Up the Clock Tower

Time: 5:35pm
Temperature: 6F
Location: Sprawled across my bed which has become a graveyard of chocolate wrappers (yes, parents, I know you are saying to yourselves "What's new with that?")
Emotion: Contented. Hello? Those chocolate wrappers weren't always empty...

Hello everyone, how are you? I'm doing great, thanks for asking! Everything's fine, weather's cold, and... I'm procrastinating! So far in the past hour I have discovered:

1. The king of hearts in a card pack is the only king without a moustache
2. Elephants are the only mammals which can't jump
3. There is a town in both West Norway and in Michigan, USA called Hell and every year, both freeze over

Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. The list of amazing things in this world is endless. I have discovered something incredible/astounding over here in America. I had mentally prepared myself for the excitement of Drive Thru food places, such as McDonalds, but I had no idea that America had Drive Thru banks and pharmacies! Whilst I may not approve of fast-food Drive Thrus (call me traditional, but you can't beat a sit-down, candlelit dinner in McDonalds), Drive Thru banks and pharmacies are revolutionary! Why do we not have these in the UK!? Rome Canzano and I stopped off at a Drive Thru bank so he could make a deposit. I have never been so excited, not even the day I discovered the remarkable likeness between an otter and Boris Johnson yawning.

NFL Superbowl
Okay, so many of you will know I'm not exactly Jessica Ennis when it comes to sport. To be quite honest, I'm more Honey Boo Boo's Mum when it comes to sport (if you don't know Honey Boo Boo or her Mum, good for you! It's a cantankerous reality TV program based on a six year old devil child who partakes in "Beauty" Pageants (with her intolerant, racist family) who all earn an exorbitant amount of money for their ignorance). I digress, back to what I was saying: I am not a huge sporting fanatic.

Sums up most of the game...

However, I decided to get into the spirit of things and experience one of America's most popular weekends of the year. And it was big. Tensions were rising throughout the week preceding the game. I don't know American Football. I don't know the rules of American Football, I don't know any famous players of American Football. So I'll admit it was probably a little pointless tuning in to 4 hours of American football (I say 4 hours, actually about 3 and a half hours were commercials and the half time was an hour and half long). I surprised myself by actually quite enjoying it. True, I wasn't staring at the TV for every second; I was mostly nostalgically reading Harry Potter. But it was fun watching the bits I did see and learning that it was the Broncos playing, not the Bronkies (as I previously believed).

Oh, and whilst I'm on the subject of sport, I feel I should quickly tell you that I, Lucinda Bourne Swinton Hunter, who managed to get out of all serious exercise for her entire time at school, went to the gym for the first time in 8 months last week. I have gone to the Y (the gym) every day, morning and evening, for the past two weeks and actually exercised! Please restrain yourselves... try not to have a heart attack... If you feel the need to hyperventilate from shock, please breathe! It is a shock, I know, but this is something I hope to continue. There was a slight mishap which I feel I should share. This Monday, I went to the Y and, as I was zipping up my rucksack with one hand (broken wrist is still a bit sore at this point), I punched myself in the eye with my good hand. Yes, you read that right. My hand dropped the rucksack and somehow connected to my eye. I then had to go to drug court with a watery, slightly bloodshot eye. This is not ideal when you are walking around a court designed to check for signs of drug or alcohol abuse.

For the literary among you, here's a poem:

There once was a gym called "The Y"

The finest from here to Dubai,

Luce gave it a go,

Pumped weights like a pro

Before punching herself in the eye.

Just call me Shakespeare.

Blizzard

If I'm asked what I'm getting out of this Rotary Exchange, my immediate response would be Pneumonia. We have reached temperatures cold enough to make Antarctica seem Mediterranean. The most extreme weather conditions I've seen were on Friday; it was a full-on, can't-see-more-than-a-metre ahead blizzard. Imagine old, analog television white noise. However clogged up the roads got initially (because it was swimming pool depth snow), the way the North Americans deal with snow is unbelievable. The roads were clear within a couple of hours. England, please adapt accordingly.

 Dinner with Kelly Guy

It took a couple of tries getting
everyone together........

But eventually we got a semi -decent pic!

On Wednesday, I had the great pleasure of having dinner with my Rotary counselor, Kelly Guy, and her family. She has the cutest little family ever; she and her husband (although he was working when I was there), three adorable boys, two crazy dogs and two cats. Not only were her boys there for dinner, but they also had invited two of their friends over to play so there were five hyperactive boys, all under the age of ten, playing ninjas and pirates. Oh, and there was me, of course! I'd never pass over the opportunity to be a ninja! Dinner was amazing; she'd cooked spaghetti and cookies for dessert. We shared our mutual love/guilty pleasure which was country music and had a pretty awesome time. Two highlights of the evening were as follows.

Kelly: So boys, we're going to do our tradition! *Turns to me* We basically have this tradition when we have guests over; we all go round and say something in the day we are grateful for.
*Everyone says something nice that has happened to them*
Kelly: Right, Jordan, do you want to go next? (FYI, Jordan is the youngest and unbelievably small and cute)
Jordan: My favourite thing today was meeting Lucinda and having her for supper.
Lucinda: *Almost cries from the adorableness*
...
Later in the evening, Jordan proceeds to make me a little bracelet out of elastic and I thank him for it...
Jordan: You will tell your family about me, won't you? You'll show them the bracelet and say I made it?
Lucinda: *I JUST CAN'T TAKE THE CUTENESS PLEASE JUST STOP*

Clock Tower
All readers, thank you for your patience: I realise this blog is a little longer than it normally is. I've just been doing a lot the past week or so. This picture on the left is the Phoenix building where I work with Rome Canzano and, as you can probably see, it has a very beautiful clock tower. The building is owned by a very cultured, interesting man called Andrew Simkin and he offered to take me up onto the roof and into the clock tower. Naturally, I eagerly accepted the offer. Not only did I get to see the mechanics of the clock, but I even got to wind up the Counter weight. I'll post a few pictures so you can see...

Okey dokey, that's probably enough to be getting on with for the moment! As per usual, a cat picture to brighten up your day (if my blog hasn't brightened it already...

can i licks this

Kisses,
Luce
xx



Oh, and here's a picture of Benedict Cumberbatch, simply because he is Benedict Cumberbatch: