“Halloweek” shenanigans

Before I get into the busy madness that was Halloween, I’m excited to say that I went to my first ever basketball game here at UA. Basketball is seen as an even bigger sport here than the football (if you can believe that!) as the UA team are ranked either 1st or 2nd in the nation! It was only a ‘taster’ game and it certainly did get me super excited for when the actual basketball season starts!

Midterms, papers and exams are STILL being done unfortunately — it seems to be never ending! But I will say that a lot of the exams I have had are the simplest things I’ve ever had to take. One of the exams was all multiple choice questions, pairing things up and filling in the blank, WITH a word bank! So basically all the answers were on the paper and it was nothing to really stress too much over! I’ve had a couple more results back and I’m still noticing a distinct difference between the way they mark over here compared to the UK, as I am doing pretty well here for work that would probably only get around a 60% at home — not that I’m complaining!

To start Halloween off, we went thrift shopping for our costumes! It was a fun experience seeing the amount of different outfits they had. I’m sure most people have noticed that Americans don’t really go for the ‘scary’ look like we do in England, but it’s more about wearing whatever fancy dress you want. I decided to keep it simple and went as a cat, an angel and a robber, but the range of different themes and ideas in one store is so overwhelming that you would need to make Halloweek into Hallofiveweeks!

There was pretty much something to do every night of the week leading up to Halloween on the Friday, and I went out for four of the nights in a row. The best night by far has got to be on the official night, as we went into the City and Downtown for our night out — the atmosphere was incredible. When I say everyone was dressed up, I mean EVERYONE. It was a really busy night, and even the designated drivers dropping people off were dressed up. I have never seen Halloween go to the extremes that they do over here and it was an experience that I will never forget.

I spent the weekend with my friend Sarah, who I met through the buddy program — we went to her parents house on the Saturday evening, walked her dog Jasper as the sun set, had a lovely dinner and then stargazed in her father’s observatory while eating s’mores. It was a perfect evening and to top it off, she picked me up the following day and we went on a Sunday hike on the Douglas Spring Trail. The views were stunning and we climbed to find the waterfall, but once we got there most of the water had gone! I also got attacked by a cactus (don’t worry, it’s the tiniest scratch ever). I suppose that’s what you get for being in a desert... It was still worth it, and was such a lovely, fun-filled weekend and I can’t thank her enough! Here are a few pictures from the weekend (sorry, I can’t make them any smaller so you’ll have to keep scrolling…).

So this week is the 100th celebration of Homecoming at the UofA, which is basically where alumni return to celebrate the achievements of the university (I think) and it’s a pretty big celebration with a big bonfire and a football game. In tradition, they marked the beginning of this homecoming week by lighting the A on the mountain — which I have been to before as seen previously in my blog — which was a spectacular view accompanied with a high spirited atmosphere, with the band, cheerleaders and the mascots all watching and waiting for it to be lit.

Despite the amount of work I have to do this coming weekend, I am super excited to say that I am spontaneously going to LAS VEGAS BABY! It has only been confirmed a few days before we are due to set off, but it’s going to be another weekend full of fun, smiles and awesomeness.

Peace and love,

Helen xo