St. Valentine's Day

Valentine’s Day: similar to Marmite in that you probably love it, or loath it. A day to overspend on loved ones, or indeed, ‘the one’, Valentines can end up turning into a living nightmare for chocoholics, singles or indeed those in long standing relationships. But instead of face planting into a bowl of calories and girlie chick flicks, isn’t it time to just appreciate those we care about?

With so much hype centred around this idea that you have to be in ‘love’ to enjoy Valentine’s Day and if you’re single you must fit the stereotype of being downright depressed, drinking wine by the gallon and tucking into your second tub of Ben and Jerry’s Cookie Dough by 7pm, it can be easy to miss the point of St. Valentine entirely.

For the past two Valentine’s Day’s my boyfriend at the time completely forgot to even send me a card! Two years in a row! Instead, I had to answer the front door to beautiful bouquets being delivered to not one, but both of my single housemates. That was enough to send anyone out their right mind! So I’ve come to the conclusion that if no one loves you on Valentine’s day, they probably don’t like you any other day of the year either, cynical I know!

I’m overly excited to see how America handles this consumer driven, cliché day. Obnoxious looking cards are plastered in every store, hideous oversized teddy bears and chocolates wrapped in love heart shaped boxes almost make me happy that I’m single. Arguably, being single on Valentine’s Day is actually a blessing in disguise, I’ve been invited to so many themed events that I’m struggling to plan how to fit them all in! From a typical American ‘Singles Awareness’ evening, fit with a piñata (of course!), to a ‘Galentine’s’ evening (girls only) with copious amounts of home baked goodies and films. Other options include, raiding the single population of Columbia’s downtown, watching an annual performance of Eve Ensler's award winning play ‘The Vagina Monologues’ or simply going to IHOP with my best friend for heart shaped pancakes. I’m totally spoilt for choice!

One of the things I love about Valentine’s Day is that if you look carefully enough, there’s a particular facial expression that you will only ever see on February 14^th. It’s the smug look of guys exchanging shrugging grins with other males clutching flowers and boxes of chocolates. Whilst everyone recognises the innate ludicrousness of a single day where guys are expected to buy their secret admirer or better half flowers and/or chocolates (conspiracy spearheaded by Hallmark?). If you look past all the consumerism, you’ll see blokes jumping at the chance to tell that said person how much they mean to them, and who said romance was dead? A bit of guts and glory chivalry can go a long way!

So whilst we can’t all be treated like a princess for 24 hours and expect Ryan Gosling to come sweep us off our feet, maybe it’s time to step out the comfort zone, if only for a moment, to tell that person in your Chemistry class you actually would like to grab a coffee together.    Instead of staying camouflaged behind the safety net of your iphone, impassively swiping through apps like Tinder, or spending hours on Facebook day dreaming about the girl who lives next door. I’m sure Shakespeare is rolling in his grave at the lack of grand gestures and manly courage, maybe we should take a note out of his book this V-day and simply remember that ‘The course of true love did never run smooth’… 

Swimming Stateside

Symptoms of a swimmer: sweating chlorine, dry scaly skin and permanent goggle marks.

As a ‘retired’ swimmer, 5am starts and endless training sessions are a thing of the past. But it appears that some habits die hard. With my dorm room beginning to smell more and more like a swimming pool every day and chlorine chemicals becoming embedded into my skin, the competitive swimmer I used to be seems to be making reappearance with my thirst to get back in the pool and get in shape.

The phrase “I can’t, I have swim training” is one I consistently over-used growing up. Parties, days out, trips to the cinema and endless other weekend activities were always put on hold when swimming was on the cards. Now, I find myself stumbling over the exact same words when other students ask me to grab dinner or go down town. What is happening?

One of the biggest differences between the University of Kent and the University of South Carolina is the sports facilities. The fact that I can train 9 times a week, every week, with an actual team and go as much or as little as I want is amazing! Kent up your game! I cannot articulate clearly enough how big college sports is in the USA. A business worth billions of dollars, it makes its money from attendance at sports events, sponsorship and TV rights. It’s no wonder that the Universities here have the money to invest in top athletic facilities and coaching for their students.

With all these extra training sessions I decided that competing may not be entirely out the picture. At the weekend I travelled to Athens, GA where The University of Georgia campus is situated. The pool was undeniably amazing (yet another small reminder of Kent’s lack of facilities)! I swam in both the Free and Medley Relays and surprised myself in ranking second in both the 50 and 100 Breast. A worthy effort for an ‘old timer’!

Whilst I haven’t quite got to the stage where my swim suit is constantly rubbing my neck and giving me obnoxious looking ‘love bites’, I know that my childhood sport will probably always stay with me. Even when I can no longer go sub 27 seconds for 50 free, I am constantly reminded by the fact that I can never fit into the tops I want to wear with my ‘swimmer shoulders’ and always seem run out of conditioner before my shampoo is half empty. #swimmerproblems.

#neknominate

Binge drinking seems to have taken a step too far this week with social media going crazy over a so called ‘game’; ‘neknominate’. The game reportedly started in Australia and has since gone global. It encourages friends to ‘nek’ or ‘down’ a beer, (or in some cases a dirty pint filled with all sorts of concoctions) film it, upload the video to Facebook and nominate two friends to do the same thing. If you break the chain and don’t succumb to peer pressure you lose respect from these ‘supposed friends’. By nominating friends online, the videos spread like wildfire with people creating short films of themselves drinking half naked in the Alps, underwater, upside down or even ‘neking’  a pint right before doing a bungee jump. While some may see this only as a game, and call me boring, a spoil-sport, a push over, or any other name for that matter, drinking large volumes of alcohol in a short period of time can have very scary and very real consequences. In the UK this weekend, two boys aged 22 and 19 have died after taking part in this ‘game’. We should be questioning this!

Trust me, I like to go out and have fun like many other students my age, I do not condone drinking alcohol in proportion. But binge drinking? Drinking to excess? Drinking past your limits? To show off? Something doesn’t quite add up here. The really scary part is that because this ‘game’ is all online, the added peer pressure is enormous. Everyone on Facebook can see your nomination and how you respond. If you fail to complete the challenge, make it funny or different, then suddenly you become the characterless, dull friend in your friendship group. Moreover, because you have to respond to the nomination within 24 hours, there is an added time pressure. Not only do you have to decide if you want to give in to your bullying friends, you also have to think of a way to be inventive and how you’re supposed to down a pint in between your classes, rehearsals, sports training, meetings or whatever other commitments you have in those 24 hours.

Surely there is another way for people to show they’re loving life and up for challenges? This game has almost normalised and celebrated the binge drinking culture, forcing people to surrender to nothing more than intimidating friends to make it seem like they are incessantly partying. In my opinion, this copy-cat game is not only pathetic, but extremely dangerous, and needs strong minded people to turn around and simply say no.

Sexed-up Society

After two days off school due to the rare sighting of snow in South Carolina, going back to lessons at 10am yesterday morning was a bit of a struggle to say the least. But as my fellow class mates slowly pondered into our lesson, frozen and sleepy, everyone seemed wide awake when our teacher announced that our lesson was going to be on ‘sex’, focusing especially on how women are portrayed as sexual objects in the media.

The media obsess about women’s bodies and how we’re supposed to preen ourselves to look a certain way. Every product in the cosmetics aisles promises clearer skin, shinier hair and fuller lips. Society tells us that if we don’t look a certain way we won’t be successful and we won’t end up with the ‘right’ kind of man.

It wasn’t that long ago that the fashion industry started using computer-generated mannequin bodies with real women's heads to advertise their products online. Each model had the same curve in the waist, the same arc of the hand, and the same wash-board stomach. Only when you line them up alongside one another does it become blaringly obvious that they are actually unnatural computer-generated mannequins with the heads of real models. Makes us all seem like dummies really! But the scary fact is that society kind of just accepts it, somehow it’s become ‘normal’ to use artificial images of women. Because, after all, don’t we all strive for that impossible perfection?

Beyonce has become the ultimate portrayal of this ‘perfection’. But what message is she really sending out to young girls? At the 2014 Grammy Awards on Sunday, arguably the biggest night in the music industry, Queen Bey chair danced alongside her husband, rapper Jay Z, in one of her hottest outfits yet. But leaving little to the imagination in a skimpy, strappy, extremely seductive tight black thong bodysuit, made me (the rest of my class) question why?.... Simply because sex sells! And not only this, even if we don’t have Beyonce’s body, vocal skills or swagger – she teaches young girls that the only way to be successful is to dress provocatively. In stark contrast, hubby Jay Z was dressed in the most expensive looking suit I’ve ever seen. Why is it that men don’t have to dress the same way as women in order to be seen and heard? This power couple dominates the media, sending alarming messages to young girls, but also showing men that if you dress a certain way you can get a girl like Bey.

I feel like complaining about the sexualisation of women in magazines and the media is as common as complaining about the weather. But if it’s such a hot topic, why is nothing being changed? It’s been drilled into our society that girls have to be beautiful and sexy in order to get above the rest. Women have always been portrayed as sex objects, but just far will the media push this? Celebrities posing semi-nude on the front of men’s magazines looks like straight up porn! When are we going to be seen as something other than our exterior?  Just some food for thought.

Snow Day

Only in South Carolina….

When there’s the off chance of snow, no matter how small, even if it’s been 20 degrees and beautiful sunshine all day, it makes complete sense to cancel class! It appears snow is such a rare sighting in South Carolina that people freak out even more than the British!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Message from the President:

‘January 27, 2014

Dear Students:

It looks as though some inclement weather may be heading in our direction. Even though it’s a balmy 67° today, weather reports indicate that a possible winter storm will impact much of South Carolina, including the Midlands, this Tuesday and Wednesday. We will follow the lead of Richland County regarding closings or delays.

I imagine you might view the possibility of a snow day with mixed emotions. It might mean cancelled classes, an opportunity to build a bigger-than-life snow Cocky, or some additional study time. All are possible, but I am asking each of you to remember that there are safety issues to consider as well. Whether participating in outdoor activities, walking or especially driving, please use good judgment and take reasonable steps to ensure your safety and the safety of your friends.’

Alive and Kicking

Readers, sincere apologises for the lack of blogging this month! The last couple of weeks have passed in a whirlwind so I thought I would write a short post to assure you all that I am indeed alive and well – Hi Mum!

 

Christmas break has been and gone in a flash, and after two extraordinarily busy weeks playing role reversal and acting as Lindsay’s personal ‘tour guide’ in London I am back in the US of A, casually sipping a cup of tea and munching on the last of my galaxy chocolate. But, as I sit here wearing a pair of Norts and my bright Nike trainers, I can’t help but think; ‘Oh no, I’ve conformed!’ But rest assured, I am actually going to the gym today, I haven’t quite reached the stage of lounging around in my sports gear just because!

Fitting back into American college life has been surprisingly easy, I haven’t felt as homesick as I thought I would and catching up with American friends over coffee has made South Carolina feel like my ‘home away from home’. It’s going to be undeniably hard to say goodbye to some of the friends I’ve made over here when the school term finishes.

School-wise it’s taken no time at all to get back into the swing of things, apart from feeling like ‘the new girl’ all over again and receiving the same shocked looks when I introduce myself, my classes all seem incredibly interesting so I can’t wait to get stuck in. Auditions, gym classes, going out and even a cheeky trip to Myrtle Beach have consumed the majority of my time over the last two weeks, this Semester is looking to be even better than the last!

For those of you who have already forgotten what I look like; here’s a picture to confirm my existence…. and bad eating habits. (Yes, I’m guilty; I have already been back to Pawley’s since the beginning of term!)

New Year. New You?

2013. A year that will be remembered for the bombing at the Boston marathon, the deaths of Margaret Thatcher and Nelson Mandela, the birth of a new heir to the British throne – Kate and Wills babe, and Andy Murray’s success at Wimbledon.

2013. A year that I will remember as a year of friendship, heartbreak and of course, the fantastic opportunity to fly half way round the world and study abroad in my very own bubble that looks an awful lot like a scene from ‘American Pie’.

This time of year is full of reflection and promises as we all try to set unbelievably impossible new years resolutions that even ‘A’ list celebrities and professional athletes cannot maintain.

Even the resolution to NOT make any more resolutions seems to have failed. So I should probably come up with some more realistic resolutions other than to become stick thin and glamorous, maintaining a size zero toned body by going to every fitness class available at the University multi-million dollar gym. Maybe I should resolve to get rid of all my odd socks lying in the depths of my sock draw, that is once I've actually figured out how I would get rid of them – giving them to charity almost seems offensive! Then there’s the standard new years resolutions that everyone ‘pretends’ they will attempt; travel more, read more, use your iphone less, drink less, lose weight, exercise more etc etc. Perhaps I should keep mine short and sweet, nothing too extreme; I resolve to try and maintain my 4.0 GPA and to earn an internship over the summer in a field I’m actually interested in going into…

New Years Eve plans are always left right up to the last minute in our household and vary dramatically year to year; from random house parties to watching fireworks on the piste in the Alps . I vote New Years Eve as the most problematic night of the year! The friends you want to spend it with inevitably have boyfriends who they have to spend it with. The pressure to have ‘the best night of your life’ or even just a good time is immense, and more often than not, the outcome is rather soul crushing and kind of depressing. The most ambitious plans seem to be the ones that always go wrong so I’ve come to conclusion that the best New Year's Eves are the ones that just happen to fall into place and come about largely by accident. This year was no exception! With the addition of my American buddy Lindsay to the mad Barraclough household, there was even more pressure to do something out of this world amazing so that Lindsay could rant to everyone back across the pond and bore them to death with jealousy. After being in the country for less than half a day, I decided to drag jet-lagged Lindsay up to London to watch the magnificent fireworks that take place on the iconic London-eye. Approaching the evening with the lowest possible expectations worked absolute wonders; yes there would be thousands of people pushing up against us all night, yes it would most likely rain, yes we would have to wait for a good 3 ½ hours on Southbank and yes it would probably take FOREVER to get home. But, with each other for company; laughter, giggling and generally just loving life seemed like the perfect way to end 2013.