Football Season

So college football season here (and I'm beginning to understand in the entire SEC) is something fervently followed and zealously analyzed. Age does not matter; little babies in paraphernalia along with alumni who graduated decades ago are all at the games. Players are spoken about in reverend tones as the brilliant plays they pulled off are broken down step by step, and when people walk by them on campus, well, there are probably quite a few cell phone pictures being taken.

I did have a bit of a shock, and okay I still have some, when it comes to people and college football. My only experience with this much passion for a team was with the World Cup where it is a thing of national pride, not like here where there is that much emotion for a school! And while the stadium I was at for a World Cup match was pretty big, I have to admit that some of the college football stadiums are much bigger. 

These are just a few of the college football related things I have managed to photograph -

GIANT College mascot on a grocery store sign. Our beloved Gamecock can be found in between the BI and the LO on one very busy road. This is how you know you are in Gamecock Country.

This on the other hand is how you know you're in Tiger Territory. The orange paws I understand, but the tail made me do a double take. To me it looks like the tiger's tail got caught.....Ouch. I know that we would never treat our mascot that way :)

Standing. The ENTIRE game. This is how I realized that football here was not just a passive event to sit down and chat with friends, but something to participate very actively in. Whether it be by standing the whole game, or dancing along to all of the music at time-outs, or waving our towels and cheering and chanting, I now understand that during the football games I'll be just about as active as the players on the field! Go Cocks!

Say What?

So it recently snowed here in South Carolina! Yay, I love snow! After watching the window the whole night and finally catching the first sign of snow flakes, I dragged a few of my girl friends out in the cold and we took a stroll around campus with the flurries dancing around us. We all had jackets on, but it being South Carolina and not Nebraska we of course were not exactly dressed the warmest, (lack of real boots, gloves, ect.). So we soon started back to our dorm and I heard two of my friends talking behind me. The conversation went a little something like this -

Friend One, "You know what? I don't even really feel the cold when it's so pretty outside with the snow."

Friend Two, "Ya, you're right. I mean it's like when you shoot a rifle and the butt kicks you after you shoot. You don't feel the pain because all you are worrying about is if you hit your mark."

And then I burst out laughing. Um, that's exactly what I was thinking? Apparently I have missed a vital rite of childhood (that I never knew about) having never shot anything.

Convenient Store

I know that I live in a college town, and sure I expected the businesses to cater to us college students, but this still made me laugh

Confused

Grocery Store: What is the other 7% of the pattie? No, actually I don't really want to know

Residential Area: People really want to live in a place called SMUGGLER'S cove?

At the Eye Doctor: Does anyone else see the irony? 

Dear Toto

I'm a modern-day Dorothy who has been transplanted somewhere completely foreign: the United States, the South to be more specific. Ironically I'm an American, who has been living in Europe for the past seven years, but still coming "home" has been a bigger culture shock that moving to a 148 square mile island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean where they speak a foreign language and cows outnumber the people! I mean really I didn't expect a bigger shock to the system than that.

This blog will document my transition back into American culture, which has already been quite interesting.

Some things I have yet to understand here in America; how people think 75 mph is fast when the autobahn exists, the lack of recycling, and how people eat McDonald's fries-They really just don't compare to German or Belgian ones.