6th - 20th July

Right, since the last post was ginormous, i'm going to tackle the rest of this is a relatively small nutshell...

So i left SM at about 1am on the final night, went home, slept, got up, went into town to get some stuff, ran into guys from school, got wet in the rain. It didn't really seem that in less that 24 hours i'd be cruising to NYC at 500mph, but there you go. That night i must've hit the pit at about 12 midnight, and got up at 4.30am. Of course at this time it was pretty much light, so i grabbed my stuff, hopped in the car, then picked up Jamie & Stevie and went to the international airport, where we got our lovely green T-shirts. So we dossed about from 6am til about 9, when we got on the plane, which then got delayed for at least an hour as the check in PC's crashed. Lovely. As for the flight, well i'd never been on long haul before, and i'd predicted that i'd be bored out of the sky by about 3 hours in. Funnily enough i wasn't, and the flight was pretty good. I remember Stevie, who had decided not to go to bed the night before, sleeping like a full on tank literally the whole way there.

Since our plane had been late, we missed our connection from New York to Raleigh. So we had a few hours in the airport, where i paid $2 for a giant slice of pizza. It was great. So then we got on the plane, went to Raleigh. It was about 8.30pm when we arrived, and we were smacked in the face by the 30C heat and 90% humidity as we walked out of the airport. Myself, Jamie & Reuben ended up with a host family called the Ricks, who took us home and offered us mountains of food.

Next day we went to the NC government buildings, and the Capitol building. We got to watch the politicians debate on whether they raise the limit to alcohol content in NC beer from 6% to 15%, which they couldn't decide, but it was funny anyways. Emmm elsewhere that day, we went to Matrin Lancasters big rich house for lunch (he's something like the 6th highest earner in NC), though his house lacked a nice ginormous TV! That day we also got told about all that things in NC that could kill us, then we had a movie + pizza night with the Americans. Oh yea, there was also an awesome thunderstorm that night, which we drove home in (:.

The next few days consisted of hanging about in pools, malls, eating pizza & seeing movies with some of the Americans. The guy who we were staying with, Hunter, is one hell of a funny guy, who would love it over here i rekon. He's only 17, but he keeps a full on shotgun in his room! Over those few days we also went hiking up Stone Mountain in the west of the state, the views were awesome at the least. On the Sunday we gave a talk to everybody about our homeland, which for some reason i loved doing. Keeping with the Irish theme, the Ricks took us to an Irish pub for lunch. I haven't said much about them yet - The Ricks were my first family, and they were some of the nicest people i've met. There were only 3 of them - Hunter, who was always up for a complete laugh, Susan & Walter. Whoever heard Susan will obviously remember her awesome southern accent. And whoever saw Walter at night will obviously remember him sitting in the same armchair, watching war movies, with an open can of Budweiser at his side!

So during the next week we starting helping to build the house, 9am-2.30pm, in the 35C heat. Doesn't sound like it, but it was great fun, and every day Becky Everett brought us a big tasty lunch (and giant coolers with ice, which i stuck my head in many times). Hard work, but all good fun and laughs. I remember well the time when Jimbo saved my life, because Lynn let go of my stepladder! Remember that one all who went?!

For the rest of the time when we weren't working, we just had pool parties, shopping & meet ups with the americans. Unfortunately Hunter was away in West Virginia so me and Jamie couldn't go do stuff late into the night! But anyways, half way through the trip we changed families, and i ended up staying another week (with Jamie again >:(.....) with some people called the Claytons. Now, how can i describe them? The dad, Jack, is head of some American bank and is rich, the mom, Mary, is just a really nice person, and the 3 kids are just crazy. One of them (Zach) had got himself stuck in Italy when we were there, so it was just John & Will, who were 18 & 16. The thing with these guys was, they could both drive, they were always up for a laugh no matter what time of day, and they seemed to survive every night on 4 hours sleep. Oh yea, the Claytons also had a huge house and a 60" TV. Of course, i was shocked to the full when i first saw that one.

So, as our "working week" drew to a close (on the Friday), we did such things as go see a play in the middle of nowhere (getting lost in the process!) and chilled & all. Friday night, however, was probably my best night of the whole trip. We went to a minor league baseball game, in a really nice stadium. For anyone who things baseball is boring: it is not. Go to a game! You just cheer, play games, and eat bigtime. In a baseball park, for every 100m you walk, there would be 4 food stalls :) They also had fireworks at that game, and then all the Irish & Yanks sped off back home and went to....the Harry Potter launch party!! Others will say differently, but it was a right laugh! What with costumes, loads of people, and the Go Harry Go! chants....
We must've been the last to leave at about 12.45, but we weren't going home yet. That's the thing with Will & John Clayton. We all agreed to go on a mission to change their friend's liscense plates on his new "truck" to John Deere ones. So we got a spanner, sneaked into his front yard in the dead of night, did the deeds, got into the car and drove for it. Haha, doesn't sound funny, but it was good fun, just typical of those guys!

Over that weekend we went to see the various universities with Mary & Jack, and on the Saturday i discovered two gems. 1 is Cold Stone Creamary. Great Ice cream and singing staff! What more would you want? Number 2 is SchoolKids Records USA, which is the best record store i've ever been to. This is a proper record store, only located in 3 places in America (& the World). At this point i still had a lot of cash, so over the next few days i went cerazy, spending $235 on CD's, and $115 in SchoolKids in one go (i had many visits!). Oh, i ended up with about 20 CD's, because everything over there is like half the price of this ripoffland, so i took good advantage of it. Anyways, on the Saturday night around 30 people (half Irish and half Yanks) went to Battlezone. It was like Laser Quest except better, and we shot at each other for 2 full hours. Oh yea, i don't usually boast or anything, but in our Free for All game, i kicked everybodys ass well and good. My trigger finger destroyed everybody and made me win by over 3000 points :). I tell you, i celebrated, in fact i still am......

Over our last few days Hunter came back home and chilled/messed about as usual. Our bedtimes were getting later & later (for me anyways) as i decide to make the best of the time we had left. That was all no problem as John & Will never hesitated to sit up well into the early hours of the morning. We visited a predominantly black church, which had a cool preacher. Oh yea, some of us went to see Joesph again, but it wasn't as good as the Belfast one! On our last full day everybody took off to the beach on the East Coast. In the 4 hours that we were there, we all got fried well and good (i used suncream and still got fried), but nobody really cared (til the next day!). The bus journey home was one of the best ever, with lots & lots of singalongs, especially by The J-Man, who was in an incredibely funny mood. He is damn funny. Later that night we all got a leaving service, where Walter turned up from out of nowhere! (him & Susan had been on holiday) He's such a legend, and a typical American in many cases. That night we hit the road with the Clayton kids again, and ended up at the Everetts house (becuase they have a pool table). We stayed for ages, played stupid games (Fluffy Bunny!), then we picked up a gallon of vinegar from the supermarket, and i went and had a bath in it! We were told it helped sunburn!

By the next morning though, vinegar hadn't really helped. I guess i got off lucky, as certain people.....were lobsters! We all said our goodbyes ,unforunately, and sped off to the airport. We ended up sitting about Newark airport for hours, and left for Belfast at around 9pm (late again!). I'm very proud of the fact that i was only one of three who stayed up the whole way home overnight!! Score! I saw the sun set & rise and all that. I had to sit beside Stevie..again! Except he slept like a tank again apart from when i brushed his sunburn, when he let out a yelp which shook the plane :P. I didn't want to leave, i could've gotten plenty more outta the two weeks, but i just chillaxed the whole way home.

So, that was my trip to America. Sitting here now i know i've done it no justice - i've missed out so many bits, so many funny things, all the things i saw, all the things i did, it's hard to tell it all. But i had great fun, i met new people, and i'd defs go back, and i hope they all home over here! I do get asked from time to time if i'd life there. To that (at the minute) i say no. Because 1. it wouldn't make visiting it as cool, and 2. i already live on a kick ass island...

So there we go! By the way, one of my ambitions is to drive across the states, from West to East. Let's see if i do that one.....

On with the blog holiday!