Long Time No Blog

Wow, this has been a lot harder to keep up with than I first thought. I am again sorry, but I hope you will understand I've been busy with work and all of that. Also, I have been having fun with Halloween (wow, a lot of the women realy do dress like sluts...) and of course seeing the mighty John Cleese, right here in Davis! He was absolutely hilarious, doing a show that was half stand up, half a talk on his life and times with its share of poignant moments. He did a fantastic skit on Weston-Super-Mare and how shit it is, which naturally I found more funny than 90% of the rest of the audience.
Back to Halloween. Although not quite the huge event I had expected, it was still bigger than anything that ever occurs in the UK, with whole shops just popping up for the event (you know those Christmas warehouses? Just like that, funniest thing I've ever seen. The womens section was just a cavalcade of sluttiness, and the mens section was... a wall.) It did mean I could get my hands on some half price bags of Halloween candy on November 1st and 2nd however, so I now have some tasty Milk Duds in the fridge.
Now that I'm enjoying it, I almost feel used to the fact I'm here, feel like I am a part of Davis. It's weird, almost like a second home, but then I think that is because for all intents and purposes it is my home, I've set it up as such. I miss all those back home of course and am looking forward to seeing you all again, but part of me wants you all to see it here too.

Thanks!

Busy

I've been busy. I've had a shit-ton of work due in and still do, I've been out and about all over the place, and frankly I just haven't had the time to blog anything. Sorry chaps. Life out here is still peachy though, we've finally had rain (they considered it some kind of storm, I considered it a heavy rain with bad wind) but apart from that sun, sun and more sun is the order of the day! Oh, did I say I joined a real life football team? We are part of intra-mural sports (basically, set up a team with your mates then play once a week, group stages then knockout if you're lucky), but unfortunately we haven't won a game yet. HOWEVER, we haven't been losing by massive margins either, only 2-0, 1-0. I blame the keeper personally... what? What do you mean I'm the keeper? Oh...
Treasure Island music festival was pretty damn good! The Streets were just absolutely brilliant, saw a few other bands and then the headliners, MGMT... they just came on, announced it would be their last show for a while so they would just play their album, straight through. I love that album enough as it is, but live? Wow.
I'm sorry this post is short and sweet, I'll keep you updated when more fun stuff occurs!

Thanks!

6 Weeks

So now I settle into the life of a student at an American University. My god, do the professors talk fast... is that really all we have to do for that assignment... how much reading?! On a serious note, it's generally very similar to uni life back in good ol' Sussex (or as I'm now referring to Britain, like "life back in Old Country" said in some sort of Eastern European accent like I'm Scarface or Niko Bellic in GTA IV). That said, there have been some minor differences. For a start, I've never had a professor at Sussex get up and start tap-dancing on the table, jump off arms outstretched and then announce to everybody "I've just come back from having a major operation. That was my way of telling you this year, anything can happen". The size of the papers I have to hand in is calculated in page limit, not word limit. So if I don't feel like writing much (and bear in mind, this is double spaced) I simply won't change the font size, or the margins. But if I feel like I'm going over, I will. It must be confusing for the tutor to receive all these different pieces of work with different margins, font sizes and all that!
As you can tell, it is getting a bit harder for me to post on my blog as I get further in. I hope you can understand this is because I'm trying to cram in as many great experiences as possible, alongside doing my work. So on top of midterms, finals, papers and projects, I'm also going to things like Lovefest (huge dance music festival kind of thing: $10 to get in, 25 different floats all playing different types of dance, trance, house and all that crap I don't usually like, but everyone's getting in the spirit so it's ok!) and Treasure Island music festival (MGMT and The Streets? Yes please!), both in San Francisco. Then there's the Green Day musical in Berkeley, and finally (possibly most importantly too!) there's John Cleese, right here in Davis. Brilliant! Combine that with the endless amount of Frat parties, which aren't as fun as you think because the booze runs out SO quickly, house parties and late night hot tub sessions! One particular house party was fantastic; not only did they have live music and DJs in their garage, not only did they get in 3 kegs, not only did I do a kegstand (look it up on wikipedia!) but we also saw real-life, no word of a lie lesbians. To my female audience, I'm sorry. To my male audience... well, can't say fairer than that, can I boys?

Thanks for reading!

Food and drink

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I've been busy with orientations, trips and classes which have now officially started. The topic of today's blog is a subject very close to my heart, and that's the wonder of American food and drink. However, hilariously, America and in particular Davis has been the place where I've tried the most diverse range of foods in my lifetime. I've obviously eaten the great American hamburger and pizza's with many toppings, hotdogs and all these other American candies and whatnot, but surprisingly my culinary habits whilst eating out have taken a different turn. In the interests of trying all the places I can in Davis, I've eaten Mexican, Thai, Indian, Chinese, sushi, crepes and god knows what else. Nearly all of it's been tasty and again a lot of the things I've tried have been fairly healthy... fairly I add!
But with what shall I wash it down with? First things first, coke: yes, it does taste different to back home, and I have discovered why. Instead of using sugar, they substitute this with high fructose corn syrup, giving American coke a more syrupy flavour (and I absolutely promise you, it is noticable. You would be able to feel a difference, trust me). American beer is... well, I won't beat around the bush. It's shit. Budweiser, Corrs, Keystone, products on the lower end of the Miller label... all are not fit to kiss the bootheels of anything we'd serve up back home. Plus, they have the supremely annoying 'light' beers. Beers which, when poured, look like a bad urine, and taste how I'd expect bad urine to taste. Of course, the cheapness of these light beers means that they're perfect Beer Pong beverages, but be aware, this doesn't make them any less shit. Oh, and they don't have alcoholic cider over here. A friend was incredibly surprised that we would even serve up such a thing back home!
On the drinks front, free refills are the hugest difference you will notice in American restaurants and fast food outlets, and most places also pour water with your meal for free, which means 9 times out of 10, you don't need to bother buying a drink. California in particular, however, is very well known as being a great wine making State, and it's most famous vinyards are located in the Napa Valley, which I visited. Some of the sights of these vinyards were truly picturesque (check my facebook album for some examples, I'll leave a link at the bottom), and the wine on offer was nice. As someone who doesn't like wine that much, some of the terms in a winelist (bouncy flavours, hints of this and that, a crisp refreshing afterhue and all that bollocks) are a bit... pretentious shall we say. However, I did find that I have a weakness for super-sweet dessert wines, though I shan't knock back too many at averaging 18% a pop! One winery also had the most amazing thing I've seen for a while: a cheeses of the World section. Let me tell you, there was nothing better than sitting in the shade, soaking up some of that wine with a nice little slice of home: extra mature Farmhouse Cheddar.

Thanks!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=158748&id=647201367&l=1962ac6f93 (for pictures of Napa Valley)

Confusion Abounds

It's been quite a week. First, I have finally seen some American organised sports. American Football live has to be the hardest thing to follow: I had no idea where they were running to, and you've got about 35-40 players running on just 100 yards of field. The marching band came on and did their thing, you can walk around and buy all manner of fast food items should you so desire. Worst of it all, it was confusing, AND we lost. To put the icing on the cake, the floodlights failed about a minute from the end of the match! I did go to watch the real football (or 'soccer') team play, and they were much much better. But as I have found out, they also lost 2-1 in extra time, which I didn't hang about to watch because *ham roll please* I went and played football myself! The exercise did me good and I even scored a goal, so everything is OK!
I've made quite a few new friends which is good, most of them are international students so it is nice to talk about the same experiences and stuff that we all share, like being away from home and finding your way around a new place. It also gives me some things to do so that my mind is not on home all the time. I am still missing home though lots and lots, but I'll keep on updating you guys on American experiences!

Pluses and Minuses

So after the excitement of moving in, screwing up by not buying any bed slats (Ikea sell them separately), burning my fingers near off on my first attempt at cooking up a storm, and using the (now discovered to be broken) washing machine to clean my clothes, in the process getting them all soaked and having them not dry in the (discovered to have the ventilation pipe bit loose) tumble drier, I have settled in. Our house is very nice actually, it has three bedrooms and mine is a kind of en-suite, but there is another door around the side so people can use the shower, which is in that bathroom. I’ve made my room my own at last (hello, big Ferris Bueller and Beatles posters!) and just generally feel comfortable to have my own place. However, I cannot beat around the bush, so I have to say that yes, I still miss England a lot. Thing is, I can’t complain; I’ve got a fantastic opportunity and I have to make the most of it. America does have enough however that puts me off making a life out here. Let me give an example or two:
I’m sure you’re all familiar with the strange road rule that in America you can make a right at a red light. No big deal, you say, in fact it’s a good idea. Yes and no; makes crossing the road harder than a glued up Rubik’s Cube. Silly thing, yes, but still makes life that little bit harder.
Also, in England you go into a shop and pick that latest CD by your favourite band off the shelf. It costs you £12.99, so you take it to the counter and pay £12.99. You do the same in the great United States, yes? WRONG. You pay your tax ON TOP of that price. So you never know how much something is going to actually cost you until you get to the counter, seeing as it’s near impossible for your average punter to just work out tax before getting to the counter, especially without a calculator.
These seem small follies, but there are loads of bigger problems that scare me off this place. Healthcare is an issue: sure, the NHS is not the great institution that many Americans have lauded it as, but can you imagine having to pay for all your healthcare? Race is still an issue, and through talking to people they have all observed that there is an issue within the race issue. The best example to use is to say that there is tension between Blacks in America and Mexicans in America. This to me doesn’t make sense. If you were supposed to be the minority in a country, why would you feel the need to fight amongst your race?
There are of course, pluses. For this I shall explain my fantastic trip down the bay to San Francisco, a most gorgeous city and somewhere I recommend you all go. On the one hand, down by the pier you have wonderful walks and views along and across the Pacific Ocean, and the ocean breeze coupled with that beautiful cloudless Californian sunshine is near blissful (and deceptive, explaining how I got sunburnt badly across the face!) We walked along the more tourist driven part of the piers, called Pier 39, and it was a conglomeration of knick-knack shops, great restaurants and to top it off, more great panorama’s over the Pacific. Landmarks such as the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz somehow subtly blend into the gorgeous scenery, and at one point we saw near to 300 Californian Sea lions just resting on some jetties! An amazing sight. When you get away from the ocean front you get into San Francisco’s downtown area. Parts of it rival Barcelona for street performances; breakdancing artists jockey for your attention with graffiti masterminds, caricaturists, living statues and, I’m reliably informed, a man who dresses up as a bush, scares the shit out of you then charges you for the privilege. I was disbelieving as no doubt you are right now, but my friend asked a cop where bushman was and we were directed down the road! We didn’t see him, but what a talent!
When you get ‘above’ the city and take a walk down those famous streets from the car chase in Bullitt, you get your first taste of what it is like to be above the skyscrapers that dominate the San Francisco landscape. Not much fun getting up there however, those streets are amazingly steep! The smell of fresh coffee, pizza and pasta greets you down in Little Italy, where chairs are set out for patrons to watch downtown outside the cafes and restaurants. I know all of this sounds like I work for the San Francisco tourist board, but I had a really great time and it was lovely there!
So that’s my initial perception of America I think: it has its flaws, and I personally believe that yes, it is more flawed than England, even more so than the United Kingdom combined. But sometimes you can just forget that when you see some absolutely amazing sights.
Thanks for reading!

The First Week

So what would be a good thing to do after you step off a plane, totally knackered after what was basically a 24 hour day? Oh yeah, that's right, go to an American basement pad and play Beer Pong!
Ok, so maybe this was a bad idea in retrospect, but it was the start of my American adventure. It has certainly been a turbulent five days, and I've slept in someone's house, then on a sofa with some College Football types (that's football in the American tradition, not real football), and then in a hotel which was like being a king (and so it should have been, at $125 a night!) but I am finally in my own space at 2033 F Street Apt #215!
After getting over the extreme homesickness I encountered the first couple of days, I've started to enjoy myself a lot more. America really is bigger than everywhere else, I considered this to be an exaggeration before I came but... well, I'll give you an idea. Yesterday, I went to the local 7/11 and bought a drink cup called a Double Gulp. This is a plastic cup you fill with the beverage of your choice (I had coke because it's my weakness!) When I did some digging around the web, I found some interesting facts about the Double Gulp. The calorific value was just over 800 calories. The amount of drink was 64oz, or roughly, as this website stated, 5.3 coke cans. At once. To top it all off the cost of it was $1.59, which in the exchange rate today is under a quid. Yes, I got 5 coke cans for under a quid. I also probably got Type 2 diabetes in the process, but that's rather besides the point, right?
I have been surprised that more people haven't asked about the accent. Everyone has been excited when they've found out, but it typical American style some of them I have found don't know the World that's not in front of their face (this seems to apply more to the older ones rather than people around my age however). A lot have been surprised by some of the differences, and I've had a few people quiz me on the 'great free healthcare system' we have in the UK. I've set them straight about that! Somebody actually, and I quote, said to me:

"Like, I heard if your baby's diaper needs changing, and you don't wanna change it, you can like, ring up the government and they'll, like, change the baby's diaper for you..."

A nice misjudgement of Social Services, I thought. If only it was that easy...Oh, and the heat. It is hot here, and there is no breeze. Every shop has it's air con on, and we have fans constantly going in the house. It really is something else! Haven't seen a drop of rain since last Thursday, and apparently I won't until about November.
I think that's enough for you to be getting on with, so I'll sign out. But I will leave you with my most spine-tingling moment of the whole week I think. Bombing down the freeway in a real American station wagon, windows open and music playing and what should come on the radio? All Right Now by Free. If you don't know the song by name, type it into youtube. You'll understand why it was such a great way to truly start my American adventure.