Brighter than the sun

Had the first international dinner in I-house. International food and meeting new people. Later went out to Caro's (Peru) place to celebrate Lindsay's last night here, she's going to study abroad in Germany and France for a year. At night the people who didn't get football tickets the first time tried to catch the tickets that were released at midnight, was fun to watch them panic, because the internet was overloaded, luckily at last everybody got the tickets.. it's gonna be a full stadium! The college games are all free for students but we have to apply for the tickets before.

This weeks stand-up comedy was excellent, Roy Haber and Aaron Nemo, had a great laugh! Around midnight arrived back to the house, Chris (UK) decided to cook something, everybody was very skeptical but the food tasted great.

My dance teacher sure loves her tv-shows, she constantly talks about them, for example, a guy from West Virginia actually competes in America's got talent, he sings really great (sounds like Frank Sinatra) and looks cool and also just got to the finals, so congrats, but our teacher made us watch the show in class, not the whole show but him, and then some more fun parts, not that it's bad, but we have barely touched the material we should have.

Our long labour-day-weekend is over and it sure was interesting! On the mornings temperatures were almost unbearably hot, sweating even when I walked as slowly as possible, even without the sun.. it was more than 40 degrees, and with the humidity and sun, it felt like 60.

On friday went to see men's soccer game, got the first glimpse of how passionate people are in sports events, and it sure was addicting, we jumped up every second the situation got a little critical. Our team won! But they aren't that good and the game was not that interesting, the first half was, but the second was a little too safe. In the evening went to Kane's (China) place, played guitar hero, soccer inside, smoked hookah and had fun. I heard oh such gossip, didn't even know the persons and I was shocked, seriously thought these things happen in the movies, but I guess American small towns, especially college towns are the true basis for the movies.

Next morning went to some Outlets near Pittsburgh with Kane, Emnet (Ethiopia – and the sweetest roommate I could think of!), Sven and Eugene (Nigeria) by car and with good company and music, the drive is not long at all, did some shopping and just walked around. In the evening went to the movies to see "Bridesmaids". I wasn't that willing to go at first, but after a guy with a taste I trust, said it's hilarious, had to see it, and besides it was free for the students (also popcorn and soft drinks were free.. I'm so getting used to that!) The movie was the stupidest ever, but in some kinda weird way it made me laugh so hard, it has a meaning and a nice point as well but can't really concentrate on that because of all the stupidity, we almost died laughing.

And sunday was the first game-day! The stadium was full of people (I'm talking of around 30 000), most of them were from WVU, everybody was wearing the school colours (old gold and blue). It was so powerful, the spirit is amazing, we learned the signs and traditions, what we have to shout or do at any occasion. There is noise all the time, you HAVE to scream, Daniel (usa, the RA of Ihouse) was the loudest of us all and he almost lost his voice.. One of the traditions is: when our team scores, they throw people in the air as many times as many points we have. And I have to say our schools american football team is really good, the last touchdown before the game was cancelled.. was just beautiful!!! From the other team's kickoff, one of the players caught the ball and ran from one end of the stadium to another.. 109,7 meters and no-one managed to force him to the ground.. just beautiful!! But yes, the game was suspended due to severe weather conditions, black clouds were gathering fast, the stadium was at least 30 minutes walk from I-house. We decided to walk back there, hoping we will make it before the storm, but no, we were walking about 5 minutes, when discovered ourselves in the middle of a thunderstorm, it started raining, like there was a barrier of water in front of u, or u just were standing under a waterfall, and then it started to hail, and not like usual small pieces, but ice-cubes, seriously, big ones that hurt, we ran into someones garage, soon enough started walking again, still in the rain,suddenly we saw people from our house sitting in the trunk of a random truck, we ran and they pulled us all in as well, so we were just laughing and singing Oasis “Wonderwall”as loud as we could. One of the moments I'm gonna remember for a really long time!

In the evening couldn't resist the opportunity to party on a sunday night and went to Caro's place with the guys, again a really fun night, but it was followed by a really sleepy monday, all in all got outta bed 1 o'clock.. here I usually have been waking up 9-10 in the morning.. Managed to do some homework and at night had another movie night downstairs, started with "Tarzan" the original disney cartoon which I loved when I was a child, so it was so nice and nostalgic to see it now.

It is interesting, that even when the class is serious, it's at the same time so free.. everything revolves around communication and students truly can say whatever they want, everything is accepted and nothing is stupid. Just as the ice-breaker for my last PR class, the interview topic was "best memories about the football game day". A lot of people were like "Damn, don't have that much memories, was too drunk" or "yea, fell down the stairs, don't remember the rest". So everybody is honest and everyone else is ok with it. Also when the question is asked, can seriously answer the way you think and it is ok, even when the professor does not think the same way.

Some of you know that I don't step on the roadway inlets, because I'm a little superstitious, until yesterday the funniest response to that was from one of my friends, who was like, "yes I don't step on them too because I'm afraid to fall in", but yesterday a girl from here got extremely excited "omg, u don't step on them too, it's so cool, they are so dirty, right?" And I just didn't know what to say...

To be honest americans have managed to shock me several times here, they are so sincere, it just takes some getting used to, but still, any time I choose their over the top positive outlook than the overall negativity in Estonia. In my leadership class yesterday we discussed a similar topic, would you more like to go to the shop where the cashier smiles and greets you or to the one where she just stares you with an evil look, or would you rather work for a leader who is positively disposed or the one who sees problems in everything and blames everybody else for that. Being naive is not the same thing as being positive as some people think, neither does it mean the person is always happy, it's just the outlook on life and I bet it takes much further than being grumpy 24/7.

Another interesting observation: it's perfectly normal to go to class wearing ur pajamas.. wake up a bit late and still make it to class.. Let alone that most people wear joggers.. that's daily. In Estonia I would never go to school wearing shorts, but here, it's just usual, and with the heat I kinda understand that part. Formal attire for uni is not common here, but still.. wearing PJ-s.. I would feel sooo out of place!

The weather here is the most unexpected, on thursday evening I went to one dance studio, to try a contemporary class, it was a 20 minutes-walk. The moment I started walking, the beautiful sunny day decided to turn into a terrible rainy evening. Luckily Krasimir gave me his raincoat but it was not much help, if it's raining here, it's raining hard! The class was not bad, but not the most awesome also and the location... oh my, I had to walk through a cemetery (in The States they are as creepy as possible, open, huge, straight out of a horror movie), next I had to go up the hill while High street slowly becomes a small street with creepy little houses or trailers on both sides of the road, until reached a huge park, and opposite to it are some large buildings and in one of them is the studio, oh no thank you, I don't wanna be in that location at night, luckily I got back by car, seriously was creeped out at one point!

In the evening went with Ashley and Emnet to a CRU meeting, it is a christian organization, but on thursday evenings their band is playing, and Jessica (Usa) plays keyboard. They play worship music, but the modern, alternative rock'ish.. And their singer.. oh wow.. what a voice!!! Afterwards headed to WVU up all night, to get some free food. I was talking to some americans.. As we once talked to the guys from Denmark, we could possibly tell some americans whatever and they would believe us, Morten is blond and very tall, and when he told one american girl he is Japanese, she had no problem believing that.. Also, that night the americans I was talking to decided that Estonia most definitely must be in Asia. I guess it's the -ia ending, or I really look asian??? Still they were interested in Estonia and I had to teach them some words, when we got to the point "minu nimi on.." (my name is) oh my, I had to agree, Estonian is not the easiest language to learn, while laughing that hard even I couldn't pronounce the words any more. In the end they got very interested about religion in Estonia, so I have a feeling we have to continue that discussion.

On friday night we had the US culture night with some fast food in I-House, after what spontaneously went to play soccer on the green, nice workout and it's really fun and a little violent to play with these guys! Later: "Cellar" night (btw, already driving in a car, with loud music, 8 people and a little sudden driver is hell of a fun) But, I can honestly say, I have never had that much fun in a club than this friday, everybody was just a right amount of drunk, music was awesome, we were just dancing and being crazy, seriously.. I am not such a club person, but in here, with those people, it's just great! When we got back to the house, we passed out immediately, and not of alcohol, we were just that exhausted!

On saturday it was another football game, WVU vs Norfolk state. At first, the game was slow, boring, it seemed our team is going to lose, but.. the other half.. thank god we didn't leave, such a turn-around, in the end we won 55:12!! And I got sunburnt, on 10th of september.. yes please!

Also on saturday, it was Natsumi's (Japan) 21 birthday, so we threw her a surprise party and went out later. Warm-up at Mois's (Saudi-Arabia) apartment and then "Karma", I had great memories of the place but this time it was just too crowded, the line to the club was really long, so as crazy as Kane is, we ended up going in from vip section. Sunday was the day after, in the morning were just watching movies downstairs "The Invention of Lying" oh I would like to see the world where nobody knows how to speak things that are not true, and people just believe each other on word for word basis.. imagine going to the bank and saying u need to withdraw 800 bucks, the cashier says their system is down, so she is just going to give you the money, when the system starts working again, she sees that you have only 300 dollars on the account, but assumes there has been a mistake in the system and gives 800 dollars just because you said so. It was a pretty cool movie.

In the evening we wanted to go to the cinema, but because of 9/11 nothing was on (I'm so grateful nothing horrible happened again. Because of the 10th anniversary everybody was nervous). Instead we went to bowling with Tolga (Turkey), Krasimir and Frida (Sweden). Was nice to play over some time. After another house meeting I was finally ready to study, when they came up with the plan to make our own I-house T-shirts downstairs, yes we were creative and they turned out really cool!

In mid-september, it's all about the Campus Cup, a competition between all the dorms of WVU, every day there are competitions, for example there have been dizzy-dash, soccer shootouts, tug-o-war, scavenger hunt etc. To count the fact how small our lovely I-House is compared to other dorms.. we are doing excellent!

On monday went to Lea's (France) place to celebrate Chris's birthday, was nice, american-style-house-party on the porch, the location of their house is really cool, right up the hill.. a million dollar view!!

Wednesdays are no doubt “Cellar” nights. Apart from our huge gang of internationals and all the other students there always are some old men, and I mean old like around 60, dancing like crazy and enjoying the party like everybody else, only in america!! One sure thing is, in American small towns you can only go to clubs if u have some good friends with you, without the guys I would've probably been gang-raped several times.

Last thursday we had our first group presentations day in our leadership class. In Estonia it would've probably been one of my least favorite lessons.. but in here, the class is an hour and 15 minutes long, and we went so much over-time, because everybody had great topics, really different, everybody were speaking freely.. kind of enjoyed it, and after every presentation followed discussions, and nobody forced us, people just wanted to speak!

Thursday evening another comedy night. It gets better and better every week: Chris Killian and Keith McGill! Oh yes, they perfectly communicated with the people and even managed to turn the awkward silence into a joke, I almost cried..

We have had some dramas at the house, but I have learned a lot about myself and also become sure how much more open people here are and they also manage to open me up.. I truly feel I can talk to some people here about everything, usually I don't feel like talking about really personal stuff, I have talked to some of my friends here about more than I have shared with people I have known for years. It just feels great of being trusted and knowing I can trust them!

In the evening Kane's birthday-dinner with Kane, Sven, Eugene and Emnet to a really nice Chinese buffet. Delicious food and mainly not the same that food in our canteens here!!! Did some grocery or more like party-shopping at Kroger and later went to Kane's place again. It was his birthday on sunday, so we had to celebrate, there were a lot of people, and it definitely was the best party we have had, everybody were having fun, Eugene was a great dj, people were dancing, going crazy.. played band hero with Tito (Puerto Rico) and Emnet, when we found Nickelback “How you remind me” hell yea we rocked, and it was so cool to sing that song.. much more fun than karaoke!

Have visited rec pretty much this week, truly feel proud, and yesterday Kane gave us a ride there in the evening, at 10 pm tried a hip-hop class. It wasn't exactly hip-hop as I am used to, but.. something between la-style and contemporary jazz.. the level was pretty good and it felt extremely good to do choreography after a while.. it wasn't that hard to turn the “sexy” parts a lil funky. Walked to the bus-stop with Eugene and Emnet, the bus was not coming,so we stole someones cab. And the munchies is contagious in I-house, how great it is to order in some pizza after midnight!

The biggest subject right now is WVU vs LSU football game on saturday night, yes it is a night game and.. they say LSU is unbeatable.. and they pretty much are. So everyone is anxious, excited... And the police has forbidden to put furniture outside.. sounds funny? Well yes, but it actually is serious, because when we lose.. the furniture just might catch on fire!

26th of september and 30 degrees.. not bad.. not bad at all! Thursday evening went to Bent Willey's for the first time, an outdoor club on a huge balcony, entrance is free and free beer till 11pm. Music was good and everybody was there! Friday went to the Hollywood cinema in the mall with Kane, Eugene, Kenzo (Japan) and Emnet, we were craving for a horror movie, but there wasn't anything, so we just hoped "Shark night" will be scary.. a very wrong decision, probably one of the worst movies I have seen, even most of the actors were bad.. We had our own fun, finding similarities in the characters and our friends here. Later on went to Kane's place for some hookah and hit downtown later, Cellar never disappoints! AND Ryan (Usa) was in Morgantown. It was so awesome to see him after such time. We met in Estonia 1,5 years ago when I had just found out I got accepted to WVU, he was studying there at the time, he's graduated now but still comes to visit now and then. Once a mountaineer always a mountaineer.

So, WVU vs LSU. The stadium was packed.Around 60 000 people. Me and Emnet were a bit late, luckily Chris (Usa) saw us and with his help we got to the traditional I-House section 205. Tension was already in the air. People around were arguing, fighting over anything, throwing bottles. Thats how serious sport events are here. The game was good until it wasn't, we were losing from the beginning, but then, start of 3^rd quarter, two beautiful touchdowns. I have never ever got so excited over a sports event, we were screaming, jumping, everybody was almost as loud as Daniel.. But then everything went downhill from one point, we lost, and after the game the tension was in the sky. It was like a sign we got so tired suddenly at night and stayed in at Kane's, There was a shooting on High street, right in front of club Karma. 4 people got shot and 1 of them died, and it happened here, 200 meters from our house.

Sunday was Swedish, Danish and Estonian culture night. At some point guy who has studied a semester in Estonia came to the house and she had two girls from Estonia with him, they were just visiting but it was really nice to talk in Estonian. The presentations went well, everybody was interested in Scandinavia and Baltic countries and asked a lot of questions. To end the night, watched a danish movie. "Klovn". Morten warned us the movie is not gonna be sweet and innocent, but nobody expected exactly that. In a twisted kind of way it was a good movie, filled with Danish sarcastic sense of humor.

I had my first exam which went well, but it had way too many questions, on the 47th or so I had to read the question 3 times before I got what was asked. After some more hours of studying had the second mid-term, after what I was slightly annoyed, angry and brain-dead.. it had 50 questions as well.. and it wasn't that easy.

Also had the closing ceremony of Campus Cup. I got an award for campus spirit :) And our house got another award for great vibe and energy.. which is no surprise, we have Daniel.. he has energy for all of us!