats. Sitting in the student section is great as there's songs, chants and general jokes right through, even though everyone was convinced that we'd lose (they were right) seen as Alabama are the best in the league we're in (SEC - South Eastern Conference).

 

Atmospheric sky over Neyland Stadium

Embracing the VOLunteer Spirit - UT vs. Alabama

I'd been really looking forward to this game because they're big rivals and seen as Tennessee know they are likely to lose against them, they compete in a different way - with their marching band!
The Pride of the Southland do a circle drill and apparently it's on of the most risky moves they can do. People had told us it was impressive, but I didn't realise just quite how good it was going to be (you can hear Georgia's commentary on the video at just how amazed we were by it).

 

Despite losing epically, it was a great day. I still don't understand the rules of American football, just know there's a lot of stopping and starting that means it lasts for about 3 hours. My favourite parts are watching the cheerleaders, the band and singing 'Rocky Top' a hundred times.

Jade, Georgia and Phoebe at Tennessee vs. Alabama game

 

We're still meeting plenty of Americans who love Britain, despite knowing nothing about it. Funny quote of the day goes to Cody, a guy from one of my classes who we were sat with at the football. Georgia and Phoebe told him they are from England but study in Wales, he was shocked that they were two different countries and asked if they speak English too or Waleish. Classic.

Washington D.C. & Connecticut

Happy Fall break!

It seems like I had no sooner made plans for this and it was already here.. 2 whole days off Uni (wohoo) so I obviously had to extend it by and extra 2 plus the weekend which made 6 days off!

The Sun rising over D.C.

I set off on the overnight Megabus from Knoxville to Washington D.C. on Wednesday night with my roommate Joanna and there were 3 of the other International girls going there too - 2 from Finland and one from Spain, so we managed to attract alot of attention on the bus with a funny array of accents. It was mostly University of Tennessee students going there, so the bus was fine and I managed to sleep most of the way (of course I did), it had a short stop in Christiansburg, Virgina so I was more than happy to have another state ticked off. Arriving into DC at 8am meant that even though I was only there for a day I got plenty of time to see things. We headed to Capitol hill which is only a few blocks away and managed to get some good  pictures before it got busy.

State Capitol

D.C. was really nice, loads of big fancy buildings and lots going on. I expected it to be like New York, but it was really different, probably more like London. We spent most of the day wandering round, in and out of museums, shops (we found H&M!!), cafes and tat shops. I just enjoyed exploring and playing tourist for the day. I think we made it to most of the main attractions, including the Washington Monument, The Supreme Court, The World War II Memorial and of course The White House - not bad for a days work!

The White House

Stopping for a cuppa with Barack

Washington Monument

We walked past the World War II memorial and there were loads of people gathered and were clapping for this little old man, thanking him for his service (so American). He was a Veteran, there with his family and it was his dream to visit the monument before he died, so they'd drove all the way from Wyoming. It was so sweet, but it made what would otherwise be just another statue seem very real. I felt like a bit of an intruder, it was a strange one to stumble on!

Big American Basilica, D.C.

After a busy day we dodged the many homeless on the streets to get back to Georgetown where Joanna's sister Elenor lives. We were so tired so got a McDonald's and a pretty early night ready for the next days adventures. I had to be back at Union station for 10am to catch my train to Connecticut and I was wondering if it would be worth all the travelling ... it so was! On a 4 hour train journey I went through Pennsylvania (Philadelphia!), Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York to get to Connecticut so there was lots to keep me going. I was enjoying just looking out of the window all the way and noticing how different things seemed to the South, although I did miss the Southern hospitality and really noticed the difference between people's friendliness with a lack of conversation on the public transport, this would be unheard of in the great friendly state of Tennessee!

Philadelphia - I'd love to go here some day!

I finally arrived at Stamford, Connecticut and my friend Melissa was there with a few of the other girls to pick me up, we drove about 20 minutes away to this beautiful 'villa' - it was definitely a mansion(!) where the retreat was and once again, my accent worked a treat. Everyone was really nice and it was so funny realising how much of a small world it is as we worked out who knows who, mostly friends who I've met through going to Youth2000 in Walsingham. It was so good to be able to meet people from all over the North and I found out about loads of stuff going on that I'm sure I'll look into getting involved with some other time. I've been playing my 'meet someone from every state' game and I was happy to tick off a Miss Delaware, Miss Maryland, Miss New York and even a Miss California, who believe it or not is a nun!

'Villa' Maria Guadalupe, Stamford CT

Retreat in Stamford Connecticut

I had a great time and it felt like I'd been away for ages which made the travelling worth it, Sunday afternoon/evening meant that I just had the epic journey to repeat to get back 'home'.

Passing through/visiting 9 states in 5 days is admittedly quite impressive and slightly crazy. I don't think I could have squeezed much more into my fall break if I'd have tried. This is probably the most travelling I'm going to be able to do whilst I'm in the States, so I'm really glad I went for it now.

Here's to the half way point of my adventure!