Back in Charlotte

I should have blogged more about New Orleans, but I didn't! I will make a post about it at some point, but for now I have other things to say. First of all, Luke (AceCR9 on Cardrunners) came out to stay with us in New Orleans, and has continued to travel with us afetrwards too. The three of us went to stay with Pawel (Verneer) for a few days in Athens, Georgia. I really enjoyed meeting him and appreciate him and his wife letting us stay when they both had lives to live whilst we were there. Unfortunately, Pawel and I both were sick (I believe from Logan's Steakhouse) for pretty much the whole time, although he was WAY worse than I was. The photo below is me, Luke, Vanessa, and Pawel having a meal on our last night. His wedding was catered for by the chef, and he cooks really well.



So now I'm back in Huntersville, Charlotte where Vanessa lives. I was meant to be coming home today (Sunday), but I've decided to stay out here for longer. I'm not sure when I'm going to come back yet - I have a few more people I want to go and visit while I'm over here. On Friday, Brian (BTimm) was kind enough to organise a get together at his house. He worked hard to get Dice (no real name imo) and Andrew (Andr3w321) down to Huntersville, and he also had some work friends over too. I had probably the best night of my whole trip.

Meeting Dice was awesome as we've been speaking a good amount over the last 9 months or so. He was very similar to what I thought he'd be like, but much funnier! His impressions of a certain Cardrunners member were hilarious, and will stick in my mind for a long, long time! Andrew is one of the guys I'm going to be living with in Vegas, so I was very relieved to find out he's not a freak! I'm not sure if he felt the same or not! He's a really cool guy who seems very down to earth and relaxed. He brought his girlfriend Claire (no poker name...yet) with him, who was really nice. They both live relatively close so there's a chance I might impose myself on them again.

I got my first taste of a couple of American party traditions. I got to play beer pong for my first time - which we will try when I get home as it's a cool game. The only problem with it is that I throw like a total girl. Claire was my teammate, and she pretty much carried me. Dice was definitely the star of the show, although he is still at university so he should be practised at it! The other tradition I got a taste of was a keg stand. Brian got a keg of beer in and I was surprised at how difficult a keg stand was. The beer comes out a lot quicker than I expected it to. Again, Dice was probably the best at this.

I'll definitely be blogging more on here now that I'm back in Charlotte. I'll try decide what my plans from here are, and I'll also do a New Orleans post. I'll sign off with the pictures from the other night. Dice is the guy in the orange shirt, Andrew is the tall blond guy.

New Orleans

Ok here's what's been happening since my last post. From Flagler Beach we went to visit Craig (Smaptastic) in Gainesville, Florida. Him and Vanessa are real life friends from law school. He was a really nice guy and we played a lot of Guitar Hero (he rocks at it), some cool Mario and Sonic Olympics on the Wii, and we had some beers and a nice meal at a Japanese place in Gainesville.

From there we had a long drive to New Orleans yesterday. Ezra and his girlfriend are actually out here until Wednesday, so we met with them last night. They're both really nice, and it was really lucky that we happen to be here at the same time. We had a meal at a place called Muriel's, and then we went for some drinks on Bourbon Street. I think it's Spring Break down here, and Bourbon Street was really busy. It's definitely a cool town down here, and everyone's here to drink and have a good time. The street is filled with people, and most bars seemed to have bands on. It was really cool, although I was definitely tired from the night on Craig's couch followed by a 9/10 hour drive.

I do have a funny story that happened when we leaving Flagler Beach. I was checking out and settling up on the room, when the guy who was working started asking me about poker. I'd mentioned to him that I played, so he was intrigued and interested to know more. A couple that were staying there came over to chat too, and they were all very surprised that you could do it for a living and things like that. I'd been quite a long time chatting with them, so Vanessa came down and dropped some bags with me and then went back to get her suitcase. I said my goodbyes and took the bags to the car, and we set off to Gainesville. When we got to Gainesville, we found that I'd picked up their laptop with our bags! So there I was telling them how profitable poker can be and how you can make a living from it, and I go and steal their laptop like a total degenerate! Luckily we managed to get in touch with them through the hotel, and we're shipping it back to them today.

No pictures today, but I'll try and get some on in the next day or two. We're hopefully hanging out with Ezra and Shira again today, going on some boat trip (I can't remember what they called it) and maybe grabbing some food.

Flagler Beach

We've been in Florida for a few days now. We're staying at Flagler Beach, which is sort of in between St. Augustine and Daytona Beach. It's pretty much the perfect place for what we wanted before we go to New Orleans. It's "Bike Week" so it's a little noisy from that, but in general it's peaceful and pretty here. The first night we went for a meal at a nice restaurant and then went in the heated pool for quite a while. Another older couple joined us who were from Quebec. They were really nice and I enjoyed talking with them. Then some bloke had locked himself out of his apartment by the pool. I had to get the emergency number for him from our room, and then he stayed to chat with us too. In the end I think Vanessa was freaked out/bored by him, so we left!

Yesterday we took a walk around to see the town we're in. It's got some really nice houses and cute little shops. The beach is really nice too. We were then actually booked into the hotel's spa for a massage (and pedicure for Vanessa). We got some complimentary vouchers with our room so I thought I'd go ahead and take advantage. Some girl that grew up in England was doing the massages which was weird. I enjoyed mine and I did actually feel quite a bit better afterwards. Last night we had a superb meal at a place called Blue. It's predominantly a sea-food restaurant. I haven't eaten seafood pretty much ever, so I was a little sceptical about trying stuff. I had scallops, and squid (and mahi mahi the night before). I actually really enjoyed all three, and I had an excellent main meal of chicken and other shit.

Today the weather has truly sucked. There were tornado warnings this morning, so we were actually a little unsure of whether to go out at all. We decided to go check out Ripley's Believe It Or Not in the end, which is in St. Augustine. The drive up was horrible and it did look like perfect weather for a tornado to form. Then it started raining really badly and it was really bad to drive in. It calmed down by the time we got to St. Augustine, and we had a nice meal and went to Ripley's. We're going to go on a tour round the town at some point, but it was too wet to do it today really. The town looked beautiful though, and we'll hopefully get to go back and check it out properly soon.

Ice Hockey

Yesterday evening we went out with Brian and Jasmine again. First we went and got food at Cosmos Cafe in downtown North Carolina. I really liked the place and had a really good steak, as well as some nice beer that I hadn't had before. After that we went and watched the Charlotte Checkers in an Ice Hockey game. I really enjoyed that as I've never been to see a game before. They won 4-3, but more importantly there was a fight. I would've been so disappointed had I gone to an Ice Hockey game and not witnessed some fighting! I really enjoyed the entertainment during the intervals - it seemed like everyone was having a good time.

We have to set off to Florida this morning. It should be something like a seven hour drive, although it'll take longer than that due to stops and stuff. I may go ahead and do some of the driving, although I did get pretty uncomfortable in the car yesterday when we were driving to the mall. It was pissing down with rain, the roads were super busy, and Vanessa was yapping on her phone whilst driving. Put those three things together and I didn't feel so comfortable! It's weird to me that so many people talk on their phone whilst driving as it's illegal in England. I know some people still do it, but I don't (because I'm such a model citizen).

Here are some pictures from our meal, and I added one of Brian's dog, Bailey, to the last post. He's a very cute dog.

Meeting BTimm

Yesterday I went was fortunate enough to meet Brian and his wife at their house in Huntersville, North Carolina. Their neighbourhood is exactly what I imagine an American neighbourhood to be like - pretty houses with a friendly atmosphere. I really liked Brian's house - he has an open plan kitchen, living room, and dining area, which makes the room feel nice and big, and also means that you can all hang out easily together even when someone's preparing food or whatever. I really like his office area too as it's a nice big room upstairs that feels quite private. I'd definitely enjoy having it as my poker area.

We met his wife who's really nice. I was amazed at how well the four of us got on. Brian, Vanessa, and myself obviously know each other from poker, and that's what we spend a lot of time talking about normally, but the conversation was constantly flowing, and it was mainly not about poker. Brian's wife isn't a big poker fan, so it was great that we all got on so well and didn't bore her with poker talk! I particularly enjoyed this as it was very obvious we all got on as friends rather than just having poker in common.

Brian's food and hospitality was excellent, and I really hope I get to spend some more time with him before I fly back. We may well be going to a sports game on Tuesday - I think it was Ice Hockey. On Wednesday I set off for Florida, so I won't get another chance to hang out for a few weeks after Tuesday.

I just want to take the time again to thank Brian for inviting me over yesterday and for making my day really superb. He's definitely the type of person I'd love to have as a friend back home (sports + beer + poker - why the hell wouldn't he be?!). It makes me feel really grateful and fortunate to have had the opportunity to meet people like him just because I happen to play poker. I hope that I get to return the favour one day back in England.

In Charlotte

My flight was over an hour late getting into Charlotte, and when I got there I couldn't find Vanessa so I was getting a little worried! I finally found her right at the wrong end of the airport though. She made me a cool sign that I'll upload later - it's in her car at the moment though. We went and got dinner at a place called Wild Wings Cafe which was in Charlotte. It was really cool and it was just like a TGI Fridays or something (except it was authentically American). They also were doing Miller Lite (apologies Brits for drinking Lite beer) for $2 a pint. Pound a pint baby!

After that we went back to hers in Huntersville, North Carolina. Her apartment is in the suburbs (apparently), and it's really cool. It's on the 3rd floor of some new apartments, and they have some really nice facilities there in the complex. The apartment itself is pretty big and spacious. I'm not allowed to take any pictures of it though because she hasn't unpacked everything yet.

This morning we've been out for coffee and to get some stuff from the supermarket. I'm absolutely amazed at how many varieties of everything they have. I'd definitely be super fat if I was American. It's really strange in the supermarket because the check-out girl unloads your trolley for you, and someone else packs it up, whilst you just stand and wait. It felt really weird to me to just stand there while other people are doing everything for me!

I've just been for a look around the pool, gym, and lounge areas of the complex. They're really great and I'll try and put some pictures up at some point. I don't think people here realise how fortunate they are with a lot of things. For example, there are chairs and tables just around the pool, and I was thinking how cool it'd be to just sit around them with friends and play some games of cards or chess or whatever. It seems so trivial to Americans, but in England it's always too cold, windy, or wet to be doing things like that.

Later on we're going to Brian's (BTimm) house. I think I'm going to sweat him playing some poker and then he's grilling us some food. Hopefully I'll be sinking a few beers too!

I'll leave you with a picture of me on Vanessa's balcony. Hope everyone's OK and speak soon.

MC

New blog

Hi everyone. I've made this blog so that you can see what I'm up to in America for the next three weeks. I should be regularly updating this with what I've been up to and pictures.

I fly from London Gatwick at 11.40am Saturday morning, which will get me into Charlotte, North Carolina at about 4pm their time. I'm meeting up with a poker friend and staying at their house for a few days. Then we're off to Florida for a week by the beach.

Check back soon!

MC