My roomie's a cripple

Hey hey everyone,

This week was relatively uneventful, but nonetheless it was not without its good moments! And I mean, how bad could a week really be if there was a home football game?!

Monday 14 October

This morning was relatively uneventful. I did a little bit of study, but nothing really exciting until class.

We had another guest speaker in my journalism class today – the Chief Financial Officer of the athletics department. She spent about an hour talking about budgeting, where their revenues come from, where their expenses are, and the reasons for and behind certain costs. It was actually extremely fascinating and everything was so intricately planned out and organised. The $$ figures were so high, and I could see exactly why college athletics, particularly at an SEC school, is such big business.

Class got out early and I headed back to the dorm to get ready to go out to dinner. I went to a steakhouse in town and head the best piece of ribeye I’ve ever had. It was melt-in-your-mouth and massive!

Tuesday 15 October

Today’s first class, my drug crimes class, was spent mostly watching YouTube documentary videos about South American drug lords and cartels.

After class I went and paid off my bursar account (the student account where all my housing, meal plan, exchange etc. fees are charged) since today was the due date. My friends and I have spent the past few months taking out cash whenever we can, because paying our bursar accounts in cash meant we wouldn’t be charged any card fees. So I rocked up to the bursar’s office with $5400USD in $20 bills (since the ATMs over here only give out $20s), and I had to stand there for 10 minutes while the poor lady counted it all out. It was a relief to finally have it paid off, but now my bank accounts are looking very underwhelming haha.

In my family law class, we had a guest lecturer today – the author of our textbook that we’re using. It was little boring because I wasn’t really in the mood to actually learn content, but his stories of previous cases he’s worked on were pretty interesting.

Wednesday 16 October

As per usual we rode to the Grill for brunch today. The pasta lady has actually memorised my order since I get the same thing every time haha!

My professor didn’t really have anything more to say in today’s business negotiation class regarding our midterm grades, but it’s not really an issue for me. In our in-class negotiation exercises today, my partner and I were two of the only people to actually get a deal with the scenario, so that was pretty impressive!

I had Jimmy John’s for the first time tonight, which is a sandwich takeout like Subway but a little fancier and with a set menu (not make-it-yourself like Subway). It was alright, but Subway is better.

Spent the night chilling out with some Netflix.

Thursday 17 October

This morning was super relaxing, and my class this afternoon was super chill as well. All we’re doing at the moment is watching YouTube videos on drug cartels.

We went to the soccer tonight and watched the Rebs play Alabama. It was freezing and the bleachers were super packed because it was prize night and fraternity night (they had a raffle-type giveaway of several items, and the fraternity who rocked up with the most members was awarded a prize). We ended up drawing 1-1 with Alabama even after 2 overtimes.

(We always get to see pretty sunsets at the night soccer games!)

After the game finished and we’d gone home, we headed out to The Hub (off-campus housing) to celebrate Eamon’s birthday with some drinks in his apartment. Eamon is from Sydney, and he’s turning 22. It was so funny because Vera was super anxious about us celebrating Eamon’s birthday before his actual birthday (his birthday is next weekend but he’s away for the weekend) because in Germany that’s bad luck. We convinced her to come by reassuring her that saying ‘Happy Birthday’ in English would make the bad luck not count, and even if it did, it would stay in America. She was able to laugh it off. Eamon’s apartment was packed with people, mostly internationals, all drinking, playing games, chatting, dancing etc. so it was bustling! I wasn’t feeling great and wasn’t really in the mood to drink, so I just sat around chatting to people, and got Vera to drink my drinks in a drinking game.

Eventually alcohol ran out at the apartment, so everyone decided to head to the Square to go out. We spent about 40 minutes waiting out the front of The Hub in the freezing cold for the free bus to come, almost giving up, but it finally came. When we got to the Square, we headed to Fill Up With Billups as we’d heard they were selling 50c shots and $2 mixers tonight. Everyone was having a great time, but I still wasn’t feeling the greatest, so I got a friend to come and pick me up and take me back to the dorm.

Shortly after I arrived home, I heard my door unlock and several people come in. I came out of the bathroom to find Georgia on the floor with one shoe off and crying, and CJ, Ciara and Vera trying to lift her up onto her bed. It turns out that poor Georgia had tripped on air, fallen off a curb and twisted her ankle pretty bad. She was simultaneously laughing and crying; it was actually kind of hilarious (sorry G lol). We had to stop her from looking at her huge cankle so she wouldn’t keep crying. We helped her put ice on it, take her makeup off, change some clothes, and drunk Vera kept making everyone toast with butter and pepper even though no one asked for it haha. Eventually everyone cleared out and Georgia was able to get to sleep.

(This is how the girls had to get Georgia to our room. After having some of the buff German boys help them into an Uber, and then some boys from campus help them get her into the dorm building, they had to get her down our hallways. Piggybacking wasn't working, so this is what they had to do haha!)

Friday 18 October

We woke up this morning and Georgia was still in a fair bit of pain and her ankle had more swelling, so CJ and Ciara took her down to the health centre to get a check up on it just to make sure it wasn’t broken. The girls had to pop to Walmart, so I waited around for Georgia to be done so I could go and get her. She walked out of her appointment with crutches and a moon boot, and told me that the doctor had said it was just a bad sprain and would be healed in a few weeks. We made the trek back to the dorm – a walk that would normally take 3-4 minutes, but for poor, disabled, crippled Georgia, this uphill slope combined with a bung foot and crutches took 15 minutes to conquer. Thankfully I’m the best roomie ever and had some Papa John’s waiting for her in the room that I’d gone and bought just before I picked her up from the health centre.

At around 6pm, my friend (who I have been referencing in this post, and I’m not going to deny, is more than a friend) Dylan picked me up and took me to Tupelo for the night (a town north-east of Oxford and about an hour away, closer to the Tennessee border). We grabbed some Salsarita’s for dinner (a Mexican restaurant chain), and then wandered the mall there. He then drove me around Saltillo, a smaller town nearby Tupelo, to show me where he grew up. We even saw some Coyotes around! We eventually drove back to Oxford around 11pm, and spent the rest of the night chilling at his place.

Saturday 19 October

Game dayyyyy! This morning was slow and chilled, and I eventually started getting ready for the game around 2:30pm. We stopped by Rebel Market on our way to the Grove to get some food, and then headed into the action. We initially spent a bit of time in the Law tent with our friends Oscar and Sam, but then wandered on to find where our other friends were. I met up with Dylan along the way, and then we all hung at some fraternity tent that had free soft drink and free fried chicken – score!

Dylan and I headed into the game around 6pm because we wanted to get good seats. Unfortunately, we ended up sitting smack bang in the middle of a pack of fraternity boys and their dates, so we moved back a little and eventually found my friends.

The game was great as usual, except this time it was a little colder (a combination of the changing seasons and it being a night game). Ole Miss was ahead for a lot of the game, but unfortunately we ended up losing our lead and lost the game 24-17 which was a shame.

With 6:30pm games, they end up finishing so late and I’m so exhausted so I can never be bothered doing anything. Tonight was no exception, and so Dylan and I chilled out at his place.

(Dylan and I)

(Myself, Oscar, CJ and Dylan)

Sunday 20 October

I woke up this morning absolutely exhausted, which was a little annoying considering I’d gotten a decent amount of sleep. I spent the morning studying at Dylan’s and hanging out, and then his mum came over around 4pm. The afternoon was spent hanging out with her, and then we headed over to Dylan’s grandmother’s house where I also met his aunty, her partner, and one of his little cousins. While the family were chatting, I was entertaining the little 6 year old girl, Sarah Belle, who loved taking photos with Snapchat filters.

After hanging around there for a while, Dylan, his mum, his grandmother and I went to Bim Bam Burgers to have dinner. The burgers there were delicious! After this we headed to Walmart, then dropped his grandmother back home, headed back to Dylan’s, and then his mum left shortly after.

Dylan and I ended up heading to the library on campus around 11:30pm because his laptop had crashed and he had an essay due tomorrow, so he needed a computer. Thank goodness the library is open until 2am! Luckily he got it done super quick and we were back at his by 1:30am, and after a busy day, we both crashed.

So yes, ladies and gents, I’ve got a man in my life, and you’ll probably be hearing about him a bit more on here because we’ve been hanging out a lot. But also to come, I’m going on another little road trip next weekend, so tune in to find out where I ended up!

- Emily xx