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: