Homeward Bound

As this week is quiet a busy one for me with numerous deadlines and a couple of mid-term exams I probably won't have anything exciting to write to you all about.

So to make up for it I will announced that it is now confirmed that I will be returning to England on friday 15th May so will arrive at some time on the saturday morning.

In fact it is now less than 3 months until my returning which makes me think that there is in fact an aweful lot to do before I leave that right now seems like quite a long way away.

NWC 1st Annual Benefits Ball

Friday 13th February was the NWC 1st Annual Benefits Ball, and it was announced that night that the money raised that night would be given to the people of Lone Grove who's town was obliterated by the F4 tornado earlier on in the week.

The destruction left behind at Lone Grove

It was nice to have the opportunity to dress up and have a dance, the evening started off with a lesson for waltz but it was much quieter then and was quite a strange thing to do so I decided to watch instead and take some pictures. Later on it was more like a disco and there was a small buffet.

Becky, Charlotte (Reading grauate now doing post grad in Oklahoma) and I

The theme was dancing in the moonlight and so the globe had images of the surface of the moon projected on it and there were fairy lights strewn between the balconies of the second floor to make the starlight, and a red carpet to walk down when you arrived.

Watching people learing how to waltz

Later on in the evening lots and lots of balloons were released from the top floor and rained down onto the dance floor.

All in all it was a fun evening. (Becky, Rob Lee, Rob Graham and Laura)

First Chase of the 2009 Season

Tuesday 10th February was the first storm chasing day of the 2009 season and was a very good day with 6 tornadoes dropping in Oklahoma during the day.We set out south to go chasing past Ardmore. We spent ages looking for a good storm to follow but storms kept dissipating and around 6 we were just about given up for the day and were about to set out home when about 5 minutes later the storm we were hoping to follow flared up again and we set off chasing it. We stopped to watch the formation and were so excited about it that we missed that actual tornado forming by about 10 minutes, then it crossed the Red River and the road we were on wasn't any where near a bridge- it's a very wide river- so we missed actually seeing the tornado but we did see the tornado funnel lifting from the ground and die. And so we stopped to watch the storm. There was a huge anvil cloud and in it there were constant flashes of lightening as lots of hail was being produced inside. Satisfied we set off back home trying to follow the squaw line so that we could have a light show of lightening as we drove home. we stopped in Gainsville in Texas for some food and found out that 2 of the stroms behind us has dropped tornadoes in places we'd been earlier in the day.

Late on in the evening as were were on the final stretch home we heard reports on the radio about a town we'd passed earlier in the day and it had been hit by a tornado and 3 people had been killed and more people unaccounted for, it now stands at 7 people dead so it was a sobering report to bring us back to relaity and remember that tornadoes are violent and that our excitement has masked this. I believe that the tornado was measured at a category 4.

Here are a few pictures of the scenes that we saw ourselves.

Norman Chocolate Festival

Saturday 7th February was the Norman chocolate festival held at Norman High School.
Sandy and John took me and Becky to the chocolate festival today. Becky and I set off walking down to meet John and Sandy at Cafe Plaid for an early lunch and immediately were thankful that we had our sun glasses and decidedly roasting in our light weight jackets! It was 24C today which was totally amazing though it looks like its going to get cold again soon.

We ate in Cafe Plaid where I had the hugest sandwich ever, it was delicious, but I couldn't finish it and the half I couldn't eat had to be put in a box to take home for tomorrow's lunch!

Then we went on to the festival. When we got there we were given tickets which allowed us to take 10 samples of things on offer so there was a bit of browsing to be done first. Looking round there were lots of cake companies and they had really beautifully decorated cakes on display. Eventually we found 10 samples we wanted to take away with us which are still not finished and happily sat in the fridge right now. There were acouple of other stands too where we were given complimentary samples such as chocolate snow cones, lollies, chocolate covered strawberries and sweet and sour meatballs (they didn't quite fit into the theme but were welcome after the sugaryness).The butterfly was so colourful and made of sugar and really made the cake pop I loved this dog about the size of my head and the stand it sat on made entirely of chocolate This was on of my favourite cakes it was so beautiful and there was so much attention to detail as you can see in the close up below

This had to be my other favourite, it must have taken ages to put all of the flowers on to it but its well worth it for the finished look After we got back I took advantage of it being such a nice day and went out into the hot tub for a while and have noticed that just from this afternoon I'm already starting to develop a bit of a tan, so strange for only the first week of february. Maybe the ground hog was right after all?!

In the evening all of us and Larissa went to play bowling which was really fun even though I didn't manage to win any of the games and we took a trip to IHOP for people wanting pancakes and ice cream, whilst waiting we managed to fit the eight of us on the waiting bench.

From left: Pete, Me, Becky, Rob Graham, Rob Lee, Larissa, Laura and Rob Warren.

Me stood with the display at the stand for chocolate cinnamon swirls which had a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory theme

Ground Hog's Day

Groundhog's Day. Now that I know what it is I still don't understand why they make such a big deal about it. On the 2nd of February the ground hog is supposed to come out of his hibernation and if he looks at the ground and sees his shadow then the winter will continue for 6 more weeks, but if he sees no shadow then the winter is over. Aparently winter is going to end for us but who knows. It's unreliable, but at least it provides us with a reason to go out and have fun. The meteorology department put on a night at O'Connell's Irish bar and I paid just $5 to enter and ws provided with a huge pizza and unlimited beer which was not overly nice but it was free so hey! and then kareoke. We all joined in on Bohemian Rapshody as that song was for the seniors so there were about 12 of us arond the 3 mics!

It provided lots of entertainment, and then on returning home and feeling in the mood for a walk a couple of us set out for a walk which turned out to be for an hour and a half and covering almost 4 1/2 miles!

Here are some pictures of the night.... Looks like Rob Warren and Dean shouldn't have downed that free beer!

Rob Graham, Laura and Rob Warren awaiting the giant pizzas

Rob Lee and I