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.