A surprise visitor

We had quite the exciting visitor arrive in little old Santa Barbara this week on part of the presidential campaign trail but managing to get to see them was an absolute nightmare, leading me to conclude that Americans can’t queue properly! 

Our speaker was to arrive at 6.45 on Thursday to give us a speech and take questions in preparation for the California primary, which is part of ‘Super Tuesday’ on Feb 5.  There were only 900 seats available and UCSB is about the same size as Edinburgh so getting there early was a must if you wanted to get in – especially seeing as other members of the community were coming as well.

So I arrived at 2.45 with a couple of friends and the queue hadn’t really developed (although there were a few people there already and more arriving as we did.  About half an hour later a man came round for the first time with a little clicker (like on the lynx adverts) to count how many people were there.  I was 115^th in the queue. When he came round an hour later and I had become 167^th I noticed something wrong, more time passed and I was 215^th.  By the time I entered the hall I was…wait for it…425^th in line!  310 people had pushed in front of me! How does that happen?!

Nevertheless, I finally got in and hung around until half past 8 when it was finally announced – “Please give a warm welcome to NY Senator Hillary Clinton!”.

Before anyone asks – no, Bill Clinton was not by her side, but she was more than enough of a charismatic speaker without him and she talked to us for an hour or so about the different issues at hand and (unsurprisingly) said that she wanted a fairer deal for students.  There was one spot of excitement in the middle when one idiot decided to hold up a poster saying ‘How’s Monica?’; luckily she didn’t see it before the scary secret service men had ejected the culprits!

 

So quite apart from that little dose of excitement I headed down to LA this weekend to meet with a couple of friends who were traveling through on their way to New Zealand.  Surprisingly, despite being within 100 miles of LA, I’ve not really been to the sights there as yet.  But that was put right with a proper tourist-y day in the city.  First we took a little stroll down Hollywood Boulevard and compared our hands with the stars in Graumann’s Chinese Theatre.  Shortly after we took a little tour of the stars homes in Beverly Hills (including David Beckham’s) and then came back to watch a lot of delusional individuals performing in a square thinking that they may be the next Britney Spears (although who wants that now?!).  For dinner we went to a nice little Burger Joint where we ran into the guy who plays the gardener in Desperate Housewives.  If you’re thinking there’s anything missing from my day then I should tell you we went to a bar that night with a mechanical bull!

Next week: Vegas…

11) Homecoming

I’m just going to admit it. I went home for Christmas. I “cheated” on my year abroad. And I’m sorry, but I don’t care. I had a brilliant holiday with my family and boyfriend, and would recommend going home to anyone who is near enough to.

To be fair though, I had mixed feelings as I boarded my flight back; what if everyone I’d met here had forgotten who I was?!? What if a freak accident forced my flight to land in the middle of the ocean?!? At least I didn’t need to worry about the whereabouts of my toothbrush -I’d forgotten it in Tübingen before Christmas.

I turned up in rainy, dark Tübingen late on a Sunday evening. After struggling with my enormous suitcase (cobbles and wheels don’t mix) I arrived at my halls, only to find I had no key. After miraculously finding a mate of mine, and phoning every person of authority we could think of (cleaner, gardener, receptionist, music teacher) we were left with no option but to BREAK THE GLASS PANEL CONTAINING AN EMERGENCY KEY. It was hilarious. Glass went everywhere! And thus my dreams of coming back without catastrophe and/or public embarrassment died. Not only am I now famous for decorating walls with yoghurt, but for vandalising office property. Something tells me my stay in Germany is not having a positive effect on people’s perception of the English; the head of my accommodation had a different understanding of “emergency”, and was NOT impressed in the morning.

Things have, however, only got better after that shaky start. Strangely enough, my desire to see all of Germany has decreased at an equal rate to that of my bank balance, meaning that the weekends away that marked my first two months here have now been replaced with local alternatives. I would argue this has been a positive thing- the Ritter Sport chocolate factory is a mere 20 minute bus ride away, and the saving I’ve made by stocking up on cheap chocolate will go towards similar “cultural” experiences in the future. On Sunday I happened upon the “Fasching festival”, literally by accident. I went out to buy some milk and randomly was accosted by an angry man wanting to charge me two euros to enter the part of the town centre where the shops are. When I pointed out that I’ve never had to pay in the past and took offence at him taking advantage of foreigners he started laughing and let me in for free. I feel this was quite an achievement- to blag my way into something I didn’t yet know existed. So anyway, Fasching is a traditional festival that involves a huge procession of costumed people dressed as woodcutters, animals, and witches, with lots of noise and throwing of sweets. Nobody is quite sure why they do this, but hey! It’s tradition, and was really good fun, and of course involved copious amounts of beer.

 Last weekend I also visited the most organised houseparty I have ever been to which included, amongst other things, themed rooms. It was ace to experience a good bit of German dancing etiquette again and, of course, to continue my comparative research into the drinking cultures of our two fine nations. Everyone’s stressed because exams are soon, but it’s good to be back. Happy New Year!!!

New Year, New York

My family and I stayed in a quaint little town called Rockport about 30 miles north of Boston for Christmas, where we’d rented out a nice wee domicile that had a distinctly Christmas-y dimension to it (maybe because it was surrounded in snow) nevertheless it was a fantastic place to spend Christmas – everyone in the town was really friendly and festive, Boston was a short train ride south and should we feel like a dose of culture the surrounding area was steeped in American history. 

 

We took day trips into Boston, Salem (famous for its witch trials in the late 17^th century) and Plymouth Rock where the first settlers lived on arrival in the New World.  I’d recommend the area to anyone – Boston as well as its surrounding area is beautiful under the snow and the architecture and history are far more impressive than one may imagine for part of such a young country.  If that isn’t enough everyone talks like they do in Good Will Hunting – what more could one want?

 

After saying Goodbye to the family they went straight to the airport as I caught a train down to New York nursing the damage of all the holiday’s fantastic food on my waistline.

 

Obviously I was in New York for the attraction of Times Square at New Year, which no shortage of other people had come for too.  As a result the city was particularly crowded, with queues for most attractions ridiculously long.  I got to see most of the things I went for but the part to which I was looking forward most was TERRIBLE!  I’m sure most of you have good memories of your New Year (or no memories at all), try comparing them with mine…

 

I arrived in Times Square at 4pm – 8 hours until midnight I thought I’d be in reasonable proximity to the dropping ball and the stage with the live music on.  In reality the closest I could get was 49^th street (the ball was on 43^rd street and the stage was facing away from me on 47^th).  Those of you in Edinburgh may be thinking, so what?  Street parties are fun at New Year!  Party would be going a little far.  There was no alcohol allowed (family event), we were kept in actual pens (like sheep) there were no public toilets (if you left to go to one you couldn’t get back to your spot) so all we did was stand looking at a ball (we couldn’t here anything as the speakers were pointing away from us) for 8 hours!  Never mind, the ball dropping MUST have been cool?  Not really…I’m not sure if I’m the only one, but I kinda expected it to drop as anything else does when subjected to the force of gravity, instead it just descended slowly over the course of a minute to a not very spectacular stop. 

 

I recommend it to everyone!

 

At midnight we just left with everyone else and well… went to bed.  But 2008 is a New Year!  I hopped straight on a train in the morning to Washington where I met up with a flatmate of mine for New Year and he kindly let me stay at his place for a few days while I checked out Washington, which I loved.  Forget about the Whitehouse and Capitol Hill which are kinda cool, but around them is such a wide array of Museums, Memorials and Monuments (wow, alliterative) that I spent my whole three days just wandering around there!  Definitely go if you get the chance!

 

I’m back in Santa Barbara now and am active again straight away – sorry I dragged my feet a bit on getting this out!  Happy New Year!