I'm Back , Reluctantly! It's safe to say I really didnt want to come home ! I loved it in Cleveland so much, it so different & I felt so comfortable there. The flight took 7 1/2 hours & was awesome as I was flying with My friend Amanda W & her 6 year old daughter Hannah (as i said in my last post they were going back home to Atlanta for her brothers wedding). I watched Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows & Jane Eyre then slept for a few hours. We were greated at the airport by Amanda's sarents, sister & boyfriend along with Kevin's Parents & his sister, it was lovely seeing Hannah reunited with her grandparents. Amanda & her dad, Mike, came with me to find my shuttle bus to Chattanooga, saying our goodbyes as we wouldnt see each other until the flight home in 2 weeks. The bus ride was 2 hours long & I was so exhausted I kept falling asleep making the journey feel much shorter.
(Lee University, Cleveland TN)
Amanda AJ met me at the shuttle bus depo after getting off at the wrong exit & ringing me to ask for directions (had to put her onto the driver because I obviously had no idea). It was awesome to finally see her on her own turf ! We headed to Cleveland to drop my suitcase off at the apartment before Amanda took me on a tour of her university campus. Lee University was MAHOOOSIVE to me although its actually a small university for American standards. She showed me where she used to study & live & the people she used to work with. It was really hot walking around the campus, the humidity made me feel sticky plus the mosquitos had already started to attack my arms & ankles, they obviouslylove a bit of Welsh blood.
(S'mores Pizza.... Yummeh!)
The rest of the day we spent chilling out because I was really tired from the flight & when Chris came home we had amazing pizza from Papa Murphy's along with a S'mores Desert Pizza which is the most delicious, orgasmic food I have ever eaten ! The next day, Amanda had to go to her baby sitting job so I tagged along & we took the boys swimming, I felt very exposed as I had all my tattoos on display in my bathing suit & did catch some people staring at me which did make me feel self concious. Before taking the boys home we stopped at Wendy''s to pick up cheese burgers & ate them at the house before the boy's parents came home. We then went back to the apartment to let their dog Maslow out & get ready to go to out for dinner. We went to Cracker Barrel because thats where Chris works & he gets 35% off all food. Amanda had steak & I had real southern fried chichen with steak fries, breaded fried okra & fresh sliced apple. It was delicious ! I can safely say I LOVE Cracker Barrel ! We visited this amazing restaurant loads & loads of times during my 2 week stay :)
($5.49 = £3.47 for 12 California Roll Makis or 1 Full Roll)
Amanda took me to the local mall for some lunch, where I indulged in Sushi as it is much cheaper in America (I ate A LOT of sushi while I was away), she had fried rice, bourban chicken (another favourite of mine) & honey chicken.
We then walked around the mall, looked in a few shops including Hot Topic & Forever 21. I bought a fushia dress with lace on the back along with a pair of navy Converse, pretty sandals & 2 pairs of cloggs all of which were really cheap sue to the poor exchange rate & the fact that it was tax free weekend. Later in the evening we went to Perkits for my first ever frozen yoghurt, I had vanilla with reeses pieces, cookie dough, crumbled oreo cookie & hot chocolate fudge sauce then had it mixed, was amazing but I couldnt eat it all , we met some of Amanda's friends there who were really nice.
(Went To The Yellow Deli With Amanda & Her Friend Rachael, Turns Out Its A Well Known Religious Cult :S)
Chris & Amanda took for to a Hibachi restaurant to have fresh fried rice with vegetables & shrimp with hot sauce, another amazing culinary experiance. We went to bible study at Sandi & Christine's church which was awesome , really made me think & ask questions, we went twice as I really enjoyed it. The pastor is studying theology & religion at Lee so he comes from an intelectual standpoint as well as spiritual when he preaches which I find appealing.
The next day we went on a little road trip to Nashville to visit Chris's family, it took 2 hours to get there! We went to Cracker Barrel for lunch with his Mum & 2 sisters & his elder sister's dad, we had a fantastic time. Much later in the evening, about midnight, we went to The Strip in downtown Nashville which may be my new favourite place in the world! We walked down the strip walking past all the bars, listening to the amazing music, every bar had live music; Blues, Jazz, Country & Rock 'n' Roll flowed out of each place, it was unbelievable! Unfortunately, we couldnt go in the bars to listen to the music because I was too young (I'm not 21 until October 21st) so I had to stand outside to appreciate the music. Even the buskers were amazing musicians! We're planning on going back when I visit next so I can fully experiance downtown Nashville. We left about half past midnight & got back to Cleveland about 4am (we also went through a time zone change) , its safe to say the following few days were lazy ones as we were so exhausted.
(Jack Daniel & Me, blurry because Chris took the picture)
Amanda & Chris decided that I needed to visit the Jack Daniel's Distillery while I was here because it is my favourite alcoholic beverage. It was absolutely amazing to visit the very place that it's made & to learn how it's made. I walked around in total amazement knowing that Jack Daniel walked the same footsteps as I was. It is something you must experiance if you go to Tennessee.
We saw where the water for the whiskey comes from (they have dug a mile underground & still havent found the source of the water, it's filtered through the limestone making it pure), where the whiskey is firmented & pored through charcoal, went into one of the 80 barrel houses where the whiskey is stored & matured (each containing 1 million gallons of whiskey) & Jack's original office kept in the exact condition it was when he was alive, including the furniture.
(THE Safe That Killed Jack Daniel)
I knew the story of how Jack died as it was on an episode of 1000 Ways To Die a while ago but we got to listen to it in the actual room, infront of the actual safe that cause him to die. Jack forgot the combination to his safe & in frustration he kicked the safe which caused him to break his big toe which became infected & eventually had to be removed due to gangrene which then spread up his leg forcing him to have from the knee down removed to reduce the spread of infection but it eventually spread to his heart, ultimately killing him. Silly Mr Daniel ! Just goes to show you should never kick objects in anger because it could kill you! I had a wonderful time, just a bit gutted that I couldn't go on the sampler tour & taste the whiskey in its home. We went to Amanda's softball game when we got back ,which I finally get the hang of, its basicly like rounders. On the way home I decided I was going to have a tattoo to commemorate my visit seeing I have pretty much fallen in love with Tennessee, unfortunately this was at 10pm & I found out that Standard Ink closed at 11pm so Chris told me about this place that his friend went to to get an Alice in Wonderland sleeve so looked it up , rang them & booked in for 11:30am the next day.
(My Perminant Souvenir)
We pulled up at Imagine Tattoo & went in where Max was waiting for us, I told him I wanted the word "Tennessee" as it appears on the Jack Daniel's bottle , which hes never done before. The shop itself was awesome, the walls were light green & covered with paintings done by the tattoo artists including a massive portrait of John Lennon painted by the owner & a large painting of a tattooed girl with her arms crossed holding tattoo machines by Max, they also had a lot of Beatles paraphernalia which I very much wanted to take with me. Max told me he loved my accent & asked me where I'd got my previous work done because it was so good (another thumbs up for Simon at Needle Asylum). The tattoo took about 30 minutes & cost $50 (£31.65), I was really happy with the result so I gave him a $30 (£18.99) tip (America has a thing about tipping people, think its because the wages are crap). It was Chris's 22nd Birthday so after my tattoo we went to Cracker Barrel (again) for breakfast & because Chris works there he had a free cake (he told them not to sing though). Later in the evening Me & Amanda made a red velvet cake for Chris before going to bible study. We picked Chris up from the flat & took him to Applebees where some of his friends had gathered to celebrate. We laughed so much ! It was a brilliant night, when we got back I packed up ready for my
flight the next day, wasnt too happy about that. We spent the rest of the evening chilling out on the sofa watching tv. 
Amanda & Chris were awesome. I was so upset that I had to leave. I really really didnt want to go. I was so comfortable there, I could be myself & be accepted for who I am. I cried on the bus to Atlanta airport, just wasnt ready to go home. I met Amanda W & Hannah at the airport, we checked in, went through security & had some hot dogs (which were amazing). The plane was an hour late leaving because we had to wait for the plane to cool down as the air conditioning wasnt working. We finally boarded & settled into the 8 hour flight. I watched The Exotic Marigold Hotel when we had dinner which was hilarious then went to sleep until they served breakfast an hour & half before we landed. I was so happy to see my mum, I missed her very much, only reason to come home.
Anyway I've babbled on for far too long, What have you been up to ? Anything Exciting ?
Nice to be back !
Lots Of Love
Pixiee
xXx
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