Long Week

Thursday 7th April

First of all I am very sorry, its been a whole week and yea just been a bit busy so I guess this is gonna have to be a big recap.  My last blog post was mid-week of last week and I have done a lot during this short period of time.

The days have started to go a little faster and classes are less strenuous and more involved as I'm getting to know my schedule and my class mates a whole lot more than I did when I started at MBA.  After school on Thursday I headed on my first trip downtown, it was just a brief day out after school, as I wasn't particularly inclined to do my workouts after school that day.  I met up with Lachlan and Laura (his host mum) took us for a quick tour downtown, which was amazing to say the least.  It was like a mini city in itself, surrounded on both sides of the road with numerous amounts of cowboy boots and hat stores, along with a vast amount of "honkey-tonk" bars.  These bars always had a live band playing all day and most of the night, separated onto three different levels that had three different types of bands playing.  The atmosphere was so welcoming and I felt like coming back when I was 21 and able to drink would be a very fun experience to share with a few mates (if you have any).

During this time we also went out and visited the Parthenon, well not the real one but the replica located in the centre of Nashville.  It was amazing!  Since I'm taking Classics at school you could almost say that it was educational.  Pictures would explain it better than words can but I can give you a few facts about the Parthenon replica.

• The Parthenon was designed by Major Eugene Castner Lewis
• The original design was built in 1897 but was defaced and almost destroyed
• The newly built exterior was finished in 1925 and the interior in 1931
• It is a complete full scale replica of the Parthenon located in Athens
• It contains, inside it, a full scale replica of Athena (goddess) who is coated in a layer of gold three times thinner than cigarette paper

After spending the rest of the day downtown, I was dropped back off at school where I met a few of Joe's (my host billet) mates.  They were pretty cool guys and one of them invited me to see the rapper "Future" on this Saturday!!  Since I have listened to a bit of his music seeing him live would be absolutely amazing.  We had dinner at "Moe's", a Mexican fast food outlet (which are very popular in Tennessee for some reason).  The portions were massive!   

We were picked up by Joe and went back to MBA to get ready for FCA.  A christian programme run entirely by students at MBA.  It was surprisingly a very fun and involving experience where I met a few girls and guys from MBA and Harpeth Hall (sister school of MBA).  FCA went for around and hour and we headed back to the house and crashed after yet again another very long and tiring day.

Friday 8th April

Today was a normal day at school apart from the fact that school started half an hour later (so 8:30).  Didn't affect me however, as I was up at 6:30 not even knowing, which really annoyed me.  School operated normally and I was picked up after school finished by Tonya (my host mum) and we went home where I met her parents.  Robert and Tina.  They were a very lovely couple and I discovered over the next few days Robert's love for cards and how much better I am at Gin-Rummy than he is.  They took me to their grandsons soccer practise out at the primary school Walker goes to (Joe's younger brother).

It was here that I met a man who I heard speaking with a slight kiwi accent.  I asked where he was from and he said New Zealand!  But had lived in America for the past 14 years.  It was even weirder however, after talking for a while about the flag and NZ in general he told me he went to school at MataMata college!!  Which was absolutely absurd as it was the same high-school my mum attended, only 2 hours drive from where we live now.  It's funny sometimes how small the world really is. 

We left for the house again and organised to have dinner with Tony and his wife.  Tony is Tonya's brother and Roger's son.  They were the couple I met at the soccer game.  We had Mexican (yet again) but this time a takeaway from one of the "best Mexican places" in Nashville.  They were not wrong.  It was amazing, a bit spicy by very nice all together.  We got home at probably 9:30 and settled down for the night.  

Saturday 9th April

This morning was the morning I went turkey hunting - American style.  Joe and his family own a plot of land, about 150 acres about 45 minutes drive out in the countryside of Nashville.  It was 4 in the morning when we left so I didn't see much outside apart from a few car lights, that and the fact I spent most of the journey there sleeping.  It was so still where we were and all three of us (Rob, Joe and me) were in our full camo outfits waiting for a turkey to make its way out into the open field. 

None came so Joe and I started to move around the fringes of the valley, where we heard but didn't see any, for some time at least.  We didn't see any turkeys on our hunt and only one hen, which was then too far away to shoot.  So we came back empty handed but with an amazing experience of American turkey hunting.  

Later that day I joined up with Lachlan and we went back downtown and had a look in the "Nashville Country-Westen Museum" which contained all of the worlds best country music including Johnny Cash, Taylor Swift and Willie Nelson.  It was so busy however and took almost an hour to get into the museum.  The museum itself was amazing but it didn't impact on me that much, mostly because I'm not a very big country music fan but it was still amazing.

That evening was one of Joe's friends party where we played b-ball and got pizza.  I met a few more of Joe's mates and overall it was a good time.  That night finished around 10:30 when we finally got home.

Sunday 10th April

Today I had church, it started at 8:30 and was very, very full.  The church I went to was catholic, so a little different to the ones we have at school and went for and hour and fifteen minutes.  The rest of the day was pretty laid back and chill, although at the end of the day I went to MBA and watched their school band and choir performances which were very good to say the least.  Their choir consists of around 50 boys and 70 girls.  So a big sound was made in the auditorium, accompanied by the school band of around 20 students.  We had roast dinner at home with the whole family that evening and I prepared for the second week of my American journey at MBA.  

Goddess Athena

Parthenon

Lachie and I outside the Parthenon

Me turkey shooting

Joe's House

Johnny Cash Museum

Old record player

Lachie with gold and platinum records

Me with three story wall of records

Johnny Cash's Car

Jackson (Lachie's Billet) and Lachie in a guitar

Small picture of Downtown

MBA and Harpeth Hall combined Choir and Band

Old photo of the Parthenon

The Jet Lag is Real...

So, I'm sitting at my third day at MBA and I can definitely say that the Jet lag is kicking in.  In most lessons I'm struggling to keep both eyes open, which I'm sure is posing a great impression to all the teachers in my classes.  Anyway, last night I had a dinner with all of the current exchange students at MBA at the moment.  In total, there are around 8 of us and will be 10 next week as the boys from Christ's College are coming up on Monday next week.

The dinner was yet again amazing, like all the lunches before it.  It was deep fried chicken with a banana custard dessert along with the vast selection of drinks.  Along with a short speech from the school's principle Mr Joyer who is unfortunately going into chemo today due to his battle with cancer.  All the best wishes go out to him and his family.  

I had my first sporting activity after school yesterday and it was so hard.  Its called weight strengthening and conditioning and its done in the schools weights room.  For a start the room itself is about half the size of Lindisfarne's gymnasium, which makes it massive.  The coach that took the programme is this big Irish guy called Mr Gilles.  All he seems to do is motivate you and blow your eardrums out in the process.  He's mainly in charge of coaching the football (American Football) boys to get them in shape for next season.  

Homework in general isn't too bad.  Well, thats for me at least.  After having a look into the classes assignments and course entries for each subject I am taking, there are is at least a graded test every week (so an internal every week), and have at least two or three assignments going at the same time.  Along with these things the boys here have to study for their upcoming exams (as their semester is almost over), which I just cannot understand how it can be done.  The work load at MBA is incredible and finding time to do what you want after school (after doing your compulsory sport every day after school) seems almost impossible.  I think Lindisfarne is the way to go on that front.  

Hopefully the jet lag starts to wear off soon because I am almost having to use my two study periods per day just to catch up on sleep, oh well.  But, don't get me wrong this is an experience that I am very happy with and is challenging me in very many different ways.  I am starting to look at joining some of the various clubs that they have on campus.  Some of which include groups like the chess club, the boxing club, the book club, the League of Legends club, Choir club and many many others.  I am thinking of joining the choir for a bit maybe, only because it seems pretty cool as 50 others boys are in it.  It also helps that Lachlan's billet is in it as well and we seem to get on pretty well.

Well three days down and only three and a half weeks to go and I'm loving it in every way possible.  With more to look forward to outside of school as well.  I think later in the week my family is thinking of taking me to see Mumford and Sons perform live somewhere in Nashville, which I am absolutely stocking about!  Small things as well like visiting some of the restaurants and things all still need to come and who could forget the shopping where everything is so much cheaper here than in NZ.  This is all to come in the next few weeks and I can't wait.
(No photos this time sorry, maybe later)       :)

First Day at MBA

Waking up to my first day of school at an "academy" was not in the slightest bit nerve recking.  The hardest bit was getting out of bed for a start since the jet lag was still taking its toll on the operating speed of my brain.  How was it going to go? I had no clue at all.  I was greeted by my host family with an interesting brekkie which consisted of a sausage in a bun, disconnected in the shape of a pie.  

We headed off to school at around 7:15 where I was introduced to the head of exchanges at MBA along with a few other administration staff who were very encouraging a welcome to Lachlan and I.  We then proceeded to get the grand tour of the school, which left my neck sore after a solid 2 hours of gazing up at the vast buildings and structures that were scattered throughout the school grounds.  I cannot even begin to describe with few words what the school looked like in person, mainly because you can't write about something that cannot be described with words.  

In total there were 8 different buildings on site, along with 2 large artificial turf playing fields, that contains a football pitch surrounded by an athletics track, and a soccer field with an underground gymnasium and parking garage.  The scale of the school was absolutely crazy and it never ended!

The five classes that I was scheduled to attend for the four weeks I'm attending MBA are:

• American History
• English
• Geometry 
• Modern European History
• Studio Art

First class of the day was actually an assembly in an auditorium about three times the size of the one at school, during this time me and Lachlan were introduced to the whole school which wasn't in any way scary at all.  I then recalled from the tour previously where my first class was American History.  The class was only made up of 14 people, as I found out later the maximum class sizes at MBA were 16, which was reasonably good considering there were 750 boys in attendance.  After a brief study period of 20 minutes I had my next class, Modern European History, which to be honest, covered the same things that American History did.  Oh well, at least I was getting a good understanding of the topic.  

Lunch finally arrived and I can't even begin to tell you how hungry and excited I was to dig into my first american college meal.  There were so many things that were available to be eaten!  First of all I decided to try out the hot selection for the day, wraps with chicken and a vast selection of salads.  Now to the pizza bar, which had hot pizzas freshly made in a pizza oven on the school campus!  I tried the classic cheese and tomato pizza which was amazing and waited it down with an iced tea, which was very, very sweet.  

It's interesting the timetable that is used at MBA and I'm unsure as to if the schedule is used all over America but its split up into eight periods.  These eight periods also include, lunch and two studs periods per day.  So altogether five lessons (same as in NZ) were attended per day, but for some odd reason it felt like you were sitting through hours and hours of class per day.  This was only my first day and I already struggling to deal with the first half of the school day.  Maybe it was because of the jet lag because I'm pretty sure in last period (Studio Art) I fell asleep.

I was taken home by Joseph (my billet) as he had just got his license earlier in the day and stopped by at one of his "girlfriends" houses where we all talked for a bit about the similarities and differences in America and New Zealand.  We later went home where we had a lovely gnocchi dish with some Italian sausages.  I handed out a few gifts to Tonya and Joseph and just watched TV for some time (there are 2,100 channels on TV).  

Later that night Tonya, Turner and I drove down to this Nike outlet mall where really cheap (well relatively cheap) Nike items were sold.  After purchasing a $30 pair of shorts (they were like made of "fat pants" material) we headed home after a long first day being an exchange student at MBA.  (Some photos of the school grounds)

Flight to Nashville - Tennessee

The flight to Nashville started on the 3rd of April at 12:20pm where Lachlan, Jamie, Nick and myself departed on our 32 hour overall journey to Montgomery Bell Academy located in Nashville, Tennessee.  The flight to Auckland was less stressful than I anticipated and we hastily moved through customs in Auckland after downing a Subway and KFC.  The flight flew out from Auckland bound for Houston left at 4:00pm with a total flight time of 12 hours and 45 minutes.  

After landing in Houston after a seemingly never-ending flight we moved carefully through customs, collected our bags and transited to the C section of the airport.  The weather in Houston was very similar to Auckland, 24 degrees with a slight cloud cover.  Even though we never actually left the airport it was clear that America was a very "big" place.  

Overall we had 8 hours between our arriving and departing flights between Houston and Auckland, and Houston and Nashville.  So the never-ending wait began, after wasting our time in every way possible, which included Lachlan spending a large portion of time browsing the vast selection of mens colognes for the extended period of an hour, we sat down and tried to rest up on some of the sleep we had lost on the way across.

Nick and Jamie however had a closer flight time than ours but an extra flight transfer to do as they were going to a different school to us.  Me and Lachie decided to go for a little stroll while they other boys waited for their plane to arrive, little did we know that when we returned their plane had already been boarded and they were on their way.  Oh well, they left on their flight without us, which didn't really bother us at all.  

So here I sit waiting for the flight to Nashville, sicko way to start the exchange. :)