A tale of two footballs

Over the summer I went to two very different football games. So did my friend Michael "Dougle" McDougle. The first one was Dougle's first football or 'soccer' game at DC united. As you can tell he was pretty excited.

Well get a few beers in him and he is! He thought I was taking a picture.

Ah here I am with bottle of vodka in hand and 4 hours early to the match. Now that is a true football fan! Well there was a little thing called a 'tailgate' before that we had to partake in. It was $10 for all you can drink and eat. Why the bottle of vodka you ask? Well they do run out, don't wanna miss out on some drinking time. The term tailgate comes from having a party in the car park while sitting on the tailgate of your car. It is pretty much like going to the pub before them game.

The united shirt went down really well. So many people came up and talked to me as I was wearing a 'real' footbal shirt. Many of them were expats like me. I even met two Shefield united suporters, from sheffield.

I just liked this. A DC number plate.

It was strange to see a smiliar atmosphere at the soccer game. I do miss everyone piling out of the pub or whereever and getting to the game just at kick-off. Notice Greg in the yellow.

Even though it was a terrible game we sang all match. Mark (left) is actually a DC united fan and got us sweet tickets behind all the nutters.

Here is the song that we sang a lot of the time. It was a great atmosphere. Dougle loved the game even though it was a 0-0 draw.

I said it was a tale of two football games. Dougle is a big [American] football fan. I said I would go to a game with him. I was rewarded with the UNC (Chapel Hill) Virginia Tech game (Dougle went to VT). Slightly hungover from the night before we got in Dougles car and drove to the thrill with a Bojangles tailgate special (lots o' fred chicken in a box). It was a lovely day in the thrill to sit just on the UNC campus drink beer and eat chicken and go to the game.

Here is the half time show. The marching bands. VT were down at this point to a strong Carolina team. I was sat with all the VT fans while I had no allegiance to either team I did find the Carolina annoucer rather annoying, so I was rooting for VT. It was a close game in the end and VT came out to win. They eventually won the ACC this year.!

Carolina are in blue and VT white.

Weddings

I had the pleasure of going to two weddings this summer. The first was my grad student Andres, whose bachelor party I went in Boone, NC. The second being Mark and Becky's, who I first met at the infamous 'el gigante' incident (they still talk to me and possibly even worse they invited me to their wedding!).

I went to my first and only wedding in the UK the summer before I left to come to the states (Dan and Catheryn's). It is a sign you are getting older when people you grew up with start getting married. Some my even see it as a sign to actually start growing up. Yeah, kinda missed that one, oh well. Saying that I did enjoy that first wedding, even if I was slightly metally scarred by the stag do (don't go drinking with doctors kids, it's not funny and it's not clever), I didn't feel like I had to rush out and marry somebody. It was good to see my old friend up there, it was good to see other old friends at the wedding too, also to see the new friends a made from the stag do.

The american weddings I went to were pretty much the same affair as the UK one. You know, ceremony - lots of food - lots of drinks - talking crap to people while slightly under the influence (ahem). It felt different to the UK one in the sense that I hadn't known these people all my life, I only met them a year before. I felt accepted though, I was doing the same as the other wedding, celebrating two friends with other friends.

Here is a picture from the first wedding, of Andres and Kelly. It is in a bar [well] after the ceremony, in Lancaster, PA. The best man, brother-in-law and the trouble makers, were rocking it well into the night.

Here is the second wedding in Durham, NC. Unfortuately I only got a picture of the hooligans here. Look how happy they are, anything to do with free booze? Yes, I was in the same state.

Ah, I see they got a snap of me too. Note the rosy red cheeks, ah bless.

More hooligans, I think Jeff (left) was contemplating climbing something here.

This is one of my favourite photos I have taken so far in the states. It's actually photoshopped, but it looks quite good, aye?

US election 2008

The election has pretty much been a constant feature of my time here in the states. It started before I got here over 18 months ago. Sheesh, they do go on a bit don't they? As I have been bad with the blog of late I thought I would write about my experiences of it all.

I didn't pay too much attention to the whole thing at first, as my general response was "but till more than a year! why are you bangin' on about it now?" or words to that effect. My take on it was, well I'm not too bothered as long as they are not republican, which I guess is the same as most British people.

The republican party did in general scare the bejesus out of me. I am sure one of them killed babies for fun, well at least puppies and/or fluffy bunnies. The only one that was kinda normal was John McCain. Thankfully he got the nomination or it could have got ugly.

It didn't really get going till democrats started hacking it out of each other. I still don't get this! I thought the republicans were the enemy guys? It was interesting hear people say things like "if Clinton get the nomination I am voting republican". To me that is like saying "Oh I really hate Blair so I'll vote BNP, even though I don't agree with their politics I just can't stand that Blair". I guess this is one of the many problems of having a two party system.

Well thankfully we had Obama win and we didn't get sensible people doing silly things like voting republican. By this I was pretty much sick of it. Like I guess the rest of the world, and most of America, well maybe except for FOX news as it gave them a good chance to be super right wing.

Watching the results lastnight was quite a surreal experience. Firstly it was in a bar. I never watched the general election results in a bar before. You would miss what Peter Snow and his swing-o-meter! It was a very american affair. Lots of clapping, high-fiving when Obama got a state. I did feel like a outsider. It wasn't my presisdent they were cheering for. Yet he will make a impact on my life, and on the lives of people in the rest of the world. I didn't join in. I was just glad it was going to plan.

When Obama won there was a huge roar, lots of clapping, congratulating etc. It was as if they had won a war. I felt slightly different. I was glad he won, but to me this is the begining. Not the end like these people were acting. The world has a long way to go to heal what Bush has done. Although I did join in for this bit. You know when in Rome. It did feel like I was witnessing history. We shall see what kind of history it is.

Next time I am not having a TV again till its over. It's just too painful to watch.

South Carolina: Drinking in Charleston

Charleston is a really cool place to visit for all the touristy things, but also it is a really cool place to go out drinking. Here is the photographic evidence of us getting wasted. After our day of walking we got pretty thirsty so we stopped in a Irish bar for a cheeky pint (or 2). Then got ready to go out and hit a brew pub first. They offered a selection of all their beers for $10. They didn't have the eighth so we got to choose our favourite at the end. I think it worked out as about 3 and a half pints in the end.

I was obviously so excited I couldn't even keep my eyes open. Well it passed the time while we waited for food.

This bar we actually found in the day. It was the place where we found a good cupa... water, juice and nice bit of apple strudel, everything three growing boys needs to get over a hangover. The waitress took a shine to us and said we should come back later when it was a bar. So here we are after a few drinks, the tequila slammers come out.... not so good. The aforementioned waitress was kind enough to document it for us.

We hadn't even got going and Andy had borrowed her top....

Cheers! To England! etc

This really does remind me of the three monkeys.

By the end we had progressed onto surfers on acid and quite happy about it.

We even found an English pub which I was extremely happy about.

Yes Andy did steal the waitresses coat, it was really hot, but it brought out his eyes. She got it back in the end.

South Carolina: Charleston

As I have been terrible with updating the blog the next post is when Jimmy flew down from Canada and we drove down to Charleston, SC to meet Andy in July. Charleston is only 300 miles away from Durham so it was too bad a drive.

It was great the Jimmy decided to fly down to Dirty D. I got to show him a few things round town and we just had a chilled out first evening. Then we drove down to Charleston the next day. We took a minor detour, as I kinda got carried away during an in-car game and missed the [not so] small sign[s, lots of them] for I-95. It was pretty cool seeing rural NC. Jimmy had definitely not seen anything like it in his life (I'm sure we heard a few banjos). We met up with Andy a little late, but that was due to setting off late (due to my bosses, grrrrr).

I will go through our nighttime adventures in the next post, here is my photoblog of Charleston in the day. Blue was the order of the day, I'm sure people were staring at us! It's quite funny how white Jimmy looks (and ahem how American Andy and I look).

The next few photos are just things I liked and snapped them while we were wandering about.

The waterfront.

A wee turtle in the SC aquarium. It was really cool place to go and I learnt a few things about the coast of NC and SC, mainly that it has a lot of cool things in the sea.

We had a great day in Charleston, and I really do recommend it to anyone. It has a bit of everything, the old, the new, places to eat, the beach and a good night life (see next post). It is a great place to get away from it all too.

Georgia: Savannah

After over a year in the states I finally broke down and got a car. I really wish I could have afforded one earlier it has given me so much freedom. Anyway for my first big trip on my own I met up with Andy in Savannah. Savannah, GA is about 350 miles from Durham, about a 6 hour drive and about the same for Andy from Tallahassee, FL, so it was fate.

Driving 6 hours is weird on your own is strange at first. I stopped a lot, even if it was just to get out of the car to strech my legs. I was surprised that I didn't feel too tired during it. I guess cold air-con, caffeine, loud music, and bad singing is enough to keep anyone awake. Also I was really excited to see Andy, I could talk British!!!

Here are some snaps from Savannah.

It has a great 'old town', with lots of squares.


It was bloody hot but lots of nice shade.


It was nice to see 'old things' in Savannah. Instead of that nasty 10 year old strip mall.


It was great just wandering around putting the world to right soaking up the atmosphere.


It felt like the proper 'south' down here


I just loved this graffiti on the building site for a new group of shops


I just liked this shot.

Meeting Andy was well worth the drive. It is really strange meeting an old friend in a completely different part of the world. It was great catching up, talking crap about how the US and the UK are different etc. It almost felt like we had not left Sheffield, but then again it felt like so long ago, so many things had changed. Thankfully somethings hadn't. We still got tea, drank beer in the day and forced the Americans to watch the EURO cup while we had lunch. Although drinking cocktails in a gazebo by a pool in shorts before dinner is a new one for us. we actually went to a 'British pub' called Churchill's for dinner. It tasted like home, a twinge of homesickness, but in a good way. Then a traditional British night of carnage ensued. A not so traditional pancake breakfast and off back to Durham in the morning. The weekend was so much fun and I really can't do it justice on the blog, but I do recommend Savannah. It's such a pretty place, great food and great bars, still working on the Tea tho.

Duke marine lab, Beaufort, NC

Ok I know it's been a while, but I am back. Firstly I am really sorry, I don't have an excuse. I am just lazy. The good news is, I did take a lot of photos. So enjoy all the updates I will try and roll of ASAP.

A few months ago we had a departmental retreat (in the form of a mini conference) to the Duke marine lab in Beaufort, NC. It was cool to get out of the lab and out of Durham and see some more coastal NC. It hit me how rich Duke actually is on this trip. We passed the UNC marine lab on the way, a 'warehouse' in moorehead city. Duke owns an island!

Here are some of my Lab group, front row left to right, Debby, Yee and Tao and Jeff and I on the back. As you can see we were doing a lot of work...

Here is the actual island and the view of Beaufort. The island to the left has wild horses on it. Behind that are the outer banks and the Atlantic. Tough life, aye?

Here is some of my department. Being the geeky engineers that we are we sat inside all day.

This is my boss playing a crazy game of pool. He was the only Professor that chatted to people other than professors and had a laugh with us. We had just finished working on my presentation that I had to give in the morning. My first real presentation. It went pretty good actually.

Here is a subtle picture of fat people on the beach.


We also visited a civil war fort, it was great. I just loved this sign.

It was a pretty cool design. Not your big ol' castle type thing.

A great view of the Atlantic too

I don't know quite why they had a cannon pointed at the wall, well it was a civil war after all...

Tough times back then

Ah NC beaches. We did work I promise.