In Tega Cay

At last I got an access to computer!

Saturday 27.7



At morning we left for Columbia with Donát, Charlotte and Dave. At Columbia I met the rest 9 campers, which included 4 boys and 7 girls (including me and Donát). What a great group!! We got to know each others and ate some hot dogs. Then we packed ourselves to two mini vans. In the other car there was me, Dutch Pauline, Belgian Shania, Spanish Miguel and Donát and Giulio who I already knew. Our first destination was Columbia College. We lodged ourselves to our cells – everyone got an own room, which had a plastic covered hospital bed and I really felt I was in jail. Well, it’s not as bad as it sounds like, we thought it was just funny. After all, we hadn’t practically paid a cent, so how can we expect a luxurious accommodation? We did get a hard blanket, so it’s not that bad. The worst thing was that it was so cold in the room, I’d have liked to open the windows so that the humid, warm air would have warmed up my room. After we had settled down, we returned to mini vans and left for Newsberry to watch Elvis Presley. Well, actually we saw Rick Wade imitating Elvis, which was horrible. I really can’t describe it, he looked like drunken, old, fat gypsy. He was all sweaty, and some crazy ones fancied his sweaty towels. Gross, huh? All I got was a headache. After meeting Elvis we returned to college and ate cake as an evening meal, and went to bed.

My 3-day's suite in Columbia!

Sunnuntai 27.7

I found my passion in Riverbank's.

In the morning it took a while to realize I’m in college campus instead in jail. Last night I woke up many times since the bed and the blanket were so hard. Also the pillow is plastic covered. After I had recovered from the shock this awakening caused, I left for McDonalds for breakfast. For real. It didn’t look like a breakfast, but that’s how it’s called. After the “breakfast” we left for Riverbanks Zoo. Nothing special, but we had fun. Me and Shania got a possibility to feed lorikeets, which was awesome. I truly love parrots! One of the lorikeets bit my finger. The heat was so bad, like usually in South Carolina. I almost miss the climate in Finland! After the zoo was picnic time – PIZZA!! Then it was time to explore the history of South Carolina in national museum. Museum is always a museum and I’m not very keen on history, but this was something more. The 3 hours in the museum were kind of interesting. Most of the time we spent in the science section by testing all kinds of gadgets. Mostly this means that we just messed around, like usually. After the museum we left for BBQ to some Lions person. We had some great time, swimming and trying to learn each other’s languages. Donát turned out an expert in pronouncing Finnish. Typical BBQ: hot dogs, hamburgers, ribs and some other BBQ stuff. We were so tired but no one really wanted to go to sleep, so we played a silly Italian card game called Merda, “shit”. The thing that Giulio, with his unique English, tries to explain the rules makes the game even more interesting. Lots of laugh, but at last I was just too tired to stay awake. It was going to be an early awakening next morning, so I fell a sleep in my stony bed.

SWAT- squirrel

Maanantai 28.7

Being very tired, we tucked ourselves into minivan and fell asleep as soon as we got there. We ate American-style breakfast at Hardy´s, which means FAST FOOD! After that it was time to go to national park. That was probably one of the prettiest places I’ve ever visited in my entire life. We choose pairs and and went to canoes. It was time for 3 miles canoe trail! It was fun, but after 2 miles our shoulders were in pain. But it was totally worth it, the nature was like in story books. Silence was intimidating. The worst thing was that the place was full of natts. I mean an insect that bites. Even the place is famous for it’s snakes, we saw only one nonpoisonous one. No wonder, I bet that 7 crashing canoes must be quite scary for wild animals. I and Pauline were so faint on our way back, we got stuck on branch and had no power to free ourselves. We sang songs and listened to music, and finally reached the base, where the others were already looking for us. In the national park we ate some hamburger for lunch. After the lunch we headed for some Lions club and ate some delicious ice cream. Then it was time to explore the local peach farm. It was so cold there (inside, where they packed the peaches, I mean) and I didn’t like the smell. We ate some home-made peach ice cream, very tasty. We met Pauline’s host sister and some friends of her. Guess what was before the peach farm? What is the most common pastime in America? What else than FOOOOD! The dinner was in Shealy’s BBQ- place, which was a buffet. I was already all full and felt so sorry for the Lions Club that had paid a lot to feed us, but I managed to eat only one steak. After the steak it was time to make some plans for afternoon, no one really desired to go to sleep. So we decided to go to cinema, we all agreed that Wanted is the movie we want to go watch. The movie started at half past 10, so we were quite tired after having woke up 6 o clock. I still managed to keep my eyes open and focus on the movie ‘til the end of the movie. It was really confusing, and a bit scary. First a man doesn’t know what he is, until he is told that his father is dead and his mission is to kill people. Then everything is a betrayal and he kills his dad since he doesn’t know that he was his dad. Finally everyone got cheated and the man kills a group of serial killers plus his ex girlfriend. The result is, I guess, that the man is a serial killer and is able to work in slow motion and steer bullets. Half of the group fell asleep during the movie.

29.7



In the morning we got a chance to sleep longer, and the breakfast was Southern style grits instead McDonalds. That’s not my favorite, but definitely beats McDonalds. After the grits we left for Carowinds, on our way we watched a movie about a black diver, which was good. In Carowinds we choose first to go to the hardest ride, where you lie on your back and you are upside down 70% of the ride. I enjoyed it, and it wasn’t half as bad as it looked like. The worst thing was that you couldn’t see where you were going since you lied on your back. It took some half an hour to get to the ride, since the queue was extremely long. After this we took 2 other rides, that were ok but I didn’t consider them scary at all. Me, Miguel and Henriikka and Freya went to Viking boat which twirled all around and to Free Fall. After that many of us had headache and Miguel had migraine. It was unbelievably hot day, probably closer to 40 degrees and no clouds at all. Water Park felt so good on my sweaty skin. I think I’m just too old for water slides, since I didn’t feel any adrenaline in my veins. I loved the landscapes up in the water slide, you could see clearly the capital of North Carolina, Charlotte. We were so tired after being in Carowinds for 6 hours and left for Tega Cay for picnic. The food was just excellent, I ate REAL food for the first time for a long time instead fast food. We went boating to the Lake Tega Cay. Me and Beatrice got a fancy accommodation by the lake, and here I am! In the morning it’s time to head for the upstate area of the state, the city of Spartanburg.