Jerry Springer fights, glow in the dark 5ks, and a dance show

Jerry Springer 

One of the Exchange students posted on Facebook that he was able to get all of us free tickets to see the Jerry Springer show which is filmed here in Connecticut so naturally I jumped at the opportunity to witness such a rich example of American culture. I informed all of my professors that I would miss classes that day for an International student's trip, not letting them know that I was actually going to be in the audience for what must be some of the crappest tv in existence. I didn't even realise the show was still running but students love a freebie so we all turned up in the morning to catch our luxury coach provided by the show to drive to the studio in Stamford.

When we arrived there was already a pretty big line of fans waiting to get in. There was a policeman walking up and down the queue and we had to show our passports to stressed looking people with headsets on. Once we got inside we had to sign waivers with lots of small print presumably about not suing the company if we got caught up in an on screen brawl and then we had to go through airport style security to check none of us were packing heat.

Some of the Aussie boys waiting in line

With Ada, a Polish student from Edinburgh Uni

We had to wait for the programme before to finish filming but while we waited they served up some free pizza. They literally just kept bringing out the most gigantic boxes of pizza I have ever seen and there was a mad rammy to get to the front.

This old bird at the front was elbowing people out of the way for some pepperoni

After eating some more disgustingly oversized greasy American food we were escorted into the studio. All of the UConn students (around 40 of us) were let in first and given the best seats.

The Jerry Springer set

Posing before the show started

We weren't allowed to take photos during filming, and there were some really huge scary looking security guys watching, but we managed to get some photos of the set before it started. The main security guy came out and told us the rules: when to cheer, when to say "aww", when to chant Jerry etc. He then introduced Jerry himself, who looks like he's getting on a bit, who did a bit of stand up and a Q&A about himself. His jokes were surprisingly risque and he admitted that his show was complete crap and he couldn't believe he'd been doing it for 23 years!

Once the show started it was complete carnage. In the first ten minutes there were girls dancing on a pole, plenty of swearing and multiple brutal looking fights between two sets of sisters. I have no idea if it's fake or not, because every segment seemed to end very abruptly with the guests walking off calmly, but there was hair all over the ground after the girls were done. Later a huge obese woman rubbed herself in cake and threw more at a guy who hated fat women. It was very surreal and it felt like a workout having to jump out of our seats every two minutes to chant Jerry at another fight. The whole thing was exhausting and plain weird. At one point all of the UConn students were asked to stand up and read out a message telling viewers to come back after the break. At the end of the show audience members were allowed to ask the guests questions and were invited to flash for some "Jerry beads". Three women, one of whom was really, really old, stood up and lifted their shirts for free necklaces and everybody cheered. Disturbing. Once filming ended they kicked everybody out except us so that we could get a group photo with the man himself. We even got free tshirts for everyone on our way out.

In the audience

All of us with Jerry

Our episode is available to watch online but unfortunately the person who uploaded the video edited out our announcement and the old lady flashing (maybe not so unfortunate).  Our episode

Electric Run

The first weekend of October Max visited and we signed up to do a 5K in Boston. It's an event called Electric Run where they have djs and live music all around the course and there are lots of light displays and themed sections. All of the runners dress up in neon and have glow sticks which looks really cool. I got a bad cold just before it and wasn't feeling great but we made it around the course. We were supposed to meet up with a group of exchange students but there were thousands of people and it was a pretty poorly planned event. The others got so drunk that they didn't make it on to the course in time and just went straight to the party at the finish line. 

At the start line

Lit up tunnels that changed colour in time to the music

Posing in front of some light displays

A huge section of ramps was completely lit up by umbrellas

The finish line rave

Lip Sync

The week after Electric Run was homecoming week at UConn. I still have no idea what Homecoming means exactly but it has something to do with a football game (the American kind). There are loads of events throughout the week, one of which is Lip Sync. It's a big performance in the basketball stadium where teams make up performances based on a theme, the only rule being that everyone has to mime their lines and mouth along to the songs they are dancing to. I live in a building which is a mix of Exchange students and American students who want to live with us and we entered a team into this competition. Our performance was based on Finding Nemo and I choreographed some of the dances for it. We had been rehearsing in an empty car park for weeks leading up to it and at the final performance there was an audience of 6 000. We were all just a little bit nervous.

Getting ready

Matt as Crush the turtle, me as a fish. The costume budget was non-existent.

The performance went really well and was great fun. Ours definitely got plenty of laughs and turned out great. We ended up coming second which we were all pretty pleased with!

On stage during "I'm on a Boat"

Some of the team together after the performance

A video of our performance should be online but hasn't been uploaded yet so I'll try to post it here if it ever surfaces. 

I still have a lot of stuff to catch up on, it has been such a busy semester, but I'm just starting my Thanksgiving break so hopefully I'll get up to speed this week and there will be lots to look at all at once!

Maine

I've only written one post since I've been her which is a pretty poor effort but it turns out I actually have to work pretty hard. My classes started just after I wrote my last post and I've not stopped studying and "doing homework" ever since. The education system here is completely different so although the content is generally easier I have 3 or 4x the amount of coursework to do throughout the semester. I've already taken my midterm exams (I've sat two exams already for one class) and written countless assignments and research reports. Because of this I'm just getting round to writing this blog, and I have about 2 or 3 months to catch up on! 

My classes started 26th of August and I had a week of lectures before I got the following Monday off for Labour Day Weekend. I have no idea what this holiday is but apparently everyone goes away for it so Max's family decided to take us up to Maine. We drove up on the Friday morning, taking most of the day to reach Acadia National Park in Maine. We stopped for dinner and then headed to our Motel to get some sleep.

Our Motel Room

Feeling like a proper American on "Vacation"

The following day we were up bright and early to grab breakfast and beat all the tourists to drive on the loop road of the Park.

Driving around the Park

It was pretty chilly and there were lots of low hanging clouds when we first set out. Instead of ruining the views it made all of the scenery look even cooler. We drove up to the top of Cadillac Mountain and stopped at plenty of view points along the way.

Early morning mist over the pier

We had to compete with a swarm of Japanese tourist to get this photo at the top of Cadillac Mountain

Dave and Max admiring the views

A Park Ranger at the summit

By mid morning it started to warm up a little and we stopped at a small beach to do a short hike. Max still had his brace on but he managed to scramble up the rocky path from the beach. We (very carefully) scrambled down to some rock pools during the hike to look for crabs halfway before making our way back across the beach.

The beach where our hike started from

Max beating us to the top with his leg brace on

Exploring

After our hike we jumped back in the car and continued on the loop road to Thunderhole, a blowhole where the waves are shot out of an opening in the rocks. We stayed behind the fence to watch it but we spotted some tubes sitting on top of the undercut ledge above.

   

Really though?

We stopped for lunch on some rocks looking out over the water before driving back to the Motel to pick up our bikes. I'm not the world's best cyclist and Max's knee was still recovering so we did a shorter trail on some carriage roads while Dave and Lori did a more challenging bike ride. Max and I biked around Witch Hole Pond, which was full of dead trees and lily pads.

Witch Hole Pond

Heading back to the motel

When we got back from the bike ride we went out for tea in town. We were staying in Bar Harbour which is really touristy so we went to a cute little diner and then walked around the shops. After our meal and the stroll around town we drove to Dave's friend's house for dessert. After such an active day I was falling asleep so we headed back and got some shut eye before waking up the next day and driving South to the town of Boothbay Harbour.

The drive took longer than we thought so once we got into town we made some sandwiches in the car park before rushing to a little shop to meet our tour guides for a wildlife kayak tour. We stopped halfway on a small island for some snacks and checked out the views. There was an osprey nest above us so we all took turns with the binoculars to have a look. We got back in the kayaks and headed back towards land.

Boothbay Harbour was a really nice little town so we had a wander before stopping at a waterfront restaurant called McSeagulls (really) to get some food. After tea we drove to another town for ice cream before heading to our next Motel.

Chilling with a moose

Monday was Labour Day and we woke up to a torrential downpour of rain. We had some waffles at the motel and tried to avoid getting drenched while packing up the car. We set off for Freeport to do some shopping and rich people spotting. After browsing expensive outdoor gear we had lunch sitting on a balcony overlooking the main street before jumping back in the car headed for home. There was a lot of traffic and the drive was awful but luckily Max and I slept through the whole thing and we arrived back in Connecticut feeling very well rested.

Using the waffle maker at the Motel

Welcome to the U.S!

This is very delayed but I'm writing this blog to let everyone at home know what I'm up to. If you type in your email address you should be able to receive a message when I've posted something new.


I flew in to Boston on Thursday 1st August and by the time I'd cleared passport control and customs it was 8.30pm (1.30am in the UK). I got picked up by Max and his family and we drove to Harvard Square in Boston to get something to eat. I was falling asleep at the table and by the time we got back to their house in Connecticut it was almost time to wake up in Forfar. I didn't have a long lie though because Max had knee surgery for a torn ACL a week before I got there so we had to drive to an early doctor's appointment. On the way back however we went to the UConn Dairy Bar which is an ice cream shop run by the university to pick up an ice cream cake for my arrival.

Max cutting the first piece

Chocolate ice cream, a layer of brownies, then cookies and cream
ice cream, topped off with frosting

Max wasn't able to get around that well for the first few days and you have to drive almost everywhere here. Since I can't drive we were relying on lifts from his parents and friends so we kept things fairly local. I went to the gym a dozen times, had countless burritos at the the Mexican fast food place, and watched loads of crap American tv. Despite this busy schedule we managed to squeeze in a few day trips.

The first week we went on the Essex steam train and riverboat. It's a restored antique steam train that travels through some nice little towns and countryside before linking up with a riverboat that takes you down the Connecticut River.
The cars still had old adverts above the luggage racks and all of the staff wore period uniforms.


During the journey the conductor told us about the history of the train including it's Hollywood appearances. It was featured in the latest Indiana Jones film, George Clooney's Leatherheads, and the dining car was used for filming Malcolm X because the he had apparently worked as a Porter on this car.

The dining car used in filming

Hot Dogs

The cruise took us along the Connecticut River past Gillette Castle, a weird looking building built by an eccentric actor in 1914, and a lot of really rich looking big houses. The guide pointed out a tiny little boat that drives around the River on the weekends selling hot dogs to all of the yachts.










Another trip we took was to the Nathan Hale House. Nathan Hale is the State Hero of Connecticut and the local tourist attraction is a house which his family owned but he never actually lived in. He was basically America's first spy who went undercover during the Revolutionary War aged 21 to find out what the British were planning and was tricked into confessing he was a spy in the pub. He relayed no useful information to the Americans because his secret code was Latin, which was commonly understood, and he kept it all in his boot. I'm still not sure why he's a hero but Americans don't have much else in the way of historical attractions so I let it slide. The building was on Most Haunted and our guide told us a couple of ghost stories which added a bit of excitement.

Nathan Hale House - clutching at straws

Max had made fun of me for looking like a hick in a pair of denim dungarees and that afternoon we went blueberry picking at the orchard which did in fact make me look like a bit of a hick.

Country chic

The following week Max, his dad, and I took a day trip to the town Mystic to see the aquarium. In the afternoon we had lunch at Mystic Pizza, where they shot the Julia Robert's film, Mystic Pizza.



That weekend we decided to get the bus up to Boston to visit Max's brother Zach since he was walking better. We stayed mainly in the studenty Cambridge area. The first day we just had a bit of a wander round the shops and the Harvard campus then went out for tea. We had huge American style sandwiches which the guys at the table next to us ate with cheesey bacon covered chips, falafels and dip, huge beers, and some more sandwiches to go. After eating far too much we met Zach at his flat and had a few illegal beers.

Snacks in the park

Street Art

Zach was up early in the morning so we picked up some coffees, got a lift back to the student area and had breakfast outside a trendy bar. We spent a bit more time exploring the area, and did some sunbathing in the JFK memorial park. Later we got the subway back to the city centre and wandered round Quincy Market before getting the bus home.

Coffee on Harvard campus

Max and a squirrel sharing a cereal bar 

City centre

Two weeks ago I started my International Orientation and got the key to my dorm room. We sat through lots of talks about safety, underage drinking etc. and then had a lot of parties at night. My halls are for international students and Americans who want to meet them so there's a mix of people. My American roommate moved in a week later, she's a 17 year old first year student from Connecticut. I started my classes on Monday and I'm still really confused about this education system. Some of my classes only have multiple choice exams and although there's a lot more work it is a lot more basic than in Glasgow.

In order to live in University housing I have to have a meal plan. I basically swipe my card at the door and have unlimited access to buffet style food. There are about a dozen different dining halls all over campus, including one in my building and you can go any time of day. There is far too much temptation so I've been trying to walk past the pizza to the salad bar and go to the gym a lot.

This is Labour Day weekend which means I have Monday off uni so I'm going to Acadia National Park in Maine to do some kayaking and walking. Hopefully I'll take some good photos and post them soon!