Casual cup of tea with the President...

April 2012

So this week I witnessed something I never thought I would ever see in my lifetime. The President of The United States of America in the flesh and blood. That’s right, I saw every gray hair and facial wrinkle of Barack Obama from approximately 5 metres away. With a few lines of people in front of me I grudgingly add…

Obama came to UNC on the Tuesday, to speak about student loans and the like, although it did feel like a bit of a campaign trail too, and we as a campus were told about this on the Friday. Along with the UNC administrators. I guess the attitude of “I’m-the-freaking-President-I-can-do-what-I-want!” really became apparent there! Mr. Obama (or B-Dog as I like to call him. Because we're on first name terms of course...) was making a speech in one of the basketball courts and then appearing on the Jimmy Fallon show being relocated from New York to Memorial Hall on campus. Needless to say the campus went mental for it. Myself included.

Tickets for the Jimmy Fallon show were distributed (supposedly at least) to seniors via a lottery system. I’m pretty sure this didn’t happen and freshman got into the filming. Bastards... Anyways, as I didn’t think I had a chance of getting tickets to the filming, I wanted to go and see the speech at Carmichael instead. Thus, a very cold and wet Sunday morning was spent doing what us British seem to do best. Queuing (or lining up as the Americans call it). Tickets began distribution at 1pm according to the Word-of-God that is the Daily Tar Heel, so we decided to get into line at 10.30am. Even then the queue was wrapped round the stadium and down towards Carmichael dorms and south campus. Bumping into Katie, Simi, Harriet and some others with a tent led to some respite from the rain, and as I returned from a hurried breakfast at Rams I was send worried texts and calls saying the line was moving. And the people were panicking with the tent. As it was we ended up having to lift the entire tent up with all the stuff in it and move with other people trying to lose as little ground in the line as possible. With me cursing and muttering under my breath at civilian incompetency. Woops! Once we managed to negate the obstacle course that was the path down to the running track where the line had been directed, I quickly grabbed my stuff and put some distance between me and the tent not wanting to be a part of any more drama with it. Selfish I know but I wasn’t going to potentially miss out on a ticket because of a damn tent! From then on in it was a case of waiting. And waiting. And waiting even more. In the rain. Great fun of course. To say it took forever is an understatement, but then you’d look behind you and feel so much better that you weren’t at the back!

Staying dry in the rain

The bloody tent

About 1/160th of the damn line

Then again the queuing game was played on the Tuesday morning of his visit, with some people starting to queue at 5am (FIVE AM?! WHAT THE….?!). We took a more leisurely approach and approached the line around 8.45, and luckily spotting Connor towards the front, and then being able to sneak in and joining him. So sneaky I know! This queue wasn’t quite so bad as the sun was shining and it began to move relatively quickly once the doors to the arena were opened up. After going through the airport like security (fair enough I guess) we were herded into the arena seats and shown where to sit. At the very back to the side of the stage. Awful seats indeed. After a lot of “No thank you I haven’t queued for hours (not quite true) to sit here” ’s and the staff shouting a lot it was decided fuck that, we’ll go stand at the front of the podium. Which we did and got a much better view. If you disregard the annoying douchebag who tried to film the whole thing on his iPad. Seriously mate, I don’t think CNN is going to take your crummy footage from a bad angle. Put it away before I hit you…

Much better queuing weather!

Waiting for the big man himself

Just to remind you where we were!

The Carmichael arena was fully decked out for the visit, with a huuuuuuuuge American flag behind the podium and some dumb-ass American style slogans dotted around the place. You could tell it was a student filled crowd as every time someone went onto he stage to adjust a microphone or banner or summin a huge cheer would go up much to that persons awkward smiles. There was also a rather large media pit type place directly behind where we were standing and It was interesting to observe the reporters doing all their filming and scribbling – something you don’t really see in everyday life. There were a couple of ‘warm up’ acts before the President himself, including the presenting of the colours by the ROTC guard members (and very good they looked too!), and the Pledge of Allegiance (so American…) and a welcoming speech from the Chancellor of UNC (who ironically earns more that the President himself) and a student. Who actually gave an incredibly good speech to be fair to her… In front of the thousands of people crammed into the place as well! And then it was time for the big man himself. Big Daddy Obama. To raucous cheering, screaming and what was probably every camera on Campus pointed his way. I seriously do think he loves all the attention because he was lapping it up, wooping and cheering UNC (not that I'm complaining about that bit - he did pick us to win the National Championships after all...). If you're really that interested you can watch it here.

Go big or go home...

The President is coming - look busy!

The speech itself was really good – to say Obama is a charismatic speaker is a bit of an understatement. He’s an incredible speaker and really knew how to work the crowd and seemed to be enjoying he college feel to the crowd (being mainly college students of course) with comments of supposing to be studying in the library and working hard, and how it was unlucky UNC didn’t win the ACC (very popular comment that one!). There were some hilarious people in the crowd however, most memorably a woman sitting behind Obama who would shout “ABSOLUTELY!”  every so often to whatever he was saying, drawing laughter from the crowd and Obama himself. At the end of his speech there was a huge applause, and Obama went forward to shake a load of peoples hands. Not sure the Secret Service were too happy about this (as a side note, does anyone else think its pretty dumb for the secret service to have uniforms emblazed with “secret service” all over it?! Sort of defeats the point of being secret in my eyes…), and then we faced to fighting task of getting out of the stadium. Woopee Doo. Thankfully it didn’t take too long, and after a quick-ish lunch in Lenoir (with the staff in their complaining to everyone and their dog about how they were never warmed of the sudden influx of people wanting food and how they couldn’t cope – well duhh do you not take note of what’s happening on campus?! From there I had to go and hand in an assignment to the Professor who’s class I had missed being at the speech. Which lead to a good half hour of interesting discussion about US and UK politics and how it’s a bad thing the Prime Minister doesn’t tour UK universities like the President. I didn’t really bother correcting that one, as I’m pretty sure if Cameron came to Manchester, not many people would be that fussed about it. If anyone…

The ROTC looking dashing as ever.

The big man himself!

That evening was the highlight of the day – the Jimmy Fallon show with the President, filmed in Memorial hall on Campus. Pat had been offered the opportunity to work on the show (very lucky guy!) and he was telling me it was mental to set up the show – usually they had 6months to plan a show filmed in another location that normal, and in this case they had less that 5 days. Mental! Needless to say he was kept rather busy! The actual filming took place in the afternoon, and was aired late that night. Connor, Lindsay and I squished up on Lindsay’s couch and watched I on her TV, and we were all incredibly surprised at how great the show was. Jimmy Fallon really played up to the Carolina crowd, donning a Carolina hoodie and making fun of Duke, as well as performing a great song about college life to great laughter from all. The best bit however was the opening sequence of the show, which was filmed especially for the one off show in Chapel Hill the night before. How do I know this? Because all the drunken students on the sequence are in golfing gear, and there’s a brief shot of Alice, Lindsay, Me and a few other exchanges in full on golfing gear outside the Carolina Coffee Shop. Not a bad claim to fame to be honest! (Unfortunately because this blog was written so far after the airing of the show I can't find a link to the show...). Here is what I could find - an old YouTube clip of Obama 'slow jamming the news'.

 

 

The Obama fever that gripped Carolina was definitely one of the more interesting experiences of my time at UNC, and it was a great opportunity to see the President of the United States up close (ish) and personal (well, not really…). It also gave me an opportunity to reflect upon what I’ve learnt about American, and more importantly, North Carolina politics over my time at UNC, and how different attitudes are to social issues we take for granted (in my opinion at least) in the UK. This has been reinforced since my summer travels (this blog has been written since then) which took me into other states and the Deep South, which I will comment on in those relevant posts. However, it was a fantastic experience to see such a renowned figurehead and hear him in the flesh (exactly the same as on TV to be honest). Although I do feel sorry for his supporters having to go through all that security malarkey every time they fancy sharing a cup of tea and some biscuits with him!

Stout Boots Needed

April 2012

With UNC being as generous as usual in their allowance of days off for Easter (that’s one day off for the Easter weekend compared to the four weeks at home…) I was desperate to get out of Chapel Hill and spend three days somewhere. The initial plan was to go to either Asheville or the beach with Lexi and Emma, but unfortunately that fell through, and as such a last minute off from Jessie to stay at hers led me to pile into the back of Mary-Ellis’ car for a three and a bit hour journey to Boone.

We left late in the evening, as Mary-Ellis and Jessie wanted to see a ballet show on campus earlier in the evening (which was described erotic and scary. For snow white…), and the adrenaline levels were kept moderate to high by Mary-Ellis’ driving skills (meaning they were perfect Mary-Ellis of course!). Stopping off at Steak and Shake for food (well, just a shake for me as I ate earlier) lead us to run into an interesting character manning the till. After me having to repeat my order 15 times to the amusement of the till staff (damn rednecks) and getting ripped for being a Tar Heel (by a Dookie working in steak and shake. In Greensboro. I mean come on!), we continued on the road, with me having some old man wise words for the other two “That is why you need a degree people. So you don’t end up working at 11pm on Thursday night in Steak and Shake at the age of 30, supporting a college team you have no hope in hell of attending.” Harsh I know but incredibly true if you ask me (obviously being a Tar Heel and all now…).  We also witnessed the act of pure stupidity and recklessness, with a lady pulling up to a gas station and casually lighting a cigar whilst filling her car. And we were in on the station forecourt at the time. To say my heart was in my mouth thinking I was gonna be blown up in a shit-town in the middle of nowhere is a bit of an understatement. I was astounded at the pure disregard for safety! The rest of the journey passed without issue, with all three of us blasting out sing-along tunes in competition to see who broke the windows with their voice first. Pretty sure Jessie came close...

The next morning Jessie and I spent a lazy morning bumming round her house watching TV and in the afternoon we headed into downtown Boone. Not seeing Boone in the dark on the way in the previous night made me appreciate the beauty of the place. Set right up in the mountains of NC the place had the feel of a French or Swiss ski resort in the summer, with many wooden buildings designed similar to the chalets and places seen in ski resorts in Europe, along with the mountains dominating the skyline. The town itself is named after Daniel Boone, who wandered the mountains way back when and "Kilt a Bar" in 1803 (He actually killed a bear, but I'm guessing his spelling wasn't all that good...) We had a good wander around, seeing Appalachian (pronounced Appa-latch-ian) State University, the main downtown strip with its huge sweet shop (yes, the 4 year old in me came back out!) and on a whim I dragged Jessie into a proper redneck type place which offered enactments from the Civil War and trying on props some Southern film (I can’t remember what one). The place was interesting to say the least, with tonnes of southern stuff such as costumes, maps, weapons, and a proper southern boy who was incredibly keen to explain the history of Boone, the building, the weapons. Pretty much anything you laid eyes on her was there telling some story about it! I have to admit it was incredibly interesting to go in and listen to him talk away, although it did make one wonder about the authenticity of the place when you saw the Star Trek models and various other items of ‘interest’ not directly related to the South at all!

Daniel Boone himself. He killed a bear you know...

Some graffiti tunnel

Feeling a bit rocky...

Wandering around Downtown

The evening was spent in a bar called ‘The Town Tavern’ which was quite a cool place, and a Jessie’s parents local place. The whole of Jessie’s family were there, as well as some family friends and a really good time was had, with many a laughs been had, with the bar man joking around with me being British, and getting me to wind up his mate by quoting the “Charlie bit my finger” YouTube video down the phone to him to raucous laughter. Although there were times I had no idea what was going on, with language barriers and loud music being playing. Typical me… Also, the food was really nice, and I would say cheapish, but I have no idea as Jessie’s parents paid for everything despite my protests (very grateful to them indeed). Definitely a place to head to if you ever end up in Boone!

Ain't that the truth!

The next day was hiking day. Well, hiking afternoon by the time we got up and out! Grandfather Mountain is a state part (with a mountain in it. Obviously…) just outside of Boone, which used to be privately owned (imagine casually having a full blown mountain in your back garden?!) until sold to be state managed. Having to live the American lifestyle (of course) we went for breakfast in an incredibly shiny diner; stereotypical like in the movies. Which was pretty awesome, and having an rather filling omelet meant I was well and truly ready to climb some rugged mountains!

Breakfast. Diner style!

Being the Easter weekend and a glorious day, it seemed that half the state and their dogs were heading up to the mountain, causing massive queues to get into the park. Patience won out here though and eventually we got in, with me pretending to be a Boone resident to get the discounted rate – with an impeccable accent if I may say so myself! Out first stop up the mountain was the Hanging Bridge which, if you hadn’t guessed, was hanging between two high points on the mountain side. The bridge was cool, and wobbled in the wind (much to Jessie’s non-amusement!), but the sheer number of people there took away from the serenity I like to find on a mountain top (or side in this case) unfortunately. But then I'm a bit of a hiking snob like that. And I guess seeing two fat Americans waddle their way across the bridge huffing and puffing really doesn’t help that snobbery… The next leg involved hiking to the top of the mountain, which included scaling a fair few ladders (at some dodgy angles in some cases!) and clinging onto cables. Me being me loved this, and had a great time sweating like a pig clambering up the sides. I think Jessie and Brad did too, although at times Jessie was swearing her head off like a sailor! The view at the top was pretty darn incredible, being able to see into neighbouring states Kentucky and Tennessee (not that you would know unless it was pointed out to you!), and rather breezy too. Was pretty cool being on top of the world too (well, I liked to think so at least!).  After we had got back down to the (relative) bottom, it was time for an ice cream (yummy!) and had a good look at the bear kept in the zoo down there. Which was pretty cool. But I’m glad that I didn’t come across one for real! That evening was spent chilling out at Jessie’s house, painting eggs (an American Easter tradition) and watching TV which was nice after the days walking!

Obligatory explorer pose

Climbing

More climbing

Oh yeah, we saw a bear...

Sunday was a lazy morning, hanging out doing the Nash family Easter tradition of watching 'Jesus Christ Superstar' (Jessie’s dad, Brad, joking about it being his fill of religion for the year) and having an incredibly nice breakfast and lunch (although shamefully I cant remember what it was). Jessie’s mum also put what seemed like the worlds supply of chocolate eggs out for both Jessie and I, as well as Jessie’s brother and his girlfriend. To say that the chocolate kept me going for a while is an understatement-I still had stuff left over at the end of the semester! That afternoon we were going over to Mary-Ellis’ farm on the other side of Boone to undertake an activity I had been wanting to do for a while in the States – Horse riding. American style.

Mary-Ellis’ farm was pretty sweet – set into the hilly rural part away from Boone, and literally in the middle of bloody nowhere. With horses, a donkey, pigs and chickens and dogs running around I fell in love with the place immediately. Mary-Ellis step-dad was a horse guru and so was taking both me and Jessie out on two of the horses for both of our’s first time ever riding. Now I had seen horses, stroked horses etc etc but never actually gotten on a horse. And was pretty nervous about it – they do look fairly big animals when you're faced with getting on one! Not wanting to be shown up by Jessie however I stuck my foot in the stirrup and went for it. To my surprise first time I managed to plant myself fairly securely onto the horse and attempt a look at knowing what I was doing. That image disappeared pretty quickly… 

Now apparently British and Americans ride horses differently (no idea having never ridden at home!) with the Yanks riding with the reins in one hand, pulling your hand to the left and right to move the horse that way (if that makes sense). Anyways, this seemed all well and good and pretty simple, moving the horse around the paddock. Except the horse had other ideas. Typical… so what was a supposed to be a little easy beginners riding lesson turned into a battle of the man and beast to move round the paddock in a bloody circle (think it would be easy right?!) whilst trying to avoid Jessie on the other horse and the chickens that had seemed to come over to laugh at my uselessness. Needless to say though I thoroughly enjoyed my first taste of horse riding and being a step nearer to becoming a cowboy (just need a horse of my own, a ranch, some cattle, boots, hat…), and I'm incredibly grateful to Mary-Ellis and Walter for letting me come and make a fool of myself on their horses.

Just getting warmed up...

Ready for the Rodeo

The two of them. With the horse.

From there it was a few hours journey back to Chapel Hill for the end of the weekend and back to classes on Monday. Ugh. Having said that I really enjoyed my time in Boone and loved being there – very different place to Chapel Hill or anywhere I had been to in North Carolina previously. I am incredibly grateful to Jessie and her family for taking me in (at short notice at that!) and being great hosts to me, and to Mary-Ellis and Walter for showing me how hard it is to become a cowboy! Despite the outrageously short length of holiday Easter was, it was a great weekend. Just getting back to class sucked massively after…

The literal middle of no-where!

The Lake of Jordan

February 2012

Lindsay (one of the girls who lives on my hall) and I took an incredibly spontaneous trip to Jordan Lake the other day. When I saw spontaneous, I mean like ½ hour before sundown… yeah spontaneous! Lindsay mentioned she wanted to go see the sunset so always being up for doing things I jumped at the chance to go with her. And I'm so glad I did!

Jordan Lake

Jordan Lake is a rather large lake roughly 20mins drive from the UNC campus. Driving at almost breakneck speed (well, my neck nearly broke from trying to see everything whizzing past us!) we parked up next to the road and walked through the woods to the edge of the lake. It was absolutely beautiful with the sunlight and sun setting over the lake. And deathly silent, apart from the few cars going past on the road behind us. And the occasional fish splashing about, making both of us jump. With the standard conversation involving sea monsters and the Loch Ness Monster following… just to freak us out even more!

Is it obvious where I've come from?

Lindsay not sure what a tree is...

Anyways, it was beautiful. And I would highly recommend going. Except maybe in the summer when there’s more on the trees…

Jordan Lake Sunset

Aaaaaand I Will Walk (no where near) 500 Miles!

January 2012

So the one day I have actually ventured out of Chapel Hill this semester so far was a day trip for a hike to Hanging Rock. I was asked along by Lindsay and Laura, who were planning on going to ‘scout out the area for a trip for their residents’ (yeah right – just wanted a day out!). Anyways, the four of us (Michael being the fourth) bundled into Lindsay’s car rather later than the planned departure time of 9.30am on the Sunday (I woke up late, and Michael was still hungover. Sorry tired…) and headed out in the GLORIOUS sunshine to Hanging Rock State Park. The drive was approximately 2 hours away over towards Winston-Salem, and with the music pumping and banter flowing (mainly directed at me for being British…) it went pretty quickly. Lunch consisting of slightly stale sandwiches from Rams (free food!) and some amazing muffins and Oreo truffles (don’t ask. Just trust me they were fantastic!)

Hanging Rock. With some muppet in the way.

Perfect for some thoughtful hanging around

After lunch we went in search of a map of the park, and stumbled across a proper old southern man manning the information desk. Michael took charge of the discussion about where to walk and what to see, and I disappeared outside to look at the view. Simply because I had absolutely no idea what the guy was saying. I felt as if I had arrived back in NC for the first time and had to adjust to peoples accents again. And then Lindsay say it wasn’t a bad accent at all… Bloody Americans not speaking proper English! Following on from the country man’s conversation with Michael we decided to hit two trails, both of which offered amazing views over the NC foothills and piedmont. The weather was simply amazing there, glorious sunshine and not quite cool – perfect walking weather! Being young fit things we managed to crack of the walks at a fairly steady pace, allowing for a lots of time spent at the top of the two peaks, as well and mucking around on the ways up and down…because we were such mature young adults. Obviously…

Looking out from the peak

The first trail up to Hanging Rock was a short but steep one, and offered some cool rocks to look over. We spent ages up their getting some cool photos and Lindsay getting lost in a cave of some sort! We also passed a part of the rock where people had written upon it and for the first time ever in my hiking life I graffiti-ed upon the rock. Just to show a bit of patriotic pride! The second trail was a much longer one up to Moore’s Knob (stop giggling – that is the name of it). Which, ironically, we had to drive to. Yes, typical America when you go for a day hike, you still have to drive between the two trails you want to walk on…

Up the Rock

Anyways, the views up Moore’s Knob were even better – being over 1000ft above sea level we could see right over to the Blue Ridge Mountains. As it was such a clear day as well you were able to see stuff really clearly and with the Carolina Blue sky it made it quite a sight. We didn’t leave the State Park until it was starting to get dark (maximising daylight hours there!) and had a long old drive back, with song choices taking on a more chilled nature, and me dozing off repeatedly in the front seat (I got quite good at calling shotgun!). With a short stop at Cookout (a classic North Carolina drive through place which is amazing!) to replace all the calories we had burnt off that day (when in America I guess…) and a slightly worrying moment where we thought we were about to get held up by a homeless guy simply looking for a dollar for some food (very awkward moment…) we made it back to the Hill within about 2 and a half hours. Plenty of time for the legs to stiffen up and for us to all resemble zombie walkers shuffling up the stairs to the dorms! 

Hell Yeah!