Game Day!

Yesterday was our first home football game and this is a huge deal! We have nothing like it back home and so we were pretty excited all week.

However, me and Heather woke up on Saturday morning texting eachother from across the guys' apartment following a big night of fraternity parties and we weren't feeling our best lets say that...

We struggled through though, continued drinking and hitched a ride to the grove of some guys that saw us waiting at the bus stop. 

At the grove tailgating happens and I'm not even sure how to describe this. Since Friday, campus has been getting ready for this and on Friday night people are finally allowed to set up tents all over the grove to use as a base for anybody and everybody before the game.

Everyone wore blue to support our team against the Louisiana Lafayettes. The tents are used as means of socialising and its a big deal if you have your own tent since its a lot of money. My friend Hilary actually had her own tent so we went over to see her and it was crazy that there were so many people everywhere and you don't know any of them, you just meet them through tailgating and hang out.

We also had our own tent set up for the internationals right next to the union so we hung out there for a bit too.

After experiencing the crazy crowds of tailgating (look how cute)

  

it was time to head to the game and I was apprehensive about the amount of people, but excited! With our friend Lux, me and Heather managed to get into the student seating area. I say seating, everyone was standing and shouting and cheering, it was incredible.

The band was playing, the cheerleaders were cheering and the crowds were going wild already, the atmosphere was incredible. Soon though, the game kicked off and it was amazing to watch. The players are so quick and gameplay didn't last for long at a time.

We found some pom poms which came in useful since our Rebels were always scoring and so the Hotty Toddy chant could be heard frequently. I hope you can get a feel for just how big the football games are here, the amount of people that find themselves wrapped up in it all is like nothing we have back home and it's amazing.

Such a surreal day and I'm so excited that we have another 7 home games while we're here, we'll be expert tailgaters and game-goers before we know it!

So yeah, America is still amazing. I want to stay so badly I'm already getting upset at the thought of ever having to leave this place and everyone we've met so far.

Speak soon

Em x