“It was a life I didn’t want to leave behind. It was a life I didn’t want to forget.”

April 2012 

 (Blog title quote attributed to: Maggie Stiefvater, Linger)

I guess all good things have to come to an end eventually. And with my time at UNC this came around far too quickly. I remember at the beginning of the year I mused at how stretched out in front of me the year looked, at it seemed like a hell of a long time until I returned home. Now I'm feeling that the year has simply disappeared and I have run out of time.

The last few weeks in Chapel Hill have been a blur of end of year festivities, fun, exams and sad farewells. Getting the boring bits out of the way, my finals went well, getting A’s and B’s (even with half completion of one exam – I had already passed the class before I sat the final!). Nothing better than bringing up my non-existent GPA! Finals were yet again full of the bizarre American ritual of partying harder than during the term time, with the Pit Rave being attended my many a fresher and semester long exchange student, alongside the streaking across campus. Being my second time around seeing this attitude during exams, I’ve come to understand it, although I still can’t get my head around it!

It being the last semester for many Seniors (4^th years), Seniors week was also laid on for them, with a number of events happening, including climbing the Bell Tower and Bar Golf. I was very keen to exercise my pseudo-senior status and climb the Bell Tower to simply have a nose around up there, and it was a pretty cool experience climbing up the windy stairs to the top. Only to find the view restricted by tiny and pretty filthy windows. Typical… The bar golf was also a good laugh, with many of of the exchanges being out and about too. It was a very different experience to pub golf back home, in that everyone raced around the bars (some starting as early as 6 to complete them all – now that’s a hell of a sense of competition!) and people kept asking what number hold you were on. I was just content to bar hop around and get a little steaming to be honest (which did inevitably happen!). Some of the places such as Carolina Coffee Shop (a bar in the evening) was totally rammed whilst other places such as La Res were empty. Very interesting indeed! The night finished off at He’s Not which was ridiculously busy by 1am with golfers in various degree of fancy dress.  Was a great night indeed!

Up the Bell Tower

Partying as hard as ever...

Desperately holding onto the Redneck-ness!

End of the year also saw the coming around of the annual Old Dirty Bash, which is a afternoon party type event for the community I lived in. With free t-shirts, food and drink I wasn’t gonna turn it down (although my roommate did – loser!) and it was great fun chilling out with the guys from my hall and the RAs I had got to know over the year in the sun listening to live music and eating a whole bunch of bad food.  For free. There was also a mechanical bull, a gladiator style boxing thingy and inflatable horse racing laid on for us mature students. Which I don’t need to say were met with total delight by all. The horse racing was basically inflatable ‘horses’ which you had to bounce to the end of the ‘racetrack’. Facing Addison I thought “sod that” and just picked up the horse and ran to the cry of “cheat!” and laughter at the sheer stupidity of what I was doing. Having said that, wasn’t as bad as Lindsay who fell backwards off her horse. And lasted all of 1 second on the mechanical bull. You do wander what they learn in the South sometimes… By having our own community event, it meant there were loads others in other communities across campus, and so the weekend was spent trailing round a number of them and hanging out under the Carolina blue sky with the glorious sunshine. The end of term also saw the Blue vs White Carolina football game, where incoming freshman signed to the team get to play with the current line up. In time honoured tradition Jessie and I attended the rather low turnout game (with Mary-Ellis, Lindsay and Esra too) to watch a rather boring game (if ones honest). Still, was nice to sit out in the sun and sing some Carolina chants!

Music (obviously)

The nearest to a rodeo I ever got!

Chillin in the Quad

More music

At the game

The end of year also meant the inevitable. Packing up of my room and moving out of Graham 3^rd. Luckily, as I wasn’t leaving Chapel Hill till a few days after move out date I was able to get an extension (unlike Fiona, John and Harriet who had to crash at Pritch with a few other extras!), and so could take my time over the gathering of things together. God knows how I managed to fit it all in two bags and a box (which was mailed home). I had collected a serious amount of junk and had to be pretty brutal with chucking stuff out! Very kindly I was able to leave the things I didn’t need to go travelling with in a corner of the Pritch house (which was a mammoth effort to do in its self with everyone else’s stuff everywhere there – god knows how they managed!). Despite my lack of stuff it still felt sad packing up my room and taking all the pictures and cards (people had given me before I left) down off the walls. I had always hated my room for its bareness and prison cell look, but it looked even worse taking it apart! Gunn left the day of his last exam, and I was really bad and avoided the room like the plague that day to not have to say bye to him. I just couldn’t stand it – the sooner he was gone the better (that sounds really harsh, but it will be explained in another blog). However it was truly sad to see the rest of the guys (and girls from Aycock 3^rd) leaving. I have had such a blast with the lot of them and if you’re reading this guys, you have been a huge part of my year – thank you so much. Highlights have definitely been the makeshift manikin in Sicking’s bed, cling filming doors and toilets and all the crazy conversations and stupid discussions had in the lounge. I’m gonna miss y’all a lot. The hall was weird once they had all left, leaving myself, Connor and a couple of other residents knocking around. Very quiet in comparison to the usual shenanigans’ that went down over the year!

Goodbyes also had to be made to the internationals, both from the semester and the year. Some of whom I know I will see again, and others I hope so. Again, I was genuinely sad to say bye to everyone – even if I didn’t know them that well they were a part of my year abroad and so part of the whole experience. Pritch had its last house/frat party of the year (I’m very sure it wasn’t the last ever!), filled with Internationals, Americans and tears. To about the same proportions. The unofficial rule was no tears till midnight. But that went to bolocks when Jessie left before midnight and I teared up good and proper. Which then with the amounts of booze flowing set everyone else off. Typical… On a brighter note however, a number of people bought flags for everyone to sign, which was a fantastic idea to remember people. I did it too, and it will hang upon my wall when I return to Manchester as a reminder of the year while I cry in my room for having no social life in 4th year!

(one of) the last nights out on Franklin Street

The last Pritch Frat party

Being sad about leaving

The last few remainers

Looking back on the goodbyes at UNC I am filled with sadness in that the my time there had come to an end, and some of the amazing people I had met there I am unlikely to see again. But then I am also filled with happiness with the memories I had there, the phenomenal people I did meet, many of whom I will see again, and the great highs and some terrible lows I had had over the year (thankfully waaaay more highs than lows!) which has made it such a great experience. To all of Tar Heels reading this (both American and International) thank you for being a part of my year and making it such a great one at UNC.

But with the sadness of leaving UNC comes the excitement of the next great adventure – my travels around the great US of A!

The foreigners speak

April 2012

This is a short video I had to produce as part of my work for Manchester whilst at UNC. The idea is to provide some information as to the best and worst bits of studying abroad, as well as how UNC compares to their home institutions. Hopefully it will provide some use for someone thinking of studying abroad! Many thanks to Elston, Aidan, Sophie and Nathan for their help with this!

You can also watch on Vimeo here.

 

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!

"I Forgot About the Study Part Of Study Abroad" (Start of Classes)

August 2011

Having been accustomed to going back to Uni waaaay after my younger sister goes back to school, having to go to classes whilst still in the month of August and feeling like I was on holiday was a shock to the system. A massive shock. I really wanted someone to come up to me and say ‘Aw, you’re English and you’re not used to starting this early in the year. Have the next few weeks off’. As it happened, no one did. Starting classes bought the new pressure of finding rooms and buildings and panicking when the name of the class wasn’t quite what I thought it was going to be. One class I wanted to take in Social Geography looked at racial discrimination in cities through time in literature. I dropped that one pretty quickly. 

The American system of University (or college as they call it) education is very different from that of the UK. Firstly, the work load is insane. And I’m doing the bare minimum of credits possible. The way it works here is lots of little assignments every week, plus reading, plus extra work. Nothing like of the UK system of a slightly larger project every few weeks meaning you can chill out for a bit then work manically at the end. Here you have to stay on top or struggle to keep up. Which I found out the hard way on the first two weeks. Reflected in the work balance is the marking scheme. To get an A (i.e. 1^st) you have to get 80-90%. Yeah, my reaction was one of horror too. However, in my opinion with lots of little bits of marked work it may be easier to pick up more marks along the way than in the UK where so much is based on the exams at the end of the semester. Check back for more insight into that one when I get some (probably terrible) marks back! There is also this incredibly bizarre system of “extra marks” here, where you can get bonus marks for either turning up to extra classes or watching a video or something like that. These marks can be up to 30% on top of the maximum grade, giving a potential score of 130 out of 100. HOW DOES THAT WORK?!!! The attitudes towards work here is quite interesting to note also. In my opinion, in the UK its dangerous to be labelled as the keen student who’s always putting their hand up in lectures or helping the lecturer out. You don’t want to be labelled as a ‘keeno’. However, the States this is encouraged with a percentage of the final grade given for classes participation. This leads to some (f***ing annoying) students constantly being like ‘can I do this, can I do that’ towards the lecturers. Ugh, grow up and take your tongue out of their arse! However, I guess the logic behind it is to encourage class discussion etc which is a good thing, and with generally much smaller class sizes it means the lecturers can get to know their students much better on a personal level. However, this was (and still is) incredibly hard to get used to, leading to me being very British abroad and going ‘for f*** sake sit down and shut up’ towards people. 

I do like the US system in some ways in that you don't have to pick what degree you do (known as Majoring here) until 2nd year. To me that makes a lot more sense as people can try out different modules in 1st and 2nd years and then decide. Furthermore, there is a much greater flexibility in module options, with many students taking modules that may have no relation to their major at all. Its also interesting to note that in order to graduate from UNC (I'm not sure about other institutions), students have to fulfill certain requirements, such as taking a maths module or history module at some point in their 4 year programme. I like that system a lot and think it should be implemented in the UK to give UK students more choice about the modules they may want to do at Uni. However, to balance out, I hate the way students have to buy books for their course. It is compulsory to buy books for the modules you take, and the number of books  can be as high as 10 or 12 PER MODULE. Yes, 10 or 12. At up to $200 a book. Yep, you read right again. It's mental. And that's for one semester too. It was a serious blow to my budget as I was hoping to try and get around it by using the library, but found it wasn't feasible to do that. I would like to apologise to the people in the book store for my grumpy-ness whilst buying the books. I was seriously pissed off about having to pay $135 for one book. And it only has like 100 pages.

Needless to say, the work load has produced some very negative attitudes among the English with mutterings (probably majority from me) of disbelief at what we had to do whilst at UNC. Yeah, I know, I forgot about the ‘study’ party of ‘study abroad’…

Not working. Obviously!

The week also entailed me having some very late nights and early mornings, which increased the shock to my body. We were invited to a 21^st birthday by Emma, who we met whilst at the Frat party the week before. A number of Emma’s housemates had spent a semester abroad the year before, and were keen to get to know us and welcome us to the States and help us out. Weirdly enough I met Lexi and Ryan who were at Manchester Uni. the previous semester, so it was cool chatting to them about their experiences there. After the party we went to a place called East End in Franklin Street (no, not East Enders as I originally heard and got a little freaked out by the image of East Londoners walking around inside). The place was cool, with country music playing and games of beer pong happening on special tables at the back. A beer was only a quarter (roughly 20p) which was awesome. Until I tasted the beer. Then it wasn’t so awesome. Needless to say I now hate Bud Light. Its vile. Fiona naively went off to dance by herself and had to be rescued from a big black guy by John. Provided much amusement for me when I heard!

The week also saw the first UNC EASE event happen. EASE is an group set up for internationals whilst at UNC to meet others and have socials and sports teams together. It was good meeting new people again, as well as see some others I hadn’t seen since Orientation. Pat came too, and afterwards we went for a drink at R&R Grille (yes, with an ‘e’) with some other internationals from Ireland, Australia, France and England. A mate of Pat’s, Andrew, came and joined us, hilariously drunk and proceeded to try and chat up the girls with his journalistic skills (he writes a column for the Daily Tar Heel), and as he left he wrote his number on a napkin and shoved in Camille’s bag without her noticing (think she still hasn’t found it!). Hilarious for the guys around the table, the girls weren’t too sure how to react! I also hooked up with Pat on the Thursday and went for a few drinks with him, bumping into a couple  of guys I had met before and meeting some new ones. Went to a place called ‘Top of the Hill’ (commonly referred to as ‘Toppo’), which I thoroughly recommend people go to (just to put some touristy bits into the blog!).

Anyways, Saturday was a welcome chill out day I’m telling you!

The Calm Before the Storm (Days before Classes Start)

August 2011

Friday morning was Orientation of all International Exchange Students, which involved getting up at a rather early time of 8.00am (OK, not that early but after a 3am crash out it was hard!) and finding where the hell the orientation was actually happening. After getting lost and meeting a equally lost Ozzie on the way I managed to make it to the orientation in time for a little socialising beforehand (I have to say I haven’t actually seen most of those people since…) before being ushered into the lecture hall. We were then promptly scared to death about the ins and outs of our immigration statuses and what that did and didn’t entail and how we would all be deported if we so much as spoke to a cop the wrong way or swore in front of fresher’s (admittedly massive exaggeration there but there was a lot of stuff we can be deported for including not turning up to lectures!). Then the orientation proper got underway by the most amazing Amanda the Study Abroad Advisor. Now Amanda has sent me (and others) numerous emails in the past months relating to different amounts of mundane paper filling and information. However, the emails always bought a smile to my face due their upbeat nature and always without fail wishing me a “happy day”. Amanda in person was no different and looking around the hall you could see smiles come to peoples faces as she radiated genuine joy at having us all there – a proper Southern girl! The orientation itself involved local information, academics information, what do etc as one would expect from something like that, including where the USA was in relation to the rest of the world….erm hello?! Once the orientation was over the rest of the day was spent chilling in the sun and sweating like a pig in a butchers. Typical weather for North Carolina!

Anyways, that evening I had the most random evening I’ve had in a long while (including nights out with OTC!). What started as a little illegal drinking (only Fiona and I in the English lot are 21) in my room turned into drinking in **** and *******'s room (guys in my corridor-didn't want to be named in case Housing read this and kick them out of their room), as they had a properly decked out room with a sofa and TVs. What promptly followed was something from when 14 year old''s drink in the park. Every time there was a bang on the door, all alcohol had to be hidden before the door was open (this will be explained in due course). I was astounded that as an adult at 21 I was having to hide my alcohol. It was such a random scenario! Despite, once copious amounts of hidden alcohol was consumed (we tried teaching the Americans ‘International Drinking Rules’. It didn’t work. At all) we headed to a house for a house party. Now if the hidden drinking had blown me away then the house party was something else! Image American Pie. That’s all you need to do. It was just like that. Red cups, beer pong and random people making out in corners. So surreal to literally step into the American stereotype! The people there were really friendly though and very eager to chat to us Brits. The never ending question of “Oh my gawd are you English?!” was frequently asked, but being the first night out I didn’t mind. To begin with. I should explain another American phenomena which is known as Party Juice, or PJ. This is a (usually lethal) concoction of alcohol and sweeteners in a massive bucket or similar holder which everyone dips their cups into and drinks from (hence the red cups). This is obviously for those underage so they can get drunk, but was rather different from the English attitude of BYOB which we did. Needless to say it all got drunk. Obviously.

Red Cups!!

As the party went on, Harriet (being all things knowing) found a friend at a frat party. Now we couldn’t turn that offer down! So we set off trying to find the frat house. In America the frat and sorority system is huge and people take it VERY seriously. But I personally didn’t realise this and just bumbled along hoping to meet some new people. After a short time (well, long because we got lost), we got to the frat house and again I was stunned (think American Pie again). Really nice place with lots of people. But no booze to be found. Anywhere. However upon asking Lillie, Harriet’s friend, she directed us to a bin. At this point I looked at her like she was wasted and was wanting to have a laugh with the Brits. But no upon closer inspection at the bottom of the bin there was a plastic bag with some sort of beverage within. I know what you’re thinking, and yes we did dip our lovely red cups in and have a taste (when in America!). Surprisingly not bad, except we finished it and so had to make a hasty retreat out of the kitchen onto the front lawn. Lillie’s mates were cool, and we all got on with them well. I didn’t really chat to many others worth mentioning! To my delight the evening was wrapped up in style with a pizza (a lovely similarity with English partying!), except this pizza could feed the 5000. No joke. 

New Kids in the Frat: Fiona, Me, Harriet, Lillie (American!), John & Andrea

The rest of the few days of freedom before the horror that was classes started was spent chilling, finding as much free food as possible (harder than I thought – ended up having to listen about some weird Christian sect for ½ hour to get some pizza at one point), and getting out and meeting as many people as possible. One bizarre event we went to was called a “Target Party”. Target is basically an ASDA-type place and they were having a party in it, with promises of “mental discounts, massive giveaways and dancing in the aisles”. Sounded like it could have been good, so we went. What a mistake. Queuing for 45mins for a coach there and battling with people to get into the store wasn’t that fun, and then the “massive giveaways” turned out to be some shite flavoured water (pretty much tasted like sugar water) and microwaveable macaroni cheese, which I haven’t even ventured to taste because it looks radioactive. No joke. From that point on it went downhill. It was basically a massive marketing ploy by Target to get students into spend. Selves were bare, people fighting over the last items of certain stock and a massive queue to get out again. Slight plus was there was a bit of dancing the isles which was funny to watch. Image in that in Tesco’s! John was hungry for some shorts as he had only bought two pairs with him (I wish I could put some witty comment in here but I cant talk as I bought one pair with me…) so went on the hunt to get some more. Only to get home, try them on and find they didn’t fit him. I was fairly pleased though I managed to get a cheap case of beer. Result!

Dancing in Target

 

Yeah...this happened

With our bags of goodies!

We also attended the UNC FallFest, which is similar to a Freshers Fair in the UK, only in one evening and with many, many more people. It was cool wandering around seeing all the different activities and clubs on offer at the uni and getting LOTS of free food (mmmmm). There was also two stages with different performances (some good, some awful!) and lots bouncy castles! It was amazing to see a dance called a 'stomp' , usually performed by the Black Fraternities, which involved a lot of stomping (obviously) and clapping and body hitting. Really quite awesome to watch and even funnier to watch these acts jump around in celebration high-fiving each other when they had done. In the middle of the stage. 

Was quite a bizarre experience to see all the different denominations of Christianity trying to get people to join their societies, however. I guess it’s cool that all these different versions are represented and that, but at the same time I didn’t notice any other religious societies such as Islam etc there which was interesting to note. Also as a massive ego boost to myself, I got told I had a cute accent by a random girl on one of the society desks. Shame I couldn’t say the same back about her horrible New York-en accent… Me a John also got pressured into signing up for a 24 hour dance marathon by probably the scariest girl I’ve ever met. She just didn’t take no for an answer, or the fact that Johns feet were practically falling off. Needless to say I put a bogus email address down on the signup sheet and ran (John hobbled).

At FallFest

With Ramses, UNC's mascot

Keon, my roommate also moved over the weekend. Despite all the nervousness I had about meeting him and practically being in each other’s space for a year he seemed a nice enough guy. Was rather embarrassing when he arrived however, as I was in bed nursing a fairly large hangover (it was 10am I point out). I initially heard a sound that was a little like strong wind getting louder and louder. At which point I had awoken and panicked not knowing what was going on and uncomfortably remembering I was in hurricane alley and didn’t actually know what to do if a hurricane stuck Chapel Hill. Anyway, panic was averted when I worked out it was a wheelie chair being wheeled down the corridor (at a fair rate I have to say!) and I sunk back into feeling sorry for myself (I have to say hangovers here are a killer with the heat and humidity), only to hear a key turn in the door and Keon come striding in with most of his extended family behind him. Cue massive embarrassment as I’m in bed in just my boxers. Keon introduced himself as Gunn (not Keon) and went to get some more stuff to move into the room. I leapt out of bed and threw some clothes on and stood around make small talk to his aunt. Once he had sorted his bed and shelves out, Gunn told me he would see me tomorrow, and left the room. Being rather confused, but grateful I could get a bit more lie down time, I sunk back into my pit. Now I was very very nervous about sharing a room with someone who I knew nothing about, and I know it will most probably test my tolerance and attitudes to other people, and so far I can (tentatively) say its not too bad. The biggest issue is me rolling back most nights a little merry and Gunn getting up rather early to do work. We shall see how it works out I guess!

Another new experience was being take to watch a game of 'pick-up' by Pat. 'Pick up' is like a chilled out game of basketball - similar to a kick around in the park with football. The Mens 1st team basketball were offering anyone who wanted to to play them on the courts near my dorm. Now these guys are amazing -  the UNC basketball team is in the top rankings in the country and the players are offered scholarships to come and play for the Tar Heels (the name of the UNC sports teams). Watching them play was phenomenal, especially as all they seemed to do was reach up and place the ball through the hoop. Loads of students and locals turned up to watch as well which gave a really nice social atmosphere to the game.

Pick Up

Adding to the ever increasing list of new experiences, the weekend showed me another American College Life phenomena I still don’t fully get which is Dorm Life. We were all summoned to the lounge on the Sunday evening, to meet everyone else on our corridor and out RA (called Connor who I had already met). This seemed on the surface cool, and I thought it would be along the lines of “say your name, year, where you’re from and a silly fact about yourself” type event and then we would all go and party somewhere or something. However, this was not to be the case at all. Forms had to be filled stating your date of birth, timetable of classes and inside leg measurements and we were read the riot act about drinking, noise and keeping the place clean. Yeah. Exactly.

Now, to those of you who go to an British institution, this will surprise you. Needless to say I sat there with my mouth open thinking “WTF?!”. When I moved into halls in Manchester, I moved in, met my flat mates, went out and then met my RA with a stinking hangover the next morning with him going “I’m your RA, come see me if you need anything”. The rest of the year was spent getting up to mischief and getting on the wrong side of campus security and I never saw my RA again (I can’t even remember what he looks like). Here its completely different. The RA lives in the corridor, and is responsible for the wellbeing of everyone and organising social activities etc. ‘That’s cool’, I thought nice way for people to meet each other and that. But also the RAs on duty every night do rounds of the halls (yes you read right) to ensure everyone is being quiet after 9pm (yes you read that right too). Those in Manchester, imagine that happening in the Tower or Oaks House. It would never happen! Furthermore (and to my increasing amazement, the rules on alcohol are as stringent. There is only to be one open container of alcohol per 21 years old in a room only. ‘What happens if it’s a bottle of vodka one is drinking from?’ I thought to myself ‘does that count as the one or is the cup also an open container?’. Also, even though I’m 21, I can’t have a nice cold beer on a Sunday evening outside of my room on the grass outside or in the lounge watching TV (I have to say however – and Connor don’t read this – these rules are regularly flaunted by most people). This was a bit of American culture I wasn’t quite prepared for, having seen films like ‘American Pie’ and ‘College Liaison’ where it’s all party, party, party in the dorm rooms. And I think in some ways this year could be a long one…

Floundering in Stereotypes (Second Day)

August 2011

So I awoke at 8.30 on the Thursday morning. Well, I say 8.30am, it was actually 3.30am (NC being 5 hours behind the UK), and I wasn’t too happy about that. It was a pattern that continued for a good week longer. But being knackered from my 24hour day the day before, I pretty easily went back to sleep. When it finally seemed a normal time to rise out of bed, I went and had a shower – interesting experience to one who has never lived in a corridor set up before - and went on the hunt for breakfast. I was pointed towards Franklin street by the RA’s who were sat outside the dorm in eagerness for new arrivals (seriously, they were dead keen!) and went off “a-walking”. Franklin Street is about a 5 min walk from Graham Dorm (where I live) in theory. It actually took me 15, with a lot of confusion to the traffic light system in Chapel Hill. It seems that in some places you can just walk across the road and in others you cant. I played safe, not wanting to get arrested for jaywalking, and waited for some nice person to take pity on me and let me cross.

Front of my dorm

Looking onto Franklin Street

What struck me about the place is how big everything is. Big cars, bit roads, big buildings. Even the wasps are bigger here! The biggest problem for me, especially on the first day, was the size of the food. I went into a lovely place called Carolina Coffee House on Franklin Street, enticed by the promise of omelette “with whatever you want” - I should add here that there was a price involved with that, and they couldn’t guarantee to have literally anything you wanted - but anyways, I ordered an omelette and a cup of tea and made small talk with the manager who had once been to England when he was married (v long story trust me). It was then that I noticed other British accents in the place, and after spying them out in a very English way (i.e. subtly you Americans!) I sat there listening to them (OK, being nosey). I quickly realised they were other exchange students, and I knew I had to go over and meet them so I had some friends. Easier to say than done! It took me all of my omelette (a very long time with the size of the dam thing!) and two cups of tea (not the nicest tea in the world – nowhere can do tea like the UK) to pluck up the courage to walk over and introduce myself, worrying that they would rebuff me and laugh at my food baby visible under my t-shirt from the omelette. Needless to say I didn’t have to worry – they were (and still are I guess!) a lovely bunch and we’ve been pretty much inseparable since (look on the peoples page for info about them if you’re interested). I successfully latched onto them like a leach (well, a desperate person for friends), and together we skipped into the sunset in a happy daze… OK, we walked rather slowly due to the horrendous heat as soon as you walk anywhere.  

The UNC campus has only one word to describe it: Beautiful. Well two then: Absolutely beautiful. I was stunned at how amazing it is. And also how large it is too, compared to the likes of Manchester campus. Redbrick buildings set into huge lawns and trees everywhere! This is probably a place to talk about my door and dorm. As previously mentioned I’ve never lived in a corridor setting before, sharing bathrooms and toilets etc. The room itself is ok, slightly bigger than the one I had in first year, with two windows, desks, beds that can be lifted up etc. Now I should mention the fact that I actually share a room. Yep, you read right, I have a roommate. Now while this may not be a problem now, at the time I hadn’t met the lucky chap who was sharing with me and this was somewhat of a concern. What happens if he’s a loud American who likes chopping down trees? Or a sports freak who gets up for a run at 5am every day? Or a sexual maniac who brings women home every night?! What happens then?! There are roughly 20 rooms on the corridor with 2 people in each (except the RA’s room – lucky bugger!) with a lounge at the end that links onto the girl’s side of the corridor. It is however a new experience to have to walk down the end of the corridor to go to the loo or even to get a drink! An experience likely to be most appreciated when I'm back in Manchester with a bathroom shared with a lot less people and a lot less distance away!

Some images of the campus

 

That evening the English lot and I went to Franklin Street for a meal in a place called Spankeys. Now I originally misread the place name and got quite excited about there being a Sankeys in Chapel Hill (to you non-Mancunians, Sankeys is a massive club in Manchester), which would have made an awesome photo. As it was I was being retarded and just managed to avoid making myself look a fool. I would recommend the place though as the food was rather nice (that’s the tourist guide-esk part put in!), and they had cool caricatures on the wall which provided a fair bit of amusement!

After the meal I hooked up with my wonderful mentor Pat for a night out on the town (more of a road really). His housemate Madison was DJ-ing at a club behind Chapel Hill so we went along; Pat to support Madison, me to indulge in culture watching again. The club itself was OK, bit like 5^th Ave for those of you who get the reference, and was fairly full, which is always a good sign! Queuing for a drink however wasn’t good. Now, I don’t want to make a sweeping statement here but some Americans do not know how to politely wait at the bar for a drink. I was waiting for over 30mins for a drink at in the process was pushed, elbowed, screamed past and at one point almost jumped over by others (mainly girls who thought getting their tits out warranted a free drink). The barman himself was a right dick as well. But anyways, after waiting I thought ‘Screw it’ and bought 10 beers in one (not all for myself I hasten to add!). Pats mates who I met – Willy who’s literally like 7 foot and Rayme who’s literally like 4 foot – were really cool and friendly, and they indoctrinated me into the weird world of US clubbing. Now in the UK you may see people making out in the corners of clubs or in the middle of the dance floor. In the US, its borderline sex. No kidding. Needless to say I was amazed and then ended up in hysterics watching one or two couples not getting too far away from just ripping their clothes off and getting down and dirty on the dance floor. An experience it was! Secondly, Americans are much better dancers. Fact. I felt rather awkward with my usual swaying holding a beer and promptly felt obliged to drink some more and just go for it (Mum if you’re reading this I didn’t do that at all. Honestly….). Eventually I couldn’t push off the jetlag anymore and had to retire for the eve, after facing the tricky issue of finding my way alone and a drunk (read sober Mum) leading to me going down some rather dodgy park pathways. Ah well, im still alive today I guess! Filled with apprehension about my roommate possibly having turned up whilst I was out, I quietly (for a drunk person at least) opened the door and found the room empty. Perfect for crashing out!