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
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