2008 South Carolina: Finally - Myrtle Beach!!

This is where my host family lived: Marion in South Carolina

This is our roadtrip! Over 1000 miles.

Finally we get in to what happened exactly a month ago; Myrtle Beach!! It's a long time and I miss already my time in South Carolina and especially the people there so much. We have planned some kind of reunion with the group and a meeting in Budapest has been just one idea among the others. But, let's return to what happened in South Carolina..

On my way to home .
We didn't speak too much on our way to Florence. Sally gave me my back and so we went in to our small airplane, after saying good byes to Charlotte & Dave. I took a deep breath of the warm and humid Carolina- air before I climped to the small air plane. After the plane had took off I started to feel terribly sad, now I had to say good bye to the state I love. That was the last time to see South Carolina for a long time. I truly love that country, tha state, those places, that climate and those landscapes. I love every hill, field, swamp and beach South Carolina has. Even more I love those people that live in South Carolina. I'm sure I'll come back to South Carolina some day. In New York we flew just beside Manhattan, and I can finally say I've seen New York City in all it's grandeur. It was funny to be in exactly the same spot I had been 6 weeks ago, full of hope. I had gained even more I ever had expected. Now it was all over, and I feel like it was just week when I saw the fast food restaurant where black mean lady didn't serve us. The flights passed quickly and so did the day. At home I went so see my friends, trying to understand I was really in Finland and I shouldn't use English anymore. In my dream I was still in South Carolina. It takes time to get used to speak Finnish again, when heart desires to America to speak and listen to that sweet and gentle southern accent...

The City that never sleeps...

4th day Myrtle Beach > Marion > Mullins > Columbia > Marion

DonUt and Ferrari :) (Donát truly loves cars and taking pictures with them, once the owner of the car showed up just when we were taking a picture :D)

In the morning we had to pack our stuff and leave MB and all the precious memories. On our way to Marion we stopped to Mullins Tobacco museom. It was interesting in some way, but nothing isnpired us when we knew what was going to happen: the good byes. We just tried to enjoy each other's presence as much as we could. Then is the last lunch. Benton and Blakely were also with us, I had to say good bye to them as well. Too many good byes for a small girl like me. It felt horrible that this was our last lunch, we had eaten so many unforgettable lunches in different places together. The atmosphere was melancholic. In Columbia we felt bad already in the beginning of the "last gathering", but it became much worse when one of our leaders, Jim, put some beautiful things about our time together into words. We just couldn't help crying. So we cried, laughed and tried to take pictures at the same time. The thing that our food in trailer had spread all over caused some cheer to our down moods. Last hugs and that's it. I had left behind the best times of my life. Only thing that makes me feel better, is that I can recall these times and I will see these friends in the future, that's for sure. I owe so much to Lions Club for changing my life, for real. This journey changed my way of thinking and helped me to know myself better, everyone should do this. We didn't speak anything on our way to Marion. There Lexi and Emily came to say good byes to me. I hate saying good byes to things I like so much. I started to pack my stuff and listened to some country station. I've started to like country music, it somehow resembles South Carolina. I noticed that I had left one of my bags to Columbia. Sally calls to say that she got it and will give it back to me in Florence airport the next day. I couldn't get sleep, I had just too many things in my mind.

Last hugs

Messy messy messy... :)

3rd day in Myrtle Beach

... I haven't mentioned about the problems that 2 showers cause for 14 persons in one appartment, who go to the ocean and to pool 3 times a day. And the panic that beasts called "Palmetto bug" living in our room cause. I succeeded in killing one monster by hitting it 100 times by hair brush. At last my brush was full of bug's flesh. And then Joyce, who is too conservative to lead and understand us. But we won't let her to deflate us, instead of that we make fun of it. Still, we know how to behave.




We were on beach, swimming pool and visited to Ripley's aquarium. Funny creatures, I like fishes and other underwater creatures. If I don't remember wrong, we were also in Wal-Mart, like we do often! WE LOVE SHOPPING IN WAL-MART! This was going to be our last night here, so we decided to do something entertaining. It's a pity, that it's thundering, so we can't stay outside. :( We sat in living room and talked all night long. Some of us slept on couch or on the floor. The atmosphere begun to turn into melancholic, when we realised this was going to be our last night together here.

Room, where sleeps 4 persons, looks like this..

2nd day in Myrtle Beach

Beach and pool for the whole day! 10 in the morning we woke up and headed for the endless sands of Myrtle Beach. Finally I fulfilled my dream: jogging along the waterline, when the beach lasts forever! We swimmed many hours and had fun. We buried each others to sand and enjoyed, once again, the beautiful and sunny day. Finally we got enough to stings of jellyfish, sand and salt water, and moved to pool. There we floated on mattresses, ate water mellon, drank coke and got tanned. We all admitted: This is the life! The feeling was relaxed, calm. We went to eat some dinner, and after that shopping to Colonia Mall. I got lost in the very beginning, but I found 4 shirts!


In the evening we went back to swimming pool! That's what I call FUN! We made so much noise, weird that no one came to complain, it was quite late. We chased each others, ran around the pool, threw balls and shot by water gun. Sally said to one of the hostel residents: "Don't worry, they're from Europe, they're... different" :D It was about 1 o clock in the night when we went back inside. After drying ourselves a bit we headed for the shops, that are open 24/7 in the great city of Myrtle Beach! The evening was full of typical amusement.

1st day in Myrtle Beach

It's RRRReggy!

Donát and our at least 6-stars-hotel



It's SPLASH!

First we gathered to Charleston, and then continued to our pit stop, the city of Georgetown. We ate lunch at continued to Myrtle Beach, that we had been waiting for. Finally we were in our "glorious" motel! It was a small building, that had 3 bedrooms (2-3 bunk beds in every one of them), 2 toilets, kitchen and living room. So we all 14 persons slept there. First we found a dead cockroach from our room, or they are called "Palmetto bugs" here, and then we found another one, and that one was LIVING! We all screamed and bounced in small space trying to kill it, with no avail. Then we went to eat to some kind of pizza buffet, Charlotte and Dave had come over to see me. The cleaner of the restaurants tried to make a record by cleaning table as fast he ever could, all sweaty. I must admit he was quite quick, it took just about 5 seconds to clean one table full of dirty plates and stuff. Then we went to MB Pelicans' baseball game, that I had been waiting for! Professional baseball game, finally! Donát threw the opening pitch! I loved the game, pity that the others didn't. They just don't understand the greatness of baseball! Mascots Splash and RRRREGGGYYYY amused us. :) Reggy is my favorite! We got bored with the game (or the others did, I didn't) and we went to look around the stadium. It was huge. American baseball games are much more tedious than Finnish baseball games, it lasted for 4 hours, I would say. The opponent team, Indiands, led until Pelicans made a home run and won the game! The ending was smashing, fire works and stuff! It was already night and still 28 degrees. They play the games late in the evening, probably because it's just too hot to play in midday.

Donát after pitching!

After the game we returned to the motel and then left to catch some "night life". It was about midnight when we went swimming to the ocean. The beach was almost empty except some fishers, shell collectors and odd guys. Some of us went swimming and some took pictures bouncing along the beach cheerfully. Some people in the beach were REALLY weird and a bit scary, there was one black guy who practiced some kind of martial art, and some who asked if we have cigarettes or "something else". We asked from the fishermans if they've got any fish and what kind of fishes are they fishing and the answer was: SHARKS! They said that sharks come to the shallows in the night time and we were just like baits there! I hope they were kidding. They should have said something if we were swimming with sharks. But there ARE sharks in Myrtle Beach area, that's not a joke. I read it from the newspaper how someone had seen a shark in this area. It was about 2 o clock when we returned to the motel. Today a notorious leader JOYCE joined us. She is really conservative and was indignant about we being outside in the city so late. She said that we disregard the rules, which is not true, we are in our best behaviour - we just like to have some fun, which is not illegal.

Girls just wanna have fun :---)

NC & Kiawah

4.8

After an early awakening I was ready to go explore Storm Eye Institute, of which Thomas asked us to prepare ourselves that it's going to be really boring. And it was. It was an 2-hours epxploration of an eye hospital, that Lions had sponsored. After this we got a chance to do some shopping in downtown Charleston. The shops were extremely expensive and I didn't really find anything. In Starbucks I drank the most expensive ice tea in my life, but it was admittebly also the tastiest. Charleston itself was really a beautiful historic city, the kind of city you rarely see in the States. About 5 o clock Thomas' dad came to pick us up and to take back to Kiawah Island. We played some games and talked with Thomas, and his mum made us a delicious supper at 10. AND YES, I broke my camera! I dropped it to concrete and it ripped. I squeezed the pieces back together and forgot that I ever had dropped it: it looked perfectly fine. In the evening we tried to take some group pictures with Thomas' family, and I discovered, that the button you press to take picture was not there anymore. It must have got lost during the accident. A becoming engineer, I, fixed the camera with a pin and some tape. We managed to take few picture after some laughs. :)



3.8


I don't have anymore diary notes, so I'll just try to remember. First morning in Kiawah.. I wake up just before 11 and went to shower. Thomas was still at work so we left for beach with Thomas's dad and Henriikka. We went to see the club for Kiawah's residents and 5 stars extemely luxurious hotel, The Sanctuary. I've never seen anything that fancy in my life. This country is really full of the most extremes. It was just.. amazing. Thomas came from work just when we went back to the cottage. We went cycling and climped to a small tower, trying to spot some alligators with no success. Thomas took us to club's pool to cool off, as a suprise I couldn't stand the heat. We were the only ones at pool, so it was all ours! Then we went back to the cottage and asked 100 times the question "what can we do?". Finally we played some games and talked. I taught Thomas some Finnish card games and he taught me some American ones. Late in the evening we went to to one of the only restaurants in the island, which was a really typical, noisy american sport bar. The food was just excellent. Back at the cottage we conversed until late in the night.

It makes me so sad to write about my time in South Carolina, I'd pay anything to get back..

2.8

In the morning we had to face a long and tiring drive to Charleston, the historic city in the coast. In Charlosten we were let to introduce ourseves in Lions Club AGAIN. After that we went to row to Cypress Garden! I've already got used to that kind of swamp lanscapes, so they don't make me so excited anymore. Still, it's always beautiful.

From the back: Miguel, me, Pauline, someone and Shania. (NB! THE PATRIOT the movie is filmed in the background)

It was time to meet our becoming host familys, where I was meant to spend the following 3 days with Henriikka. I was told that they are lawyers, they have 17 years old son, a cottage in Kiawah Island and house in downtown Charleston. Sounds good, doesn't it? Well, the man comes to pick us up driving a white Mercedes. Good sign. It was some half an hour drive to Kiawah Island. When going to the island you have to drive through a gate, where you need some kind of a permission so that they let you in. The summer houses are really fancy, they must cost like millions of dollars. No wonder they don't let everyone in. At last we stopped in front of a quite normal cottage. But I don't care, I really don't need a million-dollar-cottage to make myself comfortable! We met Thomas and his mum, they both were really nice. They were really an American retro family. The air condition was broken so we went to terrace to converse. We were really in the middle of a jungle. That's what Kiawah Island is: a real jungle with deers and alligators in your back yard! It was some 28 degrees even it was a night. In the middle of the night the air conditioner switched on, so it made it easier to get some sleep.

Country roads, take me home...

1.8

Early awakenings are terrible. I was just too tired to eat any breakfast, and slept the whole few hours drive to Nantahalla, North Carolina. There I saw the mountains of North Carolina, truly stunning view. First time in my life I went to real American school bus! It was crappier than I have thought. No air conditioner or heater and the walls were just a thin sheet-metal. In schoolbus we travelled to a stream to do some white water rafting. Girls went to one boat and boys to another. The water was freezing, maybe about 10 degrees. The weather wasn't warm either, because we were so high in the mountain and it was foggy. We were so numb on our way down the stream, even more numb because we had some water fights with the guys and Pauline got drug to water. Some brave ones even jumped to the water from a big rock. Rafting was quite cool, but I'd have preferred more action.




Back in the campus I took a quick shower and we left to introduce ourselves in Greenville Lions club. After some pizza and introduces we left for downtown Greenville to check the night life. They had some jazz festival going on and lots of people hanging in the streets. We weren't there too long, since the "shepherds" thought it's somehow dangerous to be out there, and we left back to Spartanburg. We all were upset. Freya and Shania were meant to meet their host family, but especially Sally was against to staying in Greenville. But I liked the city, it was beautiful, unlike most American cities. Back in Spartanburg we played Uno until midnight.

Beatrice and Emmi. Sally and Jim the Shepherds in the background

Camp Stuff

The whole week has passed in a blur and yearning for America. The school tastes like a wood and I haven't been inspired to tell anyone about what had happened in America, it's just too much to tell and I haven't found words to describe it. Finally, I pulled myself together and I'll tell something about the last week...





29.7
The evening in Spartanburg. The others returned from Wal-Mart and we gathered to play Uno. The game proved a bit tricky, because of INTERNATIONAL RULES :D Every country has their own rules, so we tried to follow the American rules. We played until 1, when Jim asked us to go to sleep, since we were so noisy. We continued the game in our bedroom few more hours, until we all were just too tired to play and be quiet.

30.7




Early awakening, we drug ourselves to vans and took turn to Lake Joccassee. That was probably one of the coolest places so far. :) First pit stop was a water fall, where we took few (dozen) pictures. Then we hiked our way through the forest up to the hill. The road was extremelly rough, especially without shoes. In the halfway we took our clothes off (of course we had swim suits) and went to natural jaccussee, a cave to where water showered from small holes. The water wasn't very warm like in a real jaccussee since it came from the mountain, but very refressing. Never forget the climate in South Carolina: it is always HOT, HOT, HOT. At our end point there was a natural water slide, a cool thing where you get hurt easily, but if you aren't afraid of small bruises, it's a lot of fun. I mean, it was kind of a strongly streeming river, or a race, that we slided down using nothing else but a small plastic mattress. It looked quite scary, even dangerous, but it was mostly just fun. Some got hurt, but it was worth it!

The natural water slide

The next thing to do was lunch. We parked our boat to a small beach with a group of Americans. They showed us a place where we can do some cliff diving, it was more than 5 meters free fall to the lake. One of the scariest things I've done in my entire life!! But at the same time, full of adrenaline. First you have to climp a bit, which is dangerous, since it's hard to get a proper grip of the slipery, sandy and wet cliff, and if you fall, you're gone. I still feel it on my toes when I think the situation: jumping from the cliff and for few seconds you feel nothing under your feet. AWESOME!!

Me in the air

On our way back we ate some hamburgers in the boat. A quick shower at campus and we were on our way to Spartanburg to eat some pizza in a fancy restaurant. Yes, food again. Well, there are few hours between lunch and supper. The pizza was excellent, but a bit too small and I even shared it with Henriikka, because American pizzas are normally everything but small. Back to campus and we played Uno. Also Zolo tried to join us. What ever we asked from him, he answered: "who...? me?!?? you?!?! he?!?", which was kind of funny, but at the same time, very understandable: he is just 13 and has studied English for only 2 years, while we are at the age of 17-18. Zolo got new nicknames: ZI and SISU! :D (our international friends didn't enjoy Finnish candies.)