Pumpkin pictures!
from l-r: Mines, Hayleys & Sams
At the pumpkin show standing infront of the winner of biggest pumpkin!
Laura, Hayley, Sam & Jess
posted by lauralouise90 | 21:25
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It's a party in the USA!
Spending my 3rd year of uni abroad in America at Ohio State University. This is just a little memoir of what I've been getting upto for those that are interested. Will try to keep it going but we will see after a month or so how that goes! Missing Edinburgh and everyone in it xxx
- Happy Thanksgiving folks!
- Mirror Laaaake!
- Bomb threat
- Next Tuesday's antics...
- Sniffing pots...
- A night at the Ballet
- 6th November
- 5th November
- 'Halloween is coming the geese are getting fat...'
- Pumpkin pictures!
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Wednesday 27 October 2010
Sunday 24 October 2010
23rd October
The OSU game was playing at home today but after losing the previous weekend, the team quickly lost its 1st place position and moved down to 9th and have lost their chances now of becoming league winners. This meant that not as many people were keen to watch or go see the game as a lot of tickets were being sold at face value this time and not at a ridiculously higher price. So took the chance to go to the Tuttle Mall which I can get the bus straight to from my house although Hayley dropped me off on her way back home. The shops were still quite quiet with the game being on so it was nice to just wander around myself and not feel I'm keeping others waiting. I was on the hunt for a winter jacket but didn't see anything great but still came away with new purchases from H&M and Forever 21. Had a bit of a nightmare trying to find the bus stop though to get back! Saw it when I entered the mall and then I thought I had come out the same way next to the Macy's but the bus stop had gone! Tried to walk around finding it using my google maps on my phone but was getting nowhere so headed back into the mall and asked at information desk. Turned out I had gone out the opposite end I should have but because there were so many bloody Macy's at each corner of the mall pretty much that's what got me confused! Found the bus stop but had missed the one that was planning to get and they are every hour on saturday. But managed to get home eventually but seriously they do not make it easy for you if you do not own a car here! I miss lothian buses and took them for granted way too much!
posted by lauralouise90 | 11:42
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$1 Movie Theatre/Theater
22nd October
Caught up on some work during the day with my day off from classes. Then in the evening went along with Sam & Hayley plus Sam's mum & grandma to dinner then to see a film. We ate at Noodles & Company which is a cheap pasta/noodles bar with 3 different styles in Asian, Mediterranean & American. I had the Bangkok Curry with chicken which was good. But all of the dishes looked good so going to have to go back lots to try them all! We had some time to push in before the film started so went to the pet store which is different from any pet store I've ever been in before. They have kittens and dogs/puppies too here and also they have their pets in an open tank sort of thing so you can stroke them or even pick up the rabbits,hamsters, etc. They even just let their bigger tropical birds out of the cage to roam free but they must be quite well trained as they only seem to just walk around the perches of their cage and not fly about around the shop! If the staff have any of the puppies out they are fine with you wanting to hold them as well.
We went to the dollar movie theatre which is so cheap as it's slightly older films that are maybe no longer at the main cinema but still not out on dvd. It's normally $1 but as we were there on a ffriday night it went up to $2 but still good value! The film we saw was Eat Pray Love with Julia Roberts.
Caught up on some work during the day with my day off from classes. Then in the evening went along with Sam & Hayley plus Sam's mum & grandma to dinner then to see a film. We ate at Noodles & Company which is a cheap pasta/noodles bar with 3 different styles in Asian, Mediterranean & American. I had the Bangkok Curry with chicken which was good. But all of the dishes looked good so going to have to go back lots to try them all! We had some time to push in before the film started so went to the pet store which is different from any pet store I've ever been in before. They have kittens and dogs/puppies too here and also they have their pets in an open tank sort of thing so you can stroke them or even pick up the rabbits,hamsters, etc. They even just let their bigger tropical birds out of the cage to roam free but they must be quite well trained as they only seem to just walk around the perches of their cage and not fly about around the shop! If the staff have any of the puppies out they are fine with you wanting to hold them as well.
We went to the dollar movie theatre which is so cheap as it's slightly older films that are maybe no longer at the main cinema but still not out on dvd. It's normally $1 but as we were there on a ffriday night it went up to $2 but still good value! The film we saw was Eat Pray Love with Julia Roberts.
posted by lauralouise90 | 11:35
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Pumpkin Fair!
21st October
After classes I went with Sam and her friend to the Circleville Pumpkin Show (http://www.pumpkinshow.com/) which is a small town just outside Columbus. Its quite a hillbilly town and it was quite obvious that we were from the city! They have all sorts of food stalls, gifts & clothes set up along the streets. And this is what it will be like until 31st October so pretty inconvenient for the locals! First stop for us was food and tried a 'pumpkin burger' which was tasty. It was more like a sloppy joe mix in a bun and not proper burger texture but it was still good! Then found a stall which sold pumpkin pancakes which again, were delicious especially topped with lots of maple syrup yum yum! I was full at this point which was gutting because Sams friend went to a stall which sold 'funnel cake' which is basically battered dough covered with sugar frosting but its massive and in a nice shape. But at this stall they had deep fried oreos too which looked good but just too much for me. There were some typical fairground rides like big wheel and a caged ride that did not look safe so needless to say we didn't ride on any of them. We got a place to wait for the parade to start. The parade consisted of local high schools and colleges' marching band and cheerleaders. And there were quite a few of them - probably the longest parade I have ever stood in! Then there was a gap in the parade of about half an hour that was all for the Ohio State marching band & cheerleaders. But it was worth it as they stopped infront of us to play out a song. Heading back to the car it was pretty cold at about 10.30pm! I've noticed that here though, when it can get quite hot during the day at this time of year, it's still chilly in the mornings and at night.
After classes I went with Sam and her friend to the Circleville Pumpkin Show (http://www.pumpkinshow.com/) which is a small town just outside Columbus. Its quite a hillbilly town and it was quite obvious that we were from the city! They have all sorts of food stalls, gifts & clothes set up along the streets. And this is what it will be like until 31st October so pretty inconvenient for the locals! First stop for us was food and tried a 'pumpkin burger' which was tasty. It was more like a sloppy joe mix in a bun and not proper burger texture but it was still good! Then found a stall which sold pumpkin pancakes which again, were delicious especially topped with lots of maple syrup yum yum! I was full at this point which was gutting because Sams friend went to a stall which sold 'funnel cake' which is basically battered dough covered with sugar frosting but its massive and in a nice shape. But at this stall they had deep fried oreos too which looked good but just too much for me. There were some typical fairground rides like big wheel and a caged ride that did not look safe so needless to say we didn't ride on any of them. We got a place to wait for the parade to start. The parade consisted of local high schools and colleges' marching band and cheerleaders. And there were quite a few of them - probably the longest parade I have ever stood in! Then there was a gap in the parade of about half an hour that was all for the Ohio State marching band & cheerleaders. But it was worth it as they stopped infront of us to play out a song. Heading back to the car it was pretty cold at about 10.30pm! I've noticed that here though, when it can get quite hot during the day at this time of year, it's still chilly in the mornings and at night.
posted by lauralouise90 | 11:26
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Tuesday 19 October 2010
The Weekend!
15th Oct
Technically this is the start of the weekend for me since I have no classes on fridays. But just spent my day applying to internships or at least trying to as the processes take soo long and used time to catch up on work since I usually get a quiet house to myself as its just business that don't seem to have classes on a friday. After dinner I went into campus to meet with Roman and some of the other internationals to have a drink and chat. Even though I turned up late (about 20 mins) I didn't need to think this was a big deal as the spaniards were over an hour late..apparently something they are known for just because time management isn't a big issue in Spain I guess! But it was only 3 of us that came along but I still got to chat with the other 2 who I hadn't really spoken to before so was good. Found out that I am the only student here from the exchange that is here 3 quarters! Most are here one quarter so will leave end of this year. And then more students arrive in Jan and then in April time but only about 3 or 4. Came home and spent rest of the evening watching Now Pronounce you Chuck & Larry with the girls.
16th Oct
Roman took some of us (with his Dad too for another car) to Easton Shopping Mall. The only one I hadn't been to out of the 3 main ones in Columbus. It was just me along with Dinna (girl from Denmark), Erick (from Norway) and Mario( from Italy). We split up into guys and girls inevitably and spent a few hours around the shops. We met back up and us girls still wanted to see more so the guys went off to a gun store with Roman and his Dad. It was a good day to go to that mall since it was outdoors and in the cold I can imagine not very pleasant but the sun was shining and it was pretty mild. There was a H&M and Forever 21 but they weren't open yet so the rest of the shops at this mall didn't appeal to me too much but it was still good to wonder around. Afterwards we got back in the car and went to place called City Barbeque where the others had ribs and all the trimmings but cos I had already had something at the mall I just had a peach cobbler which even that was too filling!
Got dropped off back home at teatime and watched the OSU game (where we lost :( ) and had some strongbow and beer with Sam & Josh. They were going out after and wanted to play drinking games so we played some beer pong down in the basement Josh against us 2 girls...he still won though! That was the first time I had used our ping pong table to play and it was a lot harder cos the table was so much longer compared to the 'dining' tables others have at their places where I've played before. Like to think I'm getting quite good at it but we'll see!
17th Oct
Sunday I caught up on skype with the family in the morning and even though we still spoke 2 days before so wasn't much new to say, we were still on for over an hour! Then in the afternoon I met Diana on the bus to head to campus to see Barack Obama! We didn't queue for too long even though the line was huge. We had to pass through airport-like security...walking through the scanner and having our bags checked! Once we were in we only had about 30 mins or so to wait till it started but Mr President wasn't the first up. Oh no he knew how to keep people waiting. First it was the mayor..followed by other people who are just no-bodies to me! Even a reverend came on to 'say a prayer' what a joke! Someone shouted out from the crowd 'It's not God's fault' which is quite right since she was saying stuff like 'God bless us with jobs' etc etc. There were intervals of music then more people speaking about all the same things really. John Legend came out to play 'Green Light', 'Ordinary People' and some other song didn't recognise. Then finally...after about 2hrs standing from when we got through the gates Barack Obama came out with the First Lady. The cheer they got was amazing. All 35,000 people. She did a speech first to introduce him and she is a really good public speaker. Then Mr President himself spoke and although we only stayed about 10-15 mins into his speech to take pictures it was still worth it. I don't know if I would be that excited to go see Gordon Brown or David Cameron do a rally like that. It's just the fact that this guy has made history and is a powerful figure in the world at the minute. Even if I know nothing about the politics of America (apart from the full list of Presidents provided to me by my Grandpa!) it was still a good moment and I'll be able to say I've heard one of his campaigns!
Since it was a sunday the last bus was at 9.15 and knew that it would be full as when we were coming on the bus, at one of the stops where there is a lot of students living in the area, about half the population of China were wanting on! Obviously going to see him too. So kindly Sam came to pick me & Diana up :)
Technically this is the start of the weekend for me since I have no classes on fridays. But just spent my day applying to internships or at least trying to as the processes take soo long and used time to catch up on work since I usually get a quiet house to myself as its just business that don't seem to have classes on a friday. After dinner I went into campus to meet with Roman and some of the other internationals to have a drink and chat. Even though I turned up late (about 20 mins) I didn't need to think this was a big deal as the spaniards were over an hour late..apparently something they are known for just because time management isn't a big issue in Spain I guess! But it was only 3 of us that came along but I still got to chat with the other 2 who I hadn't really spoken to before so was good. Found out that I am the only student here from the exchange that is here 3 quarters! Most are here one quarter so will leave end of this year. And then more students arrive in Jan and then in April time but only about 3 or 4. Came home and spent rest of the evening watching Now Pronounce you Chuck & Larry with the girls.
16th Oct
Roman took some of us (with his Dad too for another car) to Easton Shopping Mall. The only one I hadn't been to out of the 3 main ones in Columbus. It was just me along with Dinna (girl from Denmark), Erick (from Norway) and Mario( from Italy). We split up into guys and girls inevitably and spent a few hours around the shops. We met back up and us girls still wanted to see more so the guys went off to a gun store with Roman and his Dad. It was a good day to go to that mall since it was outdoors and in the cold I can imagine not very pleasant but the sun was shining and it was pretty mild. There was a H&M and Forever 21 but they weren't open yet so the rest of the shops at this mall didn't appeal to me too much but it was still good to wonder around. Afterwards we got back in the car and went to place called City Barbeque where the others had ribs and all the trimmings but cos I had already had something at the mall I just had a peach cobbler which even that was too filling!
Got dropped off back home at teatime and watched the OSU game (where we lost :( ) and had some strongbow and beer with Sam & Josh. They were going out after and wanted to play drinking games so we played some beer pong down in the basement Josh against us 2 girls...he still won though! That was the first time I had used our ping pong table to play and it was a lot harder cos the table was so much longer compared to the 'dining' tables others have at their places where I've played before. Like to think I'm getting quite good at it but we'll see!
17th Oct
Sunday I caught up on skype with the family in the morning and even though we still spoke 2 days before so wasn't much new to say, we were still on for over an hour! Then in the afternoon I met Diana on the bus to head to campus to see Barack Obama! We didn't queue for too long even though the line was huge. We had to pass through airport-like security...walking through the scanner and having our bags checked! Once we were in we only had about 30 mins or so to wait till it started but Mr President wasn't the first up. Oh no he knew how to keep people waiting. First it was the mayor..followed by other people who are just no-bodies to me! Even a reverend came on to 'say a prayer' what a joke! Someone shouted out from the crowd 'It's not God's fault' which is quite right since she was saying stuff like 'God bless us with jobs' etc etc. There were intervals of music then more people speaking about all the same things really. John Legend came out to play 'Green Light', 'Ordinary People' and some other song didn't recognise. Then finally...after about 2hrs standing from when we got through the gates Barack Obama came out with the First Lady. The cheer they got was amazing. All 35,000 people. She did a speech first to introduce him and she is a really good public speaker. Then Mr President himself spoke and although we only stayed about 10-15 mins into his speech to take pictures it was still worth it. I don't know if I would be that excited to go see Gordon Brown or David Cameron do a rally like that. It's just the fact that this guy has made history and is a powerful figure in the world at the minute. Even if I know nothing about the politics of America (apart from the full list of Presidents provided to me by my Grandpa!) it was still a good moment and I'll be able to say I've heard one of his campaigns!
Since it was a sunday the last bus was at 9.15 and knew that it would be full as when we were coming on the bus, at one of the stops where there is a lot of students living in the area, about half the population of China were wanting on! Obviously going to see him too. So kindly Sam came to pick me & Diana up :)
posted by lauralouise90 | 16:55
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Tuesday 12 October 2010
Pictures...
I also realised that some of the pics taken on my roommates camera are in private albums so no one can see them on facebook unless you are friends with them! I'll steal some when new ones go up and add a few on here though to show you all :)
posted by lauralouise90 | 23:14
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Abusing the blog
Sorry have abandoned the blog in last week or so...firstly nothing much exciting happens throughout the week unless you really want to hear about my classes...and to be honest I don't even love them that much myself to repeat them! So I'll save you that boring stuff.
But anyways new things I have done since last wrote...Been to the uni gym (or one of them) which is all big open planned with courts for volleyball, football (soccer) going on whilst you work out. The swimming pool looks good too so that's on my to-do list as well.
This weekend I went along with Sam to Miami University (in Ohio) which is about 2 hr drive SW of Columbus. Sam used to go there before she transferred here so were visiting her old friends. The campus there was really nice and was finding out that its quite an expensive school to go to and you could tell by a lot of the people walking around...a lot were quite posh in the way they dressed nicely instead of just in casuals like a lot at OSU do. Just think of all the yahs at Edinburgh and the like and transfer that to America and that's pretty much the picture. But Sam's friends were totally not like that and really nice. We all went out for dinner in the town ( called Oxford I thiiink) then stock up on drinks at the liquor store then back to start the pre! Flavoured vodka is so common over here..I had grape flavoured on saturday with lemonade it was pretty nice. The bottle even said it was made in England so they must just make it there and ship it out to the US cos its a bottle I've never heard of before! We had a few at the girls house then went to a small house party...played some beer pong as you do then out into the town again. The place was more like a bar but had a dancefloor. Unfortunately the guy on the door this time was clever to spot my DOB and so had 2 crosses on my hand to not be able to buy drinks once inside :( but on the bright side it did save me a fair bit.
On way back home with Sam, we went to the fraternity her cousin stays in to see around it. Sat outside chatting for a bit with the other guys who live there and one guy thought he knew Scotland more than any of the others and that we had a 'connection' all because he knew who celtic, rangers, hibs and hearts were from playing Fifa ha! Oh and that his lecturer was from Aberdeen. Then got into discussion about whats different in Scotland compared to here.
Okay so the thing about the discount after a Buckeye game...totally wrong that it was the score you get as discount but I managed to find out the real deal that it's 5% off for every touchdown OSU score so it was 5 on sat there so went in to buy some things on monday. It's max 30% so thought 25% was pretty good. Got myself some hoodies saying Ohio State on them to be part of the crowd around campus. Oh and Ohio State are now ranked 1st in their league! Helllo champions hopefully! Last time they won was 2002 and it would be great if they won whilst I was here...hopefully I can be a good omen to them. I already proved that when they beat Miami University Florida (my second choice uni) the first weekend I was here :P
And that was my weekend! Back to working on the monday...got such a busy week on right now...exam tomorrow worth 30%...surprise quiz in class today but got 4/5 on it :) and then preparing for a 'Career Strategy Presentayion' that I could have to do on thurs if no one volunteers and he picks at random...eeek so not prepared for that so fingers crossed people volunteer so I can have another week or so do work on it. So ready for the weekend already!
But anyways new things I have done since last wrote...Been to the uni gym (or one of them) which is all big open planned with courts for volleyball, football (soccer) going on whilst you work out. The swimming pool looks good too so that's on my to-do list as well.
This weekend I went along with Sam to Miami University (in Ohio) which is about 2 hr drive SW of Columbus. Sam used to go there before she transferred here so were visiting her old friends. The campus there was really nice and was finding out that its quite an expensive school to go to and you could tell by a lot of the people walking around...a lot were quite posh in the way they dressed nicely instead of just in casuals like a lot at OSU do. Just think of all the yahs at Edinburgh and the like and transfer that to America and that's pretty much the picture. But Sam's friends were totally not like that and really nice. We all went out for dinner in the town ( called Oxford I thiiink) then stock up on drinks at the liquor store then back to start the pre! Flavoured vodka is so common over here..I had grape flavoured on saturday with lemonade it was pretty nice. The bottle even said it was made in England so they must just make it there and ship it out to the US cos its a bottle I've never heard of before! We had a few at the girls house then went to a small house party...played some beer pong as you do then out into the town again. The place was more like a bar but had a dancefloor. Unfortunately the guy on the door this time was clever to spot my DOB and so had 2 crosses on my hand to not be able to buy drinks once inside :( but on the bright side it did save me a fair bit.
On way back home with Sam, we went to the fraternity her cousin stays in to see around it. Sat outside chatting for a bit with the other guys who live there and one guy thought he knew Scotland more than any of the others and that we had a 'connection' all because he knew who celtic, rangers, hibs and hearts were from playing Fifa ha! Oh and that his lecturer was from Aberdeen. Then got into discussion about whats different in Scotland compared to here.
Okay so the thing about the discount after a Buckeye game...totally wrong that it was the score you get as discount but I managed to find out the real deal that it's 5% off for every touchdown OSU score so it was 5 on sat there so went in to buy some things on monday. It's max 30% so thought 25% was pretty good. Got myself some hoodies saying Ohio State on them to be part of the crowd around campus. Oh and Ohio State are now ranked 1st in their league! Helllo champions hopefully! Last time they won was 2002 and it would be great if they won whilst I was here...hopefully I can be a good omen to them. I already proved that when they beat Miami University Florida (my second choice uni) the first weekend I was here :P
And that was my weekend! Back to working on the monday...got such a busy week on right now...exam tomorrow worth 30%...surprise quiz in class today but got 4/5 on it :) and then preparing for a 'Career Strategy Presentayion' that I could have to do on thurs if no one volunteers and he picks at random...eeek so not prepared for that so fingers crossed people volunteer so I can have another week or so do work on it. So ready for the weekend already!
posted by lauralouise90 | 23:10
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Monday 4 October 2010
Cedar Point
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| Looking wet and miserable but still smiling! |
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| O-H-I-O! |
Saturday Mandi, Sam, Josh, Sam's sister and mum and I all drove the 2 and half hours to Cedar Point in north of Ohio near to Cleveland and the lakes. It was open from noon-midnight so we got there just before 1pm. The rain was drizzling and was pretty cold so some of the rides weren't running all the time. Managed to get on some rides...one coaster where it runs in a straight like and twists up at each end so just goes back and forth but it was pretty fast! Went on a couple mroe rides and starting queuing for one that look the scariest. Called Millenium Force. The queue was 45 mins, which was the average for all the rides, and when we were 2nd to get on the next train, they announced they were taking 2 of the 3 trains off the tracks to leave just one train running. Fair enough. But then after 10 mins or so they announced the ride was down due to mechanical failure and didn't know how long it would take. We didn't mind having waited that time and not getting on because you don't exactly want to be one of the firsst few back on a ride thats just had mechanical disfuntion! And also the rain has started to drizzle a bit too and it was dark at this point. So we had some Panda Express then headed to the Halloween things they had as a special throughout October. One was called 'Corn Stalkers' which was a walk through through a corn field maze in the dark with staff in costumes jumping out. Had to hold Mandi's arm and run through! Visited another similar thing called 'Insane Asylum' which was a walkthrough of a set up of a psychiatric ward and again staff were jumping out with freaked out masks and things. I couldn't tell if I was screaming or laughing. But it was pretty terrifying! The rain was still going on and at this point we were all really miserable so we headed home about an hour before closing.
posted by lauralouise90 | 21:39
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Yeah she's from the UK...she's over 21...
So Thursday night was my first night out to a bar/club place. It was called Nyoh's and its more country music but at the end they play an hour or so of recent stuff. It was over 18s place so I had to show my ID anyways and the guy had no idea where to look for my DOB so handed it back to me, then Sam's friend Josh said to him yeah shes 21, shes from the UK so I got a band to let me buy drinks! Doubt that's going to happen everywhere though. It helps that my drivers licence is horizontal cos here when you are under 21, your Ohio ID has all the info and picture placed vertically and you get issued a new one once you turn 21 that is all horizontal. They don't really do drinks like vodka coke here although quite into their rum & coke. It's more common to just shot vodka cos they have so many flavours of it.
posted by lauralouise90 | 21:28
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