Chickasha Festival of Light

"It began as a flicker. A dream"

At the beginning of my year abroad the Indian county of Chickasha Oklahoma brought me my first rodeo, this December it brought me my first Christmas lights festival, needless to say they are very cultured. I've come to realise that its the 'ordinary' events that I take so much pleasure in here because they're just so different from my own 'ordinary' events at home.. But the Chickasha light festival isn't just Christmas lights...

From November 23rd to December 31st Shannon Springs Park (43acres) is transformed by over 1000 volunteers into a garden of beautiful light for the public's enjoyment - for FREE. The display is made up of 3.5million lights and displays handmade in Chickasha and designed by residents, highschool children and local businesses.

Despite the icy roads and freezing, bitter cold, my flatmates and I made our way to the festival and were in awe at how beautiful simple (and not so simple) light displays can make something as boring as a wooden bridge look! Unfortunately photos in the dark don't do the festival justice however I have done by best with flash photography.. 

For the posh citizens there is a horse and carriage that will happily take you on a tour of the park, for the not so posh the roads are open for you to drive around the displays in the comfort of your heated cars and for the european tourists you can walk around and take photos until you're blue in the face (literally).

And for the patriotic they have the outline of Oklahoma with a dainty little heart in the middle, which we naturally took a photo off from the wrong side so it is backwards, my apologies. Typical tourists.  

Austin, Texas

On a last minute decision last weekend five of us decided to visit the big capital of Texas - Austin. We spent two nights in the refreshingly warm city with the reputation of being weird, its slogan being 'keep Austin weird'. This was my first experience of a real American-Style motel and luckily for us is a quite a nice one 'Super 8'.

We arrived there around 8pm after a 6 hour drive from norman, OK to Austin, TX and hurried to get ready so we could hit the clubs! Now for all five of us this was the first time we'd been in real night clubs since our trip to Dallas in September, so it was a big deal to experience real civilization! 6th Street is Austins equivalent of Wind Street with a few added extras such as the Spanish-Style open all night souvenir shops and club reps who shout drinks deals at you as you walk past.

On our first full day there naturally, being 21 year olds, we missed breakfast and eventually rose in time to visit one of Austins flea markets in the backyard of a German style pub we were told was opened in the late 1800's. We then headed to a 'Cowboy Market' at which we were the only non-spanish speakers, quite the culture shock. I did contemplate buying a pair of cowboy (or cowgirl?) boots in a desperate attempt to fit in, however the price of fitting in was about $140 out of my price range. When I realised I could get a nice radley handbag for that price I swiftly changed my mind. Instead I decided to buy a cob of roasted corn, frozen margarita and people watch.

After we'd taken in as many cowboy hats and boots as we could handle we went back to the city to visit the capitol building, which was breathtakingly beautiful.
In true Texan fashioned we ate dinner at a Tex-Mex (Texas Mexican food) which was one of the best meals I have had since I've been here and I don't usually like Mexican food! After dinner we traipsed up and down 6th street looking at (and buying) pointless by funny souvenirs for ourselves and our families, but mostly ourselves. At the end of this Christmas vacation I would have visited six different US states and I have decided that I will dedicate the first blog post of my return to all the pointless gifts I buy for myself, because for some reason when you're a tourist anything, and I mean anything, with the name of the place you're visiting written on it in bright colours you MUST have because you can't possibly remember your time there without it.

H&M Gun Range

Today myself and some of my roommates had a true Southern American experience when we paid a little visit to our local gun range. Now this was the first time any of us had been in a room full of guns, let alone get to shoot one! 

The whole experience was kind of surreal for me because it was simply so easy. Only one of us had to show a form of ID before they handed over the 22 caliber gun and box of ammunition. We had to read a sheet of rules and sign our life away before heading into our designated room. At the time there was only one other man in there and a police woman practising with her own gun... Then a bunch of foreigners taking photos and flinching at every shot. I was told this is one of the smaller ranges however to my eyes it was huge.. It had a gun range, archery range, shop and a little cafe where the wives were sitting reading the paper presumably waiting for the husbands and/or sons. As well as guns which you can by for as little as $300 there were stuffed animal heads all over the walls which I am told are hunting trophies of the employees.

Now, shooting a gun is a lot louder and more powerful than it looks on the TV. Despite the mandatory protective ear muffs and goggles it was still loud enough to make me want to cover my ears. I am glad I had the experience however would not consider it one I want to repeat, although I am proud I managed to aim well enough to at least hit the target! I don't think hunting is the 'sport' for me though, I'll stick to the cafe.


 

An International - British - Christmas

Saturday the 7th of December 2013 was declared the E203 flat Christmas. We began the preparations for what I will now refer to as Christmas (because thats what it felt like for us) just after Thanksgiving. I provided the food, Flora (from France) provided the decorations, Nadine (from Germany) provided the presents and the weather quite conveniently provided the snow. All week, despite the up and coming exams, we filled the flat with christmas music and got way too excited!

Finally the morning arrived and you could honestly hear Christmas music from all of our rooms. Nadine kicked the day off with a note for each of us with our required preparations such as photos from our traditional home Christmases, Christmas songs in our native language and any traditional poems or stories. Unfortunately I was too busy slaving over a stove for two hours making the best Christmas dinner they could ask for to prepare my poems etc but I did manage to share photos! Now in all of my excitement to have a Christmas Day I completely forgot the fact that not all Christmas dinners are British Christmas dinners... So I bought all the food, prepared what I was going to make and in the midst of all the plans continually referred to food as 'we'll have Christmas dinner' until my French roommate actually asked what we were going to eat... Then it finally hit me that I was preparing a day like the one I have at home without realising that it wouldn't be what the others were used to.. Opps.

Anyway, we all agreed that we liked the sound of a British Christmas dinner so my mistake was quickly forgiven and apart from the lumpy gluten free gravy, I don't think it was bad for a first attempt! So at 6pm (only half an hour off schedule) we ate, drank candy cane flavoured vodka and were merry, very very merry. We shared photos, learnt German Christmas Carols and found that one of us doesn't even give presents at Christmas, never has. Nadine bought us all matching Christmas socks and we took photos around the tree!

To top the night off we took a trip to a salsa dancing club called 'Mangos' in Oklahoma city and danced the night away surrounded by all things Spanish. The level of culture I experienced that day was second to none and we vowed that one December 7th in the future we will get together, wherever we may be, and relive that day and I really hope we do!

So from the four countries of E203, we wish you a very merry Christmas.

All The Little Things...

Christmas is on the fast approach and homesickness is sweeping through the exchange students like the plague everyone knows they’re going to get. Those who are only here for a semester will be leaving in less than two weeks and those all-important bonds of friendship we’ve formed will be under incredible strain as we pain ourselves to say goodbye. As sad as I will be to say goodbye to people leaving, especially my roommate Nadine travelling back to Germany, I can’t help by smile at all the little things around campus. 

Throughout my time here I’ve noticed that school spirit isn’t limited to sports games but spreads like wildfire around the whole campus all year long. People are genuinely just happy to be here and want to make it a happy place and it is so humbling seeing all these little things going on. It really keeps my head up high when I’m feeling overwhelmed by this whole experience and it’s something I would like to share with all of you…

I walked into the bathroom (or restroom?) on campus after one of my classes a month back and found these posit notes to the right dotted all over the mirror. This is where I first got my inspiration for this blog post, and since then I ran into the sight below written in chalk on one of the pathways. Seeing messages scribbled across the floor in chalk is not a strange site at OU as everyone joins in and it’s more often than not how I find out about events at the student union! These little things just make you take a step back and realise you’re in a truly happy place. This certainly is not the atmosphere you would experience at any time at the University of Hertfordshire, unfortunately.

As this week is the last week of class one of the girls baked a load (I mean a huge load) of peanut butter cookies and chocolate brownies for the students in all of her classes that day. This is my second experience of girls on an impulse baking for their class, it’s just a shame I couldn’t eat any of them! But they looked good… 

I think the spirit of OU is what I’ll miss most often.  

An All American Thanksgiving

In 1621 the first harvest celebration in the form of a huge feast took place in the USA between the British colonists and the Wampanoag Indians. In 1863, during the civil war, President Lincoln declared the last Thursday of every November the official Thanksgiving Day… And so on November 28^th 2013 I celebrated my first Thanksgiving in Dallas, Texas with the McAlister family.  

My week started with a 7am trip to Dallas in a car my French friends had rented and so aptly named the ‘gay mobile’. The gay mobile was a small, bright green car which made a little ‘toot toot’ sound every time the lock button was pressed and to be driven all around Texas by three French boys. Needless to say they were less than impressed when this was the car they were given at the rental shop as the larger one they booked had gone.

Nevertheless I arrived in Dallas around 10.30am to be greeted warmly by the McAlister family who I hadn’t seen since my 18^th birthday! My week was filled with family fun at a beautiful outdoor park, an Ice sculpture show, the Dallas reunion tower and finally Thanksgiving dinner accompanied by a traditional game of American Football.  

On Thanksgiving morning we all sat down and watched Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on the TV… This parade lines the streets of New York every year and is aired nationally for all to experience the elaborate floats, Broadway street performances and music stars singing their current hits. The whole parade was started by Macy’s (the department store) and grows every year with new floats. After that we made little turkey place cards, I got to make my own which didn’t turn out as horrible as expected considering my crafting abilities. We then said grace led by Sue, the wonderful host of the week, during which she spoke of what she was thankful for…

Having the whole week to internally reflect on what I may be truly thankful for (even the Facebook status bar read ‘what are you thankful for?’) I came up with many people, experiences and things I have to be thankful for and in a nutshell I decided that aside from my health and the health of my loved ones this year I am incredibly thankful for the opportunity to be studying abroad, experiencing places and culture I may not have had I not been here, and my family and friends at home and here who have supported me the whole way and made it possible. I am thankful for all the people from different countries who are now such a huge part of my life and I am so so thankful for the opportunity to spend a traditional Thanksgiving day with such a lovely, warm American Family!

Next was the food, oh the food! I’ve decided that Americans are very lucky in the respect that they get Christmas dinner twice a year! I feel like this is something us British should look into… We helped ourselves to turkey, ham, stuffing, vegetables, American gravy (which is a different colour to ours), bread, pickles, olives and I even had seconds. Desert was equally as plentiful as I tried my first rocky road ice cream, raspberry jello desert and pumpkin pie.

When we were all far too full to move we sat down to watch an NFL game between the Dallas Cowboys and Oakland Raiders. Although I got the gist of the game I realised watching it with true fans I still had a lot to learn!

All in all I learnt a lot about the tradition of Thanksgiving and learnt that Christmas celebrations such as the tree, songs, lights etc don’t really kick off until Thanksgiving is over, one holiday at a time people! I had a fantastic time with fantastic people and I will never forget it, thank you McAlister family 

Weather Report: Norman Oklahoma

So far I've briefly touched on the weather here... In my last post I mentioned how overnight it can go from a terrifying thunderstorm to clear blue skies and temperature in the 20's and all my photos so far have been me enjoying the beautiful sunshine however this week the weather took a turn for the worse. 

Now naturally in the winter you would expect the weather to get cold, right? Wrong. It has become apparent to me that the whole of Oklahoma is in denial about the fact the weather is not always humid and sunny... Unfortunate I know, but ignoring the problem does not make the cold go away however hard you may try. 

Amount of snow which caused school to be shut

I say they are in denial as the second they see ice, they shut down the bridges, restaurants and even University.  A friend of mine said she was too scared to drive in the cold, what concerned me most was that she is Austrian and should be used to it. When I questioned her she gave me the best piece of advice I could of asked for at this time of the year "The roads are dangerous not because of the ice but because Americans don't know how to drive in it". Now 'Americans' is a large generalisation but certainly is correct for the people of Norman as they can't learn to drive in conditions they hide from. 

Growing up in Wales I am used to cold winters, more recently I've even become accustomed to snow but I have never in my life felt cold like I have here. When it is cold, it is freezing! Its a chilling cold which gets you right through to your bones... Needless to say last week I purchased two coats, two scarves, a wooly hat and a pair of gloves in good old British fashion. The Oklahomans are still walking around in rain boots, macs and leggings but at least i'm warm!

If the weather here was a person it would have bipolar. Saturday I was kitted out for the ski slopes and still cold, today I'm walking around in the sun in jeans and t-shirt and i'm still warm. Go figure. Today we're having highs of 20 and by Thursday it is going to drop to below 0 and we can expect more 'snow' and ice. 

                                                            Wish me luck.