Sorority Girl

SORORITY GIRL

And Festival Twenty-One completed. 

So almost three weeks after my birthday (yes I know it's been far too long since I wrote in this mum), I'm finally posting up what happened on Day Two and Three - so my actual birthday and the rest of the weekend. And then I'll let you all in on a little bit about being a sorority girl. I bet no one ever really saw that coming. 

The day really started with Cupcakes from Sugarland. Fiona had gone to buy them, citing that it was impossible to have a birthday without cake of some kind and all of these were so beautiful!!! Because it was a Game-weekend (football was going on behind us as we curled in the grass outside Rams Head) she even managed to get little Ramses that you can see in the bottom right corner - I think we all too a photo with him because he's just that cute. Ramses is the Tar Heel mascot for those not in the know. Then Andrea reveals this amazing card that's full of little mini cards and all them: Alex, John, Fiona and Andrea had signed it. It was so unbelievably cute. And then it turned out they were even more wonderful and had bought me these adorable necklaces that I'd been eyeing in the shop window one night weeks ago. One is a gorgeous little bird in a silver cage and the other is a beautiful collection of bronze items dangling from a tarnished-bronze chain that trails down to a wonderful little watch. They're so perfect and lovely and it was such complete surprise. Not to sound totally cliched and gushy but it made me realise just how lucky I am to have met the people I have. Even though I'm sure that only under these circumstances could we ever have met and been friends in some ways, I'm so so so  glad that it's these characters that I'm here with. 

Anyway, the day moved from all the sappiness to quite the opposite in no time. Having gone and bought a bottle of Everclear (that horrible 90% alcohol I mentioned before) and a bottle of vodka, and after having a hilarious Mexican dinner at Chipotle with the Brits and the Sweeties (plus Keiver) - we headed to the famous house on Pritchard. We then mixed these two horrible spirits into a bucket together, added lemonade and a wee bit of water to make it less sweet and presented the table with red cups. 

Of course, I'm there, sort of knowing what's coming but more than a little bit nervous, and more than that I'm also concerned that no one will come!!! I mean, how many people at this point did I really know to invite to this thing??? I shouldn't have worried - after all this is America and they love their house parties - and it was amazing to meet some awesome new people as well as have a great time with the wonderful friends. About an hour or so later, as things begin to heat up, I'm presented with this:

A Giant Scottish Flag necklace, complete with twinkling fairy lights and twenty-one tasks to complete by the end of the night. The brilliant creators of this 21st Challenge?? None other than the beautiful Lillie and the fantastic Emma, who made sure that I had EVERYTHING ticked off by the end of the night.

And that's saying something.

I had to everything from play beer pong to kissing a fresher, from getting a photo with a policeman to taking 21photos with strangers, singing everything I wanted to say for 20minutes and singing the English national anthem (yes with a Scots flag on my chest) on the corner of Franklin St. Photos can be found on facebook for those who really want to see some embarrassing happening. And we played Cher Lloyd about six times in the one night. I think I gave Andrea a lap dance (I promise that was on the list)!!!

Of course, there was the little fact that I was krunk enough to actually DO all of this, which probably explained the near week long hangover effect. It was so much fun though, definitely one of the best weekends I can ever claim to have had anywhere. Brunch the next day only topped it off: with the five of us plus Russell and Rebecca, Lillie, Emma and TJ - it was such a good crowd - and we must have eaten enough to have supplied a third world country for a week. SO MUCH FOOD. And so good too!!!

*

Moving onto the SORORITY thing though. Oh my god. My first thought on Bid Day was WTF am I doing?! 

I mean, did you ever imagine me doing something quite like this before??? I suppose the shock was partly because, in my head, I still saw this all as an episode of Greek where any minute I was going to be put in the back of a van and dropped off in the middle of nowhere in my under  where and told to get home. That never happened and I'm now pretty much convinced that it was one of the best decisions of my time here so far. Everyone I've met has been so lovely and friendly and it's great to now have dozens of girls all over campus to run into and say 'hi' to. It helps that the food is amazing too and that Lunch time is possibly the best part of the day!! 

As I said the other day: ADPi is the chai in my latte. Literally. They have chai-cream to add to your coffee if you so desire. It's amazing. 

Here is my (slightly depleted 'family' - insert Rebecca Hart here) >>>>>>>


Not everything is sunshine though - actually I mean that literally too - the last couple of weeks have been characterised by heavy clouds and humidity, we even had a few days where we felt the need to wear jeans and jumpers!! What's amazing is the RAIN though. It's like someone stabbed the sky and the ocean fell out of it. I went to see Fleet Foxes the other night and we were so excited (Daniel the RA, me and Laura, my BIG), especially as we left the torrential downpour in Chapel Hill and then just as the warm-up band began to close up, the clouds were wrenched open it was like being in a monsoon. It took minutes for us to be soaked, not much longer for our drinks to be sufficiently diluted to taste like rain and just a little bit longer for us to ditch our shoes as the flood turned the amphitheatre's slope into a waterfall. Even though the gig was called off half-way through because the lightening mucked up the PA, it was so much fun and the three of us had a great time.

So that's what happened. I didn't write before because, well at first I was nursing the birthday-hangover well into the following week, but to be fair with so much going on it's been hard to find time to write. That and, as you imagine with midterm exams and essays, things have been a bit more difficult as of late but since I didn't want to write anything negative or necessarily dramatic, I decided to wait and see how things resolved first. And they have (all except the big BOY problem) but still - I'm an essay and a midterm down, only five more to go right? As for what's happening now? Well if only I could figure out why guys here play 'the Game' and how to tell when they are....? Yeah that would sort me right out lol!!! And maybe writing this essay before the deadline on Monday. 

Anyway, it's not long until Fall Break now which is when my beautiful wee sister will be coming to visit and I think I'm also going to try and go to DC before she gets here. 

Je serai poète et toi poésie, 

SCRIBBLER

Misuse of Boys and Booze

Misuse of Boys and Booze

 The First Night of Festival TWENTY-ONE

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!

Some might think that it seems a bit strange that I'm so excited about being 21 - or they might think it's a bit Over-the-Top but since it conincided with the ending of that infamous rule about no boys or booze it seemed like a great excuse to vamp up the party and go a little bit crazy!!

So this is/was the Event!! 

On the 10th of September 1990 a yellow baby popped out of her wailing mother a whole month too soon. Twenty-one years later it''s TIME TO PARTY in Chapel Hill as the yellow baby is now all growed up and not-so yellow. Festivities begin on Franklin Street on FRIDAY for a BAR CRAWL all the way from one end to the other, continuing for as long as we can stand. The SATURDAY is the more important day- because it's my actual birthday you see - venue to be confirmed by the lovely and wonderful Lillie Cochran - for a houseparty where I'm wondering how many vats we can fill with concoctions to get all y'all legal-in-the-UK-but-not-in-NC as merry as any British drunkard. Everyone is welcome - all of the wonderful people I've met through Rush, all the people I've met in ADPi and the other various houses, all the people from the various house parties, Lexis and Mark please invite the rest of the people I met because I loved so many of them etc etc. Let's just all get together and have the best weekend of silliness we can.

We looked pretty nice and normal early on in the night... But we didn't really succeed on doing a real bar crawl (but then those usually do end in failure at some point) and I've definitely lightened up on how much I can drink - darn the laws that have pretty much kept me sober since I arrived!!! 

 It's probably pretty fair to say I lost my inhibitions quite fast.

But then so did John May!!!

 We had a great night - starting at Kildares and not really leaving and then heading to Top-of-the-Hills Back Bar. Both of them are awesome and since Kildares genuinely harks back to it's Irish roots (it was a little bit like an inauthentic Brass Monkey) we Brits felt very much at home!! The Back Bar is kind of interesting though - it's covered in chalk writing and has table games taking up most of the space. I remember rather vaguely perching on the arm of a chair...

 Anyway, I'm sure second impressions will give us a bit more clarity.

On a different note it was amazing to wake up this morning, Swagger Jagger still on the brain and banging out its beat on the inside of my skull,  to see the video (on the right) on my facebook wall. Thanks to John Martin you all can see my life spanning out in front of you. From the yellow baby to only a week ago, I'm horrified, amused, nostalgic and amazingly happy when I go through that video. I can't believe I'm so old! And that so many almost forgotten memories are still around in photographic form (slightly concerning maybe?).  

Massive love to the family and the Nicholls, the Martins, the Wallaces, granny and grandpa, granny Max, all the other Allners and Nolans, the kids in Zealand watching the Rugby, the Stewerts, my Shmoo and my Person, Mia (wonderful shortbread om nom nom), everyone who features in this video alongside me and all the wonderful friends that are plaguing my facebook wall with Happy Birthday comments. Thank you so so so much for everything and even though I wish that everyone could be here for tonight as the festivities continue, I just wanted to let you all know that I love you lots and will see you soon!!


Right now I need to go shower and take of yesterdays make-up. Urgh how grimy.


But OH!!! Before I forget!!!

I'm in a SORORITY!!! I got AD-Pi!! Arrrrrggghhh I'm aaan ADPirrraaaattteeee!!! HOW EXCITING!!!! You can expect a post on that soon!!!

Je serai poète et toi poésie, 
SCRIBBLER

No Boys. No Booze.

No Boys. No Booze.

A Micro-blog Story about an American Tradition 

RUSH. 

For most of the English, the word 'rush' reminds you of the mad dash to the bus or to the train/tube, or to lectures when you're running late, to that Ceilidh you forgot you were meant to be going to, that party, that coffee shop, that house. It may, if you say it too fast sound like slightly onomatopoeic, or just a little bit like thrush. It probably doesn't mean to spend ten days in increasingly nice outfits, visiting various houses, talking to more girls than you can recognise and spending a lot of it completely baffled. If you have any idea about what 'rush' is here, you probably don't think to consider the much loathed rules of 'no boys, no booze' in conjunction with this strange phenomena. Because this is Sorority Rush: the ultimate Southern American tradition in which girls desperately try to make other girls fall in love with them and invite them to join their Chapter (which is not a segment of a book either) and make the university experience a little less intimidating.

It's the Greek System - famous for it's parties, red cups, hazing, inter-house bitching and tall-leggy-blonds. But I can now give you a slightly different first glance. This is a slightly longer than normal entry that has been written in micro-blog form about Rush. I didn't want to publish anything as I went along (also hence the lack of updates recently) because I didn't want to offend anyone or influence anyone with something I said on here.  I hope that it's now ok that I do so. 

Firstly I think I probably need to give you some background on the UNC system (see here for some definitions). Rush consists of FOUR ROUNDS. These Rounds each have an individual role - as Round One is 'song round' and you spend 25minutes at every house. Round Two is 'skit round', you go to a maximum of seven houses and you spend about half-an-hour at those houses. Round Three is 'philanthropy and food', you go to a maximum of five houses, spending about 30 minutes there again, being offered a lot of delicious food and being shown what each Chapter does for the philanthropic element of sorority life. Round Four you go to a maximum of three houses and spend about 45minutes at each house, being given an insight into one of the rituals of the house and ending with Preference Night where you rank your options in order of preference (pretty obvious huh?). Bid Day, the day after Preference Night is where you stop being a PNM and 'pledge' to the house that offers you a Bid. 

So here we go, here's my journey into the strange and bemusing underbelly of Greek Life.


PRE-RUSH
Meet ONE - We had our first meeting today. In it we were introduced to our 'Ro-Kis' (Recruitment Counsellors) and our groups. There's apparently 750 girls Rushing for spaces in the houses this year and we're all split up into groups of about 20-odd girls. The Clef-Hangers, an all-male acapella group performed a selection of songs, including a HILARIOUS rendition of Party Rock - it had to be the whitest version of that song I've ever heard. Andrea, sitting on my left seemed to agree. There was a lot of 'this will happen', 'that will  happen', 'don't do this', 'do do this', 'wear this', 'don't wear this' etc. Not sure what else to say though, I'm not sure how I feel about it.


Meet TWO - We were given our T-Shirts this time that we have to wear for the first round (part of, I suppose, the $50 sign-up fee - bloody expensive t-shirt!!) and then were all settled on the floor of the Great Hall in the Student Union as we were before for a Q&A sort of thing. I'm still not feeling like I really want to do this. Everyone here seems very young, I don't think I'm massively keen on the RCs (I'm the same age but I feel like they're acting like I'm 10) and I despise these ridiculous constraints. 'No boys, no booze'? Seriously? I've been here two weeks I'm not going to cut my friends out of my life, especially when it would mean I'd only have two friends left. And I seem to be in the much coveted position where the majority of my classmates are guys. And I like them. They're a really nice bunch. This rule is ridiculous. Maybe I'll just go for a loose interpretation of it. Anyway ROUND ONE TOMORROW!! AH!! Do I really want to do this???

ROUND ONE 

Today can be characterised in two words: UTTERLY INSANE.


<<<< This is what I was wearing. The GO GREEK is actually the back but I thought that was probs the most important bit to show... Also made us pretty obvious targets for the non-Greeks and frat-boys to mock as we soon discovered.
Anyway there are ten sorority houses spread out primarily over Franklin and Rosemary Streets. Every house is SO cute; the Kappa Delta house is especially pretty, looking like a gingerbread house but painted a gorgeous grey-blue. But that cuteness, the endearing frontier, quickly vanished as a hoard of screaming, whistle-blowing, pots-and-pans-banging, prancing girls chanted through the windows before pouring out the house. It could very easily be a metaphor: on the outside we're lovely, on the inside - well... you may not want to know. 

Backtracking, I should probably explain how things go. You walk to each house in your distinctive tee, carefully trying to follow the map but being herded by numerous Ro-Kis down shortcuts that bemuse you. You arrive at the house and line up outside, usually in alphabetical order (this is all part of the system of remembering who goes where). You have a name tag on, and a name card that you'll give to the house when you arrive. You then wait. After a few moments of awkward small talk with other PNMs everyone is told to be quiet and the screaming begins. Actually, that's not quite right... usually the house has a chant, kind of like a team-shout in Lacrosse (eg. H.A.I.L.E.Y.Bee.You. Arrr.Why. WOO), which they sing it to you before the screaming begins. Then the sisters come out to lead you into the house. This usually includes them lining up in a formation and smiling at you with their shiny american teeth.


A girl 'collects' you. You go into the house and are usually ushered into a large space (emptied kitchen, hollow dining room, barren basement) that's been decorated with balloons and streamers and it's now that you realise that the house has a theme. One of the houses was 'rave' theme with white shoes and amazing technicolour shoelaces; another was nautical, another wore electric t-shirts and white shorts etc. They perform a song that  has somethign to do with friendship and sisterhood and forever and ever sentiments. After this you're led somewhere else in the House and begin a series of 'small talk' conversations with the girl. Usually these questions are pretty banal. Here is an example:


"Hey, how you doing?"


"Pretty good you?"


"OMG WHERE ARE YOU FROM!? What is that ACCENT?!"


"I'm from London."


"No WAY! I love London - one of our girls was there last semester...."


As you can imagine, I got that a lot. Of course, whether or not you have any 'deeper' conversations is sort of a weird mix between whether or not you speak to more than just one or two people and whether or not you want to. I had a lot of London conversations, but I also had a lot of conversations about how I was liking Rush, how different it was to home, whether or not the girl I was talking to wanted or had done any travelling, where they'd like to go if they could travel, what subjects they took etc.


If I was going to characterise the experience I'd have to say it's a bit like speed-dating for a home. You meet so many people, receive so many first impressions, become overwhelmed by the enthusiasm and sweat like Sea Biscuit as you fall out of one house only to mad-dash to the next.


There are so many details I want to note down - from the Tri Delts literally making my ears ring as they banged a saucepan by my head, to the beautiful bubbles blown from KD from their balcony and the amazing girls I met, but I want to keep this micro so I'd better stop for now.

ROUND TWO

Dressed up a little bit today in my favourite floaty skirt and a simple white tank top and a waist belt, I went back to six out of a possible seven today. I was a little surprised to see KKG as the first on my schedule but I had so much fun on Round One and meeting so many lovely girls that I don't really mind that it's a bit of a trek away. Plus right now it's not too hot and it's a really good excuse to go to the Carolina Inn to book my birthday brunch on Sunday. It's Labour Day today,  by the way, so everyone else I know is either still in bed and very firmly ensconced in their sheets or drinking somewhere, chilling in sun. I'm looking forward to this round a lot more than I was looking forward to Round One because now I know there's nothing to worry about, that everyone is lovely and that this is something that no matter how it works out, I'm going to be happy.


It seems to me that this whole thing is a lot like being at Boarding School, only you actually get to try and persuade a House you like to accept you on the basis of who you get along with rather than being randomly allocated one. Today is Skit Round, it started much the same way with excitable and enthusiastic girls leading you into their house, settling you down in their basement/kitchen/space again to watch a Skit instead of a song and then you go off and have more conversations, usually about more detailed things or interesting things.


I went to KKG, AD-Pi, KD, Phi Mu, Chi-O and Tri Delt. I loved all these houses on the first day, although I admittedly loved some more than others. I was also kind of surprised to be going back to Phi Mu and KKG because I'd not really remembered things so well at those houses. Although I did have a really interesting conversation about Africa. So maybe that's why. I LOVED this round though.


The three Skits that stood out were ADPi, KD and Chi-O although Tri-Delts was pretty cool too.


ADPis was probably my favourite because it had two girls in a forest lost and looking for the way home. They  run into Hansel und Gretel who tell them that they're sad they don't have an ADPi to go back to or to miss instead they have breadcrumbs from 1859... a bit later these girls then run into rappers who did an awesome rap about ADPi being epic and was written by one of the girls in the house... a bit later they then run into 'Frattie, Douchie and The Smell', frat boys - one of which quoted Tolkien, the very quote that I used on this blog (see here). It was brilliant and hilarious and made me love the house. I also had another series of great conversations with the girls (I think?)

Chi-O's was also amazing because it was based off the Breakfast Club and now, having downloaded and watched this amazing 80s film, I can say I'm even MORE in love with their skit. After all, how many houses will dress up like Bikers and crack Eggbert on their head?


And KD? Well suffice to say that Lillie on roller skates was BRILLIANT and the girls all seemed to have so much fun that the whole thing was contagious. Loved it.


I'm pretty hungry now though. I reeeeally wish we'd been given dinner. 

ROUND THREE

This time I had five houses, only losing Phi Mu from my list of houses. I can't say I'm surprised, although I loved everyone I met, I don't think any of the conversations we had were ground breaking or particularly exciting.


So today I wore my little red dress from Zara - chosen first by my sister in the store and today by Andrea who simply laughs at my hopelessness when it comes to dressing myself.


I wasn't quite sure what to make of this round. I had some great chats, looked around the houses (all of which are gorgeous), listened to how their philanthropy work is done and who they support and why, spoke to some of my favourite people in each house including Anna and Emily in ADPi, Wevine and Lillie in KD and Caroline in Chi-O. It was so nice to spend more time with them all and to just chat without all the small talk and stuff. I really think that with these girls I could genuinely join a chapter and love it. This is a very short entry but it's not quite such and extreme and strange concept any more. That, and I'm beginning to realise that next round I'm going to be trying to rank these houses in order of preference. I have no idea how I'm meant to do that.

ROUND FOUR

I still don't know how I managed to write down an order for the houses I went back to today. Chi-O, ADPi and KD. I love the girls in all of them. I wish there was a way to be an Alpha Kappa Chi. Or a Delta Delta Omega or a Kappa Chi Alpha or any hybrid of the three.


Anyway, tonight was Ritual Night. I don't know how much I'm allowed to say or how much I ought to say. Each house, you see, has a selection of rituals and as PNMs on pref-night we were allowed a glance into their traditions. In one house it included the lighting of candles and small individual speeches followed by what it means to be in that house. In the next it included being given a flower and being told what it represented before being asked to place it in a vase thus unifying those traits, again this was elaborated upon with some small personal stories. The last house was set up with candles and lillies in a beautiful centre-piece before letters were read and candles lit and plucked rose petals placed in a bowl of water. As I experienced these very personal traditions, sitting in my long dress, I again realised...


 ... How on earth do I chose?


I love Chi-O because they're so warm and so lovely and their house is covered with Owls which reminds me of Zoe and Edinburgh. I love the fact that they ARE so much like the Breakfast Club - I've met so many girls that I just adore and who I would love to spend more time with and I hope that no matter what things end up as I do manage to see some of them again.


I love KD because everyone I've met in their has been so sweet and accepting and because Lillie has just been such a star and I'd love to be in the same house as her. Their home is like a gingerbread house. I also love that they have that awesome map of the world on their staircase and that there are strings running from Chapel Hill to places that I'd love to go too. Not one person in KD has made me feel any different about how much I like them and I know I'd be happy there.


I love ADPi because I feel at home there - everyone I've met has made me smile and their home is fantastic - it feels like a home. I know that to some extent this familiarity is because of Rebecca and Abby but I feel like they've all been so welcoming. From the moment I sat in the rocking chair on the porch and freaked out because it was one of the things I so desperately wanted to do in America to the moment I walked out of it tonight, I've always thought it was great. 

I've now handed in Preference Sheet and tomorrow I find out who/if I have a Bid. I want to finish this though by saying that I have had the most amazing experience and although I don't know what'll happen tomorrow, I'm so glad that I did this. It was such a ridiculous, stereotypical American thing to do whilst also being so much more than that. I've met some brilliant girls and I hope I'll be able to keep in contact with many many many of them. In fact, I really hope that some of them will be coming to my 21st in two days time.


By then, these silly rules will be DONE and I'll never have to look back on that little blip in the whole thing. Not that I really abided by them (don't tell anyone but philosophy is best done with a glass of wine in hand), but nonetheless - PARTY TIME!!

Do you want to go Shag?

Do you want to go Shag?

Culture Shock and Other Stories

The other night... well, about a week ago or so, we were at a party at the Lexis'. The five of us Brits were looking very much like the stereotypical English/Scottish we are as we bobbed from side to side to the music playing, sipping at our drinks and making small talk with strangers who gushed about our wonderful accents. It was during one of these conversations when this rather charming young man from Wilmington turned to me, asking me whether I'd like to go shag. 

My mind flew to the gutter and I rather embarressingly stuttered out, "Er... umm... no."

He looked rather crest-fallen but my face must have been horror-stricken. I'd only known him about ten minutes at this point.

"You don't like to dance then?"

HUH? My mind is rapidly rushing out of the gutter now, "What?" I asked a little more eloquently but still utterly confusedly.

"Or... wait... do you shag in Britain?"

Yes we do shag in Britain, I want to say, but I'm completely lost by this point, how else would I be here?! And then the penny drops as I remember a flippant comment long ago as my mother explained how Martha was a very good shag-dancer. 

The Carolina Shag is a dance. A little bit like our old school rock-n-roll that parents like to bring out at parties but mixed up with what looks like flamenco footwork to me. 

Oh and there goes the tornado siren again. I can imagine some of the expressions right now. My mum will look aghast but my sister will probably have her hand over her mouth in a strange expression of amusement and concern. Shadenfruede. Jay is probably doing that weird half-grin thing whilst Zoe reads on with distress - it's the South after all and maybe Chapel Hill is going up 'Wizard of Oz' style. Holt... well he'll look at this with the eye of a literature student and wonder if this is good reading. 

So on a day like today I feel almost completely at home. It's grey outside, it's under 30C and it's been raining for most of the day. But then, like with almost every day, something happens that reminds me that this isn't home at all. Today it was a tornado siren going off as I turned the kettle on thus thwarting my attempts to make tea. But yesterday it was Rush Round Three and seeing how different their systems are; before that it was being asked if I wanted to go shag. This is 'culture shock' - infamous and a little bit intimidating.

They say it consists of various stages including the honey-moon period, disillusionment period, homesickness, assimilation and autonomy. It sounds almost scientific. 

This is my rendering: 

It was done in Paint whilst waiting for the All-Clear from Alert!Carolina so Mock away. 

I think it'll probably happen - especially now that I'm getting messages from people about being back in Edinburgh, walking past the old 2/2, realising that unlike everyone else I'm not coming back this year(thanks for that one Holt I very nearly teared up =P). But despite the moments where I feel critical or lonely or very very far away from home, or terrified about a natural disaster, or thinking 'oh so-and-so would love this' before realising so-and-so will likely never see 'this' and feeling rather morose - despite all those things and many many more, I already feel like this is a place I could fall in love with and never want to leave. 

There are, as John May already pointed out, many things that are ODD (those capitals are necessary) about being in America. The toilets are really low and 'full to the brim with water', he says, and the traffic lights are barmy (you have to add at least an extra five-ten minutes of walk time to lectures because of the lights). The traffic runs backwards, pedestrians are 'peds', lectures are compulsory, tutorials can be almost 50 people big, you can't drink until you're 21, night life closes at 2am, you get random days off for things no one understands, mere month-year-old babies are brought to university football games in full UNC uniform, there is more carolina blue than stars, a kettle is a water boiler, tea has to be bought from a health-food store, the university supplies starbucks, the Old Well is a water fountain, the buses are free, the food is all fried and twice the size of anything you'd eat at home, the people are all friendly and the little silver coin that looks like a five pence is worth more than the medium silver coin that looks like a fake ten piece. 

Confused yet?

There's more - but I'll make another list for those at some point. Despite all the confusion, despite all those weird little things that I'm hoping will suddenly arrange themselves into a moment of Fridge Brilliance, I'm loving it here and don't worry, I just received a text from Alert!Carolina giving us the ALL CLEAR for the time being on the tornado front. 

So back to real life (if you can call this real life) and on y vas!

Je serai poète et toi poésie,
SCRIBBLER