Friday 22nd July

Today I got up and went to the gym whilst Kristine was at her yoga class. In the afternoon we went to Meridian Mall which is fairly close by and spent a couple of hours just chilling out, away from the apartment. There was an Old Navy there which was great, a t-shirt for $3!! After a tasty pretzel and a couple more shops we headed back and I went to Cory’s apartment via a great shop called Hobby Lobby. I have been meaning to go for days and finally went! They have so many nice Halloween and Christmas decorations, I wish I lived here and could have bought some. Cory made a tasty dinner of stroganoff. Our movie wasn’t until later so we spent time flicking from channel to channel and I discovered the US has A LOT of God channels! We also watched some over opinionated news channels. We went to the mall (second time in a couple of hours for me!) and browsed whilst we waited for the movie to start. We saw Friends with Benefits which was very very funny! It also made me miss New York, I love it there so much! The movie finished late and we went back to Cory’s apartment and made a Milky Way bar sandwich. Not quite as good as my Dad’s Mars bad sandwiches but pretty good still. We drank beer and played old school Playstation two games followed by nineties music, it was a very fun night and very great day!

Thursday 21st July

Today I went to breakfast at Cory’s apartment, yum! I couldn’t figure out what to do and asked about a few local places, we decided spur of the moment to go to the Lansing museum. We went and it was very interesting. We learnt about the French being in Michigan, the Native Indians, dressed up and played on a wagon and learnt about mining along with seeing some very nice retro cars and listening to music which is all from people who originated in Michigan. We attempted to go into the archives area but there was nothing on show that day unfortunately. It was a really hot day so we were very pleased just to be inside. Afterwards we went to see the Malcolm X historical spot, which was really cool! There is a big commemorative sign for him. After this I came home and Cory went off to a concert. Kristine and I went to a local café/ restaurant called The Traverse City Pie Company where she did some studying and I read a bit. We had some lovely iced drinks and a peanut butter chocolate cupcake. This evening I cooked my favourite salmon and sweet potato dish for the girls. Cristina and I then went to the campus law library… I have spent a lot of time at libraries this trip!! I found a really interesting book about human rights from 2002-2004. When we got home we made late night cookies for the second night running!

Tuesday 19th and Wednesday 20th July

Tuesday-I went to the gym and then decided to head on to the university campus and go to the library to do some Fair Trade research. I walked a very silly and long way to campus and by the time I got there I was really hot! It has been very hot and humid here. I decided to go to the union instead and was going to get an iced coffee but Biggby in the union was closed so I got ice cream instead. I eventually went to the library for a bit and read a bit about Fair Trade and played Angry Birds on my ipod. Biggby was closed so had an ice cream and went to library… played angry birds. Once I came home Kristine was home from work and getting ready for her date night. Everyone was out this evening either on date nights or family meals or friend dates so I spent time at home cooking myself a dinner, running around with the kitten and drinking wine.


Wednesday- I woke up with crazy ab and back pain from too many sit ups! Kristine’s aunt came to visit and she took us out to lunch at a Lebanese place, it was so delicious. There is a fantastic variety of good food places here. Later on in the afternoon we went into East Lansing and met up with some of Kristine’s friends for coffee. It was interesting to hear about who had graduated and what they were now doing/ what kind of jobs they are looking for, that will be me this time next year! When we came home we meet one of the former apartment tenants who was painting her room for the new tenant and moving the last of her furniture home. Her name was Caitlin and her boyfriend was called Stefano and they actually live in and close to Plymouth where I lived when I was younger and Caitlin works in a restaurant that I have been to! Such a small world! While they were there I managed to lock myself out of my bedroom but luckily Stefano and Jim were there to sort it out. Later that night Cristina and I went shopping to get food for the next nights dinner and some more kitten food. I also bought some cookie mix so we could make cookies, when we got home Kristine, Cristina, Jim and I had some late night cookies, yum!

Sunday 17th

I went to the gym and laid out in the sun with Kristine and Cristina. After a short period of time we ended up in the pool because it was so hot outside. I got a tan line on my leg after 10-15 minutes an then got some really odd small patches of sunburn on my stomach (not quite as bad as the hand print I got in Mexico though!) After this we all showered and I went over to Cory’s. His parents came and we had Dominoes pizza and watched the final of the women’s soccer world cup. The US lost on penalties to Japan but I’m pleased that they have had something nice happen for them at last.

Cory’s Dad and Cory went off to play golf whilst Cory’s mother and I headed off to the last night of the Common Ground concert in Lansing (this is the concert that Cory, Jim, Kristine and I had volunteered at earlier on in the week). There was a bit of a mix up when we got there as we were supposed to have free tickets as we volunteered but ended up having to pay. We walked around and positioned our seats in a good spot near the stage. I bought an ice cream because it was National Ice Cream Day and it was very hot and because I seem to have ice cream every day here!! We sat and enjoyed the atmosphere and at 8pm the music started. The first performance was from a guy called Larry Mccray and a lady called Melissa Etheridge. Although I had never heard of either of these people I really liked their music and I even knew some of the songs!

Saturday July 16th- Indiana

Today I went to Indiana! The Hurst family were going to a big family reunion on Mr. Hurst’s side of the family and they invited me along with them. We went to one of Mr. Hurst’s cousin’s houses, they live on a beautiful lake. There were loads of people at the reunion and everyone was really nice. We had a great barbeque and I got to go out on their boat and go tubing. I’ve never been tubing before, I don’t know why I’ve never been before but I will definitely be going again! I also went out on a jet ski which was great, Kyla and I sped round the lake at 40/ 50 mph! It was a very sunny day filled with a lot of laughter. In the evening after we went out on a sunset cruise on the boat there was a lovely campfire by the water and we made smores. It was a fantastic day full of fantastic new people.

Friday July 15- "we're the three best friends that anyone could have..."

Today was a very fun filled day! After telling the girls about the sidewalk sale from the previous day we decided to all go together today. Kristine and I went to the gym and Cristina met us just before we left for the town. We had sushi for lunch at a restaurant- it's rapidly becoming one of my favourite cuisines. We walked the length of the shops and bought a selection of things including a million books in Kristine's cases! And Michigan State mugs. There were certainly a few bargains to be had.

After the shops and carrying the new library back to the car we went to Biggby coffee to study (I'm becoming a regular there and have a real love for iced/ frozen coffee now). The girls ran into a couple of people they knew and I introduced myself to one of the girls called Courtney and she said to me 'do you know Michelle El-Khoury' (Michelle is my best friend from when I lived in the USA and now lives in California) and I said yes and she said 'she's my best friend- from middle school' and then I remembered her full name and we realised we must have met once before when I came over to visit. It was one of the strangest things that has ever happened to me.. what are the chances!?! So we all sat together and drank iced drinks!

It was a busy day... Cory came round for dinner and was super tired (I forgot to mention we went to see Harry Potter at 12:28am and hadn't got in until very late and Cory only had a couple hours of sleep before he had to work. We had a gigantic popcorn bucket :)) so yes we had a nice dinner and then we decided to go to Insomnia Cookies where Cristina and I got cookies sandwiches and Kristine had a cookie and we then went to Kenco photo copying. Cristina and I had had a few glasses of wine so were fairly giggly! After we got home her friend John came over and bought champagne, it topped off a super duper day :)

Thursday 14th July

Today I volunteered at the Fair Trade store called Kirabo. It is such a fantastic place. Things come from over 30 countries round the world including Guatemala :) Everyone I worked with were very friendly and helpful and interested in my trip. I did lots of things including greeting customers, talking about Fair Trade with customers, labelling sale items, answering the phone, writing emails and taking photos to email to customers. It was FUN! It also made me very aware that this is the kind of thing I care about and am passionate about. It was good to do some more volunteering work as well. The best part about working there was learning about other staff members experiences and their product knowledge and where items come from whilst also being able to input my own experiences and see things in the shop that I had seen and bought from the streets of Guatemala. The manager is a lovely lady and clearly very interested in making a difference and helping other people.

After my volunteering I had a little walk down East Grand River (the big road where all the shops are) as there was a sidewalk sale and I wanted to check it out. I bought an American flag shirt and a book about Malcolm X from 'The Curious Book Shop'- the place smells like really old books :) After a cool drink and brownie I headed home. Kristine and Cristina's friend Jess came for dinner and we had a really lovely girly evening and Kristine made a great dinner (as always!)

Wednesday 13th July

Today was the day of my interviews and Kristine dropped me off at Biggby Coffee where I got a delicious coffee and had a lovely chat with the barista. I walked to my first interview at a really cool bar/ restaurant for the position of hostess. Tthe interview was really quick and the guy was super nice to me. I didn't anticipate the interview being so short so I spent a very long time in CVS pharmacy browsing all of their aisles. I the went to the university library. It is amazing and giant and all the shelves move by remote control! The chairs has bouncy nets as the seat and roll up and down round the desks really well! I had three hours in between interviews so spent time looking through the online resources and actual books, thinking about dissertation topics. My second interview was also fun, everyone is so nice and friendly. Cory picked me up after my interview and I came home and played with the kitten. She is so amazing! After this I got a call from a Fair Trade shop called Kirabo where I had applied to to be a volunteer. They asked if I could volunteer tomorrow (Thursday). Of course I said yes! So Wednesday was a very exciting day! One of the best so far!! One of Kristine’s friends from college called Alice was passing through and stayed with us that night. We went to Cory and Jim’s apartment and had a few drinks and chatted until the boys abandoned us as we were discussing the Royal Wedding.

The Best Tuesday Ever?

Tuesday was a really great day!! We had pre- arranged through Jim's volunteering group to volunteer at a festival in Lansing and check ID's and put wrist bans on. Before we left I had a call about an interview and organised it for 1pm the next day. This made me super excited!! What made me even more excited was getting another call a couple of hours later for another interview to take place on Wednesday also. I was so excited, finally some interviews. I can't remember if Kristine and I went to the gym or not that morning but we went to Starbucks and got some ice coffee and then headed over to the boys. We went to the festival after that all got volunteering t-shirts to wear. We stood around and chatted for a while whilst the queues built up and I met some really nice people. We then got in line and each had different age range wristbands to apply. I had under 21's/ non- drinkers and children. I was lucky I didn't have to check any ID's as some people very rude about not being able to drink without their ID even though they clearly were over 21. I enjoyed doing the wrist bands though (perhaps because there weren't that many children so I didn't have to do as much as the others!) We had a break and received a food coupon and I bought a corn dog... something I have wanted to do ever since seeing Princess Diaries when I was younger. IT WAS AMAZING!! Very delicious indeed. After a bit more wrist banding Cory and I were allowed to go and watch some of the music. We saw the Verve Pipe who are a band from the area that are quite well- known. After this we headed home and all chilled out together. It was such a lovely day and I've probably missed out loads of details but I felt great and was very excited about interviews for the next day, woo hoo!

Discgolf, baseball, corn dogs and interviews

The last few days seem to have blurred into one! I seem to remember this is how it went: On Friday Cory went to work and I hung out at the apartment, looking up more jobs and seeing emails/ making calls. I rung one place and they offered me an interview for a sales position which I agreed to go to at 1pm. This was the first interview I had been offered so I was very excited. Unfortunately no cab company could get me to the place on time so I rang and changed my interview to 6pm. I can't really remembered what Cory and I did for the rest of the day once he got home from work. We may have played discgolf (we play this a lot) or perhaps we just had food and watched tv. I then went to my interview. It was with a company called Vector who sell Cutco cutlery. I had a lovely guy interviewing me and he said there were two positions, one was a sales position which he thought wouldn't be best for me as it involves selling to people you know and obviously I don't know very many people here. The second position was a reception position. He said he would put in a good word for me and someone would ring me this week about an interview. Excellent news! After this Cory and I went to dinner at a great sports bar in Lansing. We had delicious burgers and watched the Royals arrive in the USA. We went to a Lugnuts baseball game (the Lansing team) and they won, whoop! It was also a special military day so there was lots military appreciation mixed in with the game.

I believe on Saturday Cory and I went to the beach at Sleepy Hollow where we played a great round of discgolf (despite spending a lot of time in the trees and bushes looking for the discs) and got fairly sunburnt. We had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich picnic on the beach and were very amused by a "white trash" family shouting at each other... "Little Joe and Joe Junior have disappeared.." very interesting. Cory went in the water but returned swiftly as it smelt of wee. After this we headed home and got some milk and orange juice. There was slight confusion when I said I wanted to get some squash and Cory took me to squash the vegetable when I meant the drink! We have come across an incredible amount of differences in our languages! Cory and Jim went out drinking in the evening and I stayed home watching several movies.

Sunday... MORE DISCGOLF!! Cory, Jim and I went to a really nice park today which I believe was called Frederick Park. We played discgolf and spent a considerable amount of time looking for discs Jim had thrown as every time they landed they decided to race off into the shrubbery. I also got lost at one point as the boys played a hole which involves climbing down a steep hill/ rock face which I did not want to do given how clumsy I am so I decided to follow the path in the woods and unintentionally stumbled upon a nature reserve. The man running it was really nice as was his daughter and she showed me all the turtles they have including one which someone had just caught in the river. We also compared our throwing techniques for discgolf (not that I really know what I'm doing!) After a walk along the river I met the boys and we headed home via an amazing food store full of fresh veg, complementary coffee, giant cheese, an olive counter and more types of beer than I have ever seen. They also sold onions that were about three times bigger than our ones at home. Jim made us a delicious that evening of potatoes, onions and sausage all cooked with lovely seasoning... delicious. The boys played a mean trick on me also... they told me I had to try some really find Michigan beer called Colt 45. According to them it is la creme de la creme of beers. I tried it and said it was ok, quite nice. They told me I couldn't go to sleep until I had drunk it all and that it was actually really cheap gross beer. After a few more sips I wasn't so keen... Half of the tin is still sitting in their fridge! We had a great movie night though :)

Monday.. today I woke up and spoke to Samantha on skype for a very long time during which there were massive thunder storms outside and torrential rain. After this I went to the fitness centre. I have not yet mentioned all of the irritating phone calls and texts I have been receiving since being here.. I have an American sim card and constantly get calls for a Suzetta Irazo (not quite sure on the spelling). I believe the calls are from some kind of credit company. When I was at the fitness centre I received four calls, none of which were for me... boo!! Once Cory returned from work I moved my stuff over to my new apartment with Kristine (Jim's girlfriend) and then she dropped me off at the mall! I was very self- restrained and only bought some Japanese food and a second hand book about amusing Presidential stories. It took me a very long time to find the bus stop to get home but I eventually found it and came back to Cory's where we watched tv and hung out. I headed back to my new apartment to sleep but Kristine was asleep and I didn't have a key so then returned to Cory's and stayed there.

Today is Tuesday and today I have really felt like a true American!! It has been a great day but I will save it for another blog!

The fourth of July :)

Monday was fourth of July so we got up early and headed down to Plymouth to watch the parade. On the way we went to Einstein's bagels and had a delicious breakfast. I am in love with bagels now and wish we had an Einstein's at home, they do these cute little blueberry donut things, they are amazing. The parade was really good and there were lots of bands and cheer leading squads. After this we returned home and Kyla, Cory and I went to to a place called Dollar World which is a thrift store which was full of lots of corny July 4th t-shirts which we bought and wore for the rest of the day. We went home and had a barbecue with Cory and his family and played croquet. After this David and his family came round and we had desserts and then went to Plymouth to the coffee shop and had coffee and walked around the town. Cory and I went to visit our old school and look for the bricks that we had engraved when we went to school there. Most of the bricks had rubbed clean which was really sad but we found our old class brick in the paving which was good :) We also ran around the playground and played on all the toys even though we are way too big for them now and struggled to fit on some of the play structures. We finished the fourth of July by watching Monk and I fell asleep part way through.

On Tuesday Cory and his Dad went to play golf so Kyla, Cory's Mom and I went and got tasty frozen drinks and went to a couple of shops in Plymouth. I also completed some more job applications. Kyla also made me some beautiful earrings :) We went to a delicious restaurant for dinner called Seva and then to get an ice cream after. It was possibly the biggest ice cream I have ever had and probably had about 3,000 calories in it! Cory drove us back to East Lansing Tuesday night as he had to work on Wednesday. On Wednesday I filled out yet more applications and handed them in. I also went to the fitness centre and once again discovered how incredibly unfit I am!

Today we went to the social security office so I could apply for a social security number just incase I do manage to get a job! The guy was really really nice and wished me luck in finding a job in such a difficult climate. Cory then went to get a haircut and I got a pedicure using the voucher which I received when I had my hair done. I've never had one before but it so relaxing! And you get to choose a bottle of nail polish and they use it on you and then you get to keep it! Amazing!! Now I am just chilling out and trying to decide what I'm going to do if I can't find a job. It is a depressing thought that I may have gone through all the visa applications and job applications and won't end up getting a job anyway.

The problem with a blog is...

When you end up doing so many fun things you have less and less time to write your blog and have to write five days antics all in one go!

Saturday morning after our party Friday night Josh, Cory and I went and got some breakfast at a lovely pub called Beggar's Banquet. It was delicious! I had chocolate chip pancakes, eggs and bacon- delicious! After this I finished my job applications, the boys cleaned the apartment and Cory and I delivered my applications. I hadn't realised quite what a big place East Lansing was so I had completely missed out lots of shops and restaurants so we walked in all of those and collected applications too. After this we grabbed some gas and headed out of East Lansing. It was a REALLY hot day and just stepping outside made us hot and sweaty. Cory dropped me off at a friends house who live about 30 mins away from Plymouth. My family has known Saad and Jennifer for a long time and staying with them for a night and day was very nice. When I arrived I was met by their gorgeous children and Saad and Jennifer who look exactly the same as the last time I saw them 5 years ago.

We went to dinner at one of their favourite restaurants. I got to be a passenger in Saad's classic open top beautiful mercedes which was super although by the time we arrived I looked a bit like I'd been dragged through a bush. We just missed the rain and had a delicious dinner of: chicken wings, ribeye steak, fries, macaroni cheese, sweet potato mash and an assortment of desserts including an amazing chocolate brownie with ice cream. Needless to say I was very full! After this I saw the church turned bar that Pamela Anderson and Kid Rock got married in.

When we got home Sofia, Ali and Cecelia (their children) all got in their pyjamas and we played the soundtrack to the movie Tangled and all danced around like lunatics. Sofia read to me and I read the Care Bear story to Cecelia at least 6 or 7 times. We watched the movie Tangled and several hours later I went to sleep. It was quite strange staying in their guest house as the last time I was there I was with the rest of my family. The next day we had an amazing brunch and I played lots of games with Sofia including a play- doh potato smashing game and playing with her giant teddy. We started out making a puzzle but after separating the edges from the inside pieces Sofia decided potato smashing would be more fun, and it was a lot of fun! Jennifer and I spent several hours trying to finish the puzzle later. We headed out for an early dinner to a really good pizza bar called Brooklyn with a statue of liberty giant model outside and loads of NYC iconic photos on the walls. We also had ice creams too. (I am eating a lot of good food here). We played in a couple of parks afterwards including one which had a fake grass hill which you could use as a slide if you sat on some cardboard, it was such a good park and had a little mist zone which you could walk through to cool off. After the park they dropped me back in Plymouth just in time to go to the fireworks with Cory and his Dad. It was a really nice weekend and great to see some old friends. At the fireworks I got to see one of my old school friends David. It made us all feel very old realising that we went to school together ten years ago.

A whole lot of fun!

Since I last wrote my blog I have done so many different things. Tuesday morning I woke up in Cory's apartment and met his room mate Jim who made me a superb breakfast. My plan was then to head into East Lansing and go into some of the shops/ restaurants and ask if any of them were hiring. In reality I actually went with Jim and his girlfriend Kristine to meet Cory when he was on his lunch break. I saw their university campus which is MASSIVE! UEA is like a tiny mini campus in comparison. Although, I didn't see any horses or lakes on the Michigan State Campus. I had a delicious ice coffee and went to get my hair cut as I have been having fringe issues (no surprises there!) I went to an Aveda training salon which was amazing, I received a head massage and neck massage as part of my hair cut and also got to sample some lip gloss. After this I grabbed a few application forms and met Cory. The rest of the afternoon we spent doing a variety of things: we went to the pet store and saw some giant birds and fish plus creepy tarantulas, bought some jamaican food, went to a farmers market and went to Target where I got some $6 jogging bottoms! After returning to Cory's apartment and having our dinner Cory had a paper to complete so I went for a walk into the town. I ended up staying out until Cory was finished and it started to get dark so I went into a place called Insomnia Cookies and had an amazing brownie, cookie, ice cream, mini marshmallows and reeces pieces sundae! It was amazing but I felt pretty sick afterwards!

The next day we headed to the library so Cory could do his final online exam and I could fill out some job applications. After this we headed to Holland which is a town by Lake Michigan. On the way we went to Grand Rapids as I've always wanted to go there and stopped at a park with a little windmill. The beach at Holland was busy and full of loads of high school kids burying each other in the sand and eating pizza. There was a small pier to walk down so we did that and then it started to rain and thunder :( We had bought a picnic with us so found a nice bench under and tree and ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, cheese on french stick and cheez-its plus some delicious grapes. On the way home we stopped off at a woodland park and Cory introduced me to a game called Discgolf. It involves frisbee shaped disc which are slightly smaller and heavier and you have to throw them and get them into a cage. It was really fun and I have now bought a disc of my own. The closest course in England is in Colchester so I will have to make a special trip. After this we headed into Holland to have a little look around. There were lots of street performers playing music, singing, making balloon animals and more. It was a really lovely evening and Holland was a really super place. I filled out an application and took another one home with me. After going to Holland we headed back to Cory's apartment had some food and headed to sleep.

Friday--> This morning I headed over to Kristine's apartment with Jim and a couple of his friends names Scales and Poisson were there also. Kristine made a super brunch- sausages, eggs, onion plus fresh bread out of the bread machine. We spent a couple of hours talking about loads of things and having debates about accents. The boys headed out and Kristine and I laid by the pool and caught a bit of sun. Cory came home from work and we headed into East Lansing to hand my applications in and collect some more. That evening we had a really great party! We played waterfall (basically ring of fire but a little bit different) and some of the rules included talk in a foreign accent and talk in a Southern American accent. One of the girls was from Kentucky so she chose the Southern accent and the rest of us sounded ridiculous. We ordered some delicious pizza and watched the Hangover. I got talking to a guy called Josh who has just graduated after an International Relations degree, we had a very long talk about the state of the world and how we could fix it, I'm not quite sure how to put these plans into action quite yet!