"This isn't government we're watching; this is junior high"

So despite NCSU student newspaper "The Technician" having absolutely nothing of worth to say at all other than the typical report on Alpha Kappa Psi's "Pig Pickin' Fundraiser" (wish I could say I made this up but in fact the top half of page 2 in today's issue is dedicated to this so-called "good networking opportunity"- networking with who exactly?), there is is actually quite a lot going on in the good ol' USofA this week. 

Some of the Alexander girls finally got to make the trip up to DC this weekend. It was looking like pretty unfortunate timing in many ways, considering all the talks last week of a governmental shutdown, which would have meant all the museums, galleries, memorials and, let's be honest, most tragically the amazing Smithsonian Zoo being closed: basically a trip to Washington would have been kind of crap and a little bit pointless.

But thankfully a short-term agreement budget of $3.5 trillion was finally agreed upon late on Friday night. So now the Republicans are being blasted for messing about with empty threats and getting their priorities so drastically wrong and Obama is being tarred with the "controlling Stalinist" brush by crazy Libertarianists like this loveably old guy, who we went to see speak on campus the other week: 

You might recognise him from here... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7RnlPQCKBQ

God bless Amurricuh.

In other news, it's been a lovely few weeks of normality before starting the exam/paper due period, which needless to say I am not looking forward to at all. It was especially nice to have Mama and Papa Lewis come to visit last weekend on their trip to Florida to see the fam. Their gifts of chocolate, tea, money, and real non-dining hall meals were appreciated beyond belief.

Another memorable event was the Carolina Cup horse races down in South Carolina. Despite the fact I didn't actually see a real horse the whole day, it was a fantastic excuse to get dressed up, drunk, and laugh at horrendous frat boys. The Alexander guys and girls were all looking absolutely awesome, despite a cruel 5:30am wakeup call before driving down- not bad!

The weeks are flying by way too fast, so starting to make a list of things I need to do/see in Raleigh before we head off on our East-coast travels and home to England. Thankfully it's not the craziest or most vibrant city in the world so I think it'll definitely be more the people I'll miss rather than the place...

Listening to: "White Collar Boy" by Belle and Sebastian.

Listen here.

Title from "Our Cowardly Congress", by Nicholas D. Kristof, for The New York Times.

Read it here.