Hi everyone, it’s been a long while since I spoke to you all from the South! I have made a trip back to the USA to see my friends again and it has been a great time. I had to go and see my friends from the University of South Carolina, and I had a pretty sweet trip.
After my friends Brandon and Jalynn grabbed me from the airport you already know we had to go to Waffle House, it has been too long without a good hashbrown bowl. I have been making sure that every time I go I try something different on the menu, I did manage to keep tradition with my first and last meals both being waffle house, as on the way back out to the airport we had to go by again. I tried something real southern that we don’t have over here and that was biscuits with sausage gravy, now I don’t trust any gravy that is pale in colour but this was definitely worth the try.
I managed to get up to North Carolina to begin with, where we went up to Sugar Mountain, and I’ll tell you the cold up in those mountains, I saw icicles hanging off sides of rocks that were at least 20 feet long. Ironically back in England the temperatures were similar as that was the week England saw snow, funny how on both sides of the Atlantic we had it bad! This trip drew a close to my snowboarding career, as I managed to have quite the graceful fall where I did a front flip directly onto my head, guess it’s not my calling.
We headed on down Gaffney, South Carolina to see old friends and I was able to experience some newly found freedom in America, I was able to grab a beer at Applebee’s with my food, I tried the blue moon, it was nothing like the ale we have back in my pub in rural Oxfordshire, I recommend it a lot! While I was in Gaffney I also learned how to do an oil change on a Ford Bronco, so between the beer and fried food I did get some new experience out of it, just in case one day I ever wind up driving a Bronco.
Most of my time was spent in Columbia, SC, home of my former exchange university, the University of South Carolina. It was great to be back, I walked past my old room in my old dorm, it was sad to see my roommate and my name not on that door, and to think of all the memories had when I was there. It was weird feeling the emotion of coming back to a city you hold so dear, only for people to have moved on, friends not living within a 5-minute walk on campus, as well as to see the old buildings thinking of the professors who helped me along the way. As much as I was happy to be back, it was almost rather emotional to return, it makes me appreciate further the time I had as an exchange student, I can retrospectively now say was definitely the best year of my life. To those who are considering studying abroad as a part of their time at Richmond, please do it, words cannot describe how great of a time I had.
While in Columbia I managed to catch up with old friends, a friend from a previous exchange to Richmond, and try a couple restaurants I missed. I tried out old Chicago, a pizza place that has INSANE ranch. If you aren’t drowning your pizza in ranch at old Chicago then you’re doing it wrong. I also did see an abomination at the store however, now tell me who in their right mind would make an instant mac and cheese with Guinness? Apparently it’s the USA. I normally say don’t knock it till you try it, but I feel this was too blasphemous. I’ll stick to Kraft.
That’s all from me! South Carolina you’ve been a pleasure, looking forward to touching down in the tar heel state next January for a new start in the other Carolina at Appalachian State University. If you want to have the experience of your life, reach out to Maggie Burton and the Study Abroad team, or reach out to my email at [email protected] if you want to contact me with any questions,
Sam
