Christmas at Carroll

Wow, there is so much Christmas!! There are decorations everywhere! The tower at the center of John Carroll is lit up red, and the doors to the Administration building are green. It's so pretty. And there is proper snow!!! It snows a lot, then it melts a bit, then it snows again but it just feels Christmassy here like this. A real white Christmas. So here are some snow pictures of campus, I especially like the lights around the street lamps!!

I decorated our room, so here is a picture of the tree, the paper chains outside our room, my best friend Sam making said paper chains, our gingerbread houses and the Christmas cake I baked and decorated using only a microwave and food bags. 

So one night on campus there was a naive nativity, with real animals and people!! And there was a camel there, so I went and met said Camel, he was adorable and very friendly!!

I had a lovely time just hanging out with my friends mainly. But then came Finals and I guessed I should study... To help my studying John Carroll had Stress-free zones throughout campus. This was one of them!

And an end of semester meant my wonderful roommate was leaving :( so we needed to say goodbye. We had already gone to see Frozen, amazing film and I loved it so much!!!! Our RA Mary, Sam and I took her out ice skating to the local rink to say farewell. It was loads of fun and we really enjoyed watching Sam, or at least I was amused until I fell over too...but oh well. 

This term has been mad, hectic, confusing at times, hard at times but all in all totally worth it. I am so glad I decided to come here to study and I don't regret it for a moment. I can't wait for the next couple of years. But for now, I'm going home for Christmas, which is a nice idea. Can't wait to see my family and friends again, relax, have a couple of drinks, then fly back and continue my adventure. So until then, Merry Christmas everyone, Happy New Year, and I hope you all enjoy the holiday we all deserve!!!

Thanksgiving pictures

Roasting Turkey on the spit outside

Thanksgiving food....well some of it

Plate 1 of thanksgiving food

Just Dance after the meal...so I cannot dance...

Catch up on what has been happening!!!

Hi all!

Quick thank you, if you are still reading this! I really love knowing that people do, and I hope it's interesting for you.

So I have finally graduated from my radio training so next semester I will have a WJCU show hopefully! The training was great, it's so much fun, and I've learnt a lot. I run the board on my own, answer phones and talk on air. There is a lot to think about but it's great fun anyway.

I still have a lot of schoolwork but it's going to get a little bit more over the next three weeks because we are gearing up for Finals Week, thankfully I only have 4 to get through as some of my subjects don't have one.

I will be going home for Christmas, which is nice and I'm looking forward to seeing my family again. Then I will be back in January to start a new term which is looking like it's going to be fun!

There is still clumps of snow around in Cleveland, but most of it has melted at the moment, but it is likely to snow again before Christmas. The weather is quite cold but it's not at it's coldest yet, that will be January and February.

I have been going to Mass with my friend every Sunday which is an interesting twist when you grew up in a Baptist/Church of England/Agnostic background, but I guess it's just one more I can add to the mix. I also go to something called CLC which are like Christian groups and are great fun to be part of.

Thanksgiving Part 2

I went to my roommates house for Thanksgiving, her family was lovely and really looked after me. So, because it's a big holiday, we left school on Tuesday and got to her house that afternoon. The next day her sisters arrived back at home too, so we spent most of the day meeting each other, then in the evening we watched Elf together, always a good one. One of her sisters made something called Puppy Chow, which is basically powdered sugar, melted chocolate, shreddies and pretzels, and it tastes amazing!!!!!!

Actual Thanksgiving Day was on Thursday and it was so much fun. We started off the day by watching the 'Macy's Day Parade' on the TV. It is televised from New York and is the most American thing I have ever seen. The first hour of the parade was watching Musical show cast doing some numbers from their shows, for example, we saw The Sound of Music and Matilda. The second hour is more floats and school/university marching bands, on the floats were a lot of different musical acts. After the parade we watched the Dog Show, which is apparently the other thing to watch on Thanksgiving. The dinner was being made all day, especially because my roommates family cook their turkeys by roasting them on a spit! Family started arriving soon in the afternoon, all her cousins and aunts and uncles came over.

We ate at about 4pm, and there was so much good food. We had Turkey and stuffing, Green Bean casserole, Sweet Potato Casserole, Mashed Potato, Gravy and Bread Rolls. It all tasted really good, and I ate an awful lot. Then for desert we had a choice of Pecan or Pumpkin pie, personally I think Pumpkin pie tastes like baby food so I had Pecan but try it for yourself! Conversation around the table was hilarious, as all the old family stories started to come out and I was enjoying learning things about Shelby which were funny.

After that all the kids went down to the basement and played Just Dance, and due to the fact I cannot dance, it was very very interesting, but extremely funny. Then all the family went home and we went to bed, finally.

Friday was. Black Friday, so the day of shopping, and to be honest I didn't go, I did my Black Friday shopping online because I didn't want to deal with crowds. Then in the evening one of her cousins had a Birthday party so we went there and celebrated we her whole family again. Friday and Saturdays meals were then leftovers from Thanksgiving. Saturday afternoon Shelby took me to see Catching Fire, was hard trying to remember that Americans call cinemas Movie Theaters, which is a bit different. Then on Sunday we went back to school. It was a really fun week, and I enjoyed myself a lot! But fair warning, if you want American this is a good way to get it!