Sandy, Halloween & Room Change

Hello everyone. Not only have I now survived an American style earthquake, but Hurricane Sandy. The funny thing is that when it first hit Cuba, my older sister was there on her first holiday abroad in many years. Luckily she is safe and sound only really having to spend one day inside, and is already looking to go back. Meanwhile up in America, hell let loose. Every time you turned on the TV, it was telling me the latest update on Sandy. When it would hit the east coast, where about it would hit, what time it would hit etc. CCSU cancelled all classes on Sunday for the Monday and Tuesday, roughly when it should hit New York. The canteen shut early and gave everyone a bag of food to take back to their dorms so that no one went hungry. After looking at the queue I decided to skip, preferring the idea of the Doritos Nacho Cheese crisps in the vending machine downstairs. Erik later reported that things got close to a riot with people fighting to get the free food, cutting the queue and arguing amongst each other. The funny thing was, New Britain avoided everything. 

Pretty Much Sums It Up

Monday arrived and campus was dead. It was overcast with a wind that would pick up every now and then, nothing special, nothing different to a windy day back home. As the day progressed it began to rain, but again, nothing that different to home. The winds got stronger that would have people in England commenting on it. Meanwhile in New York, all public transportation was down, the subway flooded and a crane collapsed. That night Jon and I spent the night in the pub watching the occasional downpour out of the window.

Tuesday arrived and campus was fine, with the worst over we was surprised that CCSU had cancelled lessons so quickly. Realising that any chance of Wednesday being cancelled were well and truly out of the window, I sat down and rattled through the work that was due for the following day. Evan on the other hand, had the CCSU website on throughout the day waiting for confirmation one way or the other before starting anything. He got up a website that showed the state of Connecticut and the power outages. Apparently New Britain was the only part of Connecticut that has 0% power outage. All the towns and cities that surrounded us varied from 30% to 100% so I guess we were lucky. 

Of course Halloween is huge over here in America, and with Halloween parties left, right, and centre, I guess I would have to dress up for the first time since I was 11 years old. Evan and I decided to have a gander down the Halloween shop (yes a shop dedicated to Halloween). What I noticed was that scary costumes aren't a necessity over here. Over the days I found on Facebook people back home dressing as Zombies, Monsters, Murderers etc. As we looked through the costumes, it was more like a fancy dress shop, with a small section for scary outfits in the corner. The stupid thing was the price of the decorations. For example a full sized werewolf that moved it's head left to right whilst roaring - $250. Halloween is huge here. 

(back) Cristina, Matt, Me, Erik
(front) Mariana, Sofia, Evan

After wandering around for a while, nothing really leaped out at us with the decision being Sperm-Man and Grover. That's when we saw the women's section. I can't remember who first brought the idea forward, but the idea of dressing up as women was agreed to - worryingly with little resistance. After looking at the prices, we decided it would be cheaper to just nip to TK Max, this is where things got silly.

Eva & Phillipa

Looking around TK Max we finally found the dresses in large that were cheap. Now how the hell are you meant to know if it fits or not without trying it on? Unlike a t-shirt which holds it's shape when you take it off, a dress doesn't. We ended up calling over the assistant who helped hold it against my back to see if my little red dress would at least leave something to the imagination. Once dresses were agreed to, it was then underwear. Again, no idea what size we are, we decide to try bras on over our t-shirts - apparently I'm a 40C (depending how many socks I use I guess). Then onto knickers in extra large that were a little too tight for comfort but would prevent any spillages should I lose my female mannerisms and sit with my legs slightly parted. With a pair of knee high socks added to the pile we looked at heels, but with size 13UK - 14US I didn't hold out hope. 

Sofia, Me, Evan, Erik

A little reluctant to lower my head onto the cue like usual.

The first party was on my birthday (28th Oct) and so I was supplied with a crate of Angry Orchard Cider from Jon, to go with the box of white wine Evan and I were sharing (ladies don't drink beer). Lets just say that it was my first wine/cider hangover and will be my last. The party that we got the outfits for was the one at Elmers with best dressed getting $100, $50, and $25 for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. Our outfits went down extremely well with the barstaff in stitches and multiple slaps on the arse. The funniest however was when I sat on the pool table with Erik, a random guy asked me to turn around for his friend. Apparently his friend didn't believe I was a guy from behind. I've heard of beer goggles, but that's a little extreme. Evan and I tested our pool playing abilities in our dresses, trying to make sure not to flash. This proved a little difficult, especially when I had to lift a leg on the table for a long shot. Also, having boobs makes playing pool difficult as the cue moves out of line when you draw with your boob deflecting it off course. 

As I said before, there were no scary costumes at either party. There was Spiderman, a Banana, Red Soda Cups, a Cheetah, Pirates, School Girls, a guy with ET in a basket with handlebars attached to his waist, American Football Referees, The Mask (Jim Carey), a Doctor etc. The scariest (if you could call it that) was a witch and a devil. Very strange. I have yet to hear as yet whether I have won or not yet, but I'm no longer holding up my hopes. Looks like I'm going to have to take my custom else where now. 

I am now the proud tenant of a single room. My roommate has been evicted for breaking the rules too many times throughout his time here at the CCSU dormitories  I had heard rumours that he was being evicted but he didn't say anything so I put them down to just that, rumours. I was then surprised to find all his things gone from the room when I came back from lessons. With it being too late in the semester to find someone else, I have a double room to myself until Christmas. Well, that was until Jon found out. Living 30-40 minutes away, he has often slept on the floor when he's had a few beers so as to not drink drive. Now with an empty bed in my dorm, he has moved in, albeit under the radar of officials. I don't mind, he's brought a big TV and his Xbox, so it looks like I'm going to get my fix of FIFA 13 after all.