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.