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