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I'm having some of the best days of my life in Virginia. I'm staying with H, who is a friend from school, and her family. She has two younger brothers, David, who is 16, and Christopher, who's six, and she also has a little sister, Emily, nine. They've been showing me a more Southern American way of life - down here it's all campfires and iced tea. On Wednesday we walked down to a local pond to go searching for shells and found a salamander (or at least Emily did). We went out for dinner in the evening to a local Mongolian place called Hokkaidos (good food, would nom again) followed by an American ice cream parlour. Brits have nothing on these - they have ice cream in twenty odd different flavours, including cake batter and bubblegum, and you then choose the toppings and sauces you want and they mush it all together for you. My Butter Pecan (pronounced "pe-cahn") was so good I jumped up and down and made little squealy noises. They also sell ice cream pizza, can you imagine, which is vanilla ice cream with red icing on top and different toppings as, well, toppings. It looked like a coronary in one meal - so naturally the little ones wanted one. Unfortunately they had to content themselves with getting bright blue ice cream all over their faces and clothes instead.
Yesterday we all headed for a local lake which has a dock with two levels - one for mooring boats, just above the water, and another a storey above, with chairs and a barbeque. The idea is that you jump off the top deck into the lake, preferably while doing something insane like vaulting over the side barrier like David or his friend Cal. Cal and his sister Abigail came with us to the lake, and we all had so much fun - H's dad got pizza and then he built a campfire and we all had smores. For the unenlightend out there, smores are made by taking a Graham cracker (like a rich tea or digestive biscuit), putting two squares of chocolate on top (Hersheys, Cadburys, whatever), followed by a toasted marshmallow and then another Graham cracker, and then you smoosh it all together into a calorific marshmallow sammich thing. And then you eat it. And it's so good.
And then today we headed up to what's known as the Cascades, a two mile hike out to a giant waterfall. The hike itself is hardcore - all steps and hills, which was killer following on from my morning run. The little ones, Emily, Chrissy and Abigail ran out and climbed rocks and generally got themselves injured in as many ways as posible. I walked with Cal and H's mom, who informed me further about American life and lamented that they hadn't had a chance to take me shooting. Which would actually have been awesome. When we reached the cascades, we stood on some rocks under the waterfall and jumped off into the pool beneath, which was, incidentally, absof***inglutely freezing. Or "bracing" as we put it when attempting to entice the little ones to join us. The rocks were slippery with moss, and I managed to fall down the same hidden crack three times within five minutes, to uncontrollable laughter from those around me. Lunch followed, and then we all trekked back to the car.
As for tonight, who knows? There have been suggestions of swing dancing, but we shall have to wait and see. All I know is that I've had the best time here this week, and although I'm excited to get to DC and see all that there is to see, I'm also going to be really sad to leave. I could get used to life in Virginia very easily indeed. But my bus leaves from Roanoke at 1:45 PM tomorrow, so I should be in DC by nightfall whether I like it or not!
Until then - Brewster out.
- comments
David You brighten up my day, Brewster! Your joy is mine & I'm sure shared by all your friends. Great to read of your adventures. Look out DC!!