American weekend

Always wanted to make sure that if the children came out at the end of my fellowship that they were given the full experience of being in America. You could happily spend a lot of time in Virginia and not realise you had left home - so wanted to make sure they realised that this was not Dorset. Took Alexander to an American football game on Saturday - UVA against Miami. Ale who we saw on Friday at Hanover Town was incredibly generous and gave us two tickets.
Annoyingly didn't have my good camera with me so these are from my phone. The marching band at half time did a tribute to Star Wars and not sure if you can make it out - but they marched into the shape of Darth Vader's helmet. You don't get that at North Dorset rugby club - or a chap on a horse brandishing aCavalier's sword at the start of the game when UVA came onto the pitch.

We sat looking very bemused for the first quarter, but then really got into it and didn't leave until the pitch invasion after the end of the game as UVA won a fantastic victory. Go the Hoos! Certainly the devotion to your university is different from at home - everyone sitting around us had been at UVA and the gentleman I sat next to said it was all part of the alumni network. British universities I know keep trying to whip up the same dedication - but not sure if they will ever make these levels.
Sunday took everyone for a walk in the hills - managed to get quite lost in the woods, but found part of the Appalachian trail. I can see now why Bill Bryson's book was called A Walk in the Woods - there really is very little else to see except trees. No birds, bears or even wolves to be seen - ps on that - it has been confirmed that the noise I hear at night is indeed coyotes howling. They really do sound spooky.
Speaking of spooky, Sunday was also Halloween. Here we are at the lawn of UVA, having rushed there from the Blue Ridge Parkway - sure this is exactly what Jefferson had in mind when he designed the lawn and the Academic villas around it.

 The lawn was a bit of a scrum to be honest, so we were lucky enough to have been invited trick or treating with Max and his family - I had met Max with Peter Onuf. This was trick or treating as we see in the films and was great fun - all the houses in the neighbourhood were decorated for Halloween and we went around with this motley crew. Fierce or what? And yes, that is a real werewolf just next to Harry Potter!