We Speak No Americano

Saturday 22nd December 2012 - 01.14am

Good evening, or good morning depending on which time zone you are currently residing in. I am speaking to you from a luxurious double bed adorned with bamboo, in a beautiful open plan L.A. beach house whilst sipping white wine and being full of chocolate fudge ice-cream. Your life sucks, right? This is going to be a blog post to remember as over the last week a multitude of adventure has been had, so bare with me kids.

Previously on wallace's blog...

BG was left
Planes were caught
Sleep was had
Sentimental feelings surfaced
I manned the fuck up
We landed safely in L.A.X Airport.

With high hopes and Rachel Stevens' ancient song 'LAX' embedded in my frontal lobe we wondered down to baggage claim, surveillanceing the crowd for a tour guide with our names inscribed on a piece of paper. No such luck. Consequently a phone call was made - three telephone numbers and 45 minutes later we were finally seated in a shuttle containing a questionable orange peel in the right hand passenger door. KOing at around 6pm meant an early and long night for us sleeping beauties in order for us to rise and shine for our excursion to Las Vegas. The journey there was pretty straight forward with little to report except toilet stops and the occasional nap. That is until we arrived in VIVAAAAAA LAS VEGAS.

Since Mitch had already visited upper class Blackpool this year, we opted out of the $25 tour and painted the town red on our own. A cab ride into Downtown Las Vegas from our hotel, Stratosphere AKA the tallest point in Las Vegas, began my mindless gawking all the way to the Bellagio. We entered and BANG Christmas. Piano's, snow. polar bears, trees, the works. After some questionable posing amidst artificial snow and greenery we exited the crowded hotel to a similarly crowded street leading to the strip. I will admit I was confused at to what the kerfuffle was about until Sinatra's 'Luck Be A Lady' began bellowing from the pond in unison with bursts of water. I had a nice video but we'll get to that.

My mother wont be surprised when I reveal that Las Vegas was my favourite city so far as I am a massive pike at heart and as I said, Vegas is nothing more than an Upper Class Blackpool. Speaking of which it has a fake tower. (See Above) For those of you that reside under a rock with me, Vegas is made up of one strip consisting of various locations themed to be cities: Paris, New York, Rome, Venice. Old Vegas, the outskirts, is littered with pretty little chapels and drunks as its legal to drink on the street in Vegas. And smoke in casinos. Mitch informs me casinos employ psychologists to determin methods to maintain or increase custom such as interior decoration, waitresses bringing drinks and the layout of the building itself. On our travels between shops and casinos we happened to accidentally purchase tower shaped jugs. Full of slushies. With alcohol in them. And another shot for $1. This ended brilliantly for us making the drive to the Grand Canyon the following morning easier as we had the hangover sleeps.

So it's common knowledge that the Grand Canyon is situated in Arizona. Twilight educated me on Arizona climate, it said it was hot. Mitch concurred with this perception. Note the word perception.

Yep, that's snowfall on the ground and the foliage and just generally everywhere. And precipitation of water vapour. When we reached our destination, after 5 and a half hours travelling, temperate disenchantment set in until we rejected sorrow for positivity. Concluding we were superior as many people haven't see then Grand Canyon snowy and covered in fog but instead they are used to it looking a little something like the google generated image below. Every cloud has a silver lining and this lining was an excuse to return.

Back to Vegas for an evening then L.A. bound once again. Very little to report in the way of Vegas antics as unless you are a secret gambling addict or a millionaire there is little to do but get shitfaced and walk the isle with a stranger - something I wasn't keen on exploiting with the company I was keeping so in true Liz and Mitch fashion we navigated the streets to look for a light show and returned to the top of our hotel for an overpriced bevvy in the Sky Bar.

With Vegas done and dusted we set sail for LA once more. In order to divide the 4 hours travelling we came to a standstill at the M'n'M shop, adjacent to a chocolate factory that did not manufacture M’n’M’s. Having visiting an M’n’M shop in Vegas I was beginning to get sick to my back teeth of fucking M’n’M’s. Say M'n'M's, it doesn't even sound like a word any more. What did I care, they distributed free chocolate and there was a cactus garden outside. Shrubbery and dairy compliment one another, who knew? On arrival to LA we partied hard in the land of nodd, like last time but this time instead of being Vegas heading we were en route to San Francisco the subsequent day. We boarded the tour bus and I realised I had left my DSLR on another bus and so exited again. After running around hapharzardly for a few minutes I came to the conclusion the tour guides could not be less interested or less helpful. We then got abusively carted onto another bus, thrown out of our seats and then assigned new ones. We resolved to formulate a stern-worded letter. Then a man adorned in a yellow sea gull tours jacket boarded our coach equipped with no English but 'my dear friends'. This strengthened our resolve. Though the distance between San Fran and the City of Angeles is a little too far to combat in one day we had a lovely little day out. First stop, Solvang which is synonymous with mini Denmark where Mitch and I found some tasty cheeses and a nice little cake shop.

Mmm Danish pastry. On the other hand we tried devilishly hard not to spoil our lunch that we would eat on the Californian beach. In true to English tradition we ate pre-packed cheese and ham cobs on the beach whilst vigilantly defending our nutrients from an overly keen seagull. The rest of the tour group visited Hearst Castle, one of very few castles in American culture due to its well lack of culture. The castle was constructed for William Randolph Hearst. I can't tell you a lot about it a part from it has palm trees, mosaics and a pool. The geezer owns a zoo so there was some stripey oss's in the surrounding fields and his son got kicked out of Harvard for trying to sell his tutor weed. 

Early start, surprise surprise but off to Stanford University. It is situated in the middle of Stanford which is a huge as university town, pretty certain we entered it 10 minutes previous to the drive of the university. While we did ascend the town we were told a bit of  a back story regarding the establishment. The full name of the uni is Leland Stanford Junior University in memory of Leland Stanford's son who died of typhoid two months before his 16th. His parents were so distraught by this tragedy that they founded their own private research university in attempt to fill the void. It is the second largest campus in the US after Ohio State, Ohio represent. Stanford also proved to be a hotspot for athletics as Olypic medals have been won by Stanford athletes annually since 1912 including 129/244 gold medals. They excelled every other univeristy in 2008 at Bejing. 

Onwards to San Francisco, the city in which That's So Raven was filmed, home of Alcatraz, the Golden Gate bridge and shitty clam chowder. Many said the Gold Gate should not be built, however interesting fact - it is constantly being painted by two men. Once completed, it is about time to start repainting the other side. While photographing the monstrosity that is the Golden Gate we spotted Alcatraz, let me re-enact it for you.


Mitch: "Is that Alcatraz? It is now" *takes photo*. I died of laughs. 

We decided to explore the coast and Alcatraz via my favourite method of transport - boat. I just love boats. Mitch just attached an unecessary Freudian association to boats - everything's been tainted. Initially we approached the bridge to allow our Chinese population to get a better scope with their fancy flash photography. Since my camera had gone AWOL I was content posing and watching the seagulls and pelicans follow the boat and intermittently landing in the foam. We circled Alcatraz, a solitary island where notorious criminals were banished and is the most likely source of inspiration for J.K.Rowling's Azkaban home of fictional villain Sirius Black. Alcatraz houses more evil villains such as Machine Gun Kelly and Al Capone. During its 29 years of operation, the penitentiary claimed that no prisoner successfully escaped. A total of 36 prisoners made 14 escape attempts, two men trying twice; 23 were caught, six were shot and killed during their escape, two drowned, and five are listed as "missing and presumed drowned". September 1961 Morris, West, and the Anglin brothers were planning an escape attempt, which they carried out on the night of June 11, 1962. They fabricated dummy heads from a mixture of soap, toilet paper and real hair, and left them in their beds to fool prison officers making night-time inspections.They escaped from their cells by crawling through holes in the cell walls which they had dug with spoons over a year's time. This put them into an unused service corridor. West could not make it out of his cell and was left behind.From the service corridor they climbed a ventilation shaft to reach the roof.

The trio then climbed down from the rooftop, scaled the prison's fence and assembled a raft from the prison's standard-issue raincoats and contact cement. They pumped up the raft on the northeastern coast of the island. At around 10 p.m. they climbed aboard, shoved off, and started paddling. To prevent freezing to death a car and clean clothes would have been required to get away alive yet no thefts were reported. Food for thought.

Later that day we visited Lombard Street, the twisty and turniest street like ever. Mitch told me an advert launched ping pong balls down it for laughs, but I'm sceptical. Once all the structured activity was complete we did what we did best and went shopping. We made a compelling observation that San Francisco's ghetto is rather central to the city whereas in most cases you find the ghetto on the outskirts.

The venture back to L.A. was divided with a visit to Yosemite National Park. This was a beautiful beautiful location that I would love to see the contrast between by visiting in the summer. There isn't much to say about it besides its an absolutely stunning view that cameras don't do justice. Well, I could probably google it but I'm kind of tired of regurgitating information now. 

You, as a devoted reader, will be glad to know. That concluded our week scaling the West Coast but not our time in California.

Falcon's Finally Fly The Nest

Saturday 15th December 2012 - 6.19am

So, I’m chilling at Gate D16 of Frontier Airlines in Detroit Airport, Michigan. Not been sat down ten minutes and I’ve resorted to drafting a blog post in Microsoft Word. I have deduced my tedium stems from the fact I’m currently migrating to Los Angeles and I am irrepressibly ecstatic. Seeing as I have just over an hour to kill, I figured catching up on the last month of BG may be a resourceful use of my time.

Friday evening, two weekends previous to now, a few treasured members of Kreischer Ashley and their honorary guests (myself and Mere) encumbered ourselves into two motor vehicles and embarked on an expedition to Columbus, Ohio. Why Columbus I hear you cry? Cause dat shit has Christmas lights. Chelsea summoned us all to her humble abode in order to get a good look at these sparkly bastards and we for one modestly obliged. We arrived Friday night and elected to spend it celebrating our British vices. I’ll leave the interpretation of that to viewer discretion but let’s just say it had some questionable consequences. The subsequent morning gave light to some stimulating epiphanies and several offensive tummy aches. Even so, the warriors that we are, we invaded and explored Columbus mall. I for one indulged a little too much but that’s neither here nor there. Mitch consoled his tummy ache in the car with the window cracked – no treats for him.

I lost my camera so my trusty-friend google helped out. Columbus Kinda looked like this.

Evening approached meaning it was time to face the 2 hour traffic. Mere and I entertained ourselves by desecrating her car decorations and playing piggy in the middle with them, the piggy being the car roof. The divide in cars caused a rather awkward segregation resulting in the two of us being segregated from the remainder of the group however this didn’t prove too disappointing as some vagabond accosted us with an agreeable BOGOF coupon. We wondered aimlessly around the display with chipper little grins on our faces, that is, until we discovered the aquarium when we launched ourselves in its general direction. Retrospectively, this was favourable as we ran literally into the men of our dreams – Zach and Reed. Though nothing but a free meal actually came of it, we were pretty enthusiastic about it.

On our return to Chelsea’s brought me a new experience that I’m pretty sure I’m going to want to relive – making my first smores. Mmmm mmmm, who knew a melted chocolate, marshmellow and gram cracker sandwich would taste so delicious. And so, this concluded our penultimate weekend at BG. Time to depart home and essentially do a degree of work. Our final weekend in BG doesn’t bear thinking about so I’m going to lightly skim over it. In summary, Columbus was a test run and this weekend was British vice in full force. Again, reader discretion applicable. With the weekend over, the goodbyes began. Though we’d only been in BG for a semester and we had our own established friend group to return home to, the goodbyes were many and difficult but for the sake of my dignity I shan’t go into that as I disprove of public crying. With everyone else homestead, we were about the only ones remaining on Friday evening but not for long as 2am rolled round and so did our taxi to Detroit Airport.

Farewell BG.

So, here I am, coming to the end of my Study Abroad experience, running on approximately 20/120 hours sleep, wearing 2 pairs of leggings, 3 pairs of socks, a pair of Nike airs, a scarf, a vest , t-shirt, long-sleeve shirt, hoodie and a coat in order to save space in my luggage and I wouldn’t change it for the world.

The British Are Coming...To Thanksgiving feat, Boston

Thursday 6th December 2012 - 22.17

So it's the last week of classes meaning Winter Break is imminent and I've still not completed Thanksgiving's blog update. While I have some time on my hands (pahaha, who am I kidding, I'm ludicrously busy) I thought I'd fill in the gaps for the fans back home. Here goes nothing, Wednesday 21st December marked the start of Thanksgiving Break at BG and the British had a plan in store. Mitch got up at the crack of dawn to retrieve the hire car we would spend the following ten hours in. With all our baggage satisfying to trunk of the Chevvie and a majority of the back seat we embarked on our journey to Albany, New York. I’m going to level with you, I can’t really report on the voyage there as I was unconscious for drive across Ohio, the board cross to Pennsylvania and the following state line breach into New York. I did regain consciousness for the final stretch to Albany but even then very little antics can take place in an enclosed space when it is mandatory for your seatbelts to be fastened and you’re securely penned in by belongings.   

We arrived safely yet encapsulated in darkness at Seamus’ household just in time to gorge on some tasty home-made burgers and appreciate some refined banter about college campus and the like. Thanksgiving morning rolled round and I awoke, slightly disgusted at the fact I had once again passed the fuck out but this time fully clothed. Once I was showered and as presentable as the sore-thumb adorning fuchsia hair can be, we assembled alongside Seamus’ friends at the local park in preparation for Thanksgiving breakfast. The American youth, being the tradition rejecting rebels they are, have devised an additional practise to Thanksgiving entitled Friendsgiving. As I understand it is Thanksgiving dinner with friends that may or may not involve the inclusion of copious amount of alcohol. Though we did not partake in this event I think to assume Thanksgiving breakfast at Denny’s is a similar approach.

With our tummy’s reasonably satisfied we ventured back home for some festive fun in the form of Scattegories. I’m feeling real apathetic right now and my bed is just laughing at me temptingly so if you desperately need to know what this is – Google it as I do not have the energy.

After a bit more competitive rivalry and some trivial television it was time to start meeting the family. This was actually a really pleasant experience as Seamus’ family were exceedingly welcoming and by that I mean they fed me and called me Adele so I was content. As I’ve said I’m recapping what feels like a distant memory now thus cannot recall the exact menu nor did I pull my usual hi-jinks and photograph everything, but my good friend Google has once again come to my rescue.

Eventually family started returning to their own hospices and our food began to digest, it was time for the teenagers and old man Mitch to dominate the living room. Some not so light-hearted comedy was presented by my future husband Bo Burnham (this is not an advertising plug but go check him out, you will not regret).

Before we knew it, Friday morning was upon us. I was reluctant to wake up as I had discovered a new addiction to virtually running around slaying deer and wolves then muttering ‘Yama’ as I skinned them – yes, I mean playing Assassin’s Creed – which robbed me of valuable sleeping hours. Nevertheless, Mitch was not putting anything on hold for me so I had to get my shit together and prepare myself for the 3 hour drive to Boston. This time a point of interest arose during the car ride as we entered the densest patch of fog for a noteworthy period of time and if I’m really honest with you I thought the other side would be Narnia or the River Styx. Unfortunately this was also when we released that a majority of the hair dye on my head had transferred itself onto the headrest of the back seat.

As usual we arrived at our destination with very little idea of where our hotel was or where anything was really. We deduced parking up on the nearest car park for photographing opportunity was clearly the best idea. We paid for this mistake, to the tune of $13 for 30mins. Day light robbery if I do say so myself. Surveillancing the SatNav we learned we weren’t too far from Harvard University and so head towards the flashing little dot on the iPhone. With a Starbucks in hand, we were strolling along the street that is home to Harvard Law School when the sleep deprivation kicked in. In a very sophisticated manner we elected to point at Harvard Law School, one of the most prestigious universities worldwide, and imitate Borat’s ‘Eees Niiiiice’. Keele’s finest everyone. Our yobbish behaviour didn’t even there as Mitch encouraged me to climb statues for photo opportunity. Only in retrospect did I recognise this was probably wasn’t a wise move.

With the hotel located, prematurely stocked Christmas store visited and very picturesque setting captured on our DSLR’s, we determined our touristic plan submitting ourselves back into the heart of Boston to follow the ironic named Freedom Trail for the successive hours that followed. I’ve taken the liberty to include an interactive Freedom Trail below

CLICK FOR EXCITING STUFF

I would be more descriptive of what we were educated on during the saunter but much like 90% of American history it mainly consisted of “The British discovered America, then there was a war and we flipped them off in order to become an independent nation…” Trust me, when I can’t mask your accent being the only British on the tour gets awkward.

Seeing as we were in Boston, a city renounced for its fresh sea food, we nominated The Oyster House for dindins. After several minutes of standing in what we thought was a reception area waiting to be served, we realised reservations were a pre-requisite so we exited the establishment hungry with our heads hung in slight embarrassment. That is until we walked 10 foot down the street and entered the next moderately priced eatery. I had clam chowder, it was delectable. Having force fed Mitch some sustenance containing crustaceans, it was time for the train home and apparently some sleep after questionable conversations about sibilance and fricative sounds. If only we had recorded the tête-à-têtes we had that day, we’d be YouTube millionaires. We defined slap happy.

Our second and last day in Boston was a relaxing one. Having had SEPARATE baths the night before and an abundance of sleep we were energised for a day of playing on the beach and shopping. I haven’t concluded whether or not it is regrettable that we didn’t witness first hand brawling on Black Friday I have concluded that my fluffy dolly shoes from American Eagle were a steal at only $20. All shopped out and ready to go we set sail for Albany once again and with that another excursion came to a close. A tearful departure was had on Sunday morning but we all made it securely back to Bowling Green in one piece. Stain remover was bought and luggage was unloaded and that was the end of that.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Seamus’ parents for their hospitality over the weekend from providing us with someone to sleep to feeding us. You certainly made us feel really welcome the whole time we were in your company and I for one am incredibly grateful. You have a lovely home and a lovely set of children and I am proud to think you semi-adopted me. J

With that, it is time for bed. Check back in the next few days to see photographs uploading to this update and Columbus lights blog post is still to come. I also think it's worth mentioning that I can now go to Starbucks without muttering a word and get an tall eggnog latte with my name and a smiley face adjacent to it. Oops.

OMG LOOK >>>>> IT'S TAYLOR SWIFT

Friday 16th November 2012 - 5.44pm

Friday morning we all bailed our not-too-oversized luggage into Nessy's deceptively large trunk and set sail for Nashville Tennessee - Native home of the Byson and/or buffalo. Our arrival was celebrated in an unlicensed Italian restaurant then continued with some Four Loko's in our hotel room. If you are not familiar with this frightening substance, google it - you will not regret it, if you are quiver in fear.

Mere lacks knowledge of drivers side windows and how their descent causes gale force winds, enough to anchor a ship in the back seat, therefore Freya and I suffered from hyperthermia the whole 7 hour journey. This was only forgiven the following day when temperatures reached highs of 70 degrees. Mother Nature dictated this was an opportune day to visit Belle Meade. Belle Meade comes from the name beautiful meadow and the location lived up to its name. After an afternoon of exploring the ground we all resolved we wished to relocate to Tennessee. The landscapes were such brilliant colours and all the leaves and just wow. I sound so gay for scenery right now but the photos below do not do Nashville justice. Obviously as a pair of kids with DSLR's Mitch and I had a whale of a time.

A tour of the house photographed was included in our outing. The house belonged to the Jackson and Hardy family for a number of years during the 1800's until, as every tragic tale of a wealthy family ends, they became bankrupt on a colossal scale, had to sell the property in 1906 and eventually the government bought out their house, restored it and made a gross profit from it. The Harding's were a family of horse breeders who earned their keep by racing horses and gain profit from eventually selling stud horses. An interesting snippet our tour guide graced us with was the fact they were self efficient in the use of methane gas for lightening. I'll let you work that one one. Their most prized horse Iriquois had his hooves removed and made into inkwells that are on display in the family room. William Giles Hardy extended the family's sources of revenue by collecting payments at the toll road the house was built on.

Our tour took us through the house and certain rooms were displayed how they would have been in certain years - which I thought was a nice touch. This also allowed for us to learn progressive about the family past and the order in which the family deteriorated. Though this was not at an excessive rate (until the early 1900's) it was enlightening to see holly plants adorning the portrait frames of the deceased in remembrance of them at Christmas time. In one room we witnessed said native inhabitant (the byson) but rather than frollicing merrily in a field chasing its dinner, it has been subject to a session of taxidermy and mounting to a deep azure wall. The kitchen was entirely detached from the house which at first seemed plain retarded to me until we learnt it was to prevent fire. Then credit was given where credit was due.

 

We concluded our evening with a bit of Downtown Nashville exploration and some good ol' fashion English grub in a tucked away bar. I had a Yorkshire pudding in gravy with my fish and chips and I regret nothing.

Sunday's weather attempted to compete with Saturday but didn't quite make it. Nevertheless, it made wondering around The Hermitage pleasant. The Hermitage is the home of the United States 7th President and admirable general - Andrew Jackson. One of the characteristics of the tour I found especially commendable was the fact they introduced you to the good bad and ugly of Mr.President. Consequently, I consider him a remorseless biggot who indulged in slavery. Yet he really loved his wife and his people and form a good connection with his public - of all classes, except the black slaves. Though there are many pros and cons associated with this man - only thing he did that is indisputably admirable is pay off all national debt. Furthermore he is the only president in US history to do so. Well done Jackson, you go Jackson.

The latter part of our day was less successful as we travelled approximately two miles south to Ruby Falls - the largest in cave waterfall in America - with a brief stop at Cracker Barrel for some traditional southern cooking. We reached our destination at 7.40pm Eastern time, technically 40 minutes earlier than necessary to gain entry to the site, only to be greeted by a stern bald fellow persisting they were closed. The daunting moment when you realise that the attraction is 20 minutes from a time zone and its actually 8.40pm Central time. With a sulk on our faces and a compensatory Starbucks in hand we ventured back to the hotel room to feel sorry for ourselves on our own watch.

The 145 foot in-cave waterfall I did not get the pleasure of viewing, owh.

bits of life between Halloween and Tennessee

Friday 16th November 2012 - 4.48pm

Had my weekend played out the way I intended I would currently be on my way to Kentucky for a weekend of archery, hiking, mountain biking and such. Alas, the universe is a cruel place and the trip was unexpectedly cancelled. This does mean I can concentrate on my homework, a modern day euphemism meaning update my blog,  tweet about every insignificant moment of my life and reblog pictures from horror films and ponies on tumblr.


Just over a fortnight ago was Halloween and just previous to that was my last post. A considerable amount has happened since then. Firstly, my Modern Poetry class had a pizza-packed Halloween Party. We all dressed a character from the syllabus for which I claimed to be Emily Dickinson as so  I committed to the role and adorned a bargain wig and wore a float blouse. Success rate - low. Nevertheless, there was food and fun to be had by all.

Wednesday evening rolled round and with it the actual night of Halloween. I once again falsely posed as Dorothy, post-zombie apocalypse but this time I committed to the role and adorned a bargain wig twice in as many days.

For reasons that escape me I have developed an inexplicable obsession with mirrored photos?

Once the Hallow's Eve festivities had past, the next landmark event for us to look forward to was the election. As many of you may be aware, I worked with the Obama campaign to encourage local citizens (mainly college students) to use their vote as in Ohio especially every little counts. I say Ohio especially as Ohio is a swing state. For those of you who are not clued up on your American politics, I'll elaborate. (Only cause I can now that I've had it all explained to me.) Ohio as a state is an Independent state, due to the fact it is impossible to tell if the majority vote will fall on the Republican side or the Democratic side. Consequently, the state is awarded 18 out of a total of 538 electoral votes. Electoral votes are split across all 50 states and a candidate must obtain 270 electoral votes to secure Presidency. To put this into prespective - North and South Dakota (two separate states) are awarded 6 electoral votes between them. Though I am not an American, my last few months in Ohio were very informative in regards to both Romney and Obama's campaigns and frankly in my opinion - the right man won

2termz

Hall-OH MY GODD AAAAAAAAA -weekends.

Monday 29th October 2012 - 18.40pm

A week later and the spooky Halloween related antics are still in full force, this weekend we visited in infamous Halloweekends and indulged in a mid-week dress up with a excursion to downtown BG.

Wednesday night I was under the impression I would attend a happy little gathering at the Rec(reation) Centre dressed as a zombie taking part in Zumba, campfires and photos. Instead Meredith twisted my arm convincing me to don my slightly sexualised Ruby heels and 'party on down' - as the kids would say - in Bowling Green. Consequently, Mere and I visited Clazel in our pre and post zombie apocalypse Dorothy costumes and brought along Mitch as a trophy Toto.

With our first costume event over with, we eagerly awaited our trip to Halloweekends at Cedar Point, Sandusky. For the readers that are not familiar with Ohio (so probably most of you), it is home to Cedar Point - a renounced theme park that hold a month of scary activities and haunts during the lead up month to Halloween. Useless piece of trivia, it is also home to the second tallest coaster in the world. After a minor transportation hiccup, we arrived bundled up and excited for the days festivities at about 12pm meaning we had a further 12 hours in the park.

Being the thrill seeking teenagers we all are (excluding Old Man Mitch) we took great pleasure in scaring ourselves shitless on some violent coasters such as Marvick. There is a 95 degree drop with a twisted horseshoe roll followed by a 400 ft tunnel that carries a 70mph launch inside. This video such exhibit a vicarious experience of said feats: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GK3uDRc7JU
We also rode Raptor which was similar to Alton's Air and a few more standard rides. However, what we were really there for was the Haunted Houses and the Fright Zones - all of which we hit. The titles of some of these exhibits included, Chamber of Wax, The Infirmary, CornStalkers, Club Blood, Fear Faire, Cut Throat Cove, Eden Musee, CarnEvil and Blood on the Bayou. I'll leave most of these to your imagination but briefly recap some of the most frightening elements.

CornStalkers included not only the commonplace actors dressed in costumes with coin shakers to scare but also people dressed as corn, who jumped out of the corn maze you are lost in!!!!!!! This personally strained my vascular organ more than it was comfortable with. As I was playing the 'big man' and generally wasn't too alarmed, during Eden Musee I thought very little of the fact I had dropped behind from the group and was wondering around curiously observing the scenery when all of a sudden OH MY GODDDDDD WHATTTT GET AWAY FROM ME AHHHHH!!! Once one spook had caught on that I was a tiny little bit petrified they all played up to the fact and collectively bullied me. I will happily admit I soiled my pants.

Being the overly-excitable, mildly artistic, photography enthusiast I am, I would have been inclined to capture the entire day with more photographs but alas the winds were high and the temperature low thus my poor digits were unable to decipher movement let alone comprehend the buttons of a bulky camera.

Our trip had come to an end and it was time to be homeward bound which was all well and good as I needed 40 or so winks so we bundled up into Mere's car and set off for BGSU once more. Interestingly this is not where the commotion concluded, I was so exhausted from the escapades I slept almost the whole way home which included a stop at McDonald's, a stop at the petrol station, Mere's tyre popping, us crawling 12 miles with a popped tyre, the AAA man coming to fix it, the sheriff checking her credentials and waiting for 2 hours in some creeping unlit wooded area.

Nevertheless we eventually arrived in one piece in BGSU - the same can't be sad for the slashed tyre though. I would like to end on a mildly humorous note and some beautiful landscapes. So the weather has been rather temperamental recently with sunny highs of 75°F/23°C and chilly windy days requiring maximum layerage. Today I was informed this has something to do with the intense hurricane a.k.a. Hurricane Sandy that is approaching from the Pacific and has merged with some feisty cold Canadian winds. For someone who spends so much time on the internet I am obtusely isolated to anything new related. So if  I seem to drop off the face of the planet in the near future, I love you all but my mangled body is probably lying amongst the shattered remains of BG. On a lighter note, this is the beautiful scenery surrounding us in Bowling Green and a confirmation of why Autumn is certainly in the run in for my favourite season.

Credit: Mitch Allford Photography

So I woke up with a headache and swollen knuckles, am I home?

Sunday 21th October 2012 - 12.28pm

Last night we graced Toledo with our presence and visited Terror Town. For those of you that have superfluous time on your hands and explored the link I posted last night: props to you. For those of you who did not, let me summarise.

Terror Town is formulated by a series of 3 different 'haunts'. There are two houses to be walked through and finally the experience can but concluded by a occult challenge or 'The Asylum' to the tune of $13. However there is the slight possibility that if you escape the challenge undefeated you can are fully reimbursed. The houses themselves didn't exactly strike fear into my heart. In spite of several clowns, some blood and a couple of pigs, I can say I successful absconded the fear. Some cogent demonstrations during the exhibition included  an temperamental elevator ride enclosed with a sinisterly dressed man and a masked fiend equipped with a chainsaw. Periodically the artificially constructed ghouls jumped out at you but they weren't legally allowed to touch you.

I feel this video summaries the experience very well:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=HjSuK8nvn3o 

Somehow I acquired the number of an Irish mummy on the way round...that was intriguing. But all in all I wasn't very scared and so entered The Asylum feeling undefeatable. Round one, do something. This entailed us moving a tarantala from one plastic box to another - simple enough really. Round two, consume something. This entailed us EATING 3 FREAKING MADAGASCAN HISSING COCKROACHES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I took a stab at it, almost quite litereally by punching the box in order to kill them - cause I sure as hell did not want to eat that shit live. Needless to say I pussied out, but for those of you who are now judging me - please take a moment to watch the video below and re-evaluate life.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abHQmRJWSMk&feature=related

What do urine samples and Canadian beer have in common? The taste

Friday 12th October -
Well actually Saturday 20th October - 17.06

Initially I began this post on Friday 12th October, here we are on Friday 19th October adorned in a Hello Kitty onesie with all my homework complete taking a second crack at it. You  can see how wild my Friday nights are at BG. So, post is a little overdue in lue of the influx of midterms I have been subject to recently. None the less I can affirm with a solid 83 and 70 under my belt and few immanent assignments upcoming I can dedicate a bit of time to the good ol' blog/use it as a procrastination mechanism to delay doing laundry...

Me in front of Ambassadors Bridge

So last Wednesday (3rd October) marked the beginning of Fall Break, American equivalent to half term. They only get Wed-Sun away from school premisis yet still insist upon making the journey home so while everyone follied with family Mitch, Freya and I ventured to America Junior aka Canada. We were all pretty elated by this idea as we could legally drink, a privileged stripped from me soon than I wanted.

6 or 7 o'clock rolls round so Mitch and his glamorous assistance hop into our rental mobile and drive into the night, quite literally. Comical value as added to the journey by yours truly when we all mistook an extra sparkly power plant for Detroit skyline then proceeded to add insult to injury by presuming Detroit and Michigan were two individual states. The five hour drive to the hotel was only intersected by a brief stop at a Canadian petrol station cause surprise surprise Mitch needed a wee and a fleeting inquisition from the Canadian border.

Rise and shine the following morning after we all hit the hay and off to central Toronto for a relaxed bus tour. Arriving very tardy, almost missing the bus as the traffic on the intersection was much greater than anticipated - as was locating a parking space and apparently exiting the building. I also forgot my camera this day so we all resorted to capturing photos on our phones. Freya and I struggled some what with our poor quality cameras, curses HTC and Blackberry. Mitch however roamed around with his iPhone. Technological superior.

Toronto itself gave of a very up and coming feel as it was littered with evergreens and construction. Our tour began at the harbour where our tour guide informed us the name Ontario comes from the aboriginal words for beautiful sparkly lake - which appeared pretty accurate.

The tour was extremely informative and covered a vast stretch of the city. We ascended Church street, a street holding over 5 churches hence its entitlement. Our route took us past several hospitals, one being a children's hospital. We  later enlightened that the first patient at the hospital was a 7 year old infant who was highly intoxicated and screamed bloody murder when he has is contraband tobacco products confiscated from him. An adjacent hospital, Toronto General Hospital, was the location for the first insulin inoculation given to Leonard Thompson, a diabetic adolescent in 1922. As we progressed a little further into our tour we circled Casa Lomo, the only castle in Toronto. 

I took the liberty of including a short history, as I'm too apathetic to reword it.

"The History of Casa LomaSir Henry Pellatt, the dreamer behind Toronto's famous landmark, Casa Loma, was born in Kingston, Ontario on January 6, 1859 to British parents. By the age of 23 he became a full partner in his father's stock brokerage firm, and married Mary Dodgeson.
Even as a young man, Henry Pellatt embraced the spirit of the family motto "Devant Si Je Puis" - "Foremost if I can." When he met his bride-to-be, Sir Henry had already achieved local renown in 1879 for beating the U. S. amateur champion in the running of the mile. Travels in Europe gave him the love for fine art and architecture which would spur his vision of Casa Loma, his "house on the hill." This romantic side was uniquely juxtaposed by his other lifelong passion: his involvement with the military, specifically the Queen's Own Rifles.
Casa Loma took three years and $3.5 million to build. Sir Henry filled Casa Loma with artwork from Canada and around the world. Casa Loma stood as a monument to its creator - it surpassed any other private home in North America. With its soaring battlements and secret passageways, it paid homage to the castles and knights of days gone by.
Today, Casa Loma is one of Toronto's premier tourist attractions and is visited by tourists, year-round.An unabashed romantic, Sir Henry engaged the noted architect E.J. Lennox to help him realize a life-long dream - the creation of a "medieval" castle on the brow of a hill overlooking Toronto. Begun in 1911, it took 300 men nearly 3 years to complete and cost $3,500,000 at that time."

Day 2 was entertained with a boat tour by a fellow Brit, which was comforting to hear for the first time in 3 months. She informed us of all there is to know about the 14 islands across the lake from Toronto. For instance, there is a 15 year waiting list attached to the lease of ownership for the land, the lease is given out by the government therefore no-one on the islands actually owns the land, nor a car for that matter. There is a nature reserve, a private boat club and a nudest beach. Finally, there are bridges connecting all of the islands pictured above.

We completed our time in Toronto on a Ghost Tour of the city. It kind of lacked history and fear factor as it is only around 200 years old. Nevertheless, it was a very interesting tour, we burnt some calories and heard some mildly spooky stories such as the rebels cornering the political party: Family Compact and the stairwell giving way due to the weight causing the party to fall through the floor and end their journey on the hooks of the butchers below and an illiterate man who was hanged for someone elses crime.

Toronto is a fairly new city, only established on top of boggy marsh land in the 1800's. It was formerly known as the town of York, I believe this was something to do with the colonies. Evenso, it is thoroughly multi-cultural with its own China Town, Little Italy, Korea, Portugal, India and several others. An observation we made was that Toronto was a very naturally beautiful city as it was populated with trees and flowers and greenery which was very lovely and picturesque, especially as we visited in Fall and so got to experience landscapes such as this. However, we also noted that Toronto is stunning and colourful even in it's architecture. For instance, there is a bank in Toronto that was built with shards of 24 caret gold infused in the windows, which not only gives it a gorgeous shine, but makes it one of the most expensive buildings in the city.

Birdseye View of the Colourful City from the top of CN Tower

Saturday was spent soaked at Niagara falls. Once we had processed the crappy attractions surrounding one of the Great Natural Wonders of the World we rode the Maid in the Mist in stylish ponchos which was an experience to say the least. Drenched, we returned to our hotel to freshen up and prepare for the Ice Hockey match we thought we possessed tickets for. Turns out that was a lie and the game had been cancelled. And so we returned to Niagara for a night time view. They had employed multicoloured lights to brighten the falls at night, personally I found this tacky and was not half as impressed as I was during daylight hours.

Finally, Sunday was spent making the return trip to BG through New England. Though 5 hours in the passenger seat seems dull, it was actually spectacular. I wanted to include a photo but my camera just couldn't do it justice. And so concludes Fall Break.

Now for an update on life as it stands. Many of you are still under the impression I am coming home on 21th December 2012 however after careful revision, discussion with Mommy and a couple of urgent status on Facebook I decided to stay until 15th January 2013. I have included a map of my extra month in American with all the destinations I hope to visit. One is Disneyland - holy fuck.

Well I'm off to Terror Town tonight. I'll probably update you on that tomorrow. But for now here's the link for anyone who is interested: www.terrortown.com

Obama's Homecoming

Sunday 30th September 2012 - 10.34pm

Tonight sees the close of homecoming week and it has been a mighty fine week indeed. I'm still not overly certain what homecoming week is inspired by but it is a considerably big deal over here. Homecoming is usually celebrated with a 'dance' similar to a prom adorned with fancy dresses and dates in High School however it's far less flamboyant during University.

Monday evening kicked off the festivities with 'Falcon Fiesta' - a small and slightly ill attended garden party where some questionable poultry was distributed, souveniour photographs of students masquerading as football players in helmets were taken and to complete the outrageous selection of activity there was a 'bouncy house'. Katie and I willingly took advantage of most of these freebies. The following day we also raped the union of resource when we tie-dyed t-shirts in BGSU representative colours. The orange and brown stains marginally suggest the XL t-shirt has been used as a replacement for loo roll after a spicy curry but this is merely a technicality.

Wednesday was without a doubt the most inspiring day of homecoming yet surprisingly I did not take part in any pre-planned homecoming amusements. My friends and I rose from our much-appreciated beds at around 7am in order to arrive promptly at the Stroh Center for 8.30am where we had registered to volunteer to help get students and locals registered to vote in Wood County. Sounds pretty dull, right? Well you are most mistaken as in return we got to watch Barrack Obama present a speech to 5000 individuals made up of BGSU students and some of the general public. We circled the car park a few times pouncing on unsuspecting guests asking 'Are you registered to vote in Wood County' and intermittently chanting something about being 'FIRED UP AND READY TO GO' or 'GOBAMA'. Whilst persistently pestering people to complete forms I stumbled across a darling old man who was born in Wolverhampton (for those of you that don't know that is the town I live in). We exchanged pleasantaries and he generally just made my day. That is until Obama shared the most jovial anecdote - he sees a portrait of himself mounted on the wall of a house he is visiting and the parents of a 3 year old ask 'Who's that on the wall?', the boy retorts 'It's Barrack Obama!'. The family enquires ' What does Obama do?' and the boy responds 'He approves this message.' I died, no really I did. Obama was a really influential - but I guess that's the point of a politician. Nevertheless, I got me pretty psyched for election day which is in just over a month (Tuesday 6th November).
**more photographs can be found on my picture blog - http://s584.photobucket.com/albums/ss286/irbbyckz/ **

Thursday was a lot less enthralling but still included some desirable freebies. This time an precious build a bear that sports an 'I <3 BG' t-shirt. Wooster Street was closed off for an hour or two on Friday as the Homecoming Parade took place at around 4pm, I was meant to hold up a cute little animated octopus with Meredith but I was pre-occupied with a foul mood.

Tailgating was a totally new concept to me but it's one I'm now pretty partial to. Americans use the term 'pre-game' rather than 'pre-drink' but pre-football game this Saturday, we tailgated like crazy. This effectively means a series of organisations set up tents and display delectable looking food to entice you into pretending to express an interest in what they have to offer (aside from food) until you are satisfied with the amount you've digested. This week BGSU Falcons competed against Rhode Island's Rams. Competed isn't a very accurate term actually, smashed is far more representative as there is no competition in a 38-6 score. Nevertheless it was an insightful experience as I learnt a little more about the logistics of this folly. Accordingly, the ball is floored in the touchdown area, most often, by the quarterback and the running back is usually the player to cover the most ground with the ball in scoring a touchdown, which gives a team 6 points. Downs are the progress across the field to the touchdown area and the ball can be thrown through the scoring posts after a touchdown is accomplished and if the thrower is successful the team earn an additional 1 point. As if this new knowledge was not overwhelming enough, during the excitement a marry proposal between two cheerleaders too place. It was beautiful, I cried, needless to say she accepted his request.

Homecoming Week was concluded with an epic Cobra Starship concert, supported by 3O!3. The temptation to remove my bra and enthusiastically launch it at the delectable Nate Motte was almost overpowering however I misinformed Facebook as I subsequently rewarded my willpower with Burger King instead of McDonalds. With that eventful week recapped it's about time I began studying for Tuesday's mid-term.

Frats and Sororities 101

Sunday 23rd September 2012 - 9.25pm

So this last week was Rush Week at BG. Unless you were calamitous enough to endure Sorority Life on E4 about a year back (thank you Hannah, I hate you) then this indefinitely means little to you. The week is orientated around sororities and fraternaties which are exclusive groups of individuals who can live in separate accommodation, expediently a colossal house on campus, where they may hold events but usually just socialise with their 'fellow sisters'. These groups are sometimes refered to as Pan-Hellenic groups as they take their names from Ancient Greek e.g. Kappa Kappa Gamma or Alpha Fi. I'm lead to believe some names are unique to universities but some 'brands' of sorority/frat are nationwide and therefore more renounced. The individuals are hand-picked candidates who 'rush' during Rush Week. This is the week where any potential sojourner seeking acceptance into a sorority or a fraternity dedicate every waking second of their lives to becoming one of them. Girls are required to be pulchritudinous in every respect whilst boys are expected to suit up and impress.

From what I can make out there are two genres of sorority: a social one and a charitable one. Charitable sororities tend to approve most/all applicants in order to encourage as many girls as possible to be caring and considerate and help out in the society whereas the concept of event planning and consorting are pivotal to social sororities. Both require a payment for joining of around $400 which covers admissions costs and perhaps a t-shirt, I'm not sure.

I've heard several tales of partakers who have died during Rush Week as the leaders of these prestigious groups may request them to carry out dangerous activities - so much so the government have intervened and legislation has been passed to prevent re-occurrence. A contemporary requirement of Rush Week I have been informed make consist of voluntary work at Cedar Point, (Alton Towers equivalent).

There are rounds involved in rushing. I gathered that round one requires the applicant to select 10 different sororities and apply similarly to a UCAS form for university, this is called a pledge. They then spend time with the girls/boys who run and maintain the Pan-Hellenic groups and after some time to consider the leaders return the 'bids' and the applicant will have a number out of 10 indicating how successful they were and which sororities/frats would like them to return for round 2. Round 2 requires the applicant to pledge to up to 3 sororities of their choice, however if they are very dedicated to one option they can 'suicide' rush which means they are giving them all or nothing. They then finally return the bids for the last time and viola, you have yourself a sorority member. Or not....

Photo Blog

Saturday 22nd September 2012 - 10.11am

Some of you may well be aware that I'm fond of taking photography from a young age. I recently invested in a DSLR and I think it's the shit. I'm going to put out a little disclaimer now that just because I enjoy taking pictures and now have a half-way decent camera does not mean I think I'm the new *insert famous photographer here*, it just means I have a nice camera and a decent subject matter. So, I created a photo blog for you all to follow if you choose as I don't showcase all the photographs I take on this blog.

This is the link: http://s584.photobucket.com/profile/irbbyckz

I understand photobucket is moderately antediluvian but I am not massively internet capable and all of the other photo blogs required money or a comprehensive knowledge of layouts and HTML that I forgot about when MySpace was eliminated.

YOU WENT TO CLEVELAND BY YOURSELF ?!?!?!?!!?

Tuesday 18th September 2012 - 02.38am

Saturday morning approximately 7.15am, following a time-consuming, sleepless night at Clazel, holds my prompt arrival at the Greyhound Bus depo. To my surprise, the entrance is condoned off and the shelter appears empty but for a few miscellaneous  arachnids. Logically, I explore my surroundings and grab coffee, breakfast and pull up a pew outside the station. In this time, I am propositioned by a seedy looking African American man, accosted by a dumpster-diving bum and glared at malevolently by an old, toothless hag. All of this time carefully considering my weapon of choice, should one of my potential opponents attack: a skinny white chocolate latte purchased from the trusty gas station. This was a foreboding insight into my weekend to come.

My poor attempt at photograph. In my defence I was on a moving bus!

Before I tell you anything more I will express the naming of Family Guy's Cleveland was not a co-incidence as it is highly accurate regarding race and build of most of Cleveland's inhabitance. After a careless 2 hour drive, we arrive in Cleveland at around 10am. Time to explore - walking and observing my surroundings for nearly 3 hours I have seen the Arcade, a war memorial, the football stadium, Terminal Tower, the Flats and various other tall intimidating buildings. As check in is not until 4pm, I am still carrying a rucksack, a laptop bag and a handbag so looking like the wandering Vagabond that I am, I briefly observed much of Cleveland from the outside.  I decide to reward myself with a trip to the cinema to see Possession.  

After having bespectacled all of these wonderful skyscrapers I sat down to eat once more at another Hard Rock Cafe, on my own this time which was pretty lonesome. And with a belly full of burger I ventured to my hotel room to get a good night's kip and my money's worth of free view. However, this proved more difficult than I anticipated as every person I asked indicated a different direction for me to go in. After a pointless expedition on the public transport machine (it looked like both a tram and a bus) I finally located my room and put my tired self to bed. The next morning welcomed me with sunny skies and a complimentary continental breakfast. Fully fuelled and ready to rumble, I wondered off into Downtown Cleveland and hoped onto a boat that was happily resting in the harbour. Unfortunately, by this time both phones and my laptop had run out of battery meaning I couldn't capture the pretty views starboard bough. Nevertheless, I devoured a mass quantity of buffet food whilst being ferried along the Lake Eerie. Once my delightful little sail was over, I ascended Terminal Tower, the second highest building in Cleveland. The view was actually really spectacular making me realise how aesthetically pleasing this city was.

Until I noticed a great massive bird or 3 beneath me. They resembled turkeys but had no enormous tail or funny dangly thing around its bill. This is when I realised it was a vulture and I was creeped out so descended Terminal Tower, just in time to go shopping before I caught the last bus home. 

Where My Falcons At????????????

Friday 14th September 2012 - 3.46pm

As anticipated, the first time experiences are depleting gradually but the excitement certainly isn't. This Friday night was filled with clubbing antics and 'pre-gaming'. Despite my previous misconceptions this does not involve a football game nor an electronic video game but is what we Brits like to call pre-drinking. Following this, I danced my little socks off in the Attic and Skybar - it was thrilling.

Saturday night, however was much less like an average night at home as it gave way to my first American Football game: BGSU Falcons V IDAHO Vandals. Of course, I had no idea what was going on as I have no understanding of rules/regulations regarding American football, just that a series of muscle men in uniforms resembling sumo suits run at each other and tackle for a ball. I assimilate it is closely approximately to rugby.

I will include a photograph when/if I eventually acquire one.

I used to be under the illusion that Britain was a patriotic nation, that is until witnessing my first football crowd. Crowds of BGSU students adorned in orange sweatshirts, embellished with temporary BG falcon stickers and even some spectators endorsing their support in orange body paint, greeted me on entry to the stadium. It was at the moment a morbidly obese man with tangerine colours moobs woddled pass me that I realised, nothing spells patriotism like an American Football game. This alongside our chant 'Ay Ziggy Ziggy Zumba' made the atmosphere all the more exhilarating.

Just previous to half time I was subject to what can only be described as daylight robbery when being charged $4 for a diet carbonated beverage. I can confirm I did not accompany my treat with a corndog at prices like that. Half time brought home memories of my geeky friends back home as we viewed the marching band in all their glory perform a rendition of the Star Trek theme tune. Unfortunately, not long after this I returned home, being the big freeze baby that I am needless to say, next game I will come prepared with woollen clothing so that I can stick it out to the bitter end and watch the post game fireworks.

This week has not been massively exciting as the start of term activities have subsided and all the classes and friends I have discovered recently have settled too. Liz and I changed our room round a little so it looks something like this.

As I cannot stand to be anything but entertained I have arranged a trip to Cleveland for yours truly this weekend. I have been informed its a good place to visit with a couple of nice attractions so I will be back on Monday with a full evaluation of this rumour I'm sure. I have invested in a nice camera, finally that should be arriving in the next few days. I am slightly disgruntled as it will not be here in time for this weekend however this does mean I will probably be setting up a second blog but this one will be photography orientated. Yes, I'm about to become one of those pretentious fuckers that thinks they've made it because the own a DSLR (not even sure if I got the abbreviation right.)

Finally, we have just experienced our first fire and with any luck our last. The firemen are examining the area as I type. Not your average Friday night! On that note, I will bid you all adieu til Monday.