Happy Thanksgiving

5.30am. Wednesday morning. Me and Heather got on a Megabus to start our journey to Kentucky to stay with Mikayla and her family. We got 4 buses in total but this is a good way to see the scenery of America I guess..

A good 11 hours later, we arrived in Bowling Green where Mikayla was waiting to meet us. In true Brits on Tour style we picked up a pizza on our way home. This is Mikayla's home, "out in the sticks", we were glad to have finally arrived but it's a lovely home and her mom was super welcoming.

Shortly after we had got home, we went to a friend of Mikayla's house to meet all of her high school friendship group and play games. This house was insane, so so pretty and again, the family were so welcoming to us. It was so lovely to meet everyone and just hang out. They had a giant cat and I spent most of the time talking to the younger brother- I've missed kids!

We were invited back any time to play in their field with their horse and their German shepherd puppy who we didn't see much of because it has to stay outside.

By the time we came to leave, it was snowing! We went straight to sleep

The next day we woke up to the scent of masses of delicious food, and from my experience now, this is what Thanksgiving is all about. The parade was on TV all morning and more family members arrived bringing with them yet another cute puppy.

Dinner was ready and it consisted of a lot of stuff I've never even seen before, but it all tasted incredible.

This proved quite a challenge to finish, but even so, a short while later we went back to eat Pumpkin pie..

After dinner, we played some board games with the family, monopoly then uno.

A bit later on, we all went over to Mikayla's dads house for our second Thanksgiving dinner of the day! We were greeted by Mikayla's jolly grandfather who reiterated several times how honoured he was to have us over for Thanksgiving. He even mentioned our visit in the prayer before dinner and I could have cried, so so sweet! Before too long, the next round of food was served.

I am so thankful we had somewhere to stay for our first ever Thanksgiving and that we got to spend it with some of the most genuinely lovely people I've ever met, they reminded me of my own family and treated me as if I was one of them and they had known me their whole life. 

We sat round and played more games after dinner

We got a few family photos too which I'll put in when I get them but at around 9pm we decided to hit the mall for Black Friday shopping.

The gun section of the sports store..

We also got to go to Ulta, the dream

We got home at around 1am, bought a good few things I didn't need and went to bed content and still full.

Our first thanksgiving experience has been so special and I wish we could have stayed here longer. But it's the Eggbowl tomorrow, the biggest football game of the season and the last one I will get to see for a long time. We are going to tailgate hardddd!!!

Speak soon

Em x

My Mississippi Birthday

 

Birthdays have always been really exciting to me, I get more excited about someone's birthday than they do themselves and when I found out I was getting to do my study abroad semester, it didn't take me long to realise I would turn 20 while I was here.

I'm actually one of the babies here, especially out of the international students. Many of them are way into their 20s and can legally drink here already a privilege I have not experienced but anyhow, it's pretty cool that when I was only 19 I was able to pack up all my things and move 4000 miles away from home!

My birthday falls on a stressful time of the semester, the week before thanksgiving, a time when we students are overloaded with work and deadlines to keep to, but despite that, my favourite people still managed to make time to celebrate my turning 20.

The day before my birthday I went over to see Paigey, it had been a while, and we went to go and collect her dog and bring it home with us to play with for a few hours. Copper is the most excitable puppy I think I've ever met, he rode home on my knee in the car and gave me lots of kisses all the way. We got him back to the guys flat and he spent ages running around not sure who to choose to go to for attention since we all gave him so much so that was cute.

 Then me and Anthony and Paige went to Walmart briefly. Later on that night, me and Heather went back over to the guys apartment, Copper had gone back, but Paige had brought me a birthday cake while we were at Walmart together and I didn't even notice. She brought it out with candles lit just before the clock struck twelve and it was officially my birthday although it had been my birthday for 6 more hours back in England!

After that I went to Hillarys to stay at hers so I could wake up with the dogs on my birthday morning, I opened the cards my mum had brought with her from family in England when she visited and a card that Geeta had sent with me before I left, she's so organised!

That night, in true Thirsty Thursday style, we pregamed hardddd. With our tiaras on, we began to drink with the intentions of everyone getting me as drunk as possible. This was successful since I don't even remember Jesse or Hayden arriving at my apartment to join us, let alone going to the Square. But I do know that I had the greatest time and I am so thankful to everyone for making it special and memorable even though I don't remember it! Classic me!

Yesterday was Thanksgiving and I'm in Kentucky and I took lots of photos and so I will post soon.

Em x

thank ya thank ya very much

Last weekend, me and Heather decided to take a much needed trip to Memphis which revolved entirely around her favourite man, Elvis Presley. We stayed at an Elvis themed hotel, got driven to an Elvis themed diner in our own pink limo and ate food named after Elvis songs. Some may say it's too far, we say this is America, people!

The next day, we got breakfast included at our hotel which was a perk we weren't often exposed to on our trips here and literally walked next door to Graceland,  the home of Elvis.

We took the tour around all the rooms of the house, the decor was pretty interesting. Especially the "jungle" room.

This is the suit Elvis wore to his wedding, snakeskin. Nice.

The Presleys- Elvis, his mom, his dad and his grandmother are all buried in the grounds of his property. The memorial statement on Elvis' and his mother's gravestones were written by his father.

We also got to see all his cars and his two airplanes.

After Graceland, we went to Beale Street to meet the rest of the Ole Miss internationals to watch the NBA basketball game.

The Grizzlies had an amazing win and in football, State (our biggest rival team) lost to Bama (the team that we had our biggest win against) so we were feeling pretty good!

I spent the entire next day in the library catching up with essays, but our Elvis trip was fun!

Speak soon

Em x