Thanksgiving and Finals

I apologise for the extreme lateness of this blog post; I have been very busy with Thanksgiving and finals.

Thanksgiving, while a completely bizarre and seemingly unecessary holiday (why have Christmas dinner before Christmas? Doesn't that spoil Christmas? Why even have a holiday just before Christmas?), was really enjoyable. Even though the timing was a little odd, and it was jarring coming back for exams, it was about time that I saw Harry, left Bloomington and ate food in restaurants rather than increasingly disappointing food courts. Indianapolis as an actual place to visit is not as amazing as Chicago.

Chicago just looks really good. The buildings are tall (the Sears/ Willis tower is the tallest building in the western hemisphere) and it was snowy and like a film set in Chicago*. Over the holiday I also got to experience Thanksgiving dinner, which is the same as Christmas dinner. I was pleasantly surprised, having a usual hatred of Christmas food served before Christmas day and not by my mother. Luckily the restaurant was really good. After Thanksgiving I had to return to campus and do loads and loads of work. In America there is no such thing as 'reading week' or 'study leave', so its papers then exams one after another with not much time to do either. Now I understand why Americans drink so much coffee.

Tomorrow morning I am off to Canada. I'm really excited about being in a country where, even if they don't serve tea in mugs in the cafes, they will definitely serve it in mugs at my cousins's house. The clueless American phone company AT&T have given me mixed information about whether my phone will work in Canada, so I'll have to wait and see about that.

I had a really great weekend just before finals week, having dinner with the people from Indiana Student Television where I help out and attending a party with all Americans, but in the past week of finals, where nothing has been happening and each food court has gradually closed until only the worst one is left, I have been really looking forward to leaving. I've enjoyed doing nothing (I only had one final and it was this evening), but I'm ready to see family.

*Presumably the musical 'Chicago'

Halloween and Nashville

I have had an extremely American couple of weeks. By actual Halloween I was ready for the month-long celebration to be over, but on the night itself actually enjoyed myself because I went to a party dressed as a Starbucks coffee and got a lot of compliments. Two days later I went to see the Rocky Horror Show on stage, which was fantastic, although not having been born and raised in America I was a little unfamiliar with some of the audience participation.

Last weekend, in probably the most exciting thing to have happened in America so far, I went with a group of the other Brits to Nashville, Tennessee, home of country music. It was exactly what I expected to be only more so. There were plaid shirts and cowboy hats everywhere, people were drinking from mid-morning, country music blared out of machines in the streets and the bars had names like 'Coyote Ugly's' and 'Cotton-Eyed Joe's.' All the under-21s were served in an extremely relaxed karaoke bar, I visited the Tennessee State Musuem and the Country Music Hall of Fame, and in conclusion I really like the South. I'm sure I wouldn't like the rural South with it's extreme right-wing politics, homophobia and racism, but a big, southern city was pretty cool. I ate the world's most disgusting banana pancakes for breakfast (2% banana, 98% syrup) and tried 'grits' which are like dried rice pudding. What I love about the South is feeling like I'm in a western, hearing the infectious accent and just how different it is from places like Bloomington, which is more similar to the UK.

In a surreal moment, two of the British girls (not me) sang 'Party in the USA' by Miley Cyrus and the entire karaoke bar went wild, and some marines bought them drinks. We also decided to have dinner in Hooters, which was extremely tacky but now I've been there once I can tick it off the experience list and never have to go there again. I have also, technically, been to Kentucky, because the Megabus drove through it to get to Tennessee. Also last week I went to a couple of new restaurants in Bloomington, which was great, and saw Thor: The Dark World. This Friday I may be going to my first IU basketball game.

Here's a picture (from Google) of the Nashville skyline:

Cultural Stuff

Recently, and without leaving Bloomington, I've explored some different areas of America and discovered some pretty interesting things. Last weekend there was a Native American Pow Wow held in the building next to mine (everyone here says 'Indian', I've had it drummed into me on holidays to Canada to say 'Native American'). A Pow Wow basically consists of Indians/ Native Americans dancing, singing and drumming. They sang a prayer for an 89-year-old woman, who was some kind of tribal elder, initiated a really little girl into the troupe of dancers, and danced around wearing a lot of feathers. This was a major distraction from work, because I would time my lunch break so I could watch the 'Grand Entrance', which was the main dance, and then it would inevitably be an hour late. You can't do homework when you could be missing a valuable and educational cultural experience (I learnt very little, I just stood there, watched and ate.)

I have made better friends with some guys on my floor who are stepbrothers. One of them is part Potawatomi Indian and dances through flaming hoops at an Indian summer camp in the holidays, so that was interesting. He makes his own moccassins and his Native American name is 'White Lightning,' so that was pretty interesting.

In the spirit of American Halloween, which, at the time of writing this, doesn't even begin for another two hours but I am already a bit sick of because it's been going on since October the first, we had a floor Halloween social on Monday. We were meant to watch Hocus Pocus but ended up watching Paranormal Activity 3. I expected it to be terrifying but, in my opinion, it wasn't.

I went to a bizarrely premature Halloween party with the guys from my floor on Friday night, and ended up running into nearly everyone from Kent, and two people I knew from the IU TV station and class respectively, 'Meredith' and 'Kurt'. Those are their real names but I put them in inverted commas because I can't get over how people have names I have only ever heard on American TV shows. I also, for the first time in my life, met an actual racist. His name was Hank and he was from Kentucky, visiting Indiana for a volleyball tournament. I can't recall much of our conversation because I was tipsy and the party was very loud, but at one point he said "and that's why I hate black people," gesturing to the crowd of black people who were dancing next to us. I've recently tried to tell this story to a few other people, but it's very hard to quote him directly with the words 'and that's why I hate black people' in a public place. 

Mid-terms and the Weather

I have not blogged in a while because I've had a lot of work recently. For some reason in America there are tests halfway through the term (appropriately called 'mid-terms'). The closest there is to study leave is Fall Break, which is basically having one day off, in which I only have one fifty minute class anyway. Mid-terms are, nonetheless, weirdly relaxed. One girl's phone went off halfway through the exam and she wasn't told off, let alone disqualified. The professor handed out cookies. We also have to write short answers as well as an essay, and it was the first time I've written a short answer to anything since GCSE, so that was interesting.

In other news, some personal bizarre highlights of the past couple of weeks were an American named Colton asking me if I was dating Harry Windsor, a definitely close personal friendship I now have with a girl from LA whose dad is in Breaking Bad, and has been in Modern Family and Parks and Rec*, and a girl in my 20th Century British Fiction class giving a presentation about The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro and making it entirely about Voldemort and Quirrell (don't ask.) I also made friends with some really nice Americans and ate pumpkin bread, because Halloween seems to last the entirety of October.

The most bizarre thing I have seen on campus is the singing abortion man, who stood outside the lecture hall one afternoon and sang a song which went 'It's a baby not a blob' over and over again. He also had an abortion van with giant pictures of foetuses on it. This was bizarre, not only because nobody was having abortions in the lecture hall, but because he, like all the other religious protesters, isn't a student, just an old guy.

The weather has changed dramatically, to the point that it's gone from shorts and t-shirt weather where it's unbearable to be outside to hoodie, jumper and scarf weather where it's unbearable to be outside. People are still wondering around in shorts and t-shirts because they are crazy, and also because they are used to this weather and it's going to get a LOT colder.

A thing that I significantly miss about the UK (as well as all the people) is the cheese. I was asked what type of cheese I wanted in my burger yesterday, and the options were American, Colby Jack or Pepper Jack. Not a clue.


*By 'close personal friendship' I mean we have hugged and she said hi to me and stuff.

Parties, Nutella Fest and Bars

I had a very good weekend.

On Friday night I went to a party off campus, in a student residence building called Smallwood Plaza. When I spoke to an American about Smallwood Plaza, they said 'ooh, don't go to parties there.' At the party (I did not witness this in person) two guys had a fight over a girl and one hit the other around the head with a mug. The security showed up and then the police, and at one point there were three of us unable to leave the party because security was outside. 

Then on Saturday the university had its annual Nutella Festival. Nobody could give me a satisfactory explanation as to why, but every year local bands play and there is free Nutella and food to put it on. I don't think the event is even sponsored by Nutella. I met some nice people there, including someone who looked and acted so much like Mitchell from Modern Family that I struggled to remember his real name, and a girl who probably only likes because I'm British and have seen both Sherlock and Downton Abbey.

In the evening I went to see Pacific Rim with some Americans, because it was playing for free in the union building. On the way to the union I was caught in the worst rainfall I have ever experienced. I didn't think it could get worse than the lightning storm but apparently it can. I was out in it for about ten seconds, with an umbrella, and was completely drenched from head to foot. A wedding reception was taking place at the union building, so I had to walk awkwardly past a load of smartly-dressed wedding guests looking as if I had just dived into the sea with all my clothes on. 

Afterwards I went to an actual American bar and drank pumpkin spice cider, which was fairly disgusting but I drank it all anyway in the spirit of Halloween. 

Also the government has shut down. So that happened. It's not having any affect on me. 

Little Frat House on the Prairie

Last night I went to my first ever frat party, at a fraternity called Delta Upsilon. It was like every other American party I've been to only slightly worse, because it was a lot more like a club night in the UK. It was sweaty and crowded. There was nothing that distinguished it as a frat party, other than the giant Greek letters outside the building and a school photo-style framed picture of all the members. At one point a lot of people were dancing on a fairly narrow raised platform, and I got pulled up onto the platform only to realise that I would inevitably fall off and hurt myself, so sat down on it for ages instead looking foolish. This is what the frat house looked like:

 
To continue the general American-ness of my weekend, I went to Starbucks today to read Little House on the Prairie, which I have to read for my course. Normally I'm not the biggest fan of Starbucks but there's no Costa here so I'm making do with what's available. I don't like how they write my name on the cups (it was mistakenly written as 'Ana' the other day, but today I was served by someone whose name was actually Anne, so obviously she got it right.) As for Little House on the Prairie, it makes me want to go the prairie and build a little house there with three young daughters, so obviously it's doing it's job. The workload here is immense in comparison to the UK, but it's just about manageable. For one of my papers I can illustrate a children's book, which is awesome.

Chicagogate and the American Health Service

There has been a lot of drama amid the British students at Indiana this week, in which certain people got invited on an extremely spontaneous trip to Chicago and certain other people (myself included) didn't. Some people going to Chicago have been extremely guilty and upset about this, having been invited through no fault of their own. Others perhaps less so. It kind of feels like we're all in Year Seven and someone's not invited certain people to their birthday party. A lot of times in the past few days I've suddenly found myself thinking "But we're in our twenties!" It also ruined some plans we had made involving tickets to see Blue Man Group which are so complicated and stressful that I cannot be bothered to explain, except that it is all fine because even though I am now not seeing them I have got my money back.

Although there are individuals among the Brits who I really like, I am relieved that I did not join the frisbee team, and not just because of the physical torture. It's all become a bit too cliquey, which I thought wasn't a thing that happened at university. 

On a separate note, I fell over and grazed my knee during a torrential downpour while attempting to climb over a small wall on the way to class (the path was blocked off and it was the only way to avoid being late.) It became infected and I spent this morning at the doctors and then this afternoon buying new jeans to replace the ones that tore when I fell. 

Here is what happened at the Health Center walk-in clinic before they looked at my knee. I had to see three different people:

1. They measured my height and weight.

2. They took my temperature

3. They took my blood pressure (I said "Um...I'm here about my knee.")

4. They listened to my heart and lungs.

5. They asked me if my parents were alive and healthy, whether I had any siblings, and whether they were healthy. 

6. They asked me about food allergies, medical history, and, bizarrely, drinking habits. I was completely sober when I grazed my knee, it was twenty past nine in the morning. 

As soon as he actually looked at my knee I was out of there within five minutes. It was cheaper than I expected, although more expensive than the jeans. 

On an unrelated note there is a frozen yoghurt shop about a ten minute walk from where I live and the choice of flavours and toppings is incredible. I was in there for two and a half hours with one of the other girls not in Chicago and it is my favourite place on campus. Frozen yoghurt is really good for you so it was basically like eating salad, but with cookie dough and chocolate sprinkles. 

Blood, Sweat and Tears

Tears

It's been exactly a month since I arrived in Indiana, and stress and emotion levels are running high.

Certain people (by which I mean me, but not just me) had a lot to drink and then cried at a party. I was not the first person from Britain to have a bit of a cry in front of other people, I think I was either the fourth or fifth, so that's not too embarrassing. Basically the accommodation situation is not ideal, because my building is pretty antisocial. Everybody seems to only be friends with their clone suitemate, who they share a bathroom with. I mean, literally, there are two large blonde girls with glasses, two pairs of really identical looking black girls, two athletic brown-haired guys, and a genuine pair of identical twins. It's like Noah's Ark. My suitemate, on the other hand, is a Chinese international student. She's really nice, I have absolutely no complaints about her use of the bathroom or anything, it's just she doesn't speak English.

Rather than moving like some of the other English people in my building are doing, which is a lot of hassle, I'm going to persevere. There's a social in the basement tomorrow anyway, and I've got plenty of activities and meetings lined up for this week. Plus I'm making headway with making American friends.

Blood

As for the blood test, it was amazingly ok. I lay down and chatted to the nurse, and at one point somebody called Meryl came to help with something blood-related (I don't know any more medical details than that because I was deliberately not looking or listening properly). As I didn't look at her, I'm going to assume it was Oscar-winning actress Meryl Streep. I didn't feel even a little bit faint, which was fantastic. Plus I've been told I have great veins, so that's a wonderful compliment.

Sweat

I actually have nothing to write about sweat, except that even though I'm excluding myself a bit I have no regrets about not joining the Frisbee team. Apparently yesterday they had to do five push-ups every time they missed the frisbee, which sounds like the kind of thing that might happen in the depths of hell or in a prison for people who have committed the worst crimes imaginable. I am positively celebrating the recent drop in temperature because I prefer to avoid unnecessary sweating.

Other Stuff

The International Student who is not from Kent and had to go to court for drinking three days before his twenty-first birthday had another adventure. This time he ended up in A&E because he was so drunk he had to go on a drip, and now he has to pay over $1000 in medical bills. Bets are being placed on how long he will remain in the United States

The Weird Stuff

America is great, but some things are weird and unsettling. For example:

1. Every day without fail there are a group of protestors outside the buildings where most of the classes are held. They carry signs with lovely slogans like 'Ask me why you deserve hell,' followed by a list saying that all fornicators, adulterers, sodomites, lesbians, fellatists, masturbators, vixens, porno freaks, drunkards, pot-heads, hypocrites, gossips, liars and non-Christians will go to hell. There were some other words that I couldn't make out from the Facebook photo (one of then looked like 'escalators' but it probably wasn't that). Often there a couple of guys outside them wearing rainbow flags reassuring everyone that they don't actually deserve hell, so that's something.

2. Most places that you would expect to sell ibuprofen don't sell ibuprofen. I had to go to the health center*, and then had to give my name and my student ID number twice, before being given a pack of 50 ibuprofen. So enough to last me the entire year then. 

3. A shop that sold toothpaste, deodorant, tampons and condoms did not sell tissues. So far I have not discovered anywhere that sells tissues. America needs Boots. I've not needed to buy new deodorant yet, but I've heard from reliable sources that spray deodorant is hard to come by. As are kettles, but that's a whole separate issue.

4. To be able to enroll in classes next 'semester', we have to take part in a ritual blood sacrifice. The unwilling tributes are summoned one by one for the bloodletting ceremony. Not only must they pay in blood but also in gold. By which I mean all the International Students have to take a blood test for TB, which costs $60. I can understand in theory why this is a good idea, but also I would gladly pay someone not to take my blood. Of course if I had TB I would literally be coughing up blood, in which case they'd be more than welcome to it. My test is on Monday and I cannot wait (no lie, I want it over.)

5. An International Student that I know, not from Kent, was breathalysed after drinking three days before his twenty-first birthday and now has to attend a student court, sort of like Mark Zuckerburg in The Social Network, so that's dramatic. 

6. The American roommate of a girl I know has eleven pillows. Eleven. 

On the other hand, the wide variety of non-alcoholic beverages that aren't tea sort of makes up for all of this. By which I mean, there's lots of pink lemonade and vanilla coke. I haven't dared try the Fanta yet because it seems dangerously orange. 

I also learnt today that during a screening of Disney's Beauty and the Beast for my Children's Literature course that Robby Benson, who is the voice of the Beast, is a professor at IU now, so that's pretty cool. Sadly he did not attend the screening. 

*American spelling only because it is called 'The Health Center', just like the Mall is called 'The Mall.' 

Lightning Storms and Ultimate Frisbee

Parties and Lightning 

I don't feel very well. I went to a party on Thursday night, Friday night and Saturday night, and on Sunday night I was hanging out with people until midnight. I only drank a lot on Thursday, so I am not hungover, just actually ill.

On Saturday night, I ended up at another party hosted by the frisbee team. I learnt another weird fact about America: in house parties where the alcohol is provided boys have to pay to get in, but girls don't. This is really, really stupid. I understand paying for alcohol but I don't understand the gender divide. Being allowed to shoot stray deer with bows and arrows actually makes more sense. It was raining quite a bit and there was the loudest thunder I have ever heard.

After the party, when it had stopped raining, I thought I was heading with a group of people to a party just round the corner from me, but it turned out I was heading off campus on an extremely long walk across Bloomington, to the house of a guy named 'Douchebag Nick.' (He introduced himself as Nick but the douchebag was implied). On the way, we got caught in a lightning storm. It was the heaviest rain I had ever been in, and there were actual lightning bolts rather than just flashes. Douchebag Nick thought it would be cool to take off his shirt and then walk really slowly in front of me.

We arrived at Douchebag Nick's house at around three am, dripping wet, and tried to call two taxis, neither of which showed up. I kind of think they assume we're prank callers with fake British accents. Douchebag Nick offered to drive us home, claiming he's 'a really good driver when drunk.' In the end a girl called her sister who also goes to IU to come pick us up, which was lovely.

Ultimate Frisbee

Despite feeling ill, I thought it would wrong to not show up to Ultimate Frisbee practice after attending two of their parties. I really enjoyed the first four minutes where we sat down on the grass, but after that they asked us to run around the field (I ran a quarter of the way and then cut across.) Everytime they asked us to do any exercise, I wailed 'Noooo' as quietly as I could. At one point I considered running and hiding behind a tree, but I knew they would see me before I reached a hiding place, plus I can't run.

One girl actually threw up halfway though, which was good because I thought it was going to be me that did that. It was awful. They told me it was light-hearted fun but it wasn't. Next practice is on Wednesday but I'm hoping they'll forget I was ever there, or assume my visa expired and I was deported or something.

Funny Questions: 

Is Scotland in England?

Can you run across this field?

Classes and Football Games

So I've now had my first full week of classes. It's weird that everyone uses school vocabulary here, rather than saying 'lectures' and 'seminars'. I picked good courses, all the professors are nice, and I managed to find everything without being late or getting too lost.

An interesting fact that I learned this week is that if you call the local pizza place and order a pizza 'with sprinkles' you get a free condom with your order, so that's nice. I also learnt that Bloomington is overpopulated with deer so it's legal to shoot them for food as long as you use a bow and arrow and not a gun. Good thing I packed my bow and arrow then*.

In the bookstore (I say bookstore because it's called 'The IU Bookstore', not because I'm already American) I was served twice by a guy literally named Chandler. This was my reaction:

Last night I also met a guy called Wilson Phillips...like the band that sing at the end of Bridesmaids. Weird.

The other night I got drunk and agreed to join the Frisbee team, after making them promise that I don't need to have any strength, speed or co-ordination. I am beginning to have second thoughts,  and I don't own the necessary sport shorts.

I also went to (half) a football game. The actual match itself I only kept track of by looking at the score. I have no idea how the game works. The stadium however, was amazing. The marching band was amazing, the guys dressed as Elvis who parachuted in at half time were amazing. It was definitely worthwhile.

In other news, it is 36 degrees (centigrade, obviously) and I need winter.

Funny Questions I Have Been Asked This Week:

Me: My name's Anne
Person: Adam?

Welcome Week

It's difficult to know where to begin because a lot has happened, so I will start with a list of things that I have learnt in Indiana so far.

 1. Americans are friendly. I sneezed on the plane from Boston and the man next to me said 'bless you.' If I say 'thank you' after someone opens a door for me they always say 'You're welcome!'. It's a little alarming. Earlier I passed some people and they all said "Hey, how are you?" I was left awkwardly turning back to them as I walked away so that I could say "I'm fine thanks, how are you?" It's weird. This would not happen on the London Underground.

 2. The food is amazing. The clothes shops are amazing. I've been exploring with a pack of fellow Kent students and some Glaswegians we adopted, and we've been going to the mall a lot. I can't go to the mall without getting 'Let's Go To The Mall' by Robin Sparkles in my head.

 3. Americans really do love English accents as much as everyone said they would. One girl said to me this evening that she just liked hearing me talk. It literally doesn't matter what I say. I said 'toilet roll' rather than 'toilet paper' and she was delighted.

 4. I knew this already, but people have names like Tyler, Ashley, Jesse, Casey, Bailey etc. Whenever I meet an American called 'Alex' or 'Sarah' I feel as though I've been let down a bit.

 5. Fraternities and sororities exist, but no-one has given me a satisfactory explanation of what they do and why, so I'm going to assume it's like on Buffy and they worship lizard gods and use their blood to summon demons.

6. They really do have the red cups at parties.

7. Americans are extremely proud of their college. Take this video as an example. We were played it at orientation, I heard it twice at a party, and I've had it in my head all week. It reminds me of primary school when we used to sing:

  We are the children of Fleetville school 
  We take a pride in the things we do 
  Learning together, and having fun 
  Who's for a good day? Everyone 

Except I think when we sang that in primary school we sang it ironically, whereas the feeling behind the IU one seems to be genuine.

 

 Funny Questions I Have Been Asked

 02? So is that the largest phone company in Australia then?

 Have you, like, met the Queen, or the prince?

 So you go to the University of England?