Days 33, 34 & 35: Flumes, Fedoras and Farewells

It seems odd that this is the last post from my time in America, 5 weeks flew by so quickly, an experience I wish could never have ended. These final three days were of course not going to be a let down, with drama beyond anything which we'd experienced so far on the trip.

Thursday saw me waking up to the aftermath of the night before. I was incredibly excited as we'd been told we were going to the waterpark for the day, so having got up, I assembled my swimming stuff together and left the appartment.

Turns out that events the previous night, when everyone bar myself had gone out, meant that for now at least, the day's activities had been put on hold. I won't go into the specifics of it, but turns out that Dan had managed to get himself into a fight with someone somehow, and the result of it was that his face had been quite literally mashed into a pulp. Result: Everyone on the staff was furious as the consequences could've been disastrous for the University. As a result, we all, myself included had to give a statement about what happened.

Mine was simple... "I wasn't there, having stayed at the university, therefore I did not see anything." However because of what had happened, as I was part of the group, I too was on the receiving end of a bollocking from the staff.

However, after a few words from Jon Roper, we were eventually allowed to go to the Waterpark, after lunch, at around 1330, which gave much of the group a good opportunity to start packing and cleaning up... funtimes!!!

Come 1330 we all departed to the waterpark for what can only be described as a very pleasant afternoon, having just defied the rain which had threatened us for much of the week. The Waterpark was pretty good with some awesome water rides. I reckon one of the group's favourites must have been the rock, which led to many great pictures, as seen here:

At 5pm we all headed off, just in time, as the heavens were about to open with another torrential rainstorm and once more, thunderstorms were on the horizon. Next on the cards, however, was a tour of the Bombing Memorial, which didn't last that long, because of the weather. However, the weather made the area so much more atmospheric, and gave all us CT guys a chance to show the rest of our group where we'd spent the last month doing our internship.

With the tour of the Memorial complete, we all headed off to a Mexican restaurant where we were to have our last meal together as a group. The meal was pretty good, with everyone going away feeling incredibly full. However, the highlight had to be us pretending that it was Scott's birthday, to cause maximum embarrassment whilst in the restaurant. So what did the staff at the restaurant do... put a great big sombrero on his head, and sang Happy Birthday in an utterly tuneless rendition of that oh so famous song. As much as we tried to keep a straight face throughout, it was pretty difficult for us to take it seriously.

Once we'd arrived back at the university, we took an executive decision to play volleyball... in the rain, it was awesome fun, with most of us playing three games, each of them with the court becoming more and more waterlogged... it was awesome!!!

Friday saw the first three members of our group depart back to the UK, signifying the end to our month in Oklahoma. As a result, much of the day was spent packing and relaxing. However once the first few had left; myself, Eliot and Kristina wandered off to Starbucks for a drink, before wandering back to grab some lunch and ultimately to depart for our day's unscheduled activities.

With only around 5 of us visibly up and awake, we all decided to take a wander down towards the antiques shops, to see what bargains we could pick up. Turns out the only things that we bought were Oklahoma License Plates to take home as a souvenir!

Having been shopping for a bit, Scott took us off in the car and we went on a bit of a road trip, firstly to a Western Outfitters, where a cowboy hat was bought by myself as well as a new belt and watch. Having done this, we then went on about a 45 minute drive down to Scott's university, Oklahoma University. The campus was absolutely HUGE, with a Stadium to put most of the UK's major football stadiums to shame. It can apparently seat 82000 people... and it's a College Stadium, it was absolutely phenomenal, being stood inside the stadium, but being on a tight schedule we had to move out and back to university.

On the way back we all decided that instead of going back to University we all went to the mall, and myself, Chris and Eliot decided that we'd go and watch a movie, little knowing that we'd miss out on getting a lift back and have to get a cab, with hindsight, I wish that I'd gone back as I still had a fair bit to do packing wise for the next morning, but ah well, It all got done!!

Saturday saw my American adventure draw to a close, having said goodbye to everyone the night before, I left the University at around 11am with Scott taking me to the airport. On the way there we stopped off so that I could get some food before getting on the aeroplane, so we stopped off at Sonic, a drive in fast food place. It was perhaps the best Fast Food place I'd been out here, having a Jalapeño Cheeseburger and perhaps the most amazing fries ever. With Scott leaving me at the airport I checked in and got through Security, and set myself up for the wait until my flight. I have to say, i felt pretty down, knowing that as soon as I got on that plane, my adventure would be at an end.

Pretty soon of course, my flight was called, and within no time at all, I was in the air, bidding farewell to the place that had been my home for the last month. However, i knew that for a while at least, I would still be in the United States, with my connection from Chicago not leaving until later that evening.

Unfortunately however, I did not have any opportunity to explore the Windy City, as I was confined to the departures lounge at Chicago O'Hare airport. So, having gotten some dinner in the food hall, I settled down in the departure lounge until my flight was called. The flight left on time, and having upgraded myself to Premium Economy, I experienced a relatively comfortable flight back to the UK, arriving over an Hour early into Heathrow, where I was greeted by my parents. Suffering from Jetlag, I battled through the day trying to get myself back into the UK routine.

So ends my 5 week adventure in the US, I'd love to have this opportunity again. I'll do another post soon, saying my individual thanks to everyone, but in general, thanks to everyone on the trip. I really couldn't have asked for a better bunch of people to spend a month with. Ok so we had our up's and down's, but at the end of the day, I hope we can all remain firm friends!

Until the next post

x

Days 30, 31 & 32: Controversy, Cross and Cake

Ok, so after that last rant, I could go on another one about the events of Monday, but in all fairness, I can’t be bothered.

Monday saw us all go to Penn Square Mall, as a group, our main effort was to go shopping for a couple of hours and then go to the cinema, to see what, would be decided when we arrived at the Mall. So, upon our arrival, we went to see what was on and the group decided with a majority vote, that we’d go to see the new Adam Sandler movie, “Grown Ups”. The showing that we were to see, gave us about 2 ½ hours of shopping time, before we went to see the movie.

Penn Square Mall seemed bigger than Quail Springs Mall, the one that we’d been to before this. There was a far greater variety of shops there, meaning that there was even more opportunity to spend some money. I will say, I’ve been fairly strict on my spending this whole holiday, trying to restrict the amount of money that I’m spending every day. So I went knowing that I didn’t really want to spend much over $150, which I know sounds a fair amount, but for what I got, was pretty good. I think I was under that budget, having bought 4 or so new polo shirts and another Hollister shirt. Oh yeah and I found a Lego Shop... so being the big kid that I am, went and bought 3 Lego Toy Story keyrings, so something fairly useful!!!

Once we’d finished shopping, we all went to watch “Grown Ups”, I found it pretty funny, but then again, I’m a bit of a fan of the silly comedy movies so really enjoyed it. The plot was pretty good and involving, and there was of course some amazing eye candy in it for me. This was the 3^rd time i’d been to the cinema since Arriving in Oklahoma, pretty good if you ask me, seeing as back in the UK i do very rarely go, owing to the fact it’s so bloody expensive!

Upon arriving back at the university, we all went to play volleyball again. However, not before we’d been informed that Eliot had walked off and been left at the mall... quite how is beyond me but hey, he did. It fell to me to tell Isaac, who promptly got on the phone to Eric and Scott to see if they could pick him up, which they could, but didn’t find him.

The volleyball was, to put it bluntly, intense. The teams I was on won all three games we played. With the final game being quite frankly, a thriller. My team consisted of Myself, Dan, Lewis, Lucinda and Kirsty. In all honesty, I do think that there was a sense within the team that we could quite easily lose the game, as we were up against a fairly strong team, which nearly proved our point, with us going 13-0 down within minutes. But then something clicked within the team, and we battled back to 14-14, eventually somehow winning the game 25-18. Volleyball has fast become my favourite sport, as it is pretty demanding both physically and mentally, requiring some awesome teamwork and communication between players.

Once we’d finished playing, we all headed back to the Clubhouse, where I was the first to come across eliot after he’d eventually got back from the mall, 4 hours after we’d left. His reaction to me was to be frank, over reactive and completely unnecessary as he yelled at me as if it was my fault that he’d walked off and been left at the mall. Not really wanting to get involved in any form of fight ith him, I turned away and walked off, whereupon he pushed me a few times in the back, which made me see red.

I don’t believe violence solves anything, so in my angry state, I advanced towards him, trying to make myself look as big as possible (not difficult when your 6’5” tall) and backed him off. But rest assured, it put me in a pretty bad mood for the next couple of hours!

Onto Tuesday, and the party weekend was over, Back to MIPT for our last couple of days there.

Our tasks for the day were:

1. To receive Incop (intelligence collection on patrol) 2 training. I now know all about police Informants and stuff

2. To work on our projects

Both tasks were successfully met, and at 3pm we were picked up and after a group discussion in the car, we MIPT guys decided that we’d all go off to Laser Quest, to see who, in a gunfight would come off on top. We actually met the Media Guys there, who got dropped off after scott let them know what we were doing. And the resulting 3 games were fantastic fun. My favourite probably had to be the final game, which was a frenzy game, meaning that you were only knocked out of the game for a second before re-entering the fray. What made it more fun was myself and Scott deciding that we’d play it in sunglasses, making us look fairly badass... and did it work.. Hell yeah, I came second overall in that game!!!

Onto Wednesday, and our final day at MIPT L. I really enjoyed the internship there, and I hope the others did too!!! We’ve been spoiled rotten by them, and they’ve loved having us there.

The final day saw us working once more upon our projects, and then having a kind of farewell party, during which we showed the entire staff just what we did at lunchtimes, in other words have an arguement, however, for once, this argument was actually a productive and relevant argument, about terrorism, and in particular Abu Hamza. Once again, as with most arguments we’d had, Jonny once again managed to contradict everything he said:
One of us: “He’s receiving benefits and living off the state”

Jonny: “yeah he is, but he’s living in a country that’s hostile towards him but which will pay for him to live. If he were to be deported, he’d be killed as people would be hostile towards him. Isn’t it more Humane for him, if he stays in a non-hostile country?!?”

And stuff like that, Jonny isn’t exactly the brightest spark ever! As illustrated by this:
(To OB and Chris who were flying onto LA)
“So what are you doing in LA on the East Coast, will you go down to Florida?”

And,

Chris: “Yeah, and we’re then going to Mexico for a couple of days”
Jonny “I know a man in South America”
Me: “Laughs”
Chris R: “Jon, you are aware that Mexico is NORTH America?”

What would we do without him!!!

In the evening, we all went to Hooters. It was a pretty good meal, but the highlight was definitely the waitresses, Chelsea and Destinee who, like the rest of the waitresses were stunning and possessed on them a fairly amazing body. I think nearly everyone had chicken wings, something which Hooters is famous for, each with a different dressing on. Being a fan of the spice, I chosen the 911 hot sauce... which was pretty hot, but not as hot as the waitresses:

There were several highlights of the night at hooters:

1. Chris Stringer’s panic when the waitress asked him what he wanted to drink...

“Erm, erm erm erm yeah, errr MOUNTAIN DEW”

2. Dan. He actually couldn’t help himself staring at the girls breasts the entire evening. Even after we’d said we’d all give him something like $10 if he went 5 minutes without doing it, he still somehow managed to do fail.

When we’d all finished we all got photos with the girls, and once again, Dan provided great amusement for the group during his, as you can tell so badly that he was trying not to stare down the girls top and not to touch:

And here’s mine...

When we got back, everyone bar myself went out into town, whilst I decided that i’d stay in and do some work on my project, just as well, given what was to happen!!!

Here endeth another lesson.

Until the next one...

x

Day 29: Independence Day

Ok, so I’ve been even more slack updating my blog recently, my bad.

I’m currently sat at Chicago O’Hare waiting to go back to England, so thought I’d take this opportunity to start updating. Starting with Last Sunday.

So as you may be aware, Sunday was July 4^th, or to the American’s, Independence Day. Unlike all our big holidays, such as St George’s day, they actually give a shit about it, it’s kind of like one of the UK’s Bank Holiday’s, except that it’s actually there for a purpose. On form again, the weather decided to be completely and utterly crap. It rained for most of the day, putting our plans for the evening in jeopardy, we were all going to go, as a group to get some food, and then watch the July 4^th Fireworks display that was going to take place on campus. As a result, we had most of the day to ourselves, to do what we want. I don’t actually think we did anything, as the weather was so bad. So we all waited until about 5pm when we’d learn what was to happen that evening. Good news, it turned out that the fireworks would be going ahead as planned, as the organisers had deemed the weather to have eased off enough to get the fireworks underway and looking quite simply awesome.

Instead of going to get food, Eric, one of the ‘organisers’ for the group, had ordered in 10 dominoes pizzas for us all to share as well as a variety of soft drinks. We all had a kind of July 4^th party, with the English celebrating getting rid of the Americans, and vice versa. Eventually, most people got pretty bored, and wandered off... to quote Jonny:
Jonny “Come on Guys, let’s go watch a DVD”

Me “What DVD is it Jonny?”

Jonny “Sex in the City”

Me “Well that’s not at all gay now is it!”

Jonny “Why would you say that... It’s only a girly programme”

Jonny, you fail! But all is OK as you know a man in South America =P (all will be revealed in a later post)

So with Jonny “the not very gay” watching Sex in the City, the rest of us had a pretty awesome evening playing Pool with Jon Roper, his daughter Caitlin and her friend Rhys, until the time for fireworks drew near.

It must have been around 9.30 when the show started. Fireworks in the UK have NOTHING on these fireworks. The organisers must’ve spent an absolute bomb on them, as the display was fairly long for a fireworks display and the rockets were absolutely amazing. Of course, as it was a major US holiday, we all had to stand for the Star Spangled Banner. How apt, I thought to myself, We’re here on American Independence Day, and to celebrate, they’re singing a song about Britain bombarding them with rockets and such during the War of 1812, whilst singing along to an old English Drinking Song. Sometimes Americans confuse me big time! Lol

I must confess to going slightly OTT with photos of the fireworks, sometimes a camera that has sports mode on it isn’t the best idea ever, as you do tend to get a fair few rubbish ones compared to some really good ones. I took around 700 photos on 4^th July, hence why there’s no photo’s up on Facebook yet, I still don’t have the willpower to go through them all. Rest assured though, I will get them up soon. In the meantime, here’s a taster:

Conclusion of the July 4^th. Why the Hell can’t we do something like this in the UK. American’s have a great sense of patriotism, for having such a short history, whereas the UK, for all the history we have, has literally NO patriotism in comparison to the American’s. Were America to have a Patron Saint (forgive me if they do, I’m currently not aware of the existence of one), I’ll guarantee to you that they’d have a national holiday to celebrate, unlike in the UK, where things operate somewhat along these lines for St George’s day.

“Oh look today’s St George’s Day today, should we do something?”

“No, If we did, we’d piss off all the immigrants who are taking advantage of our country’s immigration system, and would complain that we’re being patriotic.

“Oh yeah, we can’t be proud of our country, in case we upset their community now can we”

“Exactly”

Come on UK, let’s get our sense of National Pride back, doesn’t mean we have to follow our has-been football team fanatically, all we need to do, is be proud of our country, and her great traditions. Remember, we did once have the Largest Empire in the World.

In the words of that great traditional British Song:
“Rule Britannia. Britannia rules the waves. Britons never, never, never, shall be slaves”

Let’s not become slaves to the minorities and lose our sense of national pride and patriotism.

Until next time =)

Au Revoir

x

Days 26, 27, 28: Open Road, Oklahoma!, Oh crap not another rainstorm

Ok, so now to summarize three days. Three days where quite a lot happened too.

Thursday saw the group take a trip down the most famous road in the USA, Route 66, to a resturant called Pops. As the name suggests, the place had literally a tonne of pop. Apparently, there's over 500 different varieties of pop, I sampled just one of them! Ah well. The food they served was pretty god, as usual, the portion was about a billion times larger than it should've been.

Outside pop's we had some pretty good photo opportunities to have some fun with, before going back. For once, Sports mode actually came in handy! Taking pictures like these:

Coming back we then had a photo-session playing volleyball and basketball... something I really enjoyed as it gave me a chance to get out from behind the camera, and get photograpphed playing sports... miracles do happen afterall!!!

I love volleyball, and there's some awesome pictures up on my Facebook page. Having got bored, four of us went off to a local swimming pool for a couple of hours to chill and swim. Swimming pools in the UK have nothing on this!!! In a couple of years, I'm so coming out to do a summer in one of these places, it's 40 degrees outside, the pool is outside, and they look like they're having a great time, the pool is awesome!! Maybe in a couple of years!
Onto Friday and a trip to Tulsa. I think Tulsa is the 2nd largest city in Oklahoma, but it's definitely an interesting place, with some great architecture and stuff. After a quick tour around the centre to look at the buildings, we went off to the aquarium. As a massive Finding Nemo fan, I definitely didn't quote the film once throughout the aquarium... OK so maybe I did once or twice! But the fish were awesome! I love aquariums!!!

I called him squishy! And he was mine! And he Was my squishy! Luckily he wasn't bad! =)

Speaking of Nemo Quotes, I found myself quoting Bruce when I saw this guy:

Fish Are Friends: Not Food!

What a chap!

Having left the aquarium, we checked into our hotel, and at around 6pm moved out to Discoveryland, where we went to watch Oklahoma!, the Rogers and Hammerstein Musical. It was amazing, beforehand, they did this tribute to the frontiersmen of the west; singing songs such as Rawhide, and God Bless the USA, as a tribute to American's who had fallen in Warzones, a truly moving experience.

The production of Oklahoma! was amazing, with the setting in an environment that was made for the musical. At points the humidity was almost as much as in a sauna, there was so much water in the air; but it just added to the atmosphere, as did critters in the trees.

The musical itself was awesome, being one that I'd not seen before (yes I am a closet Musicals geek); but it was amazing just how many of the songs I knew. I even found myself singing along to some of them.

The end of the show saw us given the chance to go up onto the performance area to meet the cast. Turns out that 4 of the leads are actually students at UCO, and commute every day from Edmond. Here's the lead with Flick:

And so onto Saturday. We were meant to go to some museum thingy, but being holiday weekend, it was closed. And just as well, as yet again we were given another gift of the most torrential rainfall ever! The interstate was literally a river driving back, although the journey was pretty darn funny.

Nothing else really happened for the rest of the day, as the rain was pretty bad, so most of us took the opportunity to catch up on some sleep and stuff.

The evening saw us go to a house party, which in a word was shit.

I'll do another post in a bit for the last couple of days, I'm going to get this up to date within the next couple of days!

x

Days 24 & 25: Gaol and Glass

Two more days, time is flying, and another two days spent on placement at MIPT.

Tuesday Morning saw us take a visit to the County Jail. Funtimes! I always thought that prisoners in the UK get a fairly cushy time when they're in a detention centre. If my thoughts are indeed true, then they really need to take a leaf out of the County Jail's books. Prisoners are basically in their cells for 20 hours a day, often with 3 other cellmates, in a cell meant for 1 person. We think overcrowding is bad. Oklahoma's County Jail is only meant to house up to 1200 inmates, at it's peak, apparently it housed around 3000 inmates... now that is overcrowding. And in all fairness, the bastards deserve it if they're willing to bend the law to themselves, good riddance is what I say.

Anyways, we were taken around by two guys, one a Sgt and the other a Cpl of the County Sheriffs office. Both were, to coin a phrase, built like a brick shithouse. Seriously, these guys were huge. If I was an inmate, I'd have been scared of them! One of the guys was a member of the prison's internal swat team, and showed us a variety of the weapons that they use. At first I was under the impression that they did fire live ammunition, but then it became apparent that they fired paintball like projectiles. These projectiles hurt more than paintballs, and instead of housing paint inside them, house pepper dust, much like the stuff in pepper spray, but more effective.

Perhaps the coolest piece of equipment was the taser shield, which shoots something like 75000 volts through the inmate if they're trying to be funny. We wanted Jonny to have a go on it, but Jonny, being the wimp he is, bottled out as he didn't want to look like this:

Unfortunatley, due to that wonderful thing called Health and Safety, we didn't get to subject Jonny to it! What a shame!!!

After the tour of the Jail, we went back to MIPT, via Hoagies for lunch, a deli that we'd visited the previous week, that was en route back to the MIPT building. It was a pretty good lunch, but not the best. At the end of the day though, we can't complain really.

Back at MIPT, we had a couple more hours to spend doing our projects, getting basically nowhere, but we'll get there!!!

If I'm perfectly honest, I can't remember what we did on Tuesday night, possibly went swimming or something, but yeah, onto Wednesday.

Wednesday and we all went off to the Oklahoma Arts Museum. Me being the art enthusiast that I am, went with high expectations and looking forward to it. Of course, sarcasm really doesn't work on the internet, so that actually sounds like i meant it. Art in general bores me, especially the gobshite they call modern art. The Arts Museum was not different, there were some awesome exhibits, but in general, the rest was a load of crap. Can you seriously call a square of red on a white background art? In my eyes, no. This is art:

Not this:

What a load of crap. Period.

There were some awesome exhibits though, such as an exhibition with movie costumes in it. Pretty wicked, especially when they had stuff like Keira Knightley's Green Dress from Atonement, possibly the hottest dress ever worn by anyone in the history of like forever!!! It was soo cool!

Perhaps my favourite exhibit was the glass exhibit they had there, some of the most amazing glasswork I've ever seen:

Before you query this. Yes it is made of glass!!

After the museum we had another afternoon at MIPT where we once again attempted to do some work, and mostly failed as we were having too much fun playing with the camera... sports mode on it is good, but a PITA as then, instead of getting maybe 1 photo of something, I'll end up with 5+

So concluded another two days in the USA. The next post is basically going to summarize the last few days as I'm getting too far behind on the posts!!!

x

Days 20, 21, 22 & 23: Brilliance, Bulls, Baseball & Bloody hell that hurts

Five more days in Oklahoma City, Five more days where the weather is trying to take me from a blue meat right up to well done within seconds. Thankfully I'm now acclimatised to it, so I'm not suffering quite so much as I was on the first day.

What a three days it's been. Seeing two great American sporting traditions, as well as a day of doing more or less nothing.

Starting with Friday then:

Day of relaxation. Not much more can be said really, we really didn't do much. Except play some volleyball and basketball. The basketball once again saw my skills as a basketballer on show, Kobe Bryant has absolutley nothing on me, out of all the shots that I took, maybe 2 went in, beat that! LA Lakers will be after me in no time at all!!!

So after about 3 hours worth of basketball in the midday sun, we were approached by a group of Americans who wanted to know if we'd play some volleyball with them. HELL YES was my reply, the others were like, "yeah alright okay then", we will. So we did.

First time in ages that we'd played volleyball and the game was pretty good, until a group of seemingly amazing players came along and requisitioned the court. Not good times =(

In the evening most of the guys went off to some party, but me, being in an exercisey mood decided to go and play some more volleyball with some random people, but they turned out to be the seemingly amazing players, who were pretty amazing. Getting bored of this, I clocked the guys that I'd been playing with later, and within minutes had made pretty good friends with them, as they accepted me as another volleyball player. As both of the courts on campus were taken we ended up playing at a frat house, for what seemed like 2 hours. I thoroughly enjoyed their company, despite my team of 3 (nicknamed something along the lines of the Statics?) losing most of the games.

So onto Saturday, and an early start, leaving UCO by something like 8.45am in order to go to Fort Sill, a military base surrounded by perhaps the most amazing landscape full of all kinds of creatures, from Buffalo, through to Rattlesnake. The journey down was pretty boring, with the minibus out of action due to some mechanical failures, so instead we headed off in convoy on a 2 1/2 hour journey down to the south west of the state.

Around lunchtime we stopped off at this place called Meers, which is apparently really famous for its burgers. Wow were they big, but I'll get to that in a minute. The queue to get into this place was fairly long, but constantly moving, illustrating just how popular this place really is. The seating area didn't really paint the best picture of the restaurant either, with plastic seats similar to those you get in a primary school.

The food like I've already said was amazing. a few of us had the Seismic Burger, myself included. The name said it all really... 16oz of pure beef in a bun... good times. Lets just say, it didn't defeat me, although I was pretty full afterwards. After the meal, I was stupidly challenged to eat 3 whole pickled Jalapeño Chilli Peppers without a drink. Me being the fool I am, took up the challenge, easily succeeding, much to the onlookers disdain, I think they wanted me to suffer... that'll show them hehehe. Then disaster strikes, we leave the resturant and some asshole biker basically tells flick that if I don't take my t-shirt off, someone will kill me. Stupidly that morning, I'd put a t-shirt with Che Guevara on it, forgetting that rednecks and bikers are the most narrowminded people in the world. Ever.

So we get to the next place, a nature reserve, and I'm forced to change my t-shirt incase the threat is followed through, I value my life quite a bit, so risking it over a t-shirt seems pretty unnecessary... but still, 1st amendment and all.

The reserve was ok, not too much to see, as it was in the middle of nowhere, but there were some cool animals dotted around, such as these two cute prarie dogs:

After this we moved off to Fort Sill, a US Army Artillery training area which also has a museum. Fairly boring to be fair, the exhibits we went were still largely under construction, which sucked. But on the whole the exhibits that were on show were pretty good, for example a painting that was worth the small sum of $23million (or so we were told). As well as a wide range of artillery pieces which resulted in near orgasm for Jonny when he saw this particular gun:

After this we headed back, with a detour to Geronimo's grave. For those that don't know, Geronimo was some badassed indian guy, who was arrested, held and died at Fort Sill. His grave wasn't the most awe inspiring thing in the world, but it was still pretty cool. The journey back saw us still completley and utterly full from the massive hunks of meat from lunch. Again, it was a fairly uneventful journey with most of us comatose in the back of the vehicles, travelling in relative comfort.

The evening was awesome, having got back to UCO, we had about an hour to get ready to go to the Rodeo. A feast of horsemanship and ultra cool cowboys doing mega cool stuff, like jumping from their horses and wrestling a cow to the floor. Pretty hardcore. The best event was the bucking bull event, which saw competitors literally thrown from the back of the bull onto the ground, risking serious injury and potentially even death!

If you want to see all the pictures from the rodeo, take a look here.

Onto Sunday, a truly fantastic day with no heartbreak whatsoever (Or none that we talk about) and another no move until around 1430 when we were meant to leave to go to the baseball. However, delays saw us leaving at around 1500.

Having never been to a baseball game in my life, I was unsure quite what to expect. My basic understanding was that it was basically Rounders, but Americanized. So most probably boring. As it stood, it was an awesome game. The rules were pretty easy to pick up as the game progressed and we witnessed a thorough thrashing of the visiting team by the Redhawks (Oklahoma's team). To top it all off, we were sat in the all you can eat seats. Yes that's right, we were able to stuff ourselves with what can only be described as crap for the entirety of the game... which was a good 3 hours long. Still, not as bad as one of the boys sat in front of our group. Blue Candy Floss turns you blue. So this kid, who must've been 12 or something, and about a billion stone sat and ate around 15 bags of this stuff, literally going away looking like something out of avatar, like this:

But without the beard.

The evening saw the group split with 4 of us chilling up in one room, with the rest in another. What they got up to I shall never know, but we had a pretty awesome evening chilling. The original plan was to watch "The Pacific" but that fell through as Jonny started telling us another crazy and ultimately made up story. We must've been up there for about 4 hours when we decided to call it a night, with placement looming for the next day.

Onto Monday, and another day at MIPT. First of all however, we had a talk with a detective down by the OCPD (Think LAPD but with Oklahoma City and you get the gist) who told us what his job entailed and about the guys under his command. After this and a really filling lunch, we wandered back to MIPT where we spent until 3pm continuing our projects, which should look pretty good by the time they're finished! Come 3pm we'd all just about had enough, being told that we could leave any time after this, we decided to call it a day and waited to get picked up.

The evening saw just about everyone make a trip to the University swimming pool where I was once again challenged to several races, which I can safely say I won. Part of me still wishes that I'd continued swimming, as It was the only sport I was ever any good at, representing my county and such.

After a good 2 hours in the pool i emerged, with my eyes looking vaguely like this

Just slightly redder. For some reason, despite spending much of the first 15 years of my life in a swimming pool, my eyes get really badly affected by Chlorine, meaning that I spent most of the next 3 hours laying down on my bed with my eyes streaming under a damp flannel. I woke up this morning and my eyes were still sore. Even now they're still slightly sore. I shall not be swimming underwater there for a while!!!!

So that's the last four days, I could write about today, but I imagine that the post will be even longer and I'm bored of this post now!

So until the next one.

Tchuss

x

Day 19: Results

Hey guys!

Ok so today is possibly the best day so far of the trip. Not really because of the excursions or anything, but because it was the day that my degree results came.

They were meant to come earlier this week, but Royal Mail being what they are, they came slightly later, but in all fairness it wouldn't have made any difference, what with me being 4500 miles away! As a result, I'd instructed mum to let Auntie Lizzie know to let me know as soon as they had the results. So at around 7.30 this morning I got the call I'd been dreading.

Ok so results aren't really something that I usually get worried about. However, these were much different, owing to the fact that they basically will shape my future. I was kind of worried, knowing that I'd need something good to get a 2:1 as my grades the previous year had been kind of crap. So, anyways, I got the call.

I know I say this a lot, but words can't describe my reaction when I was told my grade. Over the moon would be one I guess. I got my 2.1, which now means that I can definitely now apply for postgrad studies. Even better than that, my dissertation, which I'd worked the hardest I've ever worked on, got a 1st! So so so so happy.

Today's adventure saw me leave in high spirits, feeling the happiest I'd been for a while. We were going to a place called Bartlesville or something. To a wildlife reserve and museum, and then onto another museum. The downside to this, a 3 hour journey there and then 3 hours back. Not fun, particularly in this heat!

So anyways, after a nice long nap on the bus, we arrived, with my spirits still high. I think we were all slightly apprehensive about quite what this wildlife place would be like, but in all honest, it was pretty cool. There was a wide range of free roaming wildlife about, including Ostrich, Bison and Longhorn Cattle. Those beasts had major horns!!! Take a look!

That Ostrich loved having it's picture taken! Bloody Poser.

After we'd eaten lunch, in my case a BBQ Buffalo Sandwich, which was lovely, we all went off to do our own thing around the museum. Myself and Flick went on a Photo taking spree, up a tower and around the museum. It was a really interesting museum to be fair, with loads of artifacts and paintings, as well as quite a few animal heads!

With that museum out the way we went on to the Price Tower, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Apparently, this tower is meant to look like a tree. In my opinion, it looked like a tower, with green copper on it. Good effort.

In my opinion, forgive me all architects and interior architects, the building was a load of crap, totally impractical for any use at all, it didn't even look good on the inside. Despite this, our tour was pretty funny, thanks to Lewis' efforts to try to not look as big a pratt as possible. First of all he went to sit down on a one of a kind piece of furniture, and then on the lift on the way down, said to everyone "oh right, 5 guys and 1 girl" to which the girl, our tour guide said as we got out "well that was the most awkward 32 seconds of my life!" Lewis, you fool, that was funny!

The journey back was pretty boring again, with just a stop off for dinner at McDonalds seeing us back into the University. The evening's entertainment was in fact awesome. We all went out as a group to a local place, where our mentor, Isaac's cousins were playing in a band. It was such great music, and a privilage to have been there!

Anyways, must dash, having a nosebleed... oh well, first bad thing to happen today!!
Today's lesson. No matter what, you can reach your goal if you work like hell!

Love and hugs

x

Days 16, 17 & 18: Memorials, Motivation & Mission Accomplished

Monday saw the start of week two of the placements. This week went off without a hitch, unlike the previous week, where we were subjected to a slight rainfall and a smattering of thunder. Instead we were subjected to the low temperatures which saw mercury levels drop to around 100degrees farenheight. Lovely, especially when one is in a suit!

So this week our placement has been at MIPT (Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism). As the name suggests, this place is a facility dedicated to preventing terrorism, through increasing the efficiency of intelligence gathering at a grass roots level.

We were given a tour of the facilities, small compared to those which we'd been used to at the OSBI headquarters. With only 9 members of staff, we had effectively added half their workforce into their office space, luckily, there is room enough for us all.

So to start off with, we had an introductory talk from the Director of MIPT, about the state of the world and giving a brief introduction to how the entire US system of Law Enforcement works. It's a damn sight more complicated than the UK's, I can tell you that much already! If things weren't so complicated within the US, the 9/11 attacks may well have been able to have been stopped, as it seems that each department had gleaned enough intelligence to be able to piece together a possible attack, with multiple suspects. However, Federal Law, prohibited (until the Patriot Act) this information to be shared across organisation.

Anyways back on topic.

After the talk we broke for lunch, having been given money to go and buy our own. Being adventurous, we settled for the Deli across the road from the MIPT headquarters, it was Okay I guess, the food wasn't bad, but at the same time it wouldn't win any Michelin stars (mainly because the portion sizes were bigger than half a mouthful!). But at the end of the day, food is food and it was edible.

Having literally just exited the Deli, we were stood on the pavement waiting for Jack to come out from the bathroom, when our attentions were turned to a US Park Ranger coming towards us telling us that we weren't allowed to loiter on the pavements outside the MIPT. Any of us there at the time will testify that we completely bricked it, stammering our apologies and saying that we'd move once our friend was out of the Deli. Only then was it that a cheekey grin and a laugh from the ranger, who then took his sunglasses off, revealed him to be Mike Washington, the Dean's husband. The look of relief on all of our faces was immense as we realised that we'd just been made to look completely and utterly stupid!

Mike then gave us a really quick tour around the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial, which was located literally 30 metres away from our building, telling us of the significance of the 'chairs' and the exact position where Timothy McVeigh parked the truck and left it to explode. A real poignant moment, when one considers that just over 15 years ago, there was a building stood there, unaware of what was going to happen to it.

With our lunch break over, we went back for our final talk of the day, from the Deputy Director of MIPT, who told us what the mission of MIPT. It was a rather hurried talk as she had an important call that could've come at any time whilst she was talking to us, but nonetheless it was a highly informative talk.

This left us with around 2 1/2 hours to kill before we were to be picked up. So rather kindly, the MIPT paid for our admission into the Memorial Museum. Words cannot actually describe the emotions that ran through me whilst going around the museum. It starts off with a timeline of the day of the attack in the first room of exhibits, finishing up at 9am, just 2 minutes before the attack took place. What came next will live with me forever. We were taken into a room, where a recording was played to everyone inside it. The only recording of the explosion itself, recorded in a building close by to the scene of the bombing. It was horrible, sat there listening to it knowing what was about to happen. Luckily those in the recordings survived. Unfortunatley they were some of the lucky ones, with 168 people perishing. I don't really want to say much more about the museum as I believe it has to be experienced rather than described, but I shall include some news footage of the aftermath of the bombings.

The Museum was a deeply moving experience, on which I hope everyone gets the opportunity to live, as it shows the hurt that many people went through as well as how the Law Enforcement Agencies worked to apprehend McVeigh.

Back at University we had just about enough time to change before heading out for dinner to a BBQ All You Can Eat place. I was stuffed after 2 decent sized plates, with everyone else eating more or less the same. Once again, I was subjected to just how amazing US Ribs are compared to UK ribs, as the meat just fell off of the bone!!! I did take my camera to this, and it made the rounds around the table a few times, with people taking random pictures, some which were awesome, and some which weren't quite so good. I'll put my two favourites up anyways:

That's a pretty epic amount of food if you ask me!

Having got back from the BBQ place, we all changed and went to play the sport of the trip. Yep yet more volleyball. I'm getting pretty good now, all I need to do is learn how to jump properly and I'll be able to spike the ball.

This was the first time that us Brits had played with any American's, as we found ourselves mixing up and playing 3 games with a bunch of Americans who lived locally. It was pretty awesome fun, which I'd love to do again. The Americans were really pretty good at Volleyball, and put us to shame with their plays, however, they did lose to us (although I was playing on the US team to even out numbers). For the first time too, We managed to get some pretty decent pictures, despite the mosquitos coming out in force and trying to reduce us to a pile of bones!

Now onto Tuesday, and Day two at MIPT. This would see the start of our research project that we will be undertaking throughout our internship. The research will see us examine the question "Compare and Contrast differences in UK and US policing systems, pretty awesome. Especially given the amount of resources available. The MIPT library has a huge amount of books on the subjects of Terrorism and Law Enforcement, so much that I didn't really know where to start, and in all honesty, still don't. I could either start off in the 1960s where there was a terrorist attack in the US, 1970s to talk about Northern Ireland or 1995 to start with the Oklahoma bombings. I'll come to that hurdle at some point next week.

They basically left us to our own devices in the morning, planning our paper. So us being students, the majority of our time was spent on facebook and msn talking to people back in the UK. Having said that, a fair amount of work was done (or made look like was done by surrounding myself in a pile of books!)

After lunch at another deli, World War Three nearly broke out between the group, with certain members antagonising others, in a vicious circle. Although it was rather funny to watch at the time, tempers were incredibly on edge whilst we made our way back for a presentation from the JTTF (Joint Terrorism Task Force). This was a really interesting, talking about things ranging from how terrorists operate, through to how organisations are now collaborating together to take down the bad guys. Again, all three of the guys doing the presentation were carrying pistols, it made me think of the questions from Hot Fuzz where Nick Frost asks Simon Pegg: "Have you ever shot a gun whilst diving through the air? Have you ever shot a gun from a car in a high speed pursuit?", which would've been amazingly funny to ask. Maybe the next guy will get them, although he's something like the old Director of the CIA, so he might not find it too funny. But it's worth a try at the end of the day!

With the presentation over we clocked off for the day after another half hour or so of work done. The evening was pretty uneventful really, watched Shutter Island. Apparently its meant to be this thriller, in all fairness, I was bored and thought it was shit. The scariest bit was when there was a flashback to Belsen with the hundreds of bodies lying around. Not nice.

So now onto today.

And England FINALLY have something to cheer about. Final Group Game of the World Cup, England needed to win in order to go through. If I'm honest, after the first two performances, I wasn't holding out much hope. But damn right, England being England, we do it. Ok so we won 1-0, and lost first place in the group to the Yanks, but we're through and that's all that matters.

Hell, us guys were excited, getting to watch the game and all, and we left for where we were doing our placement, some 2 hours away, with several St George Flags adorning the bus.

As we drove off, I could hear in my head this song, as we were pretty raucous and celebrating victory.

Thankfully this didn't happen:

Anyways, after a 2 hour drive we arrived at some police academy training place whose name escapes me as it's another abbreviation, where we were to sit in on a MIPT training session on Information Collection on Patrol. It was pretty interesting, talking about the 8 signs of terrorism, with warnings being given about making assumptions before taking in the entire picture.

We then had another presentation to sit through, and just our luck, it's the exact same one as we'd had at the OSBI last Wednesday, on the Fusion Centre, however this one didn't seem to go on for half as long, despite being the exact same presentation.

On the way home we stopped for lunch, at 4pm. Yes, it was late but who cares. First American Subway, it was lovely. However, having not drunk enough during the day I felt incredibly sick on the bus back, but survived it in one piece, so all is good. Moral of the story is to not drink.

Having eaten dinner (just an hour after lunch), we all congregated in the commons clubhouse for Isaacs birthday, having bought him a card, cake and signed volleyball.

That there's the whole of our group, bar Eliot with Isaac, 2-r next to Kristina. He's awesome. Happy Birthday Isaac!!!!

With the group then dissipated, we noticed on the TV that a storm was coming our way. So 5 of us decided to go and watch it, not realising that the further we got to it, the faster it was coming towards us. Having said that, we were there for around 2 hours I think. Of the 200+ pictures I took, I think about 4 made the final cut. Here're my faves:

They don't look quite as Impressive down small, but they are pretty good in my opinion, especially the one of the fork!!!

So that's been the last 3 days really, I think the title sums it up. Memorials, Motivation and Mission Accomplished

Memorials: MIPT, OKC Bombing Memorial

Motivation: Motivation to work and produce an awesome research paper & also to take some awesome pics

Mission Accomplished: England got through, and I got some amazing picss!!!!

Love to you all

xx

Days 14 & 15: Margaritas & Movies

2 weeks in already, that seems completely and utterly insane in my books. The time out here is flying by.

So yesterday was a pretty much relaxing day. We all were able to have a lie in, due to the days activity not starting until around 4pm. So we pretty much bummed around for the majority of the day. With me, Jon, Lewis and Chris taking a fairly early lunch at Buddy's before going over to see what was happening in the Football Stadium, as before we'd left for lunch, we'd seen a load of football players in their pads. Unfortunately when we got there, it looked like we'd walked in on a school tag football game. Not what we'd come to see there, so we decided to go back towards the accomodation, where just as we were crossing the car park we saw Isaac arriving on his motorbike. After a quick chat with him, asking if he could take the three of us (at this point, Jon had left) to the mall so we could have a look around.

Didn't get very much at the mall in all honesty, we didn't have that much time to do stuff as we needed to be back at the accommodation by 4pm to go to a theme park. I did get a rather nice pair of shorts from Abercrombie & Fitch, but that was about it.

Tell a lie, we went to get a drink, and me being the spontaneous buyer that I am, I bought myself a gallon of lemonade from Chick Fill-a, which is still in my fridge as I speak.

After a quick change when we got back from the mall, we were all set to go to Frontier City, a local theme park. As I'm a rollercoaster fanatic (or not) I was particularly looking forward to it. However I endeavoured to do at least one of the rollercoasters that I wouldn't particularly have done, on the condition that I got completely and utterly soaking on the water rides first. So that was what happened. First me and Jon rode on the Log Flume together, singing some Journey on the way around, followed by a bit of Bohemian Rhapsody, to pass the time before the big drop. Didn't get too wet, just a bit damp then. So the whole group decided to go on the Rapids. We had to split into two groups as we were too many to fit into one boat. I was getting pretty disappointed on the way around until the final corner, as I'd avoided EVERY bit of water, not much good. Last corner comes up, and I get soaked, as the boat thing went under a waterfall, it timed itself until the last I was under it to unleash it's entire contents on me. All I can say is thank goodness I didn't have my camera on me.

So there we have it, I'm now ready to dry myself off on a rollercoaster. We go on one called Silver Bullet. Here's a video of what it's like:

Pretty immense I thought, being the world expert on rollercoasters that I am!!! One small jibe I had with it was that at a couple of points, such as the first corner, I did fear for my life and more specifically my head, as the track passed by my head pretty damn closely. But I survived it, and completed my first ever loop the loop on a rollercoaster, there is hope for me yet!!!

After a couple more rides we headed off to a mexican resturant called Teds. I'm a massive fan of the Mexican and so was particularly excited for this. And I was not disappointed, a HUGE meal, accompanied by the biggest margarita I've ever seen in my life. Seriously it was massive. And to top it all off, was deadly strong.

Damn it was good! I had this triple burrito thingy, which was amazing. So good in fact, that I consciously made the decision to save the rest of it for breakfast the next morning.

Having finished dinner, we all once again headed back to the University for another fun filled night, resulting in a fairly late night, with me feeling slightly hungry so I ate the rest of my dinner. Hey I did eat it in the morning, albeit at 0230!!!

So today we all woke up significantly later than previous days, again having nothing really to do until the afternoon where we were all off to the mall again! This time however, we were going with the sole intentions really of watching a movie at the cinema. For most of us, the movie of choice was the culmination of our childhoods. Toy Story 3. It's difficult to put into words just how awesomely amazing the movie really was, I mean it was just WOW! I wish I could say more, but seeing as it's not out in the UK for another month (HAAAAAAAAHAHAHA) I can't say anything, except that come the end, I had a massive lump in my throat and tears in my eyes. Lets' just say, it was amazing! So I shall just let you watch the trailer =)

After that, we had about an hour to kill until we had to leave for food, so once again we hit the shops, where I did get a couple of new t-shirts, flip-flops (as mine are about 4 years old) and a shirt. Once we were done, we left again, this time going off to a pizza restaurant, which did the greatest pizzas I have had in a while.

Another relaxing evening later and here I am, sat in my room, listening to the Toy Story soundtrack, man I love that movie!
One final note before I go, delivered by the legend that is Mr Randy Newman.

What a song!
Night guys

x

Days 12 & 13: Museums & Native Americans

Wow, what a couple of days we've just had. A lot of culture to take in around Oklahoma city, as well as some huge meals out.

Yesterday saw us take in a visit to the National Cowboy & Western Heritage museum as well as a partial tour of the campus, which should've happened on Monday, but got rained off by a slight rainfall.

When I say a partial tour, I do mean partial, none of us could frankly be bothered to be taken around the campus being told that the Commons was accommodation, when we knew that as we'd been staying there for a week already. I tagged along with everyone for about 20 minutes before we all did a tactical withdrawal from the tour, to give ourselves some free time before our excursion later on in the day. On the plus side from the tour, I took the opportunity to take some photos of the campus.

We then left to go to the Cowboy Museum, funnily enough, a museum dedicated to the Cowboy. Again, this could've been really really interesting, had it not been for the really really really really dull tour guide we had. It was almost, to an extent an art gallery, dedicated to the cowboy, in that virtually everything there was a painting or sculpture of some sort. However, there were some awesome sculptures, such as this one, situated just inside the building:

Pretty Epic in my opinion.

We must've been under the command of this tour guide for about two hours, being told about how such and such a person was called this because he was so laid back. It really wasn't the greatest tour I've ever had. But Beggars can't be choosers at the end of the day.

Some wise words from Flick, when asked what we wanted to see next, saw us all heading towards the gift shop, and more importantly the exit.

When we got back, we had around an hour to get changed and ready to go out for our first all-American experience meal at a place called Toby Keith's I Love This Bar and Grill. This place is basically a steakhouse. And the portions are HUGE, and for what you're paying for, really fairly priced. I mean, a 20oz Rib-Eye steak with 2 sides costs a mere $32.99. But then again, it's not quite as impressive as the 72oz steak challenge in Amarillo, which if the person eating it succeeds in an hour of less, they get the steak for free. Crazy!

The food at Toby Keith's was pretty amazing, Having gotten a liking for shrimp at Owen's BBQ the previous week, I opted for an 8oz steak with grilled shrimp, and wow was it good. I've never eaten so much in my life before, so much in fact that my plate still had quite a bit of food left on it.

Having stuffed ourselves to bursting point, we all went back, got changed and for some really stupid reason, having just eaten the worlds biggest dinner, decided to go and play volleyball. One of our student mentors, Isaac, came along too, to show us how the game is really played. I believe he was on the winning team during every game.

With everyone heading off to bed, a few of us stayed outside for a bit to play some basketball with the volleyball, was pretty good fun. Before we headed in for bed, a few of us went to check the score of the NBA finals, having gone down to the last game. Needless to say, the favourites won it again, with the LA Lakers taking the NBA title. Good times in LA!

Ok, so going on to today. Today we went to Red Earth, a Native American gathering within Oklahoma City. I was looking forward to this trip immensely, with the immense culture difference that would be present. Having left at 0930, we arrived at the convention centre with plenty of time to spare before the parade. I wish I could put all of the pictures of the parade up on here, but I think I took around 200 alone during it, so here are three of my favourites.

The parade was, a sea of colour, far from the stereotypes portrayed in Westerns. And as the parade moved by, it did become apparent to me just how there is such a huge number of overweight people in the USA. Just about every single float was throwing some kind of candy onto the floor around it for the kids to pick up; whilst some were throwing things such as Frisbees into the onlooking crowd.

With the parade over, we went inside the Convention Centre where there was to be a demonstration of Native American singing and dancing from some of the different tribes that were represented there. Before we actually got into the centre however, Scott introduced us to his tribal chief, who allowed us to have our photos taken with him, and invited us down to where they're from for a couple of days on the trip. I don't know if we've got the time, but it would be such a cool thing to do.

The singing and drumming was really relaxing, as the dancers in the middle of the stage did their thing. What with all the bright colours and plumage, it made for quite a spectacle. However, after a while we decided to go down to the exhibition hall, where there were a multitude of different exhibitors around, selling everything from artwork, to arrows and the like. As we wandered around the centre, a familiar face from during the week sprung up as we saw Harvey Pratt, the forensic artist from the OSBI with some of his artwork on show.

All I can say to his stuff is wow! So realistic, but then again, I guess being a forensic artist does help big time when doing portraits. Unfortunatley, his pictures cost a huge amount, possibly due to him being such a famous artist with some great pictures, so I was unable to buy one, what with the cheapest picture weighing in at a fairly hefty$75, but it was fantastic if not on the small side!

Having left the convention centre we then proceeded to part two of the days adventure, seeing the group split up with most of the boys going to watch the England vs. Algeria game, whilst the rest went to the mall to go shopping. Having actually missed the game due to being downtown when it was on, the Dean and her husband kindly recorded it to us, meaning we had to keep ourselves in an environment where no score could be relayed to us at all. Much in the same way that had had to have been done last week after James' game (I should add at this point, that he had won his final game of the season). The less said about the game the better.

When we got back from the deans house, most of the guys went out to play football on the football pitch, where we were joined by a guy named Victor whom we introduced to the concept of Wembley. Basically an all vs all game where to proceed through to the next round you needed to score just one goal. Victor gave us all the run around with his tricks but lacked the finishing touch, and just as the girls arrived with the volleyball ready for the day's games. Having played volleyball, and basketball four of us went over to the commons, where we played pool for about an hour, with a couple of Americans, the banter between us was immense.

I can't really think of much else to say, about the last couple of days, it's been immense fun in parts and some of it is best forgotten. However, what can be said is that at the end of the day, life goes on, and it's far too short to hold grudges.

I shall love you and leave you now, as I really should shower and get dressed.

Before I go, I shall leave you with my favourite quote in hawai'ian.

E Hookumu Maua Ka Hale Puni Maua Ohana Me Ka Pumehana A Me Ka Oiloli Kealoha

Day 11: OSBI

Ok, so I've now decided that doing two days of blog is far easier than doing one a day. I can't actually believe it's been 11 days since I left England. The time has properly flown by!

My alarm sounded at 0715, way to early for my liking, but I guess it has to be done at some point, and after showering and getting dressed I was ready for the day.

Moving to our RV by 0800, it seems that I was the first of the C.T. guys to be ready, despite us needing to be there by 0830, not that that would matter. With Jonny wanting a shower, sods law reared its ugly head, as just as he was getting ready to shower, one of the guys who didn't need to be ready before us took a 20 minute long shower, saying just after he got in "I'll be out in a minute". Yeah right!

So what does Jonny do, takes a 500ml bottle of water, and splashes it over his head to wet it, and then proceeds to dry himself with a filthy towel. Ah well, if needs must!

With us all ready to go, we wander over to the place where we were told to go, the same place as yesterday, the OSBI Forensics Lab. When we got there, it turns out that we're not actually meant to be there, but at the OSBI headquarters some 5 miles away, somewhere along the line, we'd been given the wrong information. After a frenzied call and a lift, we eventually arrived at where we were meant to be, around an hour after we should've started. Not bad considering the events that had led to this.

Having been checked in and everything, we were led upstairs into the classroom where we were introduced to the director of the OSBI DeWade Langley, who gave us a brief introduction to the OSBI and what it did, before handing us over to the next few speakers. I have to say, everything which they said to us was incredibly interesting.

Next we had maybe the most incredible guy in the world... ever. A guy named Harvey Pratt. Ok, so his name doesn't sound too convincing, however, the stuff that he does is incredible. However, you know when you're an awesomely fantastic person, when you have your own page on wikipedia, and this guy does! He's apparently the worlds most accomplished and worlds best forensic artist. This means that in the event that a suspect is unknown, he'll be called in to draw an impression of what the suspect looks like through descriptions given by witnesses. Some of the likenesses that he showed us was amazing when he showed us photos of the perpetrator after arrest. As well as that sort of stuff, he's also been employed to do things such as stuff like ageing, so that they can get a fair representation of what a fugitive on the run would look like after a period of time, as well as what a kidnapp victim could look like after a period of so many years. On top of this, he also does skull reconstructions, if they find human remains that are so badly deformed that the face cant be used for identification. Real interesting stuff!

The next guy we had ran us through the procedures for Polygraphing. The art of lie detecting. Apparently, although they are allowed to do it to retrieve fairly accurate results, the results are not allowed to be given in evidence in court, despite a 98% degree of accuracy. What was said however was that the pre and post interviews can be used to testify for or against a suspect in the event that it could provide vital evidence for within the courts. Unfortunatley though, we didn't have the time to have a demonstration on one, which would've been awesome! I could forsee Jonny's turn being something like this:

Only joking Jonny, love you really!

Having gone for lunch at a local sandwich place, where I had a Santa Fe Chicken sandwichy thingy. We went back for 3 more talks. Firstly from a Crime Scene investigator. This was possibly the most interesting talk of the day, and definitely not one to have had before lunch. Some of the pictures she showed us, of murder victims, were horrific, and I must admit to feeling a tiny bit queasey when she showed us the maggot infested body. Despite it being so disgusting, her talk was quite possibly the most informative of the day, and for someone to have experienced so much mutilation and brutality in her job, she seemed not to show any form of stress or anything. I have new-found respect for that job, having had my opinions moulded by shows such as CSI, which does not depict the brutality involved.

The next talk saw all of us flagging, despite it being the only one that was properly linked to our course, about the evidence network that had been set up in the wake of 9/11. Sure the stuff would've been incredibly interesting, however with an 84 slide powerpoint to get through in 45 minutes, so much information was darn near impossible to digest so quickly. I believe we all found ourselves falling asleep at some point, mainly due to the heat and humidity, but also partly due to the monotony of the presentation.

The final presentation was probably the most poignant one of the day, on Child Protection. I have complete and utter respect for this guy. The stuff that he's had to see must be sickening, having to deal with countless cases of Child Pornography and in general, Child Abuse. It was interesting to note, that he was the only guy that openly swore whilst talking to us. But then again, it's par for the course there.

That more or less concluded the day's work, with us heading back to the campus to freshen up and get ready for the evening's activity. A western movie, that just so happened to be the most boring movie ever produced, named Cimarron. Apparently it was remade with John Wayne in it, now that would've been so much better. I mean, it's John Wayne for crying out loud!!! I kind of got the gist of it, the Americans come and take over some land and develop it into what was to become Oklahoma City... pretty simple, but really strung out.

Having sat through all 131 minutes of it, we all went off to McDonalds to get a bite to eat, with the guys going back to IHOP to get food whilst the rest of us went to get some cheap crap from McD's. On the way back, Jon decided to piss everyone off with some choice words, which in all fairness he didn't mean the way he said it, and I had immense fun pretending to tell him off, whilst he seemed to be getting more and more worked up, deciding to go for a run in penance.

Jonny telling a story (but with slightly more hair) ->

As it was Jonny, that of course did not go off without at least one story to tell, as he came back telling us how three distinct things had happened:

1. He'd fallen and twisted his ankle about 30 seconds into the run

2. He'd witnessed a drugs deal

3. He'd then had stuff thrown at him by those involved in the deal

3 things struck me about this:

1. If he had fallen that early, why didn't he turn back

2. Ok that could've happened

3. What the hell was thrown at him, surely in a state where it's legal to carry a concealed weapon, they'd have shot at him, and not thrown a stone... but who cares, it made a good story! Oh how it would've been great to have him linked up to a polygraph at that point!

Having said I was going to do two days, I shall leave today's post until tomorrow when I might be more awake to actually do two days!
Until then,

Tchuss

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