#gatlinburg

HAPPY FRIDAY!
May you find as much joy this weekend as this black bear did with their big ol’ pumpkin.

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Stay safe. Stay healthy. Stay kind. Stay rad. Wear a mask where it’s appropriate/required/requested. Get your vaccine; it’s awesome. We’re going to get through this.

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Image taken from a video shot by Jeff and Christy Mabe

Hiked to the top of the Smoky Mountains

Cades Cove Creek

Tuckaleechee Caverns Sign

Cade’s Cove Creek (2021)

Tuckaleechee Caverns (2021)

So this blog post is five weeks late but better late than never I suppose! I was starting to worry my Mum would get genuinely angry if I didn’t do it so here you go, Mum!

After a lovely two weeks at home for Christmas I returned back to Knoxville at the start of January. It was pretty bittersweet because I didn’t really feel like two weeks was enough time with family and friends, but I was also excited to get to come back. Although I can sometimes moan about it, I really do love Knoxville and the US in general! In true Tennessee ‘I-bleed-orange’ fashion, I got off the plane, was picked up by Shannon and promptly taken to the basketball game (was so long ago I can’t recall who it was against). After 15 hours of travelling including a delayed connecting flight, as you can imagine, I was not feeling the orange pride that day. However I made it until half time where I made my excuses and went to bed!

This semester I’ve moved apartments because Annabelle and Sophie left, so I’m now living with Michaela and Shannon who are American, and Rubia who is from Brazil. Its definitely a different experience, there are more people so it’s a lot busier, but its also a whole lot of fun! Also, theres a lot more internationals that have come this semester which has been really great, it was sad to lose so many last semester but its always fun to meet new people, and they are from literally EVERYWHERE!

I have some interesting classes this semester. I’m taking two sociology classes - Social Movements and Social Psychology and two history - Colonial America and US History 1933-present. The history classes are really interesting. The Colonial period is probably one of my favourites in history and I'vebeen really interested in the relationships between Native Americans and Europeans during the settlements. Also, the other class is cool because I’ll get to study the 60’s and the Kennedy’s which is my true favourite period in American history! However, the sociology ones have been somewhat disappointing. I was really looking forward to them because I do find sociology interesting, but I find the teachers kind of boring, and its hard to be enthusiastic about something if they’re not.

In terms of what I’ve been up to I have been pretty busy so far this semester! There have been a lot of the usual parties and mixers at the beginning that I guess has helped us meet the new people here. Also, Michaela and I went on our big trip Orlando, Florida for a weekend which was SO much fun, I can’t even tell you. We stayed with Michaela’s friends from home - Sam and Katie - who study at the University of Central Florida and we spent the first few days exploring Orlando, going shopping and seeing the area which was really awesome. They have this lovely area of outdoor cafes, shops and restaurants that we got to see too which was lovely. Florida is so different from Tennessee! Firstly, on the day we left it had been snowing, so we got to spend some time in the snow but then had the excitement of getting to fly out of it! Florida is pretty tropical and theres a lot of palm trees and I could wear shorts and flip flops (in January)!!

We then went to Island of Adventure which is where Harry Potter World is located. As you can imagine I was ridiculously excited all week for it. The main ride in Harry Potter World is sort of part ride and part simulator and it is AMAZING (so much so that we went twice). I also spent a lot of money but I can’t really feel bad about it because how many chances am I going to get to be in a Harry Potter theme park?! Of course I’m ignoring the little voice in my head thats nagging me about already spending £90 in the Harry Potter Studio Tour. I’m a lover of all things magic, what can I say?! Island of Adventure was such a fun experience, theres so many cool rides, like The Hulk ride which is so hard to explain. It’s a rollercoaster but its so fast and intense that its one of those that you come off of feeling all disorienated and wobbly! Overall it was such a fun day! So glad I got the chance to go back to Florida while I was here. Heres some of the pictures from the snow and the weekend in Florida.

The next weekend was the Cabin Party that has been planned for the internationals since we got here in August but kind of fell through, so they did it for the new batch this semester. It was this massive cabin that held 40 people and had a hot tub etc. and we all went out up into the Smoky Mountains and stayed there. It was a nightmare to get there as there had been an ice storm so no one was excited to drive up mountains in that weather! However we got there pretty smoothly and the party ended up being really fun. It was also nice to meet everyone  and kind of ended the awkwardness of nobody really knowing eachother! The next morning (more like afternoon) we got up and went walking up the mountains on this attempted hike. It was so beautiful up there but the icestorm made it pretty impossible to get too far, we eventually gave up after a while of literally iceskating around a mountain in fear for our lives!

After this we’ve had a few pretty lazy weeks! There was a party last weekend which Christian got some hilarious pictures from although of course some are a little to inappropriate to put on here!

Michaela and I have also now fully booked our Spring Break trip to Washington DC and New York City which I am VERY excited about to say the least!

Hopefully I won’t be such a slacker with blogging this semester although I’m not sure it’s started off so well!

I’m back! I had a great time in Tennessee! I already miss the crisp air and the beautiful mountains. Here are a couple pics from my trip. Enjoy!