Kansas & Alabama

                                                   Kansas (Jessica) & Alabama (Sophie)
                                                                               or
                                                   Jessica (Kansas) & Sophie (Alabama)

When I was telling people (my parents) about my new friends, it was generally the state name that kept them apart. So however you want to remember :) 


I arrived in Birmingham on a Friday morning (two weeks today actually) and it was on Sunday when I met my first friend. We were attending a city tour for international students and there were only a few of us that had showed up. We started introducing ourselves and people started chatting. I knew in my head that I shouldn't go up to her, but I couldn't help it......

I went and talked to the only other American in the group. Her name is Jessica and she is from Kansas. There is just a feeling of going to a different country and wanting to meet people, but you want at least one of those new people to be from the same country as you (because you are going through the same "struggles" aka differences). So I made friends with the American. I was   fine with that, because as soon as we agreed that would meet other people (from different countries) a sweet, sweet feeling of relief came over me. 

We were on our tour for about 15 minutes chatting away, when a girl named Sophie came up to us and asked if we were American. We told her yes, and she said that she was going around listening to the accents and she found the Americans! 

You go away to study abroad to learn the new culture and meet people from all over the world... but until you realize you are going to be away for 6 months... from everything you know, your family, and your best friends... that's when it hits you how nice it would be just to have someone who some what knows how it is back home just incase you need them... and hey... you can never have too many friends. :)  

So Sophie joined our conversation. Sophie is from Alabama. (yes, like the University of Alabama). One of our first conversations was the national championship game, and where we could watch it. (Although the 6 hour time change meant that it played at 2 AM here)

We were all talking yesterday about how Sophie and I picked the spring semester because we didn't want to miss football (not that I would have missed too much this year... but I like to think of myself as a dedicated tailgater.. at the least). 
And Jessica was like, well football doesn't matter, but I am missing basketball season (KU)! 

                                                 All 3 of us! Kansas, Alabama, and Iowa.