Solo cups

This weekend I stayed in town - first weekend since my first weekend here, crazy I know. We stayed in town for my friend Amanda's 21st birthday. She was having a party in Manchester and wanted all of us to meet her family.

The greatest thing about this party was the solo cups. Her mom brought solo cups all the way from the States on special request. We had told the English students that solo cups were coming, and they couldn't even believe it. They thought that the red cups they saw in movies were just a product of the movies, not something Americans actually used. I don't think they realise we use them for EVERYTHING. We were missing them so much we even looked on Amazon to see if they sold them in the UK - a pack of 1,000 costs 200 pounds!

I have my first paper due next week, so I've been trying to go to the library and work on it. What's baffling to me though is that the wireless connection on this campus is completely unreliable. I can understand not having wireless in dorms, but not having it in classes, and let alone the main libraries - I honestly don't understand how they think this is a modern campus. I feel like I'm living in the Stone Age.

It's hard being a Tar Heel fan from abroad. I still can't figure out how to watch games online, so I just have to do my nail bitting while getting periodic updates of the score. I'm sad we didn't win the ACC tournament, but I'm so excited for the NCAA where I'm of course making the Tar Heels win - last time I did, they actually went all the way! I'm appalled that my favorite newspaper picked UNC to lose in the second round, might have to take a break from the WSJ while the tourney's in progress.

On a continuing positive note - Harrison Barnes and Kendall Marshall made the Freshman All-American 1st and 2nd teams. And UNC is playing Michigan State on 11/11/11 (Veteran's Day) on an aircraft carrier - read the full article here.