A Momentary Diversion on the Road to the Grave: Finishing at Cornell

Time for another update!

Well, it has been a while since I last wrote here but I did warn you last time that there wasn't much going on. Actually, I have been keeping myself busy. The last couple of weekends have been less hectic than the ones before but I think I needed some time to just relax before the final 3 weeks of travelling. I have now finished in the lab, my project turned out alright although I spent a lot of time trying and failing to get techniques to work. However, the lab project was not the main reason I came over here so I'm glad that it's over but at the same time it was quite interesting. Outside of lab we've been doing plenty of fun stuff. We went up to the campus observatory the other week on a celar night and got to look through their telescope, we were able to see Jupiter, the telescope was powerful to show some of the cloud features and we could also see the 4 largest moons (just as specks of light).

Fi's boyfriend (and my old housemate) Phil came to visit for the week so we had fun times then including a basement party and a trip to the cinema to see Die Hard 4 (which was great). We have also recently seen Hot Fuzz and The Bourne Ultimatum. I had already seen Hot Fuzz so I knew it would be good and The Bourne Ultimatum was also enjoyable, if you like the first two then it's a must see. We have also made a couple more trips to Monday-night karaoke in Collegetown and other time has been spent working on presentations, having BBQs, watching DVDs and other every-day activities.

Having been in America for a couple of months now I have to report that many of the prejudices I had before I came have been dispelled, it's really not that bad over here. Having said that there are a few things that lived up to expectations and a few others that I have uncovered. I can think of 4 main ones.

1. There really are a lot of FAT people over here. Now, I don't mean to be nasty, but in most cases there really is no excuse for it, just eat less and exercise more! It's a sad thought that we're going the same way at home

2. Related to number 1, food over here is rubbish! Generally it comes pre-processed and in massive quantities, my biggest issues with food over here are a) bread, here (unless you buy freshly baked bread) it is stodgy and sweet and horrible. b) Chocolate, Hersheys is just nothing compared to Cadburys (although on the plus side the 1Kg bar of dairy milk that I got from duty free on the way back to Cornell from RVC lasted me until last weekend!) c) Squash (i.e. juice drink), they don't have it over here so I'm forced to carry gallon bottles of fruit juice and 12 packs of cans back home from the nearest shop (about a mile away).
Food, is redemed by restaraunts though, all of the restaraunts I have been to have been really nice and you always get value for money. Maybe I just need to shop in expensive organic shops over here to find the nice food

3. Television. We haven't really watched much TV over here other than movies (mainly because all that ever seems to be on is Baseball, news and non-funny comedy (Friends (it's finished, get over it!), Everybody loves Raymond, Will and Grace etc.). But when you do find something that you want to watch it is interrupted by adverts every 5 minutes. And the adverts are awful! In the US they are allowed to advertise prescription medicines on the TV so 50% of adverts are for medication of some kind (diabetes, pain killers, viagra (accompanied by a load of 50 year old men singing 'Viva Viagra!' etc.) but even worse are the adverts for local companies, which are all filmed with camcorders and feature the most wooden acting you have ever seen. In addition to being on every 5 minutes the ads often tend to be repeated, so you end up seeing the same advert about 10 times an hour. Even when the program you are watching starts the networks are constantly advertising their new 'hit shows' along the bottom of the screen. GRRRRRR!!! Can't wait to get back to the BBC! But while we're on the subject of the BBC, there is a channel over here called BBC America, so, they have the opportunity to show America the best programs that we have to offer. What do you think they show all day? Antiques programs! Just like daytime BBC1, Bargain Hunt, Cash In The Attic, Car Booty. It's a crime! No wonder all Americans find us Brits slightly amusing, the only thing they've got to base their opinion on is David Dickinson!

4. People clap at the cinema. Something I'd never experienced before and it really get's on my nerves. We went to see the Simpsons movie, I thought it was very funny but people were clapping at every little joke! I really don't understand it. You don't clap when you are watching the TV, why do it in the movie theatre? Almost as annoying as when you get a bunch of chavs in the cinema in England making noise the whole way through.

Well, the idea of tha was to pad out this post a little bit but I ended up writing more than I intended I think! Like I said, I've actually quite enjoyed it over here so don't get the wrong impression ;)

As of Friday morning I'll be off on my travels for a few weeks and then I'll be heading home, landing in Gatwick on 30th August so I'll see all you guys at home in the not too distant future! I'm sure I'll have plenty to write over the next few weeks. And just because I havent been doing much for the past couple of weeks doesn't mean I don't have any photos to share! Here are a few from around the campus.

Stephen xx