Five weeks into my time at Bloomsburg in the United States and I am finally writing my first blog. Time has flown by a lot quicker than I imagined it would do.
I’ve not only met American students but students from Denmark, Finland, Russia, Italy, Spain, Brazil and India. There is a nice handful of international students so it’s great to share our experiences in education and life in general.
Oh, did you hear about the Super bowl?
Well I certainly did, it was the talk of the town around here. The two teams competing for it were the New England patriots and the Philadelphia Eagles. Seeing as I’d been to Philly and climbed the rocky steps provided me with enough reason to root for the eagles and the majority of students at the University are from Philadelphia, so it made sense to support them. The hype leading up to the game was crazy, I went to a pre-super bowl party organised by our apartment RSA’s, with my Danish friends. It gave us the chance to sharpen up on our American football rules and sample some typical American snacks. On the day of the game there was a great buzz around the place, I was lucky enough to be invited to watch the game in an American family home, there was around 30 of us sitting around the TV. There was plenty of food like pulled pork, wings and nachos, the breaks in the play gave me the opportunity to fill up my plate (probably more often than I should have done). Surprisingly the Eagles who were underdogs came out on top 41 to 33, at the final whistle it was great to see the tension and anxiety that had lingered in the house turn to Jubilation and even tears of joy for some as this was a big moment for the Eagles as a team and in the history of the NFL.
From one tradition to another…
My flatmates were quick to introduce me to Wednesday wing night! Like in Plymouth, Wednesday night is the best night to go out with your friends as it’s the cheapest, here in America they love their wings, so they have a wing night, where the wings are 50 cents each and the beers are a dollar. It’s a great way to socialise, unwind from the stresses that come with Uni but most importantly its cheap and that is one thing that students love!
An unexpected Visitor.
Just to make my time here in Bloomsburg more memorable, during my sport psychology class, the University tennis coach walked in and took a seat quietly. He had a mysterious object in his hand. He then opens this mysterious object and explains that it is a torch from the Rio 2016 Olympics, it was donated to the University by a family member of one of the Brazilian tennis players. Only 1% of the population in America will ever get their hands on an Olympic torch so I was very lucky that I had the opportunity to get my hands on a piece of sporting history.