Thank You, Laughing Water Farm

Bit of a late update this one. Last weekend was a long one, with no class on Monday thanks to Columbus Day, so we took advantage of it. A few of us were very kindly invited by Monisola to come along to visit a farm in Marion, South West Virginia, a six hour drive away(!) that was well worth it. We arrived late on Friday night to some very friendly people and some very tasty food. That was one of the trends of the weekend, incredible food, much of it straight from the farm itself. Roasted beef, goat, pork, pumpkin, grits, great green beans, real bread, fresh salad, we even tried a bit of squirrel... which tastes like rabbit, if anyone's wondering. After 7 weeks of campus food, it was amazing enough to sample all this fantastic cooking.

We went along to a farmer's market in Marion the next day, and got a bit of a feel for the town. To call it different is an understatement, it really felt like the kind of small town I'd seen on TV shows but never been to. Everyone seemed to know everyone and were incredibly friendly, chatting to us and making us welcome. A few people had a little singing session including Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, which I had to applaud, and there was even a little dance class at the market. Which I have to say, my roommate Yusuke was a natural at!

After a trip to a shop for the most amazing mint choc chip sundae you'll ever taste, and some surprisingly intense card games (Yusuke screaming "Asshole!" will stay with me forever) we did a few things in the evening. There was a trip to the Damascus Brewery, a nice little place to get a drink and chat (or sit and watch the over-21s drink. Thanks America), then a car trip in the pitch black seemingly up a mountain to visit some of our hosts' friends having a bonfire. It had been a long time since I'd been in the middle of nowhere around a campfire, which I used to love at Scouts, and it helped that we had a bit of moonshine to try. It's a famous American drink dating back to prohibition, when bootleggers brewed it illegally in places like bathtubs to avoid the government ban. It's still around today, although what we had was the legal regulated stuff and bought in a shop thankfully- apple pie flavored and surprisingly nice!

While there we learnt about Laughing Water farm and the Sprouting Hope garden as well, which was very interesting. It's great to see such a different way of life, and all the different types of things grown and animals raised. The things the Sprouting Hope garden does for the community are great, offering opportunities to both young children and others to join in and contribute. And it was fun to see all the animals as well, although none of them could match up to Goatley, the cutest baby goat you'll ever see. We did consider kidnapping her and taking Goatley back to GMU with us! There was also a corn maze adventure that, if we're honest, was a bit poor, and a taste of Dip Dogs (corn dogs) that I'm not sure I'd want to ever have again!

On our last day there we spent an epic 6 or 7 hours straight just cooking, as we returned the favour to our hosts. Me and Emily brought the British cuisine with Shepherd's Pie, Yusuke gave us Okonomiyaki (cabbage pancakes) from Japan and Monisola made some Nigerian meat pies which were great too. And we were treated to a proper strawberry and rhubarb pie- amazing food all round. Which matched the whole time- it was the best weekend I'd had in the U.S yet, and I'm very grateful to all the friendly people who made it a great one. So thank you Monisola, Hannah, Jason, Seth, and all the people down at Laughing Water farm. It'd be great to see y'all again sometime (had to put in a bit of the southern accent somewhere).

A

http://www.laughingwaterfarm.com/
http://www.sproutinghope.org/p/about-sprouting-hope.html

Shutdowns and Midterms

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyXHA7xiChc

I'm sure it didn't play out exactly like this, but I imagine Obama showed some of the Bartlet attitude!

I think before coming here I knew the American Government wasn't exactly efficient. A system based on the Separation of Powers to ensure a balanced system doesn't match the modern situation of deeply divided attitudes. Democrats and Republicans no longer seek the compromises sought in the past but stick to strongly entrenched views. Although the incumbent party are the Democrats, lead by President Obama and advocates of the Affordable Health Care Act, Congress who handle the budget are controlled by the Republicans. They refuse to pass a budget without defunding the act, commonly known as Obamacare, despite it being validated by the Supreme court and forming the basis of Obama's re-election a year ago. Call it justified use of power or irresponsible government, the crisis has left Congress unable to pass a budget for the new fiscal year, and as a result the Government shuts down until it is resolved. This means almost 800,000 federal employees have been sent home without pay for the past week and a half, National Parks have been closed, and non-essential departments have been closed. 

It hasn't directly affected us that much, other than a lot of places to visit in D.C being closed. It's a bit frustrating that I can't visit the Smithsonian Institution at the moment, especially since the week before I visited the National Gallery of Art to do some research for my Art History class. But more than losing resources, it's shocking how casual it's been treated. News networks had 'Countdown clocks' and 'Shutdown cam' following the live updates as congressmen did nothing but complain, waste time, and accept the inevitable shutdown. Essentially the result here is that the politicians have failed in their jobs, yet are still being paid to do nothing while thousands are out of work. It's a an embarrassment really, and makes you wonder if our system is all that bad.

Then you remember we ended up putting David Cameron and Nick Clegg into power, so maybe not!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AK8HfO6jXxA

Back on campus the work has started to pile up, especially now the Midterm exams have arrived. For two weeks I have four major exams, and a lot of revision to do. There's a constant system of assessment here that isn't as tough but the workload is much more. On the plus side we don't have January exams, but I'd rather the British system where you can take it pretty easy for a while before knuckling down to study for assignments. Plus our U.S Presidency lecturer told us that an essay is basically telling a story, something we've been taught to avoid for the past 9 years! Every now and then studying in America throws me off completely, but the material is really interesting and I am enjoying the classes. 

So until the work is out the way I'm not free to do that much, so we'll hopefully get off campus a bit more once Midterms are done. Maybe the Government will have caught up and gotten back to doing their jobs by the time we've sorted out ours. I'm imagining Obama will sort it out West Wing style.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HZOYoXY5Bs

A