Back to Liiiiife, Back to Chapel Hill

January 2012

In the excitement of coming back to Chapel Hill for this semester, and the mentalness that ensued from arriving, meeting new people, catching up with old people and partying (lots and lots of partying!), I completely forgot about updating my blog for quite a while. Like a month…. Oops! Anyways, I am back in Chapel Hill now, writing this post in the gorgeous sunshine and rather uncharacteristically warm weather being experienced in the area at the moment (that’s right you British people reading this is the grey overcast weather you’re having at the moment!). I’ll have you know that currently Chapel Hill is roughly the same temperature as Australia, and it’s supposed to be winter here and summer there!

Back with the Pritch Frat

The past four weeks have involved settling back into the routine at UNC, attending new classes and getting to grips with new syllabi and professors and brown-nosing students. Yet again I fear for the health of American students here, for when I speak up in classes, I fear for peoples necks as they whip around to stare at me. I swear in a presentation I did today one girl was so amazed at my accent she resembled a yawning hippo - not making a statement on her size here I hasten to add! A whole load of new exchanges have arrived too, many from Kings College London which is an interesting change from the loads of Aussie guys last semester, many of whom have left. The core group from the very first day of myself, Fiona, Andrea John and Harriet are still here, as are a number of guys from last semester which is nice! Through the EASE programme (can’t remember what it stands for) there have been a number of get togethers and meet-new-people and bar nights now, which is great as last semester I felt that not enough of these were organised. They have enabled me to get to know both the new exchanges coming into Chapel Hill but also some of the old exchanges much more.

New and old exchanges

Being back in both Chapel Hill and the USA is an interesting feeling. On one hand I am so happy to be back and have another semester of fun and experiences and getting to know new people and hang out with those I knew before and go travelling again. But on the other hand I really didn’t want to come back and have to share a room with a rickety bed and eat crap Lenoir food. It’s interesting how little things like that that I naively at first thought I could cope with have such an effect on my attitude to things. Despite this however, I’m happy to be back on the hall with the guys, all of whom I get on with really well and enjoy hanging out with (when I’m in the hall that is!) and also hanging out with the Pritchard girls and Pat and his group of friends.

I haven’t ventured out of Chapel Hill much as of yet. Nights out have revolved around Franklin Street and various house parties (mainly at Pritch!) for new internationals to meet one another and frequenting the usual spots on Franklin much as a much to last semester. The Pritch ladies have thrown a fair number of parties already, including ones for "Welcome Back/Meet New People", "Burns Night/Australia Day", and numerous birthdays. Many of which have been pretty mental. In a (sort of) good way. Before the random homeless guy turned up or having to kick people out of the house for stealing cereal boxes (yeah, me neither!).... We’ve also managed to make friends with the owner of the bar “Lindas” who is a self confessed ‘Anglo-phile’ (whatever that means!) and in return for some free drinks and food were all happy to sit and chat at length about how to make the place similar to a pub and how he likes England so much (whatever really – id do pretty much anything for a free drink!) The Pritchard girls have had two new additions to the house – in replacement of Lexie and Jess who have gone abroad for the semester. Kelly and Jess (a different one…) have moved in and seemed to have taken the mental-ness of the Pritch house (which us internationals really seem to add to!) in their stride fairly well!

It’s been a good few weeks back, and I have certainly settled back into the rhythm of life at UNC. This semester has some great things coming within it, such as trips to NYC and Boston, the UNC-Duke game and planning for the epic summer travelling trip. With the weather as it is too, I reckon it’s gonna be a good semester! (at least I bloody well hope so!)

Australia Day/Burns Night at the Pritch Frat