Thursday, October 23, 2008
Parents Visit to Eau Claire!
Hi Everyone,
I’m sorry that due to time constraints I only posted pictures for the Brewery and Mansion trip. In this blog I’ll briefly describe what happened on that outing before telling you all about the awesome weekend that just occurred when the Golanski Family came to Eau Claire!
As you saw, on the weekend of October 10th I went with Annie, my roommate and her friend to Minneapolis to the Rascal Flatts concert who are a country band I’m a big fan of. The concert was incredible, a nice break from a week of exams and fun to get out of Eau Claire for one night!
The next morning we left really early to go to Leinenkugels brewery which is very well known in Eau Claire.
The brewery is the seventh oldest in the US and one of the oldest in Wisconsin and the majority of the beer produced doesn’t even leave Wisconsin.
Leinenkugels has 7 year round brews which are Sunset Wheat, Honey Weiss, Berry Weiss, Red Lager, Creamy Dark Lager, Original and Light. They also have 4 seasonal brews which are Summer Shandy, Oktoberfest, Fireside Nut Brown and Big Butt!
Thanks to a 22 year old I befriended from Latvia, I tried the Honey Weiss, Original and Berry Weiss which were all really tasty! On top of that I got free Root Beer as they don’t like to leave the minors out of the fun!
After we took a tour of the Brewery, we headed to the Cook Rutledge Mansion which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is known to be one of the best remaining examples of High Victorian Italianate architecture in Wisconsin.
The mansion is open to tours and though many of the items in the house aren’t original items used in that house, they are all authentic to the time period. The house itself has undergone refurbishment through the years but is still pretty much in its original state.
The tour was really interesting especially as the mansion is in Eau Claire where I wouldn’t necessarily have expected to find much in the way of old Victorian residences!
Anyhoo...back to this weekend, my last class of the week finished at 1.45 on Thursday so I went straight from there to the Acoustic Cafe, one of my favourite places to eat, where I met up with the family!
It was so exciting to see them after the longest week ever waiting for Thursday to come around!
After lunch we picked up my things and everyone got to see my lodgings before we set off for the Metropolis Hotel. The hotel was lovely and I had in excess of 6 baths during the stay. The best bit of the hotel however is that it is attached to ACTION CITY a children’s/ American Chav equivalent play area with go karts etc which I’ll get to later!
On Thursday night we had dinner at TGI Fridays where our waitress didn’t quite know what to say when Mum asked what they had for vegetarians! She had the Chicken Fajitas without the chicken! Meanwhile myself and the boys tucked into steaks and chicken tenders, yum!!!
After dinner we went to the Movie Theater to see the new Coen Brothers movie Burn After Reading which was really funny and had George Clooney in, what more could you ask for!
On Friday we shopped at the Mall when I think Mum really realised how much she’d missed my company and Daddy realised how much smaller his credit card bills had been without my company!
On Friday night we went to a lovely restaurant called Mona Lisa’s for dinner with my host family which was lovely.
On Saturday with the host family again, we went to the Schultz Farm and Corn Maze which was great. Throughout Fall and leading up to Halloween, Corn Mazes spring up all over the United States. The one we went to as you will see in the picture was Green Bay Packers themed; the Packers are an American Football team.
On Saturday night after lunch and manicures we picked up Annie and went to see the movie W., a film by Oliver Stone about George W. Bush. The film had its entertaining moments but wasn’t as good as I’d expected, that said, Josh Brolin was great as George Bush.
Sunday took us on a hike in Lowes Creek which was nice but it wasn’t up to Scotland standard. Put it this way, when we got to the end of the trail we were following the scenery which greeted us was the back of our hotel! Check out the picture and you’ll see what I mean when I say it didn’t really compare to Scotland visually!
On Sunday night we chilled out watching a Peter Kay DVD before which we had worn ourselves our running around Action City!
Action City is attached to the hotel and contains, Go Karts, Laser Quest, Bumper Cars an Arcade and Bowling. We began with Laser Quest which was awesome and I won out of the 4 of us, partly due to my repeatedly shooting a little girl who didn’t understand the game and couldn’t work her gun. Some may judge me for this act but I stick by my actions, someone had to win. Don’t believe Mrs Golanski when she acts all disgusted as if she didn’t shoot the little brat too! At least the boys didn’t deny it!
All in all the weekend was a lot of fun especially having only seen the Parental Unit and my Bro for one week since June 18th! I missed the foul language and toilet humour; it simply hasn’t been the same without them!
Next weekend I’m returning to the Mall of America...uh oh! This time probably won’t be too detrimental to my bank balance as I’m going again on December 6th for the final shopping spree and Christmas shop!
Miss you all! More soon!
Hannah
xxx
I’m sorry that due to time constraints I only posted pictures for the Brewery and Mansion trip. In this blog I’ll briefly describe what happened on that outing before telling you all about the awesome weekend that just occurred when the Golanski Family came to Eau Claire!
As you saw, on the weekend of October 10th I went with Annie, my roommate and her friend to Minneapolis to the Rascal Flatts concert who are a country band I’m a big fan of. The concert was incredible, a nice break from a week of exams and fun to get out of Eau Claire for one night!
The next morning we left really early to go to Leinenkugels brewery which is very well known in Eau Claire.
The brewery is the seventh oldest in the US and one of the oldest in Wisconsin and the majority of the beer produced doesn’t even leave Wisconsin.
Leinenkugels has 7 year round brews which are Sunset Wheat, Honey Weiss, Berry Weiss, Red Lager, Creamy Dark Lager, Original and Light. They also have 4 seasonal brews which are Summer Shandy, Oktoberfest, Fireside Nut Brown and Big Butt!
Thanks to a 22 year old I befriended from Latvia, I tried the Honey Weiss, Original and Berry Weiss which were all really tasty! On top of that I got free Root Beer as they don’t like to leave the minors out of the fun!
After we took a tour of the Brewery, we headed to the Cook Rutledge Mansion which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is known to be one of the best remaining examples of High Victorian Italianate architecture in Wisconsin.
The mansion is open to tours and though many of the items in the house aren’t original items used in that house, they are all authentic to the time period. The house itself has undergone refurbishment through the years but is still pretty much in its original state.
The tour was really interesting especially as the mansion is in Eau Claire where I wouldn’t necessarily have expected to find much in the way of old Victorian residences!
Anyhoo...back to this weekend, my last class of the week finished at 1.45 on Thursday so I went straight from there to the Acoustic Cafe, one of my favourite places to eat, where I met up with the family!
It was so exciting to see them after the longest week ever waiting for Thursday to come around!
After lunch we picked up my things and everyone got to see my lodgings before we set off for the Metropolis Hotel. The hotel was lovely and I had in excess of 6 baths during the stay. The best bit of the hotel however is that it is attached to ACTION CITY a children’s/ American Chav equivalent play area with go karts etc which I’ll get to later!
On Thursday night we had dinner at TGI Fridays where our waitress didn’t quite know what to say when Mum asked what they had for vegetarians! She had the Chicken Fajitas without the chicken! Meanwhile myself and the boys tucked into steaks and chicken tenders, yum!!!
After dinner we went to the Movie Theater to see the new Coen Brothers movie Burn After Reading which was really funny and had George Clooney in, what more could you ask for!
On Friday we shopped at the Mall when I think Mum really realised how much she’d missed my company and Daddy realised how much smaller his credit card bills had been without my company!
On Friday night we went to a lovely restaurant called Mona Lisa’s for dinner with my host family which was lovely.
On Saturday with the host family again, we went to the Schultz Farm and Corn Maze which was great. Throughout Fall and leading up to Halloween, Corn Mazes spring up all over the United States. The one we went to as you will see in the picture was Green Bay Packers themed; the Packers are an American Football team.
On Saturday night after lunch and manicures we picked up Annie and went to see the movie W., a film by Oliver Stone about George W. Bush. The film had its entertaining moments but wasn’t as good as I’d expected, that said, Josh Brolin was great as George Bush.
Sunday took us on a hike in Lowes Creek which was nice but it wasn’t up to Scotland standard. Put it this way, when we got to the end of the trail we were following the scenery which greeted us was the back of our hotel! Check out the picture and you’ll see what I mean when I say it didn’t really compare to Scotland visually!
On Sunday night we chilled out watching a Peter Kay DVD before which we had worn ourselves our running around Action City!
Action City is attached to the hotel and contains, Go Karts, Laser Quest, Bumper Cars an Arcade and Bowling. We began with Laser Quest which was awesome and I won out of the 4 of us, partly due to my repeatedly shooting a little girl who didn’t understand the game and couldn’t work her gun. Some may judge me for this act but I stick by my actions, someone had to win. Don’t believe Mrs Golanski when she acts all disgusted as if she didn’t shoot the little brat too! At least the boys didn’t deny it!
All in all the weekend was a lot of fun especially having only seen the Parental Unit and my Bro for one week since June 18th! I missed the foul language and toilet humour; it simply hasn’t been the same without them!
Next weekend I’m returning to the Mall of America...uh oh! This time probably won’t be too detrimental to my bank balance as I’m going again on December 6th for the final shopping spree and Christmas shop!
Miss you all! More soon!
Hannah
xxx
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Leinenkugels Brewery/Cook Rutledge Mansion/ Rascal Flatts Concert! One busy weekend!
Outside the brewery
Farmhouse on brewery site, now used for storage
Hot water store
Where all the different grains are stored
Living room in the Cook Rutledge Mansion
Oven and tour guide
Abraham Lincoln
Headboard
Baby booties
A coat made from APE FUR!
Fold out office
Friday, October 10, 2008
The Bumper Homecoming Blog!
Greetings from a legal alien!
So this is a little delayed as Homecoming was last week but the pictures and videos are now up for your enjoyment!
I’ll be honest, I’m still not entirely sure why it’s called Homecoming and though I asked several people, it appears I’m not the only one! In essence it’s a week long and though it happens in high school too, College is when it really matters. It involves people being selected for Homecoming King and Queen, a Pep Rally, performances by different music and dance organisations and the Big Football Game.
As you can see in the pictures the University is covered in flyers and banners throughout the week aiming to get voters for the King and Queen. There were about 10 candidates for each category. They all have campaign teams and hand out badges and candy to try and get you to vote for them. I had been told that some candidates make and give out cookies and cake so I’d decided I’d vote for whoever gave me the best snacks. That said, I was thoroughly disappointed when no one was giving out freshly made cookies! Until...the last day of voting when a very nice boy named Ben gave me a custard filled doughnut which was exceptionally tasty. I went straight from eating my doughnut to vote for him due to the presence of ‘baked goods!’ and my vote worked as he was made King!
On Wednesday of Homecoming week, there was the Homecoming Pep Rally which is meant to get everyone excited for the football game and typically involves all the different singing groups and dance squads performing. The videos I have posted show the cheerleading squad, Singing Statesman a male vocal group who are great and the dance team. The Marching Band also performed throughout the night. 1st, 2nd and 3rd places are awarded to the best teams. There are a number of events which went on throughout the week in which all the teams and halls of residence took part to get points and the overall winner was announced at the end of the week. One of the things teams can do to win points is ‘Adopt A Block’ where they are allocated a block of the area around the university and have to clean up all the beer cans and rubbish in the street left over from the weekends antics! For each full bin liner they got a point.
On the Friday night was Varsity Night Live which had more formal performances by the choirs, some individuals and the jazz bands etc. The University of Wisconsin Eau Claire is known as Wisconsin’s ‘singing university’ as we have the most and best music groups. One guy called Evan played an incredible sax solo for about ten minutes and the audiences jaws were on the floor, he’s in one of my classes and is madly talented. There was a comedian called Kelly Taylor who hosted the night and it was a really good evening.
This leads us to Saturday and THE football game! The whole week was leading up to it and it was very enjoyable as I’d never watched American football before. That said, it got pretty tedious as we won 37-0! The guys were hot though, and it was great to see the marching band perform in their official attire. Annie, Valentina and I all got dressed up in the morning with our football shirts compliments of the University bookshop, face paints and with ribbons in hair we headed to the game.
All in all it was a really good week, it was very different to the University experience back home where there’s no real feeling of spirit of enthusiasm. It’s really fun to see all the students go to the sports games and cheer on the teams, in Winchester I never even know when there are games on. Generally people have a lot more ‘school pride’ here which I thought I’d find corny but in fact it’s quite the opposite. Everyone got really involved through the week with voting, putting up signs and getting dressed up for the football game. It was a really fun week and the football team rules all!
So this is a little delayed as Homecoming was last week but the pictures and videos are now up for your enjoyment!
I’ll be honest, I’m still not entirely sure why it’s called Homecoming and though I asked several people, it appears I’m not the only one! In essence it’s a week long and though it happens in high school too, College is when it really matters. It involves people being selected for Homecoming King and Queen, a Pep Rally, performances by different music and dance organisations and the Big Football Game.
As you can see in the pictures the University is covered in flyers and banners throughout the week aiming to get voters for the King and Queen. There were about 10 candidates for each category. They all have campaign teams and hand out badges and candy to try and get you to vote for them. I had been told that some candidates make and give out cookies and cake so I’d decided I’d vote for whoever gave me the best snacks. That said, I was thoroughly disappointed when no one was giving out freshly made cookies! Until...the last day of voting when a very nice boy named Ben gave me a custard filled doughnut which was exceptionally tasty. I went straight from eating my doughnut to vote for him due to the presence of ‘baked goods!’ and my vote worked as he was made King!
On Wednesday of Homecoming week, there was the Homecoming Pep Rally which is meant to get everyone excited for the football game and typically involves all the different singing groups and dance squads performing. The videos I have posted show the cheerleading squad, Singing Statesman a male vocal group who are great and the dance team. The Marching Band also performed throughout the night. 1st, 2nd and 3rd places are awarded to the best teams. There are a number of events which went on throughout the week in which all the teams and halls of residence took part to get points and the overall winner was announced at the end of the week. One of the things teams can do to win points is ‘Adopt A Block’ where they are allocated a block of the area around the university and have to clean up all the beer cans and rubbish in the street left over from the weekends antics! For each full bin liner they got a point.
On the Friday night was Varsity Night Live which had more formal performances by the choirs, some individuals and the jazz bands etc. The University of Wisconsin Eau Claire is known as Wisconsin’s ‘singing university’ as we have the most and best music groups. One guy called Evan played an incredible sax solo for about ten minutes and the audiences jaws were on the floor, he’s in one of my classes and is madly talented. There was a comedian called Kelly Taylor who hosted the night and it was a really good evening.
This leads us to Saturday and THE football game! The whole week was leading up to it and it was very enjoyable as I’d never watched American football before. That said, it got pretty tedious as we won 37-0! The guys were hot though, and it was great to see the marching band perform in their official attire. Annie, Valentina and I all got dressed up in the morning with our football shirts compliments of the University bookshop, face paints and with ribbons in hair we headed to the game.
All in all it was a really good week, it was very different to the University experience back home where there’s no real feeling of spirit of enthusiasm. It’s really fun to see all the students go to the sports games and cheer on the teams, in Winchester I never even know when there are games on. Generally people have a lot more ‘school pride’ here which I thought I’d find corny but in fact it’s quite the opposite. Everyone got really involved through the week with voting, putting up signs and getting dressed up for the football game. It was a really fun week and the football team rules all!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
