This term has been something else. It was like stimulus overload, times four. Living in America, I have found, is very different from visiting America. When you visit a country, even though you visit multiple times a year like I used to, you only get to deal with the good, not the bad. In order to encounter the bad aspects of a country, unless you are especially unlucky, you have to become something more than the casual visitor.

I liked America because, for example, the sun didn't set until eight at night, which meant more time to shop, but I also didn't realize that some states have a non-existent transportation system. Neither did I realise that I would never be warm enough here, nor that I would be more or less forced to speak English all the time, if not by direct request, but by the utterly confused expressions of the people around me when I delved into another language, even when I spoke languages that I expected should be more familiar to them like French and Spanish. Bah, speaking English is boring. Some things can never be expressed in English.

Also, the culture in American schools, and then Saint Leo, is markedly different....

*whispers* I have never seen people wear such short shorts in broad daylight before!! It took me quite a while to get used to that. You would NOT be able to do that in my country, no matter how hot it gets. There's no law against it, but people, yes, people on the street that don't know you, would not let you get ten feet. They'd drag you back to your house and demand you put some proper clothes on.

The Cheerleading thing is another thing we don't do. I guess more or less the crowd cheers, but we don't have a specific group of people whose job it is to egg the home team on. It's actually rather cool. I love watching their routines. I saw Bring It On in high school on movie night. My love affair with "magic fingers" was born.
On the bright side, I am SUPER excited

I CANNOT wait for Christmas. I know all of my friends are going to Nigeria for Christmas, and they're going to have a great time in Abuja without me, but I am DETERMINED to see, and touch snow. I know this must sound absurd to a lot of people here, but I have never seen snow in my life, except on television, and that's not much of an experience. Now, however, I'm going to get my chance!

Snowmen, here I come!!!!

Speaking of Christmas, we had a beautiful nativity play and a HUGE Christmas tree in the middle of the square between the new Student Centre and the new Cafeteria.I've fallen in love with that tree. It's just so big and imposing, and Christmas-y.

*sigh*

Posted by Lotanna Igwe-Odunze at 7:30 AM | Permalink

Just got back from a basketball game. I'd forgotten how entertained I used to be by basketball. I went late though, at 4:53pm, but I still caught a lot of action. I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while. This week was the last week of classes, and finals start on Monday (actually they've already started for me since I had my English final on Thursday), and I've been neck deep in last minute homework and studying. I recorded most of the time I was there. We lost unfortunately. :( But it was a close win for the Flaglers anyway. 75 to 73. If you didn't see the game, and you're bummed because you missed it, sorry, I can't give you a blow by blow. I'm not good at that sort of thing. I will post a clip of a few shots the Lions made here later.
In other news this week, I went to see Cedric Liqueur perform. He was in the Cannon Memorial Library on Wednesday, December 5 to perform a poem by Sappho (She was one of the most prominent female Greek poets of the 6th century. - Learned that in class..heh heh). It was unbelievable. Mr.Liqueur is able to express such a vast variety of emotions with just his eyes and mouth. I was speechless for most of the rendition, and then when he had a free moment, I jumped over a few people's legs and got a picture with him. Swell, innit?

Posted by Lotanna Igwe-Odunze at 6:38 PM | Permalink