EARTHQUAKE!!

The First Day of Class

On the first day it's traditionally been considered good luck to drink from the Old Well. Traditionally, the frat boys have always pissed in it the night before.  

Luckily for us it's no longer a well but a water fountain. Oh and they give out bottles of it the night before classes begin.

The first day of 'real' UNC life began on Tuesday and what a day!! It started off pretty mundane, eight o'clock crawl from bedroom to bathroom, glaring at the carolina-blue sky outside as it  blinded my sleepy eyes. Then the nine o'clock trek from South Campus Horton to top-of-the-North-Campus Caldwell Hall. At this particular moment everything was going a long just as a first day should be.

My first lecturer, Professor Lescher, introduced the class to German Idealism and Continental philosophy. I sat scribbling furious notes and trying to focus on understanding the quotes from Kant. I think it's going to be quite a useful class although I'm not looking forward to buying all the books he's recommended. First stop today is going to be the library's philosophy section.

Anyway, after class,  by-passing the Old Well, I ran into Abby Hart then ambled down to the Library to meet up with some of the others. This eventually ended up with Alex and I going for Lunch, only, we decided to go for Chick-Fil-A. ERROR.

It ought to come with a warning. Chick-fil-A, for all those nut-allergy sufferers out there, is cooked in peanut oil and they don't come with a disclaimer sign like most would. Not going to lie, tasted pretty good, if a little odd. KEEP AWAY smart nutters. Anyway, this small mishap meant I went to the health centre, made friends with the nurses and was given a shot of the epinephrine/adrenaline that I've never used before. Then they dosed me up on these heavy pills. The whole thing was hilarious, I couldn't stop laughing.

And then there was the EARTHQUAKE!!

This is one of the News reports of the earthquake.

It was really strange because at first we all thought it was construction or something because it was just a rumble but then we properly started going up and down!! I thought that I was hallucinating or imagining it at first too because of the crazy drugs but apparently that wasn't the case and they made me sit and 'try to ignore it'. That's good advice right? How to protect yourself in an earthquake - pretend it's not happening.



Anyway, so after that things were kind of calm. I went to my first lecture with Simon Blackburn (which was AWESOME). He's pretty cool, seems quite chilled and dislikes the 2.5 hour lecture as much as we do. Who seriously thinks a young-adults brain is going to stay alert and brilliant for 2.5hours from 4pm to 6:30pm???

So we left early, had dinner in Lenoir - I was still high as a kite from whatever the nurses gave me - and had fun with the nalgene machine.

That evening we went to a 21st of a girl called Emma Edwards from the first frat party we went to!  She's lovely, crazy curly haired (on the night) with a huge smile and a really good laugh - we all turned up and she was wearing a huge medallion with the twenty-one things she had to do on her twenty-first. I so want one of those for mine! We scuttled between that party and the frat party down the road (another Phi-Delt party) and just managed to escape the house before the cops came to break it up!! Luckily Emma's bash was still in full-swing so we just went back and had a rave over there. Most of the invitees were part of a hip-hop dance group too so they were AMAZING dancers which made me and Fiona a wee bit nervous at times I think.

The way home was just as eventful - as Andrea and I made the trip back on the P-2-P, a fight broke out on the bus, a drunk girl made me promise to go to Las Vegas when I turn 21 and a sophomore asked me out on a coffee date!

These people are CRAZY.

Next time, I'll tell you all about Irene.

Je serai poète et toi poésie,
SCRIBBLER

What Percentage Virginity Are You?

To quickly explain the odd title of this post, I need to explain that, in an utterly baffling conversation a couple evenings ago, Fiona was asked what percentage of a virgin she was by her fierce room-mate Tiffany from Fayetteville. Natural instinct to the British would probably be to say you either are (100%) or you're not (0%) but apparently not in North Carolina. You can be a 77.3% virgin, a 21% virgin, a 5% virgin. Not sure exactly how they calculate this, but I thought you might find it vaguely amusing to learn back home.


We certainly found it hilarious.


This conversation came after we had our first American House Party and our first Frat-Party!!!


As you can see we have the read cups down! And the goofy posing.
What you don't realise is that these red cups are from the House Party - they had a system where you turned up, paid a fiver and were given a cup which then meant you could have unlimited alcohol paid for by the hosts all night. The drink was a mixture of this stuff called EverClear. It's a grain alcohol that's essentially just-about-legal moonshine. The first party had mixed it up with lemonade and about my weight in sugar in their bathtub which you then scooped out with your cup. Classy right?


The Frat guys were even better, you didn't have to contribute but they had mixed their stuff in bins. I seriously hope they were cleaned first.... But as you can see we had fun taking over the dance floor. Oh yes! The Frat house (Phi Delta) has a full on dance floor with DJ and techie.


The house itself is just amazing in general. It's that same southern antebellum that I keep talking about but it's hard to believe that students our ages live in these houses like their own. Think of the houses that old aristocracy owned in the UK once-upon-a-time and then imagine living in it at university. It's akin to that sort of situation although the houses aren't quite as huge. Us three girls have decided to Rush though which is kind of exciting. Imagine if we became 'sisters' in a sorority house and moved out of dorms? I don't know if I'd go that far to be honest since I think most of the girls in the houses are younger and the older years live out in their own houses, albeit still usually with their sisters.


Since then things have been pretty crazy.


The university had organised a party at Target (imagine having a DJ in asda or tesco). It was bizarre!! Several hundred students descended on the store, dashing through the aisles as music pumped through the air and snatching up budget items for their rooms.

 People were really dancing!!

And Alex couldn't resist doning the MAN OF STEEL boxers. 

You may have seen these photos on one of my new pages too - I've started an 'American to English Translator' page and a 'Tar Heel Characters' page just for ease.


Finally FALL FEST - a 10pm-2am freshers fair in the street with huge stages, performances and lots and lots of Christian groups. I've signed up for my acapella groups and sports societies and the odd dramatic arts thing. Not quite the same without my Edinburgh friends but amazing all the same.


Je serai poète et toi poésie,
SCRIBBLER