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. 

White Water Whale Of A Time

My Eyes Might Be Closed, But I Know Exactly What I'm
Doing Here

CCSU In A Rare Attack

So my trainers are wet and my sunburn has been topped up, but what a fantastic day White Water Rafting. I've never done it before, and to be honest, I wasn't expecting to have half as much fun as I did. It's too bad that England is so cold because I would really like to do it some more. The bus drive to Massachusetts was about an hour and a half, but unfortunately for Erik and I, the seats were built for children. Now, I suffer back home on public transport, but this was just silly. We're both sat there with our knees touching our chins and the couple in front of us would have been better situated in a private motel room than on a crowded bus. There and back. Once there, we were split up into rafts of 6 and allocated a guide who would sit on the back, steer and order us to paddle forward, backward or rest. Due to our size Erik and I were made to sit at the front of the raft as this is where the paddling is most effective. We sat on the edge of the raft and wedged our feet into the side to help support us and stop us falling out. I can happily say that I survived the entire trip inside the raft. The trip was really good, starting out with some level 2 and 3 rapids before moving up to high level 3 and level 4. Sitting at the front resulted in an absolute soaking and a bumpy ride, but I would definitely recommend it to anyone.

The School Band Play Before The Game & At Half Time

After a huge BBQ thrown in once we had showered and changed, we made our way back to Connecticut. Absolutely shattered I somehow fell asleep in my confined space on the bus, my head leaning on the seat in front of me, hopefully disturbing the annoying lovey dovey couple in front.

Half Time Dancers

The day before the rafting trip, I went to see my first live American Football game. It was the University's team and to be honest, they aren't very good getting well and truly beat. What I found strange about this experience though was firstly, how big University sport is over here, and second,  ow different the support are in comparison to football back home. A large number of people left at half time when the score was 0-21. I've seen Blackburn Rovers 3-0 down against Arsenal in the first 10 minutes but stayed to watch the full game. Also, they don't exactly sing. The only chant I heard was the University's chant of 'C...C....S....U' over and over and over again. They don't seem to have any creativity or humour in their songs like football fans back home do. The opposition players were yards away from the student support, yet there wasn't the slightest bit of heckling from the crowd; No teasing, nothing. I think I was the only one to shout during the game when two players began to fight after partaking in handbags for the past couple of plays. What I also found funny was that game day happened to be random weather day, where it decided to hurl it down with rain for five minutes every so often. The crowd was more animated during these minutes of rain than at any point during the game, with umbrellas being put up and shirts being placed over heads. They really need to go and sit on the front row at Ewood and see how it feels.

After the game, the winds picked up and the rain came down a bit more consistently with tornadoes being reported 2 hours away in New York. I later learnt that Erik told his mum about the tornadoes scaring the life out of her. He failed to mention that they were in New York.

A funny thing that I've noticed here is the irony in America's attitude towards butter. They don't seem to butter their bread when making a sandwich. When I asked why they don't, they responded in all seriousness, 'Butter is unhealthy for you.' At first I thought they were joking. I think they're ignoring the fact that they are on their third cake in a matter of minutes, butter is hardly going to make it worse.