#knoxville
Firstly, I should mention that I have no camera at the moment as mine was stolen on the very classy Wind Street in Swansea! Making do with my iPhone and a disposable at the moment, so will be sure to upload those when I get them developed.
When I arrived I found to my joy that we had a London Underground shower curtain, some Union Jack bunting, and this lovely map on the wall:
(It’s pretty suprising how patriotic moving abroad can make you!) All of these thanks to my new roommate (!!) Annabelle, who is a Brit herself, from Leeds, but studying in Manchester. I am so glad that I’m with someone from England because a lot of the other girls I know seem to be having issues with language with their own roommates which I’m glad to have avoided. I was pretty worried about having to share a room, however it’s been absolutely fine so far! I guess it’s just important to spend time together but also spend time on your own too?
We’ve had various types of orientation to help us settle. We have had meetings on the academic side, travel, visas, health insurance (will never complain about the NHS again), tax, and numerous more. In a way it’s tedious, but they seem to make it quite a good way to meet other internationals! Luckily, to relieve us from all the information they organised so many parties as ‘mixers’. Parties here are pretty different to home, the drinking age is obviously 21, but UT is actually a dry campus, so no alcohol allowed on site at all. It’s not a bad thing, I’m hardly a big drinker, but it’s strange to get used to. There are occasions when we’re out and I feel like an Archers and then remember I can’t! But anyway, there was a 'Pizza & Bowling party’, a Pool party, American Culture party (where I learned the Yanks call the 'Cha Cha Slide’ the 'Cupid Shuffle’. WTF? is all I have to say to that). They served us the nicest fried chicken! (Although I destroyed mine)
All the other evenings there was socials somewhere, the best part of this is that everywhere had free food! I literally did not cook a single meal for over a week. After the pool party we went to our first 'Frat party’ which wasn’t really a Frat party at all, but it did give us an opportunity to meet more American’s and gave me my first experience with Red Solo Cups…although they were mostly blue. (This is me and Christian who is also from Swansea, and Jade, Annabelle & Lauren)
I mentioned the Pool party which has reminded me to talk about the gym and the pool! The Americans have to pay a separate fee to have access to all the facilities, but because we are on exchange we have most of our fees waivered, so basically we get to use the most amazing gym totally for free! It’s huge, all the equipment you could want is there, and all the classes are free too, bring on Zumba! The same goes with the swimming pools. Theres an indoor and an outdoor, we’ve only used the outdoor so far as it’s been such lovely weather all the time, but theres sun loungers there and a nice closed off bit for us to just bob around. The best thing is its the building opposite our housing, so the pools and the gym are less than a minutes walk! In orientation they were very proud to tell us that Team USA trained in the UT pools, so I’m pretty tempted to just swim around and pretend to be Phelps.
It’s probably worth mentioning, that because I’m very lucky, my Dad and Step-mum planned their family holiday (with my brother and sister) around dropping me off in Knoxville. I can see how this looks to be that I’m not completing one of the most pivotal parts of the year abroad (for many, their first flight alone), but I’ll have to do it eventually, and to be perfectly honest, it’s a pretty daunting thought and I’d rather avoid it for as long as possible!
The ‘first round’ of goodbyes were totally horrible. My mum started crying, which is always going to be sad (luckily I just managed not to cry myself), but despite a few worries she and my Step-dad had shared over where I was going, they were completely supportive and reassuring. I actually think the worst part of goodbyes is the panic, and the starting to wonder if you’re doing the right thing. Luckily, both sets of my parents were quick to remind me it was a once in a lifetime opportunity. It was also sad saying my farewells to my friends. Firstly, to my friends (mainly from work), at home in Brighton but also those from Swansea. At the end of second year there seemed to be a shadow hanging over the last few days, because with them graduating this year it felt like goodbye forever! All the girls from uni met up in Bristol for a party for another traveller (she’s off to Canada!), which was a lot of fun, but a somewhat bittersweet get-together.
So anyway, we eventually arrived (may be hard to believe I ever got there in time seeing as I managed to extend my 'goodbye line’ into an entire paragraph) in Atlanta, Georgia. Yep, Georgia. For the first part of the holiday me and my family were going to Blue Ridge, which is a tiny little town in the mountains. This is the view from my room: 
It was such a nice location there, but there was a problem…massive bugs. The insects bad as it was, but then came the 'scorpion incident’. I think I’ve probably tired this story out as it is, so I’ll just give you a brief summary. I woke up one morning, started watching the Olympics in bed (the BBC stream, of course), felt something underneath me, on my back. I put my hand to feel what it was, and it was a scorpion. It then climbed on to my hand, where I was so crippled by fear I couldn’t do anything but internally scream, and then flung it off. BUT not before it managed to bite me! We all agreed it wasn’t a sting, because that is allegedly agony, but it did hurt! However, as I did fling it, we searched for ages to no avail, thus myself and my sister could barely sleep a wink again. We also did some white water rafting in Georgia, which was so much fun, heres a few of those photos:
For the final two days we moved on to Nashville, which was great. We all love country music so we couldn’t wait to get to its capital. I only had one full day in Nashville, so we went to the Country Music Hall of Fame (which had a Taylor Swift exhibit on! Love her). It was really interesting, there was different museum-esque learning about different artists, documentary screening on country music through history, we got to look around all different rooms with different possessions of Elvis, Johnny Cash, and the newer ones that we like, such as Brad Paisley, Carrie Underwood, Keith Urban. Heres some from the Taylor Swift section!
The next day we all drove up to Knoxville, apart from some minor panic when we thought we were a day early and I wouldn’t be able to move in, it all went fine. My dad drove me to Wal-mart to stock up, and then they left. Out of all of the goodbyes that was definitely the worst! The whole journey back from Wal-mart I was forcing myself to calm down and not cry, and I’d finally managed to, when my dad started crying! I’ve never in my life seen him cry, so it was absolutely horrible. It set me off and then my step-mum off, I was so sad for about 2 hours after that, but orientation kept me very busy indeed, so I didn’t have long to be sad! Orientation week to follow!
Right, so, my name is Georgia (I’m guessing I should listen to every adult ever when they say not to give out surnames on the internet!), and I’m in my third year at Swansea University. Luckily for me, this means I get to spend it in the US, specifically the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. I’ve actually already been here nearly 3 weeks, so the first few entries will probably be backdated. I don’t expect to get many followers, seeing as this blog is only really for my own benefit, (and also my friends/family to spy on me with) but if anybody does come across this and has any questions, needs some sort of advice, just wants to send some anon-hate…ask!
