So I really do need to open this post with an apology....a month since I last updated you all, I'm very sorry! I won't bother boring you will the usual excuses, uni work etc etc and instead dive straight in with what we've been up to over November and I'll try my best not rub in the fact it's about 20 degrees and sunny most days.....
Ahem, anyway so yes, November, what have we been doing...
Well the major thing was my housemate, Cassandra and I, made the most of the Thanksgiving holiday by going on a road trip! For those of you who haven't watched enough Friends, Thanksgiving is the holiday where Americans bascially have a huge practice Christmas dinner to honour a day of peace between the pilgrims and the Indians....before they slaughtered them and stole their lands....or so I was told. We, however, descide to ditch tradtion and instead drove up to the Mountians in Georgia and our Thanksgiving feast featured drinking a PBR on the top of Springer Mountain :)....
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| who needs turkey?? |
The trip started off so well, we managed to build a fire, eat smores (sorry if I've spelt this wrong!) whilst listening to the Mighty Boosh and drinking rum but unfortunately we ran into a bit of bad luck the next day after we'd hiked the mountain, we had a flat tyre! Luckily Cassandra is well practised at changing them so we were soon on our way, bound for Charleston in South Carolina. We of course did the tradtional American thing of staying in a terrible motel...we went so low as a motel 6 and I'm pretty sure there was a guy checking in with his hooker just before us - nice! anyhoo, things then got worse when we tried to leave in the morning and 2 more of the tyres were flat, they looked like they'd been slashed!! But don't worry, we didn't let it get us down. We managed to visit one of the 11, yes 11, Waffle Houses we'd seen in a space of about 30 miles.
It def helped diffuse our terrbible morning but I'm going to say something possibly controversial and say I prefer iHop - sorry Justin! It's a good job we had some good sustenance because we then had to spend 3 HOURS!! at tyre kingdon getting the car sorted. As you can see we weren't best pleased.....
Have no fear, things were soon back on track, I even got chance to get out and get a snap with this beauty!
Aparently the Georgia mascot is a Bulldog! I think I live in the wrong state!
Before we knew it (with the help of lots of coffee, crazy 80's hip hop radio mixes and Macdonalds) we'd made it to Charleston. It's such a great city! Literally as soon as we arrived we saw this sign and I knew I was going to like the place....
We spent the first afternoon making the most of being somewhere where they have shops worth looking in (sorry Gainesville) and then we headed back to our hostel, possibly one of the nicest hostels I've ever stayed in and as you know I've got a lot to compare it with! it was in a proper old southern style house, slopping wooden floors, porch swings and all! I could get used to the southern way of life me thinks....
That night we went out to do what apparently you are supposed to do whilst in Charleston and that is check out the local food. We got directed to this little restaurant that sells traditional southern cooking, it looked like your grandmas living room, so cute! The food was AMAZING!! we went full southern and had Shrimp 'n' grits, mac 'n' cheese, high rise biscuit and collard greens, it was so good. I don't think I've ever felt that full!
Don't panic though, we still managed to get some drinking in! 
The next day we only had a few hours so we got up early, stopped at one of the many local bakeries/cafes for great cup of coffee and a mini donut muffin (yes, that's a thing, a very good thing!) and had a wander around the waterfront and the french quarter. It's just so pretty. the weather was a little chilly but bright blue skies and all this beautiful candy coloured architecture. I definitely think I moved to the wrong state....I wonder how easy it would be to transfer to Uni of South Carolina.....
From there we then drove on and stopped in pretty Savannah, at lots of amazing pralines and then headed back to Gainesville.
Things in Gainesville aren't too bad, I've just finished my first semester, how crazy is that? It has gone so quickly! I officially survived my first semester as a teacher which is cool, a few of my students will be staying on next semester for German 2 but I'll have new ones too, yet another challenge as it will be a lot harder material I have to teach! I'm looking forward to it though, least my German will improve :)
I finally got to go out with the local running club which was great fun, especially when we stumbled across this fella.....
Not surpringly we decided to turn back rather than try and sneak past him!It turns out one of my neighbours plays rugby and obviously I admitted to being a huge rugby fan so he invited me along to watch them play. I'm going to admit, I was dubious but they were actually pretty good! So that was a nice taste of home plus spending an afternoon watching huge guys in shorts is never a wasted one in my book.
The last month has also seen me receive two lovely lovely packages from home, they defo helped with the lack of decent chocolate here (sorry America but it really is terrible! - you make great ice tea though!) So thank you Jon for my super posh dark chocolate and the obligatory book reminding me of beautiful Cambridge, possibly the best place I've ever lived! :) And thanks to Molly and Ursula for easing my wotsits withdrawal - you guys are the best, it's very nice to know I've not been forgotten!
I suppose really I should give you all what you're really here for, an update on the man himself. He's doing well, much happier now the temperature has dropped, it's nice a cool in the mornings which he loves, we even had a little frost the other day.....
He loved it!
He's been making his presence known amongst my friends 
and has become obsessed with rolling in the grass....
And this morning things got even better for him.... he got himself a lady friend! Her name is Lucy and she is a Scott American Bulldog, she's 3 years older than him, it's ok though, he told me older women are where it's at.
Oh and all this road tripping and the temperature dropping meaning I can wander around a bit more has meant.....ready.....MORE POST BOX PORN! Yay! I know you've all missed it and have been waiting with baited breath! So here are the latest one's in the collection, I'm very happy with these ones I must say.
Oh yeah, there was one thing I wanted to tell you all about. I recently got involved in a photo journalism project with a Dutch international student called Leoni. It was about culture shock and involved Leoni interviewing me and following me around for a few days taking picutures to illustrate the things I talked about. She did a really great job and if you guys are bored and miss my dulcet tones then might be worth a little watch.....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxMt4hgFqjw&feature=youtu.be
I'm told (mostly by facebook) that Christmas is just around the corner, it's a very difficult idea to grasp when it's still hot and sunny where you are so I've kind of been ignoring it this year. I hope you all have some nice plans for it. I'm off down to Okeechobee next week to help the cowboys round up the cattle on horseback.....excited is just too understated a word for this event! So yeah, expect the next post to be mainly raving about that experience! :)
If you don't hear from me before have a very merry Christmas and a Happy new year. For me seeing the end of 2014 can only be a good thing!
The usual love and Slobs
me and the boy
xxx
