mums visit

So first things first. Sorry. I know it has been an awful long time since I have written the blog. It has all been pretty hectic really. My mum came over from the 13th to the 23rd of December so I wanted to spend as much time with her as I possibly could so didn't write the blog. Then it was Christmas with my host parents. Then on the 28th I traveled to New York City to meet my boyfriend from back home. Then I returned to Valdosta the night of the 6th of January and started classes the next day at 8am.

So I have a lot to write about...

It was wonderful to see my mum. My school friend drove me to Atlanta airport as he was going home to Henry County for Christmas. So once he dropped me off I managed to find mum and a family friend of ours who stays in Atlanta. We stayed at the friends house with her husband and sister who we are close friends with after she studied in Edinburgh.
The next day we drove to Athens to stay with our close friend. Athens is a beautiful city. There were a lot of lovely old buildings which were all being used as Fraternity houses. Which is a bit of a shame as I can only imagine what state the inside of the buildings would look like after a hard night of partying.

We managed to do a lot of shopping in Athens and found a nice bagel place to eat. We went to the Varsity fast food place which is only in Atlanta and Athens. We went to a church service. Mum also experienced Chick-fil-a which is another fast food place which just does chicken and again is only in Georgia. We made a visit to UGA and had a look at the stadium and bookstore. Also a visit to the tree that owns itself is a must in Athens.

From Athens we drove to Thomasville to saty with my Georgia Rotary Scholarship truestee. He is in charge of the four GRSP students in Valdosta so if we have any problems with our host parents for example, he will be able to find a new family or try to resolve the situation.

On our way there we stopped in a lovely place called Madison. We had a tour around a couple old houses and had a nice bite to eat. We also stopped to see the Brer Rabbit statute. It was pretty tiny.

Once in Thomasville we were shown our rooms in our wing of the house. I was in the play room, along with the pin ball machine and other toys.
We went to the black history museum, had a look around Thomasville. Saw another tree, this one was a large oak tree which is pretty massive! We went to the farmers market too.
A friend of mine from university lives near Thomasville too so my mum got to meet her and her mother. We went to Pebble Hill Plantation House which was stunning. The four of us had a look around the shops and ate lunch in Savannah Moon where I had a lovely salad.
There was also a nice pasta place called Fish Bones. The pasta is cooked in front of you and you pick the kind of pasta, sauce, vegetables and meat.

So then my mum and I went to stay with my host family in Moultrie. It was nice that she was able to meet my host family and friends here as I know it must be odd hearing all these names and stories and not knowing who anyone is. Her visit seemed to fly by but we did so much together.

Yesterday I went to a Rotary meeting and listened to the Serenader's. They are high school children who sing. I got to meet some more lovely people which was great.
I also went to see a couple of my host parents school pupils wrestling in a competition between the Valdosta Wild Cats. It was one of the most horrible experiences I have ever encountered at a school (and I grew up in Portobello). The boys were only 10 years old and had to pin each other down so their opponent had both shoulders on the ground. This of course made their wee faces turn blue and they just looked in pain. I couldn't watch it. And it was so bizarre to me that the parents in the audience were shouting and obviously supporting their children but if that was my child, I would be down on that ring in a flash.
We only managed to watch two boys and then ran away from it all.

We went to a shop to find an outfit for Gwen as it was the Rotary Christmas Banquette last night which was lovely. They had a very talented harpist playing but I don't think I liked her that much. She said she would answer some frequently asked questions. Although she doesn't like it when people ask how much it costs as you wouldn't ask how much someones house costs. Erm. It's a harp. She doesn't live in it, it is a musical instrument that she plays that is rare and hand carved, I think it is a valid question.
She also wanted to clarify that men also play the harp. Now I don't know where she heard that question but obviously someone was not a fan of the Marx brothers. It is in Harpo's name, of course men play the harp.
Anyway, it was a lovely evening and as always I met some wonderful and interesting characters. One retired man in his 80's felt the need to sing Old MacDonald to me. He was a charmer.

Today I should be going to the bank and possibly to the Middle School to read to my host mothers class. Then tonight I am traveling to my dorm at uni to stay over so I can leave early Thursday morning with a friend up to Atlanta to meet my lovely mum.

holidays!

All finals are completed. I am out of school and feeling pretty good about it. I will miss some friends but hopefully it is not the last time I will see them.
I am spending the next few days with my host family before to traveling to Atlanta to pick up my mother and show her this fine state.

Yesterday I saw a Christmas Youth Choir at a Moultrie church and yesterday was the Moultrie Parade.
Now, that was fantastic, nothing says Christmas like Hells/Christian Christmas Angels! Fairy lights on the bikes and dead wolfs on the head. Nice. Also loved the fact that the floats were dragged along the street by the Jon Deere tractors. It was an experience though for sure. I got to see the Middle and High School marching bands and all.

This week has been horribly busy with school work. I am so thankful that it is all over now. Just have one week full of final exams before I will be done with this semester.
Just saw a play by the student theatre group, everything written, directed, performed etc. by the students themselves. It was a very good play I loved it. A friend of mine performed and did so well I was chuffed for them.
Tomorrow I will be going to a luncheon at the international office. We will learn a little about American traditions and are to talk a bit about our own. Then I will be meeting with a friends aunt which should be fun.
I will have to try and get as much revision done this weekend as possible though which is a pain.

Well I only have one more class left tomorrow morning and then I will be on Thanksgiving break! YAY. Once I am back at University next week there will just be two weeks of classes left before the final exams. I have to admit that I am a little worried as we are still starting new topics in some of the classes. Ach well, I am just going to have to make the most of it and study when I can, I just hoped there would be more time to revise over past topics.

This weekend I stayed in Valdosta on campus. I had revision to do for my sociology test so that kept me occupied. I also went on a couple of quick trips to the gym this weekend as it is just next door to my halls and I think I should maybe make some room for the Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners ahead.
It is a friends birthday over the break so we went out on Saturday night to celebrate it so a few friends went to Rockin' Rodeo. It was a good night and the club was packed which made it more exciting.
Sunday night the Baptist Student Ministry who organized the trip to Stone Mountain, made a thanksgiving dinner for the international students of Valdosta. It was a lovely gesture and idea. I got to meet a few people that I hadn't met before and also say hello to some friends I had made on the Stone Mountain trip.
So pumpkin pie.....not too sure about it. It is all wet and smoochy. Also I tried the sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top but there is no way that I will ever do that again. A couple of the people from America said that they have sweet potatoes as a desert with marshmallows and cinemon on top. 'Hmmm' is all I could bring myself to say.

Just back from a play by the universtity theater company. It was so funny and very well done by the cast. A friend from one of my classes was in it and was really good, the play was 'The Man Who Came to Dinner' and his character was called Banjo and was a representation of Harpo from the Marx Brothers.
Also I have just found out that Family Guy is on TBS.

Atlanta weekend

Well I had a crazy busy weekend in Atlanta. The Georgia Rotary students met on Friday night for a meal in one of Atlanta's high schools. Lasagna made a lovely change from the regular hot dogs and burgers. Once we all had our dinner and catch up we were told to go into groups of four and find a Rotarian who would be our host parents for the night. I stayed with a girl from Malaysia, France and a good friend from Scotland. The couple that we stayed with were really interesting and had traveled all over the world and had been host parents for 7 students in the past. They were also very interested in us, our views and our country which is always nice.
We had an early start in the morning at 8am. We arrived at the YMCA to drop off our bags as we were to stay there on Saturday night. We took a school bus around Atlanta with our first stop being the zoo. It was lots of fun and there were giant pandas there. After the zoo we went straight to the World of Cola. They had a tasting room at the end with different coke products that are sold in different countries all over the world. Although I didn't recognize the lemonade that is sold in England and I did hear a few other people saying they had never heard of the juice that is meant to be from their home countries.

After we all went a little mad in the giant Cola shop we headed to the Varsity. Two Saturdays in a row...not so good for my wee growing belly. We had some people from Atlanta with us so I was able to ask what the best meal was and although the picture didn't look too appetizing the chicken was rather tasty and not too greasy.
After lunch we went to an arcade which had go kart racing. We didn't all have enough money or time to go racing so most people just played the arcade games.

Then we went back to the YMCA to play the arcade games that they had there, and eat our pizza and salad. They opened up the climbing wall and swimming pool for us until 10pm which was fun. It was nice to just relax with everyone and have so much time to talk with people that I hadn't had the chance to yet. So we all slept on the floor of the gym on yoga mats and sleeping bags. It was not all that comfortable however, the fact that I was so extremely tired after such a busy day meant that I just fell asleep as soon as my head hit the floor.

Sunday morning I was collected along with the other students from Valdosta. We went to the aquarium which was just stunning. They had the most beautiful beluga whales and such stunning colourful fish. It was all just stunning.
Needless to say we slept well on the four hour journey home.

It was so tempting to just jump straight into bed when we got home but it would be so early and I didn't want to wake up in the middle of the night. So I waited until 10pm before I went to bed. This did not work out how I had planned as at 10pm the fire alarm went off once again and we were told to evacuate the building for another 4 hours while the rooms were checked for another apparent bomb threat that was called. A few people are getting paranoid but I really don't think there is any need to be. It is still an odd experience and something I could really .do without as with finals coming up it would be good to get enough sleep as possible.