Aeroplane Adventures

Travelling alone can be a frightening and nerve-racking experience for the best of us. Passport? Visa? Boarding pass? So many things to remember, so many things you end up wishing you’d left at home.

Though most children want the safety of a mother figure holding their hand during take-off and landing, I learnt from a young age that my mother preferred instead to squeeze with tremendous strength the arm rest bars either side of her seat, whilst taking deeper than deep breaths and closing her eyes shut as tight as possible to wish herself away to some foreign destination!

You meet the strangest people on flights; lone rangers travelling the world, young mummy’s and their tiny tots, crazy family’s attempting the yearly excursion abroad and grouchy businessmen turning their noses up at anyone in economy class. On my journey back to the UK I had to take two flights, changing at Atlanta. The first flight was possibly the most stressful flight I’ve ever undergone; with under an hour to get from the domestic terminal to the international one, it was going to be a close call, but to make things worse, the first flight was 45 minutes delayed! (Leaving me with practically no time at all to make my connection).This meant teeth gritting facial expressions on my behalf – not to mention the swollen hands obtained from crushing them with my bony bum.  

The 6’ 5’’ Basketball player I ended up sitting next to, proved to be a light hearted distraction to the disaster at stake if I missed my flight home on Christmas Eve. The conversation went like this:

Stranger: ‘So you’re an English Literature Major?’

Me: ‘I am indeed’

Stranger: ‘Who’s your favourite author then?’

Me: ‘Well I love Jane Austen – I’m definitely an Austen kind of girl!’

Stranger: ‘Oh really? My name’s Austin….’

CRINGE

Lucky I managed to clamber onto the flight to London right at the last minute. Greeted by my Dad at Heathrow, the past 24 hours felt like the longest in my life, but it was all worth it to surprise the rest of my family who weren’t expecting my arrival. The look on my mum’s face when I walked in was absolutely priceless. My simple ‘Surprise! Merry Christmas Mum!’ turned into endless sobbing and confusion - needless to say my mother refused to let me out of eye-sight all day. After living across the other side of the world for 4 ½ months I’m happy to be home for Christmas surrounded by the people I love. Bring on the New Year! Bring on Semester 2 at USC!

Need Oxygen?

Colorado. Known for the Denver Broncos, the Rocky Mountains, Pikes Peak, Mesa Verde National Park, Gold mining and ghost towns, rejecting the Olympics and of course the wide array of outdoor activities, including; skiing, snow-mobiling, trout fishing and elk hunting. 

Before heading back to dreary London for the Christmas holidays I was kindly invited to stay in Denver, Colorado, with a friend who was on my Swim team back in Kent last year. Sarah, hospitable and lovely as ever, ensured that my stay in Colorado was one I wouldn’t forget with a jam-packed, fun-filled timetable, bursting with activities ranging from spinning down a tubing hill on the side of a mountain to kicking back and slurping frozen strawberry margaritas.

As I flew into Denver International Airport the sun was setting and the sky lit up in the most beautiful blood orange colour outlining the mountains. Talk about picturesque! This glimpse of landscape was only a peek at what was to come.

Known as the ‘mile high city’ (as Denver really is a mile above sea level!) I was pretty much forced by Sarah to down large quantities of water in order to help my body adjust to the higher altitude. After I acclimatised to the somewhat colder weather than sunny South Carolina, the adventures began with trips to the Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Coors Brewery and the Denver Zoo lights.  With my body adjusting to the thinner and dryer air, we decided to take a weekend trip up to the mountains – the White River National Forest. Staying in a cosy ‘condo’ ski chalet, it was the perfect get away from hectic finals week and exam stress. The mountains were covered in snow and we woke to fresh fallen powder – a perfect ‘white Christmas’ scene. Tubing, a sleigh ride, peppermint schnapps hot chocolate and Rocky Mountain oysters (aka bull testicles) made for a memorable trip filled with laughter and good company. 

Frolicking in the snow

Tubing on Copper Mountain, Colorado.

Two Timer

While everyone is studying (cramming) for finals, I thought I would share a video of my group’s final project for our Film and TV Acting class this semester. Please take into consideration that this is an amateur production – student written, student directed, student acted and student produced! Although this may not qualify for a BAFTA award or be an Oscar nominating performance, we had great fun producing it and I’ve loved the experience of learning a new skill in front of the camera.

Enjoy!

Brit's Perspective

When Oscar Wilde said ‘America and Britain are a single country divided by a common language’ he really wasn’t joking! With my first semester at USC coming to an end I think it’s important to remember not just the things I’ve learnt but actually what I have taught…

British people speak English, and no, just because I’m from England does not mean that I know your friend from France. I haven’t been to Paris, the capital of England - there’s no such thing! No, I’m not Australian. England isn’t near Europe, it’s in it. Wales isn’t a town in England. Scotland isn’t either. And it doesn’t rain ALL the time. Cheers means thank you. Yes, we have cell phones, MacDonald’s and black people in the UK! We also have the internet and Facebook; we do not live in the dark ages! Yes, we drive cars in England, not all of us have 4x4’s though. Just because I have blonde hair doesn’t mean all British girls are blonde. Half past four is not 2pm. I don’t have a favourite ‘soccer’ team, and no, I don’t know your friend’s Great Uncle who moved to Manchester in 95. A playsuit is a romper. Sorry for putting an ‘x’ at the end of my text messages, they’re kisses, as a term of affection! When I ask you; ‘are you alright’ I’m just being friendly and asking about your day, I don’t need to hear about the last time you had a check-up with the doctor. We drink tea with milk, and biscuits are for dunking not pouring gravy over.  We also drink coffee. For us, the point of a party is to get drunk as quickly as possible - the colour of the cups isn’t that important. No, we’re not all religious and I haven’t met the Queen. I don’t know how the baby is getting on (and by that I mean Kate and Will’s). And yes, we like Obama.

I’ve been grilled with all sorts of odd questions about England this past semester and met so many people who don’t even own a passport! So US of A I hope you’ve enjoyed reading my blogs the past couple of months, maybe I’ve enlightened your opinion, or at least, given you a different perspective!

Thanksgiving

‘Does England have Thanksgiving’

‘No’

‘But you have Christmas though, right?’

For my first ever Thanksgiving holiday I was fortunate to experience it in true American style as I was kindly hosted by the Tripp family in Kentucky. With mountains of food piled up to my eye balls, stepping onto the scales is going to be a painful experience!

Filling the long drive from South Carolina with snapchat videos and karaoke singing, I’m sure Lindsay and I would make a tuneful international duet! With no idea what Thanksgiving was all about, Lindsay ensured that I did all the stereotypical American things including watching ‘A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving’ and of course the Macys Thanksgiving parade in New York. Thousands of people prance down 34^th street as part of the parade, children with perfect white teeth, dance around ginormous floats dressed as pretty much anything; santas, elves, munchkins from ‘The Wizard of Oz’, clowns and cartoon characters. Whilst hundreds of adults hold onto giant balloons including; Buzz Lightyear, Ronald McDonald and figures from Sesame Street.  With Gavin DeGraw and songs from ‘The Sound of Music’ blasting through the TV I couldn’t help but sing along, thus receiving a compliment from Mommy Tripp; ‘Alice sounds like she should be on Broadway!’ (Oh I wish!) The parade continued with kids who look way too young for a career in the music industry belting out Christmas songs and waving frantically at the camera whilst Miss America Nina Davuluri ironically passes by standing on top of the Drake’s Cakes float. Who ever heard of Beauty queens and carbs?

But carbs are basically what Thanksgiving is all about. Pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes, turkey, stuffing and green bean casserole dominated the dining room table as we sat down and said our thanks for being so fortunate to enjoy this food. Lindsay and I even attempted some baking ourselves, which was a lot more difficult than we originally anticipated! Anyone who has tasted my little sister’s baking knows she’s a fantastic cook – especially when it comes to Victoria Sponge and Millionaire Shortbread! So with my sister’s recipe to hand, we decided to attempt the Millionaire Shortbread, but we had a few minor issues to overcome…. Firstly, we didn’t have the right ingredients, the Tripp’s had never even heard of Golden Caster Sugar or Golden Syrup so we had to try and find American equivalents! Furthermore, all the measurements were in grams, which completely baffled my American chef. When I asked where the scales were I was just laughed at! It turns out in the States they measure in volume, not weight and so we had to convert everything into ‘cups’. Eventually we sussed out the recipe and the sugar coated shortbread was a success, alongside Lindsay’s infamous home-made cinnamon buns (which were my personal favourites).

This holiday couldn’t have come at a better time. As my first semester at USC draws to an end it allowed me to reflect on the truly amazing opportunity I’ve been given to study abroad. At the dinner table on Thanksgiving Day everyone wrote things down that they were grateful for on small pieces of card, then drew them out from a bowl and guessed who had said what. Apart from Lindsay’s comical brother adding ‘The Queen – God save her’ to the list, it was pretty easy to work out which card was mine. But, instead of giving a long list of all the things I’m thankful for (there’s so much!) I’ll just say how thankful I am to my parents for giving me the chance to see the world from a new perspective. I’m also incredibly thankful for the friends I’ve made State side and, of course, for being invited back to the lovely Tripp household to celebrate my first ever Thanksgiving holiday.