NC Bound!

I'm currently just chilling out at JFK airport waiting to board my plane in 20min so it's update time!

Vermont was fantastic! I loved being able to see mountains and lakes - reminded me a bit of home! I stayed with my friend Marea who lives in Middlebury and goes to university there. The campus is beautiful! It only has 2000 students and is a very liberal and artsy campus.

Generally I spent the weekend just hanging out with Marea and getting to know her college life which was lots of fun. Vermont is very cold! I also got a language lesson from the taxi driver on the way out to the airport about the meaning of Vermont - apparently there is some famous guy that couldn't speak French properly so instead of saying "montagne-Verte" for green mountain, he said ver-mont. I guess it just stuck! 

The day I arrived, we went to Ben and Jerry's which is this delicious icecream shop in the States! As it was Marea's room mate's birthday, the challenge was put forward that we eat an entire Vermonster.












Yes, this entire bucket is what four of us ate. Well, nearly ate it all. It was delicious for the most part, but I think I am put off Ben and Jerry's for a good while now. We rolled out of the store and headed for Middlebury, with Marea and I in a definite icecream coma for the majority of the trip!



Here are a few photos of the campus

This is called the Chateau. It is the French department building, I thought it was cute.

As you can see, the campus is very green and sparse. It was great to see another college town other than Chapel Hill and to compare the two.

OH MY GOD, I haven't told you about the FOOD! Amazing. AMAZING food! Everything is organic and they have real bread in their dining halls! Such a change from the Agora's sugar filled everything. We went to a talk from a farmer that is on the documentary Food Inc. and in Michael Pollan's the Omnivore's Delimma which are two texts I am studying for my American Studies class at UNC. He didn't really say anything new, except a lot of stuff to do with how young people don't know the difference between straw and hay and he brought up a lot of American politics at which point my mind was wandering to other things.

I have to board my plane now, hope ya'll had a great weekend!

xx

Sitting, Waiting, Wishing...

Apparently the middle of the night calls for blogging. I am currently waiting for my 4am taxi to the airport to see Marea in Vermont! So to kill time.. and not fall asleep.. I thought I would chuck in a wee blog entry :)

This week has been rather pointless as I have had copious amounts of schoolwork to do which I will not bore you the details of. However, it was Philly boy's 21st on Wednesday so we went out to dinner to a Mexican restaurant called Bandido's before going out to this bar called "the library" (great name) and Phil had his first taste of alcohol... just going to add in here that Phil is Irish. Because this is an unneccessary blog post which calls for unneccessary facts.

More facts! My favourite thing an American has told me so far...

"Oh New Zealand! My friend went there on a missionary trip to help ya'll out and bring peace to your country"

Um. Thanks mate. Pretty sure we're a rather peaceful bunch?

Classic. I love this country. But actually. I don't want to come home!

This trip to Vermont is my first time travelling ALONE in the States. Knicole and I make a great team when travelling, she leads me through airports and I hold her hand on the plane. I'm just hoping I don't get lost in the airports without her.. being in the northern hemisphere I still can't figure out which way is north, or probably up for that matter. You would think it's logistically simple, but alas my dear friends, my brain works in mysterious ways.

Anyhoo! Staying awake for this taxi is harder than staying awake in my phonology lecture..

I've booked my flights home - unfortunately. I wisssssh I had unlimited money and could keep travelling forever. I have met, as I have already said before, some of the most amazing people in the world and I couldn't be happier :)

Ok, before I get all sentimental on you (Alice I have also just written you a 21st birthday card, beware I am extremely tired and it gets rather excited and wistful in some parts) I shall leave it at this, you lot already think I'm weird enough!

Enjoy the sunshine - I'm headed north to winter! Joy. At least I am used to it! Oh and I'm home on February 1st. Mark it in your calendars!

Last Weekend in Chapel Hill... wait, what?!

I just had my last weekend in Chapel Hill until December!

I'm leaving on a jet plane to see some of America these coming weekends, too bad about schoolwork!!

Next weekend I'm off to see my friend Marea at Middlebury in Vermont where she goes to university, then up to New York the following weekend with Knic, heading to Conneticut for my first American Thanksgiving with Ashley and her family and finally, the weekend before exams (oops) we are going to Orlando! Harry Potter world!!! So excited. Then hello Europe! Ireland, Denmark, Spain and Switzerland before I'm homeward bound and off to Rippon festival in the SUN. I can't wait to get back to Summer! But I can, I don't want to come home just yet!! Sorry guys, I'm having too much fun :)

I can't believe how seriously fast my exchange is going!

Best thing I've ever done.

A friend made this documentary about the exchange students for one of her classes, Ben may exaggerate a little.

Fall: A walk around Chapel Hill