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.

If it has the word 'fly' in the title, it's probably not worth eating.

Tuesday 4th September 2012 - 7.16pm

Friday evening rolls round and in turn so does the 4 hour journey to Chicago 'the windy city'. With Starbucks in hand and Burger King consumed, Mitch and I tackled the weary task of following an interstate. I wouldn't deem our attempts to navigate an American Highway a particular success as they only ended in hilarity, an prodigious waste of fossil fuels and a subsequently late arrival to everywhere we went.

Once on the outskirts of Chicago, settled with our bags off-loaded in the seedy 'Super 8' hotel, we resolved a quick trips to Chicago centre was in order. Driving into Chicago at around 9pm on that Friday evening actually made me realise how lucky I am. Everyone had been promoting Study Abroad for near on a year and it had seemed too long in the planning to be a reality however driving into this beautiful twinkly city alongside the river, watching the beautiful twinkles reflect light across the water, framing the moon mark on the water made it all very real. As queer as it sounds I would really like to take this moment to thank my mommy for this, (she is the blogs biggest fan ;) so I know she's reading this somewhere over the pond in GMT). Thank you for always being ready support these ludacris but life-changing ideas I have like trans-Atlantic moves at the age of 19 and scaling mountains in the jungle even though I am a 'spoilt little girl' and a 'idle cow' (your choice of words, not mine) I do greatly appreciate it.

Not of the photographs we amatures attempted to capture did this city justice, so included one carefully selected from Google Images. So we explored and dined and returned to our much welcomed beds. The following morning, due to my inconvenient need to sleep and Mitch's inability to locate actual food, we skipped breakfast in favour of the mall. Whoever gave me a sum of money and a couple of shopping centres is a fool but moving swiftly on. Saturday afternoon, we embarked on a Gray Line bus tour around Chicago. The stops included: Sear's Tower, Hilton Hotel, Shedd Aquarium, Art Museum, Navy Pier, John Hancock Tower, Millennium Park and Hard Rock Cafe Chicago. 

Both of us would have liked to ascend the Sears Tower, however it was far to overcast for it to be worthwhile. Instead we took pictures of it from the car park - intuitive right?

The tour guide revealed a heart warming anecdote about the Sears Tower; a man waited until the completion of the tower and for snow to fall, he then located a field that can be surveyed from the higher floors of the building. Once he had heedfully selected his field he ventured out and stomped out the message "Sarah, will you marry me?". Unfortunately, his commendable efforts were wasted as the memo was lost in the distance. Nevertheless, he valiantly awaited the next snowfall but this time he brought reinforcements. A team of several men and machinery laboured over the message, this time making it clearly visible from the heights of the tower. Our hero took beloved Sarah to the top of the tower and of course, like any hormonal woman in receipt of a hopeless romantic gesture would, she elatedly obliged. To the couples surprise, the office responded with tremendous applause and bottles of champagne, they were then swept off to the John Hancock building for a complimentary meal on the 94th floor only to end up honeymooning in Italy, courtesy of the employees of Sear's Tower. And people say romance is dead.

This fun-filled day was concluded with a trip to the First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre to evaluate Kelly Clarkson's tits and casually listen to the Fray. Kelly was spectacular live, one of the best concerts I've been to by far and I've attended my fair share of gigs. The Fray were also outstanding. I feel the need to include a visual representation of how delectable Kelly looked.


I'd give her one. I'd give her ten.

The following morning was time for our commute to Indiana when I developed an inexplicable compulsion for counting and identifying the intermittent road kill. We could tell small town Nappanee was incoming as we soon found ourselves surrounded by endless cornfields where all international corporate companies began to disappear. There was something slightly unnerving about driving through America without seeing a McDonald's or Wendy's on every corner.

On check-in the hotel claimed we had not made reservations which lead to a quest to investigate whether the money had been liquidated from my account and generally an all round caffuffle. Once this was resolved, the Amish fun could begin.

Amish Acres introduced us to our new surroundings with a musical in the theatre named 'Plain and Fancy' highlighting the key values and differences of Amish communities. We were issued old-fashioned looking programs masquerading as newspapers which explained a little about the imminent performance and the actors involved. Reading of plays such as Throughly Modern Millie, Hot Milkado, Avenue Q, Arsenic and Old Lace, Cats and many more got my blood pumping with anticipation while we waited for the show to commence. At that very moment, I realised what a theatre geek I really am. The performance was very well-equipped with aesthetically pleasing mise-en-scene that not only made the play visually enticing but was also educational and enlightening as the settings and plots were very accurate in their representation of the Amish household. The costuming was of a high standard too.

The night was completed with a traditional Amish meal. In spite of the Amish reputation for fine home-cooking, the cuisine I digested that night was not distinctly palatable. We had some form of bean soup which tasted of watery cardboard and kidney beans. The main was enticing - a selection of meats served with vegetables and gravy but questionably accompanied by savoury noodles resembling tagliatelle. Not so enticing. My scarring food experience was completed with 'shoo fly pie'. This is a traditional Amish recipe containing an undisclosed ingredient so sweet it attracts flys - which is were the name is formulated. Shoo fly. I figured when in Rome however this was the day I learnt that if a dessert has 'fly' in the title, it's probably not worth eating.

Labour was the closing day of our road trip and consisted of a partically hungover walking tour of the Amish homes and a wagon ride round the grounds. With all of the informational touring complete we packed up our bags and made tracks for Bowling Green, Ohio.

And so ends my first American road trip.