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