Ooohhh We're Halfway There...

ooh oh! Livin' on a prayer! (I couldn't resist, if you know me, you'll understand).

This is it, pretty much the halfway point of my big adventure. I cannot believe how quickly this whole thing has come around, honestly it is utter madness! I'm really proud of how I have coped and managed to do this and so grateful to all those who have helped me and stuck with me. All the bad bits are completely worth it for the amazing parts.

I'm going to split this post into two sections: home and Texas and have a reflective look on both.

Home
I miss it, I do, everyday but I don't want to be there, I want to be in Texas and am so happy that I am. I hate that I am away from friends, family, my cat! All of my comforts, English food, my bed, the ability to walk places and not have the pavement stop halfway through, my church, hugs, cheerleading, nights of dancing and laughing. But I can and am going back to all of that and have no plans to leave it for significant amount of time again! So why dwell on it all? That is all still ticking along just fine across the pond and I can hop right into it as soon as I am back.
So many of my friends and family have been absolutely incredible and making sure I know I'm not forgotten or left out as I mentioned, two blogs ago (http://laurameetsworld13.blogspot.com/2014/10/friends-faith-and-missing-freshers.html). Going to Keele from Liverpool began to show who was really there for me and who wanted to be there with me as we all grow, change and find ourselves while studying for a degree. Now, coming all this way to Texas I feel I have been completely shown. I know who is there and I love them all for being there still. I really admire the maturity of our relationships that each of can go off and do things anywhere, for any amount of time and yet we've still got each other's backs, we're still there. I am really proud of and so incredibly grateful for that.

(Slightly different context, but I could not deny myself the indulgence of a Harry Potter quote)

Texas

This part is called Texas, but I really could be calling it 'my home away from home' or something equally as corny that still represents my adoration for the UK while acknowledging my comfort in the Lone Star State, USofA. 

Everybody here, in one way or another has been so incredibly welcoming and an absolute gem at making me feel at home. I have an amazing church with Chi Alpha, my small group is full of really great girls who don't treat me any differently because I am newcomer. I couldn't have gone there without being taken by my flatmate Gabby, which brings me to how fantastic my flatmates are. We all have our things to get on and do but we still band together to decorate our door for Halloween, organising a cleaning schedule, chill and chat around the kitchen, usually ending in comparing English and Americanisms. I feel really looked after by them. 

My teachers have been fantastically understanding when I have struggled to get to grips with certain ways of the American system, they let me write in English English for my essays - yay! And they are never shy to pick on me in class to answer questions from an English perspective - much love to the Scottish referendum for aiding that. That has really helped my classmates talk to me though, as soon as it is made a 'thing' that I am English then want to chat about it and some of them have even heard of Doctor Who!
Yes, it's disappointing that the Ebola scare has not been handled, in my opinion, well enough to make me feel safe going to Dallas and spending the day on public transport but oh well! I'll have to save that trip for next because I will definitely be coming back. 

It's shocked me how quickly this halfway mark has come around and it kind of scares me that sometime will probably come around just as quickly even though I am looking forward to returning to my home, I will miss it here and I'm still urging to make the most of it. Thankfully, my parents are visiting next week so I will get a little combination of home and Texas to keep me going. I would recommend to anyone who does something like study abroad to do there best to have at least one visit or direct contact with someone from home, I can imagine it will help loads. I will let you know how it goes in my next blog post! 

Don't hesitate to ask me anything about my experience and I'll be sure to answer, it may even inspire a post. Till next time! 

New York, New York, It's A Helluva Town

Since coming back from NEW YORK I have been mad busy catching up on the work I missed but now, this fine Friday afternoon, I finally have time to write all about it. Be warned, this could be a very long post full of photos, to combat this I'm going to try and write it as a bit of a list but we shall see how that goes...

Day 1
I legged it out of my history class to meet a really kind soul who'd offered to take me to the airport for $10, saving me paying $45 for a taxi! However, I realised I'd brought my passport cover and not my passport...classic Laura. Luckily we had enough time to nip back to my flat to get my passport and get to the airport with plenty of time. I had two flights to take and was surprised at how light the security was and that there was no security in between the two flights. As I had printed off my boarding passes at uni, I didn't need to show anyone any ID let alone my visa, I feel this maybe different when I go to Canada for Thanksgiving though. After about 8 hours of travelling I made it to the big apple where I eventually found my Alex and our adventure began! We checked in to our hotel, Club Quarters, Midtown which we booked through Hotels.com.

Day 2
Hotels.com gave us 20% off a three day package with the city sightseeing company, the same one I used for New Orleans. Our package included, unlimited hopping on and hopping off the buses on both the uptown and downtown route as well as tickets to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, the Empire State Building, which we did and to the museum of New York and a cruise of the bays around Manhattan which we did not have time to do. We also got money off for tasty meals at Planet Hollywood and a family style Italian.
We decided to take both the uptown and downtown tours this day so we could then have a general idea of New York and also work out where the tours go so we knew how to get to places we wanted to visit. That night we had dinner in Planet Hollywood, right underneath a Batmobile/plane!! The food wasn't amazing to be honest but good for what we needed. Then we strolled Times Square and found the massive Toys R Us with a ferris wheel inside and Cadburys chocolate!!! I'm sorry America, but Hershey's is crap in comparison.

 

Day 3
The next day we went to Wall Street. There we saw the bull, apparently it is the 'most sexually abused' statue in the world. People are weird. We then went on the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island ferry. To be honest, the views from the boat are absolutely magnificent that I really don't think the cruise would have been worth it in comparison so I have no regrets at all about not doing it. The Statue of Liberty was pretty special. It felt surreal seeing it and no point did it register for me that she was actually there in front of me. Ellis Island, as I expected, was a bit emotional and my imagination managed to creep me out. I had studied the immigration to America in detail in history so I knew what Ellis Island meant to people. Walking around the corridors, seeing the conditions people had to stay there in while they awaited clearing, learning that 2% were sent back to their original countries, probably to their deaths, it was a big deal. It felt to me like a very spirit filled place and Alex and I appreciated seeing out surnames in the list of people who landed there.
For dinner we went to the Hard Rock Cafe. I really enjoy them but Alex is borderline obsessed, the nachos are incredible though as is all of the memorabilia so it is totally worth a visit. Our walk home found us Grand Central Station which is naught but absolutely stunning, a must see for sure.

Day 4
Our day began with us being made to feel incredibly old after a delicious breakfast of bagel and cake. We went to the Nintendo shop by the Rockefeller centre only to find that in it's mini museum were all of the gameboys we used to own. Not amusing. Afterwards though, we stumbled across a k-pop mini festival thing which was uber bubbly and fun.
Alex went to New York with his parents for a few days in the summer and one of the things they couldn't get into was the Intrepid ship exhibition as it was closed. So we made the extra effort to go this time and it was incredibly interesting!! Alex and I are both history nerds but his speciality I would say is the military aspects, particularly weaponry which meant here he was in his element. However, even though I prefer the people of history and stories, I really loved it too.
On the walk home, we found McGee's pub which is what McLaren's pub in How I Met Your Mother is based off, it's fab! However, we did not eat there but instead we got pizza at the place where they filmed Sharknado 2. Afterwards, Central Park beckoned and it was beautiful.
That evening, we had a really tasty dinner in Ruby Tuesdays before going up the Empire State Building at around midnight to enjoy phenomenal views of New York at night. I was completely and utterly blown away.

Day 5
Our final full day as we both flew out stupidly early the next morning began with breakfast at Tiffany's! No there is no cafe at Tiffany's so we did what Audrey does in the film and bought delicious doughnuts then ate them outside the building. I felt so sophisticated. Getting there was a bit bothersome as loads of roads were limited access due to the Columbus Day parade but we got to see the parade! Afterwards, we went to two whole lego shops!! I had ball walking around with my mouth wide open and a weeping debit card.
Afterwards we went to Times Square to buy on the day discounted Broadway tickets - the best and only way to buy tickets if you ask me. For $90 (£60ish) we got centre seats, 4 rows up from the front of the mezzanine to watch the fabulous production of Rock of Ages. It was amazing! So much fun! And a lot naughtier than the film. Before the show started we had a delicious Italian that our bus tickets had given us money off and had had a quick nose around Macy's. We didn't have time to check this out, but if you are not American, take your passport to customer services and you will get an extra discount on all goods. After the show, we had time to go ice skating at the bottom of the Rockefeller Centre. It was absolutely magical and a bit of a dream come true for me.

Congratulations on making it to the end of this post! In all, I had a fantastic time in New York, it was just the break I needed. As a city, it is definitely American but has so many British influences in parts that I even got a bit homesick at one point. I'm determined to go back, see more museums, venture out to Staten Island, Brooklyn and New Jersey and go to the top of the Rockefeller centre as well as shop some more and ice skate in Central Park. That's the brilliant thing about New York, there's so much to do you leave having had your fill but there are still a million reasons to go back.

Friends, Faith and Missing Freshers

Off to New York next week to see Alex (yay!!!) so I am trying to do about 3 weeks worth of reading/tests/assignments in 1 and a half which is why I haven't blogged in a while. It is worth it but it is stressful and time consuming.

This quick post really is just a massive 'shout out' because obviously 250 blog views (very grateful for them) means I am now eligible to do 'shout out's...not. However, I don't care, my wonderful friends deserve it!

To the ones back home, whether you are enjoying Freshers without me, the token scouser, or you're fellow scousers and have been enjoying your own Freshers or life without me, it's nice to know that you all still care! Honestly, the internet has been a God send. What's App, Viber, Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Skype have kept me ticking over and have prevented any major breakdown of 'why don't people like me? Have I been forgotten?' Social media often receives such an awful name and it can sometimes be deserved, but right now I have nothing but praise for it. The little texts of genuinely asking how I am, or even the mad vents from my friends that I would normally get at home have done perfectly at keeping me happy and connected. I could never forget them and I do miss them all terribly so it's fantastically overwhelming and appreciated that they too are making an effort with me. Thank you!!

(my phone's background)

To the new ones I have found in Texas, thank you for being there for me! One of my flatmates has been taking me to her church group, Chi Alpha. There are main services on a Thursday evening and we have small group meeting at the beginning of the week. Including our leader, there are 8 girls in this small group and I really feel so grateful to them for letting me in and not holding back when it comes to friendship and fellowship. I'm truly finding out that beyond all the 'politics' of, faith shares with maths the beauty of being the same around the world; ultimately, everyone of faith believes in an incredible God that made them and adores them and He is the best of friends one could ever hope to know.

That's me signing off until I fill you in on New York! And I sign off with a very content smile :) (slight apology for the cheesiness...)