Feliz Navidad!

The 'Feliz Navidad' song has been stuck in my head for the best part of 2 weeks now. I had never heard it until this year which may be why my subconscious has been paying special attention to it. Let's face it, the words to 'Last Christmas' or 'Jingle Bells' are part of our genetic make-up and require little brain cell power to listen to. This new song, for starters, is half in Spanish which caught my attention, coupled with a catchy, bouncy, mexican-esque tune, you have yourself a winning Christmas song. I even wake up with the chorus on a loop, going round, and round, and round...."Feliz Navidad, Feliz Navidad, I wanna wish you a Mmerryy Christmas". Therefore it seemed like an appropriate title for this blog post. Ok on to the more interesting stuff.

Spending time with the family, when you thought it would be a year again until you saw them, has been really nice. Our days have been spent going to coffee shops and restaurants, walking (when my knee lets me), Christmas cookie baking, the occasional gym session and a lot of Christmas shopping! The nights are passed with competitive games of Stop the Bus, Apples to Apples and our personal favourite, Bananagrams (think a better version of scrabble), where not a night goes past without the excited shouts of "BANANAS" and "PEEL" and the desperate cries of "No, i'm telling you 'shibzing' is a word!" My brother-in-laws parents came up from Portland to visit for a couple of days and brought with them a game that incorporated a hilarious round of charades...

In my mind if you don't do a full on proper Christmas, there is no point. Guess who started the petition for a real Christmas tree and saw the 4 'kids' going to a couple of different  stalls around town to pick the best one, tie it to the roof of the car and drive ssllloowwwlly home? One thing that I did let slide was the fact that we didn't have a fairy for the tree, but I was quite taken with our gnome. He sat on our tiny, fake tree, while the rocking horse sat on the main event.

On Christmas eve a few of us went on the West Seattle Christmas Light tour which involved a map with the locations of people houses who had taken my idea of a big Christmas to the extreme, a car, a camera, and in some cases sunglasses to protect the eyes from a visual onslaught. The first few got the response of "Look a life-size santa riding a polar bear, aww that's nice", and one flashing light display on a house that instructed you to tune your car radio to a specific station and the lights flashed along in time to the music. However one in particular quite literally outshone all the others combined! There were so many people clustered around it, taking photos, pointing and 'wowing' at various parts of the creation, that you couldn't miss it. The house glowed. I wouldn't be surprised if you could see it from space. I overheard the son of the owner of the house saying it took 6 people over 100 hours to set it all up. Again, feeling more and more like my dad, the only question I wanted to ask was "How much is your electricity bill?!" This tour only served to remind me that I am in America.  The same display in England would have been scoffed at, grumbled at, maybe the local council would have received a few complaints about light pollution or something. But here was a family just embracing the Christmas spirit (maybe a bit too excessively) for others to enjoy.

Christmas day brought lots of shredded wrapping paper and lots of food as one might expect. I videoed my mums reaction as she opened up her kindle and debated putting it on here. I won't but there were a few tears! One of my favourite gifts was from my aunty, who had knitted me a little killer whale! I thought it was so sweet! A lot of clothes were received by the boys and we all got pictures of them modelling them. It was a chance to show their feminine side. Or their Hugo Boss catalog posing side. All in all, a great Christmas:)

I have another 10 days until I fly back to California and in that time we have a wedding and New Year's. There should be some work being done at some point. But i'll wait until 2012 I think!

From the richest, to the tastiest, to the happiest places on earth

I have been putting off writing this post as so much has happened since I last updated!
I'm not sure whether to write pages and pages, because I probably could, or just quickly summarise the events...perhaps a bit of both.

Hardcore studying coupled with illness made finals week anything but fun. I was ready to leave by the time the week was over, I love Santa Cruz, but I needed a break! Before flying to my sister and brother-in-law's home in Seattle, I flew down to Orange County to stay with a friend. First I should describe my journey from UCSC to the airport. Looking back on it, I am annoyed with myself for doing it this way. There is a website called 'Zimride' where you post the journey you want to take (in my case UCSC to San Jose airport on Dec 10th) and anyone driving that way will post how many seats they have in their car and how much they want you to pay. I could've taken a number of buses to get to the airport but with 2 suitcases and not feeling 100% I thought I would do it this way. I found a guy who was going past the airport and onto Oakland so I 'booked a seat' in his car. I spoke to him on the phone and he sounded a little weird but I had seen his facebook page and he seemed better than some other options. I barely slept that night because I was worrying he was going to be a rapist of murderer! He turned up in an old beaten up, smelly, messy car with a bag of weed on the dashboard. After a bit of struggle getting my suitcases into his car amongst the duvets, walking boots and other random items, and against my better judgement, I got into his car. I spent the whole journey completely on edge. He was giving me his life story and telling me how his sister is a manic depressive, his mum is ill etc, I nodded and awwed in the right places. When he told me he was actually not going to Oakland as he never told his mum he was going to visit and just going to drop me off and turn back that is when I started to panic! I was starting to feel like I was about to live a real life episode of CSI. It all turned out fine though. It is amazing how your mind will work overtime! I am well aware that I shouldn't have gotten in the car if I didn't feel comfortable. Next time I won't!

I had a great 5 days in the OC! My friend lives in a really nice gated community with views over Irvine. On the first day we went down to Crystal Cove and Laguna Beach. Laguna Beach was not how I imagined it at all. I thought it was going to be a really big area, really touristy and a bit scabby to be honest. It was actually pretty small, really cute with little boutiques and art galleries, and not scabby at all:) We also went to a restaurant called 'The Boiling Crab' where they give you bibs, you order seafood by the lb and it is brought to you in a bag with a sauce and you just sit there and dig in with your hands! It was delicious!

LA was just a whirlwind. We managed to fit in A LOT! It is about an hour drive from my friends house in Irvine. We hit Rodeo Drive first and gawked at all the expensive, posh shops that we couldn't even afford to breathe the air in! I mean, a dress made exclusively of diamonds, really? The funniest thing was that we had barely been in LA for 5 minutes when I was stopped by a woman wanting me to be a hair model! Apparently it would be the best haircut I had ever had, I politely declined after hearing it was going to take 2 hours and I thought that they would probably cut my hair like Emma Watson or something else as equally as ridiculous (don't get me wrong, she rocks short hair, but NOT me!). We also went to The Grove, a famous shopping mall, and saw Mario Lopez doing some filming!

We also hit the Walk of Fame and the Chinese theatre. It was really cool seeing all the stars on the floor and the handprints of celebs in the cement. Hugh Jackman has MASSIVE feet by the way...;) We also went up to Unviersal City Walk which is all the shops outside of Universal Studios. It got me all excited for Disneyland the following day!

Before we left we headed up to the Griffith Observatory to get the view of the whole of LA and the Hollywood sign. It was pretty dark by this time so the picture's of the sign aren't great but seeing LA all lit up was just beautiful, even if it was a bit cold!

Disneyland....I don't know what to say. I felt like a little kid. Well, almost. It made me look forward to taking my own children and seeing their faces light up when Belle glides down the street:) I had my picture taken with Woody, Mickey and Minnie and the parade and firework show was just MAGICAL! We were there for close to 13hours. 13 hours of Disney magic! I could write a whole other blog post on Disneyland and all the rides, and the food, and the experience but this I will keep to tell people:)/ I can't be bothered to type it all out! I took a few videos....

I was sad to leave the OC. I had eaten a lot of good food, including Korean food which my friends family thought was so funny that I liked! But I was really looking forward to getting up to Seattle and starting the Christmas celebrations! After a round-the-houses flight which included a trip to Las Vegas (the airport is right next to the strip so I got to see the pyramid, the hotels and the Sphinx etc), I arrived in Seattle pretty tired after a crazy week. I greet my sister at the baggage claim, she says "I have a surprise for you", I feel a tap on the shoulder, turn round and my parents are standing there! SURPRISE! I was in complete shock, i just burst into tears (of course!) and was also aware of my dad with his camera though thankfully he didn't manage to get any good photos of my face! I had been downhearted that whenever I had spoken to them they were not enthusiastic about coming out to visit at some point but it was all a lie! They had this planned for 6 weeks! My sister didn't know they were coming either! It was all my brother-in-laws doing....isn't he so sweet! After re-starting my heart, and dried my tears, we got in the car and drove home. We opened the door to the apartment and sitting there is my brother!!! He had lied to me too and my parents and my sister! He had said he wasn't coming and then turned up at the doorstep a few days before me! So it is going to be a nice family Christmas in Seattle:)

'Fall'en in love with my new camera!

Study break...go out and take photos!
Autumn/ Fall is just beautiful here and as it is my favourite season, I wanted to share with you some pretty fall colours! Sorry for being all artsy.
I will go back to my essay on environmentalists and leisure and labour in the wilderness soon. Now doesn't that sound like fun?

"DENNIS QUAID IS HERE!"

Short but sweet i'm afraid because a) I have so much work to do and b) nothing much has happened!

Finally got back to Santa Cruz from Sacramento after a bit of a car accident on the way! Everyone was a bit shaken but we carried on while blasting Adele as the two other passengers had only ever heard Rolling in the Deep and Someone Like You which I thought was an outrage and immediately plugged in my ipod.

The week of presentations and spanish exams and papers was hell but it went pretty quickly so i'm grateful for that. Only one more week to go and then I will be in Disneyland! YAY! I cannot wait to hug Mickey Mouse.
I just want to take a moment and recognise just how painful and awkward it is to watch someone crash and burn while giving a presentation to the class. It is like watching the early X Factor auditions but you can't turn them off, or leave the room! There was only really 1 or 2 people that this happened to but those 7 minutes were the longest 7 minutes ever. I could feel myself going red for them! It is almost as bad as the video of the new TLC programme (that a group of us are going to attempt to watch tonight) 'The Virgin Diaries' where a couple share their first kiss EVER on their wedding day. Not kiss, face sucking/tongue ingesting more like. I urge you to go watch it on youtube, but not while eating. I'm not sure how much we will be able to watch tonight!

Took me ages to find a chocolate advent calendar in Santa Cruz. They just don't seem to be the thing to do round here at Christmas. I was getting so desperate that I even begged a shop owner to re-open so that I could buy one! She did as well! It isn't dairy milk chocolate, but it isn't bad. It's not Hershey's! Staying on the Christmas theme, check out the gingerbread house we made while listening to Christmas music. Well not made, constructed from a box!

Apart from that, have just been working and revising etc:( Oh and re-watching all of Ellen's pranks on youtube. It's amazing what you can find to do when there is plenty of other things to be doing! May not be blogging next Sunday, but I will tell you all my tales from SoCal soon.
I leave you with a picture of a friendly neighbourhood raccoon who likes to sit on the fence or in the garbage bins just outside our apartment.

You name it, I ate it.

Thanksgiving has come and gone however I am still feeling the effects. I need a wheelbarrow. Or a gastric bypass to prevent this from happening again! Too much good food.
Although I have initiated thanksgiving feasts back at home due in part to having an American brother-in-law, doing an American studies degree and pumpkin pies are just so damn good, nothing could have prepared me for a proper American thanksgiving.

My roommate invited me to join in with her family for the holiday and I eagerly accepted. It wasn't until I began to hear stories about her family,seeing a drawing of her HUGE family tree and getting to know her a bit more that I started to become a bit nervous! I'm a quiet British girl. I love my family to bits but we are a small family (I remember everyone's name for a start) and we are not a particularly loud family either, especially my home with my parents. My roommates family are one big loud American one! She has 32 cousins. I have 5 and 2 of those are 1st cousins once removed (or 2nd cousins, i'm not sure).
I have to say that they all welcomed me with open arms and made me feel comfortable straight away, even if there were some members that I had no idea what they were saying because they talked so fast!
We left Santa Cruz on Wednesday night and stayed at my roommates house in Sacramento. The following day we drove up convoy style to her aunt's new house in the Sierra Nevada foothills. It was gorgeous! Huge stone fireplace, open spaces, country kitchen, neighbours a mile away, perfect.
The house was descended upon with grandparents, aunts, cousins, in laws, everyone, on her 'moms' side of the tree. Plates were lined up on the kitchen counter...yams, mashed potatoes, broccoli salad, cranberry sauce, biscuits (like bread rolls), a Turkey to feed the 5000, and that was just the main course. The appetisers went on for hours: cheese and biscuits, smoked salmon, salami and cold meats, pickled asparagus (the only thing I did not eat!), piped cream cheeses. I was full by the time the Turkey came out of the oven!
The 40 or so people held hands round the kitchen and gave thanks and then we dug in! The following few hours was a vicious cycle of eating, pain, lying down, eating, pain, napping etc. OH and also a long long game of hide and seek with a 7yr old and a 12yr old. I had forgotten that feeling of extreme excitement and twitchiness that you get when you are a kid and hiding under laundry baskets!
Dessert- 11 Pumpkin pies. How did I have room? I didn't. I forced myself to find room!
We drove home and then a few of us went out to a pool bar (as in snooker) for a while to 'work off' some of the food in preparation for the next day. Her dad's thanksgiving day. Lord help me.

But first, Black Friday. The sale day to end all sale days. After playing pool, it was about 1am so we decided to swing by Walmart to laugh at all the crazy people lining up to buy plasma TV's at a reduced price! I was shocked at how many people were there. It was like a marathon. People sprinting down the isles, snatching at DVD players, dragging small children who were half asleep to the mile long line to pay, this wild look in their eyes. I silently chuckled to myself at the insanity of it all. The picture shows the lines at Walmart at 1am!
I had been looking for a new camera for a while so while we were in Walmart we went to have a look at some to see what the sale prices were like. I found a really nice one for $200 but a guy came up behind me and whispered "Target are selling these for $99. I bought 3. GO". Go we went. I turned into one of those crazys that I had just snorted about. Running out of Walmart, jumped into the car, drove full speed to Target while praying that there was one left. Barely waited for the car to stop moving before I lept from it and ran, pushing past hoards of people with a similar intent. We arrived sweating and puffing with wild eyes in front of a stack of 200 cameras. I laughed at myself. While I line hopped to the front with my new toy. I feel like my dad.

Getting tired of typing so will make the rest brief. Day 2 was similar to the first day: food, and more food. The highlight was definitely playing with matches and nearly setting the house on fire, and my introduction to smores. Toasted marshmallows sandwiched between graham crackers with chocolate. It doesn't take a genius to know that this was like eating heaven. A 'slumber party' followed with my roommates 12 year old cousin complete with popcorn and movies! I have definitely been in touch with my child side this weekend! As if I hadn't eaten enough food, we stopped by 'A Touch of Britain' to buy maltesers, smarties, dark chocolate kitkat and mince pies. Although we don't celebrate this holiday, everyone being with family and friends made me feel a bit homesick, so I have decided that I am thankful for skype and facebook!

I am about to cry at the prospect of the coming 2 weeks. Too much work, not enough time. In the next 5 days I have 2 presentations, a 10 page paper due, and a Spanish composition and oral exam. Kill me, kill me now. Preferably by stuffing pumpkin pie down my throat. That will be a nice way to die I think. Or to be hugged to death by Soxies.

"This is no ordinary apple. It is a wishing apple"

Rain, rain, rain...reminds me of home. It has not stopped in almost 24 hours. The sound is peaceful but the gloominess is a bit depressing. I have all the lights on and it is 11.30am!

Another busy week or work; it's never ending. Well there is an end in sight...18 days and counting until my final exam and then off to LA and then Seattle:D I can't wait to see my sister and brother-in-law. I will miss the cosy, english village Christmas but I am excited to spend the holidays in snowy Seattle even if it is going to be fffrreeezzzziinnnngggg. I have also spent quite a bit of time on the Disneyland website in preparation for my visit to SoCal! I feel like a little kid who can't wait to hug Mickey Mouse and all his friends! Oh and points to whoever gets the reference from this blog title;)

Speaking of Disney, I have chosen my modules for next quarter. After having such stressful, deep classes this quarter I have decided to take a more laid back approach to my American academic life. Ready for it? My modules include: Spanish 3 (ok so still stressful but I want to be able to at least say a sentence in Spanish by the time I return!), TV and the Nation (looking at the role of TV and broadcasting in shaping America since WW2) aaannnnddd WALT DISNEY! Yes, I will spending 4 hours a week analysing Disney and his movies and the franchise! At first I felt guilty for signing up for this class, I am constantly reminded how much I am spending on my degree but when else will I ever be able to learn this?! Not in Warwick that is for sure! So I am taking full advantage of the sheer range of classes they offer. There are some PE classes slipped into my schedule as well, I have to have some motivation for working off the Thanksgiving pies and the Christmas stuffing!

Went 'downtown' (yes I know there will be certain people laughing at this word) a few nights ago to celebrate a friends birthday. The way she phrased the invitation to me was "you wanna coming dancing? We are going to this club called Motive". I was taken a back by the word 'dancing'. I took it to mean 'clubbing'. So there I was getting ready as I would at home, downing the wine in preparation, but once down there realised she did actually mean dancing. We got into the club, expected to go straight to the bar, but no, we just went and danced. For ages. With no alcohol. Everyone was completley sober! This is not something I was used to! I think in the space of 3 hours, around 4 alcoholic drinks were consumed out of a group of 8! At 2am they even got in their cars and DROVE HOME! From a night out! I have to admit, it was a really really good night once I had got over the initial awkward, uncomfortableness of it all. Why is it that the Brits need to be completely wasted to do anything? It seems in America that when you go to house parties, that is the place to get smashed, but when you go out to clubs it is more just to dance. At least that has been my experience of it all. Will have to wait and see!

Cake has also featured prominently this week. A friend brought over the nicest banana loaf I have ever had ever, a chocolate cake was made a few nights ago, and then yesterday my roommate came back from picking around 100 apples to make apple crisp. Seriously, the apartment is covered in Apples! I can't believe it is thanksgiving on Thursday! I'm supposed to be saving myself for then! But how can you resist when the whole place smells of sweet, delicious desserts? Perhaps I need to face the rain and go to the gym. Actually that isn't even a perhaps it is an I WILL. Oh wait, is that another apple crisp I see?

Don't you love having a student id card!

Happy Remembrance Sunday/ Veterans Weekend/ 11-11-11!
Last week was stressful and long and hormonal. You know when just everything that can go wrong, goes wrong! Sorry if this sounds repetitive. Uni life is a mixture of ups and downs both at home and away so nothing new there, just going through the motions in a slightly sunnier and warmer climate!
We had the day off on Friday for Veterans Day so although all I wanted to do on Thursday was curl into a ball and say goodbye to the crappy week with TV and ice-cream, me and my roommate drove to San Francisco! and I am so glad I went! It took my mind off of everything.
On Friday we loaded up and headed out to start the first sight-seeing day. We headed over to Golden Gate Park and the deYoung museum to go to the observation deck at the top. Aaammaazzziinnnggg view over the city!

We walked down haight ashbury, a popular district in the 60s and 70s. Really cool area with a real hippie vibe. there were shrines on the street dedicated to dead musicians, including Amy Winehouse! Did a bit of shopping before heading over to Japantown for some Ramen noodles and to hit up the cheap $1 Japanese shops for items like Japanese sweets, white boards and sponges! We also stopped off at Alamo Square where those famous San Francisco houses are located (any fans of Full House, Party of Five, or any other show based in San Francisco will have seen these houses in the opening credits!)

We hopped on a bus to Union plaza where by this point it was absolutely chucking it down! We hopped into a few high end shops, including a home and kitchen wear one that was giving out hot apple cider...we hung out in there for a while! We then barged our way into a really posh hotel to take the glass lift that is on the outside of the hotel, up to the 32nd floor to get a view of downtown San Fran! We tried to make it look like we belonged in this hotel but we clearly didn't...rucksacks, raincoats, and soaking wet girls did not fit in with the uber posh, upper-class, older couples sitting in the wine lounge at 3pm. Too wet and rainy to go wonder round China town so we headed over to the Ferry Building to sample lots of deli foods! Went back to my roommates sister's apartment and watched Crazy, Stupid Love...hilarious film! I have always been in love with Steve Carrell.

Supposed to get back to Santa Cruz for midday on Saturday as we both had a lot of work to do, but we heard about a Green festival on 8th street which  was only a few blocks away so decided to go check it out for a bit. Well, we must've spent 2 hours in there! We got in for free because we were students and  this place was absolutely enormous, stalls stretching for about half a mile! We picked up some free tote bags and worked our way down, picking up samples of ice cream, protein powders, raw and natural fruit drinks, granola bars, chocolate, kale crisps, rice, licorice samples, apple sauce, literally anything that was natural and sustainable, we picked it up! We filled up two bags, went home, dropped them off, then went back again for round 2! We came back with 5 bags full to the brim of free stuff! It was amazing. We didn't get back to Santa Cruz until 9pm even though San Francisco is only an hour away! I love Californians and their love of natural, greeness;) Means that I don't have to ever buy apple sauce or bags of red licorice (retail price $6!) or energy bars or laundry detergent again! I have no idea what to do with my hemp seeds though. I'm sure someone in Santa Cruz can tell me.

Hanging with the dogs of the sea!

Another Sunday, another post, though a short one I feel:)

Today was spent in the great outdoors! Although winter is setting in (we have had lots of rain and it is getting much colder) me and my roommate went on a sunset kayaking trip in Monterey Bay this afternoon. I was excited for the trip but after a great white shark attack on a surfer in the area 5 days ago my excitement was dampened somewhat! But after the initial 15mins I completely forgot about the shark and what could be underneath me and just enjoyed the beautiful scenery. It was so gorgeous and peaceful. Pelicans, sea otters, seals and sea lions joined us on our trip on the slightly choppy pacific ocean as we paddled out of the harbour, round the boardwalk and wharf for a few hours! A real arm and shoulder workout! I will admit there were times when a piece of kelp would rise up and resemble a fin and completely freak me out (doesn't the attack in Jaws happen at dusk...I thought so!).

The sea lions like to hang out underneath the wharf and they are so loud! You can hear them from miles away. Hearing the sea lions you can see why they are called 'dogs of the sea'! On Saturday a few of us went down to the wharf to see them and look for whales as the humpbacks have been in the bay (didn't see any unfortunately!) but I hear they are still around so I am keeping a look out! This video I took shows how loud they are!

Can't think of anything else to report. Next weekend is Veterans weekend so a day off on Friday...trip to San Francisco? Yes please!

Oh for the love of....

A few days late but I have a very good reason- Halloween! Let's just jump right into it.
I'm not the biggest Halloween lover, I find dressing up more stressful than fun and so was pretty prepared to let this holiday just pass by. No such luck in America. Literally, for weeks now, everywhere you look there is a carved pumpkin on a porch, a string of bats hung up in a shop window and numerous 'commercials' for 'half off halloween candy'. I wanted to scream "People! It's a children's holiday!! yes, at uni it is a great excuse to throw a party and drink lots but the majority of you are 3 years away from  being able to do this!" After this weekend however, I take it all back!
I put little to no thought into a costume; I borrowed some lion ears and tail from a friend in my spanish class. My roommate went all out, which she tells me is the norm for a lot of people, and literally made her costume (an anime character) from scratch. I even went to the fabric store with her to find just the right shade of grey! It is that serious of an event! The weekend arrived and while a gathering at a friends apartment was fun, it was just a normal evening but in costume. Monday came and I enjoyed the free cupcakes and chocolate that my spanish teacher provided, and the chocolate that my swim coach made us 'work our asses' for but I still was not in the Halloween spirit. After receiving an email from the university a week ago telling us to please not go downtown for Halloween night as people kept getting stabbed last year, I was a bit wary of going but was convinced in the end.
I am so glad I did, it was like Mardi Gras in downtown Santa Cruz! Thousands of people all in some form of costume, ranging form the extreme (the full on Teletubbies clan) to the conservative (me in my little lion ears), from the ages of 0 to 100 (I saw an elderly couple dressed as Prince Charles and Camilla which was highly amusing) all cheering and parading up and down the centre of downtown all night! It was insane!! It made me appreciate that Americans don't do anything in halves; it is all or nothing!

Last week was a pretty hard week actually, emotionally speaking. I blame it on the American invention of mid-terms which I do not agree with! Exams in the middle of the term and without a holiday at the end of them? Mean. I was feeling like I was really enclosed in, like the Warwick bubble but here in Santa Cruz (though a more beautiful looking bubble). It was nice then that this Sunday I went on a high ropes adventure course that had been organised by the Recreation department. 90ft up in the Redwood trees...scary but amazing at the same time! I met a bunch of really nice people and it was great to get properly outdoors and away from work and stress! The powow of love at the end of the day made me slightly uncomfortable, us British are not used to expressing our thoughts and fears and praise to strangers, but it was actually pretty nice to do. I can feel myself becoming an American already;)

Next week I am going on a Sunset kayaking trip in Monterey Bay which I was excited about, until I heard that there was  great white shark attack on a surfer in the Bay a few days ago. Umm, I changed my mind, I don't want to go. Some friends kindly tried to make me feel better by telling me I won't be on a surfboard...i pointed out that I would be in a kayak. Those shapes look the same to a shark from bellow! So this may or may not be my last post.....

Big ones, small ones, some as big as your 'ead: Meteors and Pumpkins

Again it is Sunday, end of week 5. Another busy week of studying and random American-ness!

At the beginning of the week I, and another friend, were dragged by my roommate to a ballroom dance class. I have to admit it was really good fun actually! We were taught how to rrhhuuummmbbaa and  American tango (what makes it American I don't know!) and I definitely got into it! A real mix of people there. We kept swapping partners throughout the class so sometimes you were dancing with a tall, dark haired, dancing Ben Affleck, other times, you were not. Got my dancing shows ready for tomorrow:)

Each college on campus has a college night about once a month where the dining hall is given a theme and they serve food and provide entertainment etc. Cowell's college night was a medieval night and I have never seen turkey legs that big before! Seriously they were like the size of my arm! They put loaves of bread on the tables to share and candles and crowns. They even served bread pudding and apple cider while we watched sword fighting and juggling! It must of cost the University a shed load of money but we paid nothing and enjoyed an evening of ye olde feasting and festivities!

On Friday night we heard rumors of a meteor shower happening between midnight and sunrise so we bundled up, stopped at Safeway for snacks and beer on the way, and headed down to Natural Bridges beach at 3am to lie on the sand and watch shooting stars! It was ffrreeezzziinngg cold but we saw lots of shooting stars, made lots of wishes and we were the only ones on the beach which made it the setting for some cheesy horror film (especially when Kelsey kept  'seeing' things moving). Having never seen a shooting star before it was pretty cool and though it wasn't the biggest meteor shower I don't care that I almost froze to death!

Two friends and I went to a pumpkin patch and corn maze yesterday (in the 30degree heat btw!) to pick out our pumpkins for Halloween which the Americans go crazy for! When I ask people what they are doing for halloween they reply by telling me what they are dressing up as. I say 'I'm guessing you are going to a fancy dress party then' and they reply with 'oh no, I don't know what i'm doing yet'....and yet you are dressing up regardless? I'm not a massive halloween fan but the pumpkin patch was fun! I have never seen so many pumpkins and you just walk down loads of rows of them, all different varieties and colours, to pick out the ones you want, put them in your wheelbarrow and wheel them up to the hut where you pay! I have great plans for the carving of my pumpkin however i'm pretty sure the image I have in my head will not translate onto the side of a pumpkin. The corn maze was hard, we found our way back to the entrance thinking it was the exit, but at least we made it out!

 In other news, I have booked my plane ticket to the OC to stay with a friend at the end of term! On our itinerary is Disneyland, LA and Laguna Beach so I am very excited for that! Ok, I will leave it there as I have an exam tomorrow that I have to revise for. It is ironic that back at Warwick week 6, for a humanities student, is reading week. A week off basically. At UCSC it is mid-term week. A week of exams, papers and altogether will be no fun. Though at least it is hot and I can revise outside in the sun! ahhh the silver lining. Perhaps I will order a take away...Dominos? No. Nite Owl cookies...Yes!

Would you like a microphone to go with that California Roll?

Busy couple of weeks as per usual. Though it is Sunday so blog day has been upheld!
Many deadlines coming up in the next few days which is stressing me out somewhat. Two spanish exams, a presentation and a paper due ah! I've already had 1 spanish exam and got 88.5 out of 100 which I was really happy with however in America that only is a B! At home that would have been the highest First ever! I wonder how Warwick transfer the grades hmmmm.

Something I have noticed recently is the amount of people who just don't wear shoes. Or socks. They  walk around barefoot. They walk into lectures barefoot, they jog round the track barefoot, I've even seen a few people in the supermarket barefoot! I wondered why there were signs in front of the dining halls saying 'No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service'! Santa Cruz is quite a hippy town and university but the people who are practicing this 'freedom' so to speak are not your average hippies. Quite the opposite in fact. My strength training teacher started talking to us about this...how shoes, if worn for long periods of time, can actually be bad for your feet! Walking or running on natural surfaces is how we lived for thousands of years. She has a point but still, we are living in the 21st Century. I don't want to be sitting next to some guy with his feet in my face during a seminar. If you want to get your feet back to grass roots then do that outside! There is no grass or sand or mud in this lecture hall! This is one thing that I won't be participating in at UCSC. I like shoes.

Went to a sushi restaurant, appropriately called 'I Love Sushi' for a friends birthday on Friday night. It doubles up as a karaoke bar so while you are served your Red Dragon Roll and Miso Soup there are a group of girls who have had a bit too much Sake belting out classics like 'I Will Survive' and 'Gangster's Paradise'! Highly entertaining even if it does make it a bit hard to talk to people. There were 27 of us at this meal and there was one guy, from Britain, who is the twin of James McAvoy (with his english accent, not scottish)!!  I got very excited! I hope to bump into him again:P If I had been allowed some alcohol then maybe I would have considered getting up there (in a group of course!) but alas, I was not. I'm looking forward to my ID arriving!

Along with the deer and racoons on campus (both cute, furry animals) the flat had a bit of a shock at 1am a few nights ago. I was fast asleep when I kind of came too when I heard screaming from my roommate. I was still half asleep so I just incorporated it into my dream however when I heard the word 'Tarantula' being yelled, I jumped out of bed so fast (not an easy task seeing as the beds are like 6 feet high!) that I almost fainted! I ran into the kitchen where a number of people were congregated around a tupperware box with the biggest, hairiest, scariest spider ever in it. Now I'm pretty good with spiders but this was insane. We called the Campus Security Officers (CSO's) who came at 1.30am to tell us how it was not a tarantula but a distant cousin of one. I don't know if that was reassuring or not. Anyway, we named him Alfred and kept him to show people for a few days before releasing him a long long way away! I was quickly reminded that there are poisonous and dangerous animals living in the woods of California and are usually spotted on campus. I miss the sheep of Warwickshire.