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.

Oh to be under the influence of a crowd mentality!

Ok, so I know that I said that my blogging days were Sunday's but I just have to write about this!
UCSC has a tradition where on the first rain the students celebrate by running naked through campus chanting, singing, playing bagpipes, screaming etc etc. And tonight was the night!
The Naked Run started in 1989 during an earthquake where students of Porter College (one of the 10 colleges on campus) slept outside in the quad and played truth or dare...of course the dares included nudity!
Now one can't just start a naked run as soon as it starts drizzling. There are rulesfor the event set by students themselves
1) It has to rain continuously for at least 7 hours straight
2) It has to be on a school/ term day
3) The run cannot start until 10pm
4) It has to start at Porter College
5) You don't have to be naked to join in but you look a bit silly if you aren't
 6) There is a traditional route taken by the runners hitting all the colleges before running down to East Field, breaking into the pool and jumping in!
7) A drum circle will follow the dip in the pool
etcetc

You can hear the runners coming...tooting horns, spectators cheering (yes people do stand outside the dorm buildings and cheer the runners on!), chants of U-C-S-C, cries of "NNAKKKEEEDD RRUUUNNN"!
Peering in a not pervy way out of the window, hoards of  people streaked past to go join up with the swarm, in the rain, naked, except for shoes, while we sat here in the warm, fully clothed and dry.
The noise gots louder and louder as they approached Cowell College...
A shot of jaegarmeister later, we joined them!
10.30pm, completely naked, running with 1000 strangers through the campus, is the oddest feeling ever! Lets just say 'the awkeward moment when you bump into a guy from 2 of your classes'...i have to see him at 9am tomorrow!
That was quite an introduction to UCSC! It is funny how hysteria just sweeps you up and carries you along. I never, ever, would have done that. Or at least I thought I never would. I find it really uncomforatble in public showers when people just walk around naked! I guess I have to get over that so as not to appear hypocritical (though it was dark on the run!)
 Unfortunately no pics of the actual run, that would be wrong! However I do have this little gem for you...the after shot of me and my roommate; wet, cold, but clothed!

Pelicans, Seals and Deer oh my!

Sunday evening is shaping up to be a pretty good blog writing time. Nothing much goes on at this time; homework would have been done by now if it was every going to get done today, there aren't any dining halls or coffee shops open on campus to go spend the imaginary flexi dollars, nothing good is on TV and apart from mentally preparing yourself for the coming work week, you are sedentary and that is how you are going to stay until tomorrow.
Only seems like yesterday that the previous post was being written at the end of week 1, and now week 2 has vanished into the abyss. What is there to report? Initially, it feels like nothing has happened so why do I feel so tired? The first week back after summer holidays is always a shock to the system. For starters, I know I am usually a pretty early riser, but this is voluntary. When I have to be up at 8am five days in a row, it is hard. Really hard. Especially as on two of these occasions it is to go to a swim conditioning class where the instructor took great joy in announcing at the first class that it was "part of her job to make us throw up" from sheer exertion. Swimming is the only cardio I can do at the moment because of my foot so me being me, i've taken it to the extreme. When life hands you lemons, make lemonade, or lemon cake! I've forgotten the proper saying. Swimming caps are a must in this class too....sexxyyy. A friend has lent me hers for the time being and so I look like a purple egg, literally. At least the pool is outside and so that intense chlorine smell that usually hits you as you walk into any leisure centre isn't as prominent!
I have been spending quite a bit of time at the pool this week. I've joined the Kayak Club and our first session on Wednesday took place at the pool where we all got into wet suits (again seexxxyy) and practiced rolling the kayaks and escaping from them. Not a fan of that feeling that you are about to drown and 'which way is the surface?!' but hopefully in time that will improve and I will soon be bombing down 40ft waterfalls and river rapids like in that video they showed us at the start! Perhaps not.
The legal drinking age is grating really thin now. I thought that it wouldn't bother me but it has only been 2 weeks and it rrreeaalllyy is! It isn't so much missing the alcohol (though there are times especailly because the weather is really nice that you just want a nice glass of pimms, or 'other interesting white wines')

 but the fact that you aren't even allowed into the bars or pubs. You can be in restaurants but only until 10pm! (the above photo was taken at 8pm lol) The majority of the friends that I have made so far here are over 21 too which is annoying as when they want to go out, I can't go! So lets just say i've taken steps to make sure that I can go next time which should arrive in the post within the next week!
So much reading. So so much reading. I don't want to read anymore. That feeling bodes well for the next 2 years of my humanities degree! Took a nice break from the reading this afternoon/evening and went with my roommate for a picnic at the beach. Sat and watched lots of pelicans and a very lively seal (i was convinced it was a whale) before spending hours in the supermarket deciding whether peanut butter oreos were such a good idea!
Well a riveting book on racial formations and theories beckons so I will leave it there. Some random pictures of the pelicans and seal from the beach and deer on campus for y'all to enjoy!