Before I cart myself off to Colombia tomorrow, I thought that I better tell you a few things about what I've been up to while I've been back home this month.
March has proved to be a much stranger time to be home in comparison to Christmas. As it is the middle of term, the majority of my friends are still working hard at University, my parents and brother are stuck in at work and school respectively, the friends that I still have at home are also working/studying and it has now been 6 months since I've seen my sister Imogen in the flesh (and another 6 months until I will see her again). Cutting to the chase-coming home hasn't felt quite as welcoming as I'd hoped it would be. It's all still the same place (bar a few new physical features) as the one I left back in January but mainly through the absence of people, it doesn't feel quite normal. This was compounded when I initially arrived home late at night on Friday 28th February to an empty house as my family minus Imo were arriving back in the UK following day having spent 2 weeks in Nepal and China at my cousin Morgan's wedding and visiting Imo in China (I'm EXTREMELY jealous).
In consideration of the above, besides my preparations for Colombia, I haven't had a great deal to do but meet up with my remaining friends, go to the gym, swim training and procrastination. Not ideal but there were a few highlights including my trip to Nottingham to visit my friend Josh at Nottingham Trent Uni. Keeping in line with my gap year goal of visiting new places, I spent 3 days in Robin Hood's city-a place I'd only visited twice before for Swimming competitions in which both times the only thing I saw of Nottingham was its Swimming pool. In all honesty we didn't do a great deal. Excluding a shopping trip in the city centre and a night out at the student union for St.Patrick's Day, we spent the majority of our time together in Josh's flat listening to music and playing FIFA or cards along with his flatmates but I still enjoyed my time regardless. Throughout last year at college, I spent pretty much everyday with Josh in Government & Politics and Spanish lessons so I was just happy that we could spend time together again and catch up.
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| Celebrating St.Paddy's day in Nottingham |
Just a little plug for Josh- His band 'Cultures' have recently released their debut single
'Away From Us' which is available to download now! Get it on iTunes for £1.89 and also receive the B-Side to the single 'Flags'. You can also listen to more of their music on Soundcloud-
https://soundcloud.com/bandofcultures including free download 'Free'. Make sure you give them a cheeky follow on Twitter too-
@bandofcultures and last but not least... they have a big gig supporting US band Grizfolk at Night & Day Café in Manchester on April 30th so get yourself down there for that, you'll be in for a treat.
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| Cultures LIVE @ The Roadhouse, Manchester on 6th March. One of the things I've been and done while I've been home |
My time with Josh ended when we went to see Dan Croll live at The Ruby Lounge, Manchester on the Wednesday evening. Most of you will have no idea who on earth Dan Croll is so I shall explain. Dan Croll is a singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist from Staffordshire who is a graduate from the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts (LIPA). His debut album 'Sweet Disarray' was released a week before the gig and in the past he has been fortunate enough to work with Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Paul McCartney. Croll sounds is a bizarre mix of folk, electro, rock and African sounds and for this reason I believe he is one of the most exciting prospects on the UK music scene at the moment. He is also a member of
Pyramid Online's (the music blogging site I write for)
Top 12 for 2014 so I really did have to see what this guy was all about.
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| The Manchester Big Wheel at night looking pretty |
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| Gig poster |
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| Racing Glaciers opening the show |
The excellent Racing Glaciers from the mighty Macclesfield town warmed up the crowd before Croll eventually emerged on stage at 9:40. Despite the abnormally long wait, he played through his new album in its entirety including two new tracks from his work with Ladysmith Black Mambazo and it in short it was an exceptional performance. It wasn't just the music that got me, considering the album was only dropped the week before, the crowd (including me) were singing and dancing along to every lyric and knew it all pretty much off by heart. My personal highlights were the heavily African influenced 'Maway', anthem 'Compliment Your Soul' used on the FIFA 14 soundtrack and the glorious folk song 'Home'. Croll also kept the audience laughing as well when he described hearing his music played in Pret as the definition of 'making it' as a musician, addressing his Mum who was in the audience and getting everyone to sing happy birthday to his cousin. After the gig finished, I even got the chance to meet Racing Glaciers and Dan Croll himself as well as having a brief chat before he was engulfed in young teenage fan girls. I returned home afterwards feeling positively uplifted by yet another great gig at The Ruby Lounge, probably not just one of the best small venues in Manchester but in the whole of the UK too. Expect to see an Album and Gig Review popping up online in the near future which I shall link to my 'Other Writing' page on FOT!
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| Dan Croll in action |
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| One of Dan Croll's band (Jacob?) looked unmistakably like my friend Andrew haha |
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| Drumming |
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| Set list |
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| Meeting Racing Glaciers |
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| me with the main man-Dan Croll |
To cap off my final blogpost before my Colombian adventure, I have something very exciting to tell you. As mentioned in my post
My Awesome Week , I applied to Americamp to work as a Camp Counselor this summer. Since then I have filled out various bits of paperwork, sent tonnes of emails, had skype interviews and even applied through BUNAC to try and get a Camp Counselor position. On Monday my wish came true.
I have been #plACed and I will be heading to the US for the summer!!!
I will be working as a Camp Counselor/Swimming Teacher and Lifeguard at Camp Greentop, Maryland in the North East of the United States for 3 months. Although there is still SO MUCH to do in order to prepare for it all, I am really excited living in the knowledge that in just over a month I will be heading to the USA for the first time ever. I was inspired to become a Camp Counselor from watching the E4 sitcom 'Beaver Falls' in which 3 British guys go to America to work at a Summer Camp and find themselves in all kinds of tricky and hilarious situations. Although it's likely to be highly unrealistic and the fact the show was cancelled after two series, 'Beaver Falls' was one of my favourite things to watch on TV while it lasted and it showed me that working at a US Summer Camp would be a great way to experience the country, gain some useful qualifications/CV material, meet new people and make new friends. Seeing as my application was successful, I am now in the process of uploading the candidate video I had to do for my application to my youtube channel,
Fraser On Tour! The Youtube Channel, for you all to see. Not gonna lie, for me it is a bucket load of cringe and rushed editing but I hope that in some way it may inspire you to become a Camp Counselor. And here it is! Follow the link to see my application video-
Americamp Camp Counselor Application Video 2014
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| This will be me in the summer, American here I come! |
So, in just over 24 hours I shall be leaving the UK and flying off to Colombia, as you do. Hope you've enjoyed my final post before I go away again and I hope you will continue reading my posts as I venture into Latin America.
Farewell chums!
#FraserOnTour
FP
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