"inclement weather"

One of the reasons I chose South Carolina as my home for a year was its climate. Before I left England in the summer, when people questioned my choice of university I shut them up with my boasting of moving somewhere with a sub-tropical climate and I had full faith in this claim. So, with tomorrow being the third so-called 'snow day' this semester, I am a more than a little disillusioned and I'm also bloody cold.

However, snow days here are a bit different to what we have in England. For a start, as a general rule, snow days require the presence of snow. Not the case in the South! Two weeks ago the whole university shut down even though it didn't start snowing until 8 at night. Even then, there was no more than an inch or two and yet it stayed closed the following day. As well as this, people went into full on disaster mode; a visit to Walmart the evening before the snow was predicted to start enabled me to witness people fighting for bread. If you've ever been to Walmart then you'll know that you don't wanna get in a fight with this shop's regulars, scary stuff.

People moan about how England deals with the snow but it's taken to a whole new level here. In Atlanta, minimal amounts of snow caused absolute havoc. It was as if there was some sort of zombie apocalypse going on down there. People were abandoning their cars on the motorway, children were having to sleep at school and one woman even ended up giving birth in her car. These issues were mainly to do with bad traffic control and an unforecasted bout of extreme winter weather.

The storm that's predicted to hit tomorrow is meant to be much worse because its not going to bring so much snow as it is ice. Having just had a quick google, the first news site said that 'ice accumulation forecasts "remain mind-boggling if not historical" in cities such as Columbia.' Last night when I was trying to finish a paper/watch the bachelor (mainly the latter, obvs) the programme was rudely interrupted for about 10 mins while a klaxon noise went off in the background and dramatic warnings were shouted out about the impending DOOM that is an inch of ice. I don't know if its just genuinely an extreme rarity for the weather to be this bad but it really does seem a little bit out of proportion. As another international student said, if Scotland worked on the same basis as South Carolina, there would be no education system.

I remember when it snowed last year at Warwick and the university ever so kindly waited for most people to get onto campus before deciding to close for the day, leaving hundreds of students stranded 8 miles from Leam and leading to many hitching lifts or even walking home. But then I guess people in England don't sue like they do in America.

To be honest, the snow days so far have been very enjoyable so I'm not complaining about having another one but it does seem unnecessary. Although this time there's likely to be power shortages and all my foods in the freezer so that's not ideal.

Basically, if South Carolina could just hurry up with the whole sub tropical thing I was promised, that'd be great.

This. Now. Please and thank you.

xxxxx

back for spring semester!

Precisely a week ago, I was dragging myself from my bed and into the car to begin the hideous 25 hour journey back to Columbia and the spring semester at USC. But after a month at home and a few days back at Warwick, I had forgotten some of things about school here that are a little different from England...

People's names.
I can't criticise people for choosing to shorten their names as I have always gone by Flo but some of the students here really do push the limits with this. This week all of our classes have been introductory and the amount of times I've heard completely illogical shortened names is beyond belief.
'Ah yeah, my name's Joseph but I go by William.'
'I'm on the register as Kayleigh but it's actually Julia.'
'My name's Mary but ever since kindergarten people have called me Sophia-Maria'
seriously, what the hell??
By far the best name I have come across this semester goes to a guy in my history class, shout out to Randy Barber!

Fashion Choices.
I had forgotten that girls wear Uggs and Nike shorts here, even when it's so cold you can see your own breath. In most cases, it's either that or leggings, a USC sweater and knee-high boots. All topped off with a trusty, often camouflage-patterned, giant rucksack. Lovely.


Toilet Cubicles
I will never ever understand the American design of toilet cubicles. I have no idea why you would want half-inch gaps either side of the doors which enable you to see who is washing their hands while you get on with your business, nor why the door stops about 2 foot short of the ground. As a child I had a bad experience involving getting locked in the loo and have since been somewhat cautious when it comes to to toilets with no visible means of escape if you can't get the lock undone HOWEVER the ones they have over here are just one step too far.

OMG I'M BRIDDISH
I went to target today in search of a vegetable steamer (as is the wild life I lead) and was in a bit of a rush so asked one of the store assistants where it might be. This was genuinely the conversation that took place during my quest to find a bloody steamer.
'hi, do you know if you sell steamers? the little metal ones you put in saucepans?'
'....'
'sorry, do you know what I mean? you use them for vegetables...'
'you....you have an accent'
Seriously. It's not usually this bad but surely people cannot be this flabbergasted to hear an english accent?!

As well as this, there's also been the welcome decrease in food price, the constant presence of strangely confident squirrels wherever you are on campus, COCKS written in lots of places and y'all said in most sentences. Toilet door gaps aside, it's nice to be back.

xxxxxx

Long overdue update

I have got very behind with updating this over the last few weeks but it has been a pretty manic time. 

Since I last posted I haven't done much travelling but feel like I've done more in columbia and have to admit it's slowly growing on me. We visited Kensington mansion, a plantation just outside the city which was interesting but made me appreciate how good the national trust is and the sheet amount of old houses we have in England. We were only able to look round the downstairs rooms and it seemed like barely anyone visited it even though it was such a beautiful building.

I've also finally visited the columbia nickelodeon movie theatre which is an arty independent cinema in town with the nicest (and cheapest) popcorn I've come across. We saw Twelve Years a Slave which I can honestly say is one of the best films I've ever seen. I came out the cinema a bit of a wreck; it was so sad but also shockingly violent and watching it in the south just made it all feel a lot more relevant. 

November also meant tigerburn time! Basically USC absolutely hates the other big university in South Carolina (Clemson) and so every year they build a big tiger and promptly burn it down to the cheers of the trusty gamecock fans. The whole thing is in anticipation of the Clemson vs usc game which takes place on 'football Saturday' - so catchy- during thanksgiving.

Also during November all my classes really upped their workload and I found myself with even more of a ridiculous amount of reading than usual, as well as a few early exams and some crazily long papers. So when thanksgiving arrived I was very much ready for a break!

We spent the holiday at Paige's in Greenville and it could not have been a more relaxing and enjoyable few days away...meals out, movies and manicures all round. 

I also think over thanksgiving I finally turned southern. I ate turkey and marshmallow-covered-yams, discovered my love for the country singer Luke Bryan and at long last began to understand the rules of American football and actually enjoyed watching the match, mainly because we thrashed Clemson.

Returning back to campus after a week of being taken care of and fed delicious food was a harsh reality check made worse by the looming prospect of finals. 

I had originally thought that having exams before Christmas would be pretty good, nice to get some out of the way rather than having everything stacked up on summer tests however I completely take this back - I hate finals!

Having multiple exams and papers while trying to pack my whole room up and pack to go home was not enjoyable but thankfully, with copious amounts of tea and red bull, the seemingly impossible was achieved and everything got handed in on time.

I'm now sat at columbia airport about to board my first flight to Washington which I have heard dreadful things about but fingers crossed everything will go smoothly and this time tomorrow I'll be living it up norfolk style.

I can't really believe that my first semester is finished. It has gone by SO quickly - when people tell you your year abroad flies by they aren't lying. There's definitely been high and low points and although I am (so so so) excited for England I know in January I'll be looking forward to coming back for spring term.

Although I definitely will not miss usc fashion choices...