the URL of this blog is now a dirty great lie....

...because I am home! And boooooy does England look fine right now.

In classic british fashion I will begin with the weather which has been nothing but ab fab since I've been back. Everything's green and there's flowers everywhere. I have always thought I might be a SAD (seasonal affective disorder - i know, is it really a thing?) sufferer and now I know for certain because all I wanna do is bask in the glorious sunshine and instagram plants and somehow the presence of a blue sky is helping me forget about the fact that I'm no longer living in America.
As well as this, I've been continually busy more or less the whole time I've been home, so although this means that you genuinely cannot see the carpet in my bedroom, and that there's a whole unopened suitcase looming downstairs, I also haven't had a huge amount of time to mope/dwell/be sad. but I think it will hit pretty soon.

anyway enough of that, I realise I still have not blogged about any of my travels since Christmas and I'm thinking I might just do a rather photo-heavy overview of all the marvellous places I was lucky enough to visit. My most recent adventure was actually getting out of America which proved alot harder than I had anticipated.

In fact, my journey home took about 24 hours longer than it should have done which was not ideal. In fact, even though I really hate the phrase 'having a mare', my journey home was a complete and utter MARE. Honest to god, it was 10% tearful goodbyes, 10% normal plane journeys, 10% driving on small norfolk roads and 220203483% waiting in dismal dallas aiport.
imagine the following conversation, 9 at night, with me progressively crying more and more as it goes on....

me: hi, sorry I'm running late because my first flight didn't get in on time, can you let me on the flight please?

airport man: Hi, sure....let me just check that for you......ah, it's actually gone.

me: right, when's the next one?

man: hmmmm, ah great! there's one pretty soon! tomorrow! 4pm!

me: are you joking

man: alas, no. but dont worry!! wipe those tears away, we'll find a nice comfy hotel for you in no time. And we'll get you your checked bag back so you can change clothes too

me: ok, thankyou

strange northern man next to me in queue: yeah don't worry love, they'll get you sorted with a nice hotel, nice fluffy robe, free shampoo. THE WORKS.

 - 10 minutes pass, crying decreases somewhat -

man: right. good news and bad news I'm afraid. Bad news: we can't get your bag back. Also there's no hotels.

me: CRYING

man: but good news! here's a free food voucher, everything in this terminal closes in 5 minutes so be quick.

anyway so I bought the essentials (some water and a packet of juicy fruit, obviously) and settled down to a night of netflix and internal anger at the airline.

anyway so this has become long but basically it took me a long time to get home.

can't say it wasn't worth it though. xxxx

bad blogger

Oh dear oh dear poor blog what has happened?!
My relatively regular posting during fall semester has gone down the drain and I have absolutely no excuse other than the fact that since I returned in January I've been having such a nice time that blogging has somewhat fallen on the back burner.

ANYWAY in an effort to rectify this I thought I'd do a few shorter posts rather than a huge essay about the whole term. Since I last posted, I've been lucky enough to visit the west coast twice, I've met a load of lovely new people and discovered a whole different side to Columbia, I've moved rooms into an apartment with two of the loveliest americans ever, I've finished classes and sat my exams and am now finally DONE with third year in terms of work (except for a pesky dissertation but I'm averting attention from that for now).

I'm also now in my last week in America. In fact, I've only got 3 full days here left, which makes me want to cry a lot. Somehow this semester the deep south has begun to feel a lot more like home than I ever thought it would and the idea of leaving it for what will be potentially a long time is very strange indeed.

I no longer find it weird that even though its 30 degrees or more outside, I still have to take a cardigan out with me because of the air-conditioning. I like grits, and I like eggy bread being served with syrup, not ketchup. I'll take an Arnold Palmer over a coke anyday and if it's sugary enough I might even drink a bit of sweet tea. Flip-flops aren't just for the beach, and when I go for a 'hike' I proudly wear my fake norts (nike shorts) - thankyou walmart. I don't go to uni, I go to school, and when I say GO COCKS I'm no longer taking the piss.

I don't feel like I'm 'studying abroad' anymore. The novelty has worn off in the best way possible, and I just feel like a USC student, so leaving all things garnet and black behind is going to be hard.

This sounds a little deep and sad when I don't mean it to. I'm looking forward to england and everyone in england a huge deal but living somewhere for almost a year is just about long enough to get to know it properly and to miss it properly.

I will miss having this as my house....

...and this for my garden.

And no gym will ever come anywhere close to this place.

As a true gamecock would say,"Here's a health, Carolina, forever to thee!"