BOOMSDAY

Saturday night turned out to be great, we went to the strip for a drink, met some people we knew from the I-House and ended up with an invite to a party with a 'girls drink free' and 'internationals drink free' policy, so we were sorted! 

Joanna (the Chinese girl who I live with) had her sister visiting from Washington DC for the weekend so I had lunch with them on Sunday which was lovely and then headed to the Tennessee River (just off campus) for Boomsday celebrations. It's an annual street festival to celebrate Labor day and it has the biggest firework display for Labor day in the nation, impressive.

It was packed with locals, food tents and musicians ... we got to see some pretty famous country singers (but didn't know who they were!) they were really good and I'm loving the country music!! We're trying to plan a trip to Nashville shortly - the home of country music.

Boomsday 2012, Tennessee River

We were there for about 3 hours just chilling, eating and people watching then they set off the fireworks from the bridge and they were AMAZING. Never seen anything like it. Then .... Hurricane Isaac arrived, right in the middle of the firework display, the timing couldn't have been any worse/better and everyone was absolutely soaked. It rained for about 15 minutes and the puddles came half way up way past your ankle, it was crazy and everyone was running around like it was the end of the world!! We just went with it - nothing we could do and had a right laugh.

Before the Storm

After the Storm

These are who I went to Boomsday with; David the American, Phoebe and Georgia from Brighton/Swansea University and Annabelle.

I've been trying to see if anyone recorded the storm because I can't explain how crazy it was!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2emQL39ARo

I've not actually done much for Labor Day, I was planning on having a day round the pool but it's cloudy and a bit rainy today and I think we're forecast more storms for the week ahead. I did get to go for lunch at the Chaplaincy though which was nice, I've met some lovely people there and planning on going on a Kayaking weekend with them at the end of the month ... watch this space! 

I was a bit disappointed that I hadn't planned to travel somewhere this weekend seen as we had an extra day off, but it's turned out to be really fun and I'm glad I didn't leave Knoxville now. Back to work! Everyone's counting down the days now to the big football match and parties on Saturday.