Through Airports

Time: 5:14PM in NY America
Temperature: -12C - Sorry, I forget this is America: 10F
Location: Reva Rollerdrome (owned by Ferros)
Emotion: Tired.


So, two long flights, a short car journey (on the wrong side of the road to Britain) and I finally arrive at the Ferro's home where I'll be staying the next 2 weeks. So far, very cold; on 7th January, we reached lows of -20Celsius. I have been really busy this first week settling in, getting organised and unpacking a suitcase full of things I probably don't/won't need. I have discovered that apparently the English language as I know it is "wrong"; I should call a carpark a parking lot, a tap a faucet, chips fries, etc. I also reached a moment of pure, unadulterated happiness when I discovered that Walmart (the Tescos of America) had British tea!

But, in order to keep this blog fairly to the point, I'll just say a few exciting things that happened this week.

Working with Rome Canzano/David Tehan
Starting Tuesday this week, I started my work experience with 2 of the 3 lawyers who I will be shadowing over the next 2 months. I shadowed Rome Canzano, a specialist in Criminal Law, on Tuesday/Wednesday and David Tehan, a real estate and business lawyer, on Friday.

With both lawyers, the first hour or so was just introductions and getting to know eachother. Then, with Rome, we went to the local Law courts and I experienced criminal justice first hand. The one thing I will say about criminal trials, is that they are fairly brutal and very eye-opening. All the cases I witnessed were felonies (jail time of at least 1 year). I won't go into too much detail about the cases, particularly because a few were quite frankly disturbing, but also because I'm not sure what level of discretion is required with the cases. With David, I learned a fair amount just on the go; I witnessed a Closing of a house being sold (i.e. they gave the clients some keys). I'm starting to realise the large number of differences between the English and the American Legal system.

Some exciting random trivia: a picture of me somehow found it's way into the newspaper. I feel pretty infamous.



Rome and me at the Rotary meeting





American High School
I can safely say that "Mean Girls" is the only reference I have used to judge the American High School System. So it was with a slightly anxious mind when Ellen Ferro suggested I spend the Thursday of the first week in the High School, following Vinnie Ferro (senior) around for the day. I was in for a pleasant surprise; the people I met were awesome. They seeemed slightly in awe of the fact I was British and I spent most of the day surrounded by "Oh my gaaad, are you from England? How do you say [insert random American word]?". I  took the greatest pleasure in using google to introduce crumpets to the other side of the pond. Not only this, but I experienced some of the lessons; Econ, Engineering (car parts? I really wasn't sure what we were looking at for most of the lesson), English, Maths and Film Class (this class is without a doubt one of the most easy/fun classes I've ever been to). The most interesting class was certainly English; they were studying Oedipus Rex by Sophocles. Now, pretty much everyone knows that I am going to study Classics at university and that I studied Oedipus Rex at school last year. These were the proceedings.

Teacher: Right, class, we're going to go through some basic vocabulary you will need for this play. [begins listing lots of basic words]... and the next word is Pythian (he pronounces Pie-Theon)
Lucinda: *looks up, surprised*
Teacher: And the next word is... maenads (he pronounces it "meeenads")
Lucinda: *narrows eyes*
Teacher: And lastly, we have Delphi (pronounces it delph-EYE)
Lucinda: *cracks knuckles*
Yes, I know this is America, so they pronounce words very differently, but this doesn't excuse the fact he went on to make comments which were incorrect. I wouldn't consider myself a particularly shy person or someone easily embarrassed, so when the opportunity arose, I went on to correct him on all his mistakes as well as make some extra points which my dear Mother taught me in my Classical Civilisation Lessons at school.

The result was that all the students asked the teacher if I could stay for good and teach their English classes instead! #Granter (greek banter)



Lacrosse Game
Both Vinnie and Sammy Ferro play box Lacrosse and it was really cool to be able to watch both of them play on 9th January. I knew that Men's lacrosse was violent, but nothing could have prepared me for the game: sticks flying everywhere, shoulder barging, hitting eachother round the head with sticks, scrums against the wall. Although I winced in sympathy when a player went flying, seeing them all play together makes me want to go back to a sports team. Maybe at Durham I can take up mixed Lacrosse or something along those lines.

Food
Perhaps it is a little shallow to have a whole subheading dedicated to food, but I feel this must be made. The food over here, while mostly ridiculously unhealthy, is unbelievable. I did bring a couple of comforts from home with me (like Marmite, a few teabags etc), but there was really no need. Here's a short list of foods which make life incredible:

• Lucky Charms
• Fruit Loops
• Twizzlers
• Warheads
• Sour Patch Kids
• Hershey's chocolate
• Frozen Yoghurt
• Lays crisps

If the CEO of Tescos just happens to be surfing the web and stumbles upon this; get on it, now! Supply these foods and sell them as cheaply as they sell them in America! THANK YOU!

Alright, my lovelies... I think that's enough for this week. Let's hope things are as exciting next week as they were this week!

Kisses,
Luce