Yesterday my day started with and Bridal Shower. The story behind this is that I met a lady namned Kim on the Shuttle to Macon (in Macon Professor Eric from the university picked me up to get to Milledgeville to the hotel 2 days ago). Kim told me that she came to Milledgeville because of here niece who had an upcoming wedding and now it was time for here Bridal Shower. When Kim told me about the Shower I told here about how the Swedes celebrate their brides before their wedding, which the Swedes know as embarrassing and maybe even painful. Kim was so surprised and wanted me to have a look at a nice Bridal Shower, the american way, so she invited med to her niece Samanthas Bridal Shower which was yesterday (Saturday). So I putted on the wonderful summer-dress my mum made ages ago and gave me as a present this summer. Then Beth, who lives with me, got me a ride to the Inn (Bed & Breakfast) which is not so far away from my new home, where the Bridal Shower was.
Here you can see Samantha unwrapping a present. Kim told me that a Bridal Shower is for “showering the bride with gifts”. Samantha got a lot of things like plates, glasses and silver for the kitchen but also frames and some lingerie. The guests of the Bridal Shower where invited to eat some snacks and drink the typical Southern sweetened tea and lemonade. The ice-tea they serve here is always sweetened with a lot of sugar. And Sallie already told me when I still was at home in Sweden that if I’d like to not have sugar in my tea I have to say that, because it is always sugar in it.
Here you can see Samantha in the middle and Kim on the right.
After the Shower everyone even got a little gift: a little bottle of hand-sanitizer that smelled so good 😀 So girls: I want to have an American Bridal Shower when I get married 🙂
After the Shower I went downtown to have a look at the city of Milledgeville. The thing is that I live pretty close to the city and I feel that I can walk to most of the places. People over here tend to take their cars everywhere and their are great distances between the most places, but as you could see on the picture, I was wearing my running-shoes, just so I could walk comfortable.
This is how the crossing looks like. People who drive are really precautions about people who walk over the street (even though the red light is on and their not supposed to walk), probably because if you would run over a person by car you would end up in jail or at least court.
As I walked downtown I came to an antique store called Auntie Bells Antiques. The name Auntie Bell comes from the style which is usual in Milledgeville: Antebellum or Ante-bellum. Antebellum refers to the period before the civil war in the united States. Their is a background of slavery involved, but as I don’t know much about that yet I might come tell you more about that later.
However, I went to that antique shop where my heart skipped a beat – their where so many nice things and even a lot of horse-relates things. So I couldn’t stop smiling the whole time I was inside, though it was hot, because it is so humid here.
In one of the shops I found this picture, which I find is so beautiful! Ok, I don’t think people should ride naked on their horses, but this picture shows you an Indian man riding a horse with nearly “no strings attached” and this is what I wish to accomplish with my horse Lovely one day – a communication build on trust and small, nearly transparent aids.
After walking to two different antique-shops I walked home again. And here’s a picture of the house that I live in. In the front you can see my 3 roommates cars, everyone has one of their own.
After talking with one of my roommates for a while I decided to go swim in a river that is nearby. This river has a strong stream so I didn’t swim far from the land, but it was just enough to cool down a little.
After my swim I thought I try to find a shortcut home, looking at my google-maps that had been downloaded with help of the Wifi at home. But the map did not apply to the path I found. Every time I tried to find the road on the map I found the following sign:
“Private property behind fence NO trespassing violators prosecuted” does the sign say. So imagine I got a little scared… I was lost. The good thing when you get lost is that you find a lot of new things on the way. While when you know where to go, you might not find all the wonderful things I could find.
Peacan-nuts, which Sallie told me are about mature now, a nice tree…
The river and the red soil, tiny little white mushrooms…
So even though I walked for a long while and got lost, I could hear birds sing, crickets play and the river flow. I did even see a little red bird, maybe a summer tanager.
Well, have a great day/night. I am going to met one of the former exchange students from Georgia today for “fika” who has visited Linneausuniversity and Växjö last semester.
