New Year's Resolution

I don't generally make these resolutions. I figure that resolutions shouldn't be made just on new year's eve just to be forgotten about by Valentine's Day. But this year, my first year of University and my first year of living away from home and the first year without any sort of pet, I thought I should make a new year's resolution to help guide my way. Only, I'm hoping this will be more like a "all the years to come resolution". So, I guess, without further adieu here is my resolution.

I resolve to be a better to person in any way that I need fixing. I want to let go of certain bits of my past and with other memories of my past I want to see them for what they are. Then I want to learn everything I can from them and then pack them away at the back of my mind only to pull them out when I need reminding of what I've learned. I need to be more disciplined in my studies, but more importantly, I need to be more disciplined in me. I can't forget who I am no matter what and I need to embrace those things that make me me. I am who I am and who I am is a dork who manages to get stuck in the bubbles produced by putting soap in a fountain, who breaks out in show tunes every once in a while, who dances in her room in nothing but underwear while singing at the top of her lungs, who thinks there's nothing sweeter than puppy breath and nothing more relaxing than a purring cat, and who enjoys waking up early to exercise. All of things I am and all of them make me who I am. I should know what make me me even the bits and pieces I'm not so proud of. I shouldn't forget that I am a pretty awesome person any more often than I need to make me humble. Most of all I need to stop worrying so much. A little worry is needed, but I should stop getting wrapped in little details that don't really matter because it takes away from the experience.

I hope you all have a wonderful and safe new year's eve and a great start to 2011.

It's Good to be Home

I'm very glad I left when I did now. I was a little hesitant about missing the last week of school until I heard of all the trials of my friends trying to get home for the holidays. If I had waited for a week, like I originally planned, chances are I wouldn't be home right now. I might if I got lucky, but there's only so much luck to around between travellers during the holiday season. If you guys haven't seen it on the news, some of the major airports in the UK and in Europe are just closed due to weather. London Heathrow is closed because of all the snow and the fact that they ran out of, what I am calling because I can't remember the actual name, plane antifreeze. I believe Paris is closed too. So, while I did miss a week of classes, I'm very happy that I left early.

Well, enough of my gloating about how easy it was for me to get home. On to present adventures. Rocco and I are in Los Angeles right now. We headed down on the train yesterday to spend some time with my mom and step dad. We're going to leave tomorrow for Phoenix which should be...well interesting to say the least. We're going to see my step dad's family who are Jewish but also not Jewish and he's Buddhist and...well, it's all very confusing. I'm not sure if we're actually celebrating Christmas but there are a lot of birthdays in his family around this time of year. Anyway, it should be fun and it'll be interesting to see how Rocco handles this long of a road trip. It would be so much cooler if we were flying, but then I would have to go through Guide Dogs to get clearance for him to fly. This way I only needed to make sure it was alright if I took him into another state.

Hope you're all having a wonderful holiday season so far!

Letter to Santa

Dear Santa,

We haven't spoken in a while and that's partly my fault. I lost faith a while ago, but I still like to believe that the impossible is possible. If anyone can do that, it's you.

You know how I know I'm not a little kid anymore? My letters to you used to contain a long list of toys and a variety of pets that I knew my parents would never get me. Now though...there's really only one thing on my Christmas list.

I've been a fairly good girl this year. I've had my bad days, but really, who doesn't? So, a friend of mine is in the hospital after yet another surgery. Santa, I know you can't make all of the health problems go away, but if you could help her be as comfortable as possible that would really help. And, do you think you could make sure she's out of the hospital and back home with her cat and dog by Christmas day? There's also one more thing that I would like. Is it possible for you to make sure that there is a new dog trained to be her wheelchair guide by at least summer? I'm hoping for earlier, but it does take a long time to train wheelchair guides so I'm not really expecting you to make that happen any earlier.

Anyway Santa, that's what I thought I would spend my Christmas wish on this year. There is something I would like under my tree this year, but I don't think you can wrap it, stuff it in a bag, and make your reindeer carry it all the way to me. I'm sure you know what it is though because you're Santa Clause.

Merry Christmas Santa.

Love,
Erin

Pictures of the Town and My Alumni Meeting

I was asked by a friend in Scotland to take more pictures of my hometown. So, here are a few I've taken in the past few days. They also include a High School Alumni thingy that was held on the new school campus.

You've all seen what I see when I look out of my window back my room in Aberdeen...

Well, this is what I see as I have breakfast every morning. All you have to add is a little Labradoodle running around and playing after her breakfast.

My boy Rocco and I decided to walk to the grocery store so that we made sure that we had enough chocolate to make my famous Mint Chocolate Cookies and my Sun Moon Cookies. So next is a few pictures of my neighbourhood.

This is a bit of the circle I live in.
Rocco quite likes the leaves.
But he doesn't like taking pictures.

The UK uses a lot of roundabouts and small four way intersections. I kind of missed these large, 3 lane intersections.

I think where I live is gorgeous in the winter because it looks like autumn. The leaves all start to fall off the trees and the air is crisp and...well not clean, but cleaner.

Now we come to the pictures of my school. I'd like to show you where I went to High School. It's little place called UHS and this is what I spent the last 4 years in.

You see that I went to school in a bunch of portables. It was the paper here that dubbed us "Trailer Park High". I mean, really, it was a whole bunch of trailers that were either too hot or too cold and the ceiling panels liked to fall down every once in a while. Those classrooms that were not portables (generally the Junior and Senior classes) were tiny things that could barely pass for class rooms. We all generally had to pile in on top of each other just to get in the door and shuffle the desks so that we could actually get into the seats.

This is what the school looks like now:It seems only right that as soon as I start going to school at a castle my old school should turn into a spaceship. It's a very nice building, though I'm not still sold on the outside. The inside looks amazing though! The classrooms are actually big enough to fit all of the students in a certain period. And the students now have actual desks! This is exciting news for everyone. And since we are a musically geared charter school we now have a recording studio. There are also lockers and two stories and a choir room that actually has some acoustics. Is Erin mad that she never got to experience this amazing building? HECK YES! I mean, the drama people have an actual storage room now! Do you know hoe much easier my time there would have been if I had had that storage room during drama? Very. It's alright though, because my little brother gets to experience the coolness of the place. I totally forgot that Freshmen don't have a 7th period so they don't have a 7th period final and get to go home early. I was so looking forward to walking into his classroom, yelling "Munchkin!", and embarrassing him. At least he really gets to enjoy his high school time in this cool new building. Not that I didn't. I'm very proud to be the last graduating class of Trailer Park High.

Oh! Also, look at these chairs! Aren't they cool!? These are in the Drama/Musicianship III and IV classroom. The desk park can swivel and the chair rotate a full 360 degrees. And, as I was talking to my old drama teacher he pointed out that the chair were also part strainer (look at the bottom) so that you could have fun and strain your pasta as well. :) Oh, How I miss the Schlieveman.

I really wish I had gotten a picture of the 10 or so alumni who were sitting in the chairs and spinning. :D

My Trip Home

Alright so now is the post where I tell you about my trip home.

Sp, first thing's first. I had to get to the airport by 4:30am since my flight was at 6:30am. Now, I was going to book a taxi to come by my building around 3:30am because that would give me an hour to get to the airport and that's what it usually takes in bad traffic. I thought that since it was going to be early morning that it wouldn't take that long but better safe than sorry. But, a friend of mine, you know who you are, said that I should be extra careful and have the taxi come by at 2:30am just in case of snow and ice. Well, the snow and ice had pretty much melted by Friday morning so guess what time Erin got to the airport. That's right...2:45am. Now, you might ask, "Hey Erin. Is the airport even open at that time?" The answer is no. I waited outside for a good hour before someone came and opened a door and then again until 4:30am for the ticket agents to arrive to get my baggage checked.

Besides having to wait out in the cold for that long I had a very smooth ride. I slept for a lot of it because I was running on an hour of sleep. Even then my sleep on the plane wasn't great so I was basically awake for 26 hours before I got home, took a bubble bath, and finally went to sleep with all of the animals in my room.

Speaking of animals I had a wonderful surprise when I got to the airport. A few people from my puppy group were originally going to meet me at the airport but then things happened and they couldn't come. So, I wasn't expecting anyone besides my dad and step-mom. But when I got there Alyson and Rockford had come! I was so excited to see to see them and so thankful that they came!

Anywho, I'm home now and enjoying the fact that I'm not just eating cereal and salads. :D My dad made biscuits this morning...and I had 3. When I normally only have 2. So, my plan to lose weight here so that I can gain it back when I get back to Scotland might not work out. Because it is the holidays and everyone likes to make cookies and cakes and good things to eat. Eh, we'll see.

Is Home

Just thought I would let everyone know that I am home. I slept for 7 1/2 hours and now I can't go back to sleep because my body thinks is 1 in the afternoon. I'll have a more detailed post later when I can put the events of my travels into coherent sentences. Until then, I'm happy to be home. :D

I Can't Wait

I'm going home early tomorrow morning!!!! I really can't wait to be home again. I love it here, but it'll be nice to have minimal responsibilities again. I have everything set up. I checked in online, though I didn't print out my boarding passes because I really couldn't figure out how to do it online so I'll just pick them up from the kiosk tomorrow morning as I drop my bags off. I booked a taxi to take me to the airport at 2:30am...ugh! I don't mind mornings...but that's really early morning. Better to be at the airport earlier rather than later though. My flight leaves at 6:30am from Aberdeen to London. Then from London to LAX then on home after that. A full 20 hours or so of travelling in all, but I'll be home early evening tomorrow California time. I'll get to see my doggies again and my kitties!!!!!

Erin is happy...except for the 2:30am taxi ride. That's not gonna be so much fun.

Only 2 More Days

Alright guys. I only have today and tomorrow of class and then I leave very early on Friday. Am I excited? Of course I am! I can't wait to be back in Sunny California...even though I hear there has been little sun as of late. All of my friends have told me that it's actually really cold and that it's been getting close to freezing most nights. You know what I say to that? That they should try getting below freezing everyday during the day for the past 3 weeks and then they can talk to me about cold. I'm going to be going around in tank tops and shorts during the days I can assure you.

Anyway, today I'm doing some last minute Christmas shopping. Getting the last present to wrap up and sent to Freya and her family and picking up a few things for my parents and friends. I think I'm going to get something pretty and Scottishy for the annual PWAP Christmas Puppy Meeting. I'm also waiting for some Gaelic children's' books to arrive. The manufacturing centre is in Glasgow which isn't that far from here...maybe an hour or two by car. So, I was hoping they would be here by today and that I would get to pick them up before I left. But, I know buses and trains have been cancelled to Edinburgh from Aberdeen, so maybe the delivery from Glasgow is delayed. In any case, I'm really hoping that they get here by Thursday at the latest. A little girl in my puppy group asked for something Scottish and I wanted to get her a Gaelic Children's book...hmmm...if I don't get word that it's in today then I might just by her a cute Loch Ness Monster Doll. :D

Besides that, I'm packing and enjoying my last few days here in Scotland before I head back to the States.

November 30: Announcement

Well, I did promise an exciting announcement didn't I? So, here it is.

I figured out what I want to do with my life (if you want the full story please visit my GDB Puppy Blog) and unfortunately it has little to do with what I'm doing here in Scotland. Here I am doing a joint major in English and Celtic Studies (though I'm probably changing that to English and Art History or Physcology) and that just doesn't help when what you want to be is an Orientation and Mobility Instructor and a Blind Rehabilitation Specialist. What does this mean exactly. Well, in short it means that I might not come back next fall. I've already decided that I'll finish out the year here. BUT! I might transfer to get my undergraduate work done in Blind Studies then I would probably go to SF State to get my Masters in O&M. But right now, at this point, my life is like a book open to a blank page yet to be written. I'll keep you all informed of what I'll be doing.

November 29: Change of Plans

I'm now flying home on the 10th! That means I'm going to get home a whole week sooner than I originally was. Why have I done this? It's not because I'm bored here or any of that, it's because I've been getting a little homesick and really wanted to go home to my dogs and cats...but not my fish...RIP Cunningham. I know, I know. I'll be missing the last week of school. It bothers me a little too, but then most of my older and wiser friends basically said, "What's wrong with missing a week?" when I told them about my apprehension of not going to class for a week. So this is what I think. Most students will miss two lectures per class through the semestre. I have missed one lecture total in all my classes because I was really, really ill. So, I've saved my "I just don't feel like getting out of bed in time to make me 9am class" and "I have a 4 hour break between my morning and my afternoon class...why go to the one hour afternoon class?" ditches and saved them for this week of getting to go home early. It did cost me a little extra to change my flight schedule, but not much...well, not more than I was thinking. And the flight I re booked was actually cheaper than the one I originally booked so I even got to pay less. So, I'm very ok with paying a little extra if that means I get to be in my own room (though, my paint job has probably been painted over) with my own dogs. :) I'm not going to say my own bed because I think they've moved my single bed and the rest of my furniture out and stuck a double bed in. But I don't know yet.

I leave for home in 11 days!!!!! When did the semestre go by?!

BTW: I got a 16 on my Art History essay! YAY! One of the highest scores in the tutorial class. If I had actually proofread the thing for spelling and grammar mistakes I probably (well, that's what he says) would have gotten a 17. I might just stick with Art History.

November 28: Fail

Well, I failed the November Post a Day. Oh well. I just totally forgot that I hadn't posted anything yesterday. I was going to write a short poem about the snow and how it looks a bit like a winter wonderland out there right now. Especially last night. It was just amazingly gorgeous. I mean we got I want to say a good foot of snow last night. And when you're standing out there watching it fall in soft, neat piles all over the sidewalks and houses...well, there's just something magical about it.

Anyway, I hope the Blogging Gods forgive me.

I've been pretty busy with my sonnet for the past week and I finally finished it so now I just have to write an analysis on it in 500 words. I'm thinking this will be pretty easy since I wrote the thing and know exactly why I put this line here and that line there. Sure, a lot of it was because it rhymed, but there are a few strategically placed lines. I don't know if I'm going to post it up here though because I don't want anyone to steal it as their own. Not that I think that anyone would want to steal my sonnet as their own, I'm not that conceited, but you never know.

Only two days left of November! WOW! It kind of flew by so fast. At the end of this month I'm making an exciting announcement. So, stay tuned.

November 26: Girls' Night In Part 2

As most of you know last night was Thanksgiving. This is the first Thanksgiving since I was born that I didn't celebrate the American style. But I did sort of celebrate it.

Last night was another Girls' Night In for Marlene, Vera, Lisa, and me. This time it was at my place just in case I got a call from one of my parents. We had lots of pizza and crisps and biscuits and blackcurrantade. It was pretty good. I wasn't too sure about blackcurrantade but it's just like black currant juice only fizzy. Then we talked about girl things like boys and their stupidity, and classes that made us angry, and the horrible things of being a girl. That's always my favourite part. :) Then we watched "How to Train Your Dragon". I hadn't seen it before, but I LOVED it. It's just a really cute movie and that's what I want in my stocking this year.

So, not a traditional Thanksgiving, but a really fun one nonetheless. Thanks to my friends who came over and made me forget that it was a holiday. :)

November 25: Thankful

Well last night I went to go see Harry Potter with a whole bunch of friends and it reminded me what I'm thinking for.

I'm thankful for friends who are just as crazy as me and don't mind walking down the street throwing snow at each other. I'm thankful for friends who find a way to make me happy even when I'm at my saddest. I'm thankful for friends who would be ready to come over if I were really sick and just sit with me until I felt better. I'm thankful for friends who find joy in the fact that I'll dance down the sidewalk in the snow just because. I'm thankful for friends who come over and eat pizza and play Munchkin and talk about the important things in life.

Most importantly though, I'm thankful for all of my friends. I love them all dearly and I'm very glad to have them in my life

Happy Thanksgiving to those of you over in the States!

November 24: First Snow

Today was the first snow!!!!! YAY! Let me stop the stereotypes right now. Even though I am from the desert of California I have, in fact, seen snow before. I was asked a few times when I mentioned my excitement for the snow if I had actually seen snow before. Yes. California does have mountains and I have been there plenty of times. I just have never lived in a place where it snows during the winter. Like really snows. It used to snow in winters when we lived in Texas, but it was only about an inch or two. Not what I really call snow. Well, today it snowed about as much as it did back in Texas. This is very exciting for me.

One bad thing, I will admit, is the ice. They salt the sidewalks and streets and all that, but there are some places (in front of my building being one of them) that doesn't get a lot of salt. So, Erin did almost slip once or twice. I didn't fall, but I almost did. A few times. It's still very exciting! It's snowing!!! :)

November 23: Ho Hum

College life really can be boring at times. I mean, I'm meant to be working on a few essays right now, but then we come back to the problem that I'm just not motivated enough. Hmm...Erin needs to get a little more motivated about doing well her first year here. It's not that I don't like reading and writing the essays it's just that I'd much rather pleasure read. But I am working on my English essay and tomorrow I'm going to check out some books that will help me on my Modern Gaelic Culture essay. So, I'm not being completely lazy...just a little. I've started to think of ideas for the Shakespearean Sonnet that I'm going to write and then figure out how to spend 500 words talking about my great awesomeness. Haha, just kidding. The sonnet is going to be shite, but it still seems like the easiest essay topic to choose from.

In other news...tomorrow is Wednesday. Just in case you forgot.

November 22: Sad News from the Homefront

My fish has died and I'm in a state of Mourning right now. Poor Cunningham supposedly froze to death. What a way to die. :( I kept that fish alive for over a year and it only took two months for him to go belly up without me. Sigh, life is short isn't it? Perhaps this is what I'll write my sonnet on. The short life of a beautiful fish.

In other news, I was told to calm down today but my oral Gaelic teacher. Would you be surprised that she wasn't the first teacher to tell me that exact phrase?

November 21: 2 Months

I've been here for two months now and I have to say I like the city. It's really boring, cold, and wet I'll grant you. But it's nice. I can walk to wherever I need to go and it started getting cooler about the time I arrived instead of staying excruciatingly hot until just about now. So, I don't mind the city even though I wish that there was more to do. I'm also getting right along with my studies even though it's easier than the last 4 years of high school wrapped up together. This means that there are times that I'm quite bored. I do have two essays due in the next two weeks though, so hopefully I'll have a little something to do. I'm seriously considering the second essay question for this next essay which is on poetry. The question basically states, "write a sonnet and talk about your own awesomeness." Seriously, that's pretty much what it says. It should be easy and I think I write a fairly decent sonnet.

I realised today that I'm only going to be here for 2-3 weeks. Then I'll be going home until next semestre. That's really exciting! I get to go home and see my dogs Arwen and Rosie, my cats Mia, Sylvester, and Lucy, and my Guide Dog Puppy Rocco. I'm very happy that I'll have Rocco over the whole of my break. He'll be almost a year old when I leave him in January and that's going to be a bit of a...weird thought for a while. Anyway, I'm just excited to see my friends and drive my car. I hate driving, but when I drive my car it's amazing. I love him so very much. Oh, and my family. I'll be happy to see them too.

Only 2 weeks until I get back to sunny California and see everyone again. :)

November 20: Sigh

There's not so much to blog about today I'm sorry to say. I have joined another Game in the Roleplaying Society. I went to the first session today which was mostly character generation. I decided to mix it up a little. In my Pathfinder Game, "Before Night Falls", I'm an average height and average looks elf wizard named Celia Hazelcraft of the North Wood Elves who went out adventuring to find her brother and he fiance who were lost during a war. In this game I've decided to be a drop dead gorgeous Hobbit Ranger. :D I'm particularly short, even for a halfling. My name in this game is Xigdestra Sherwood but everyone just calls me Xiggy. I'm travelling with my fiance Blubrax McBottletop (played by my friend Marlene) and his twin brother Lunx von Ampleburger (played by my friend Fredric). This is going to be interesting.

Anyway, besides that I'm really sort of missing home all of a sudden. It's not that I'm not busy. I'm having loads of fun and having quite a few late nights. I have two essays I'm meant to be working on, but at the moment I don't care enough. I'm working on getting myself to care about them so I will actually write them. I guess the reason I miss home all of a sudden is because yesterday a puppy from my puppy group left for formal training, also yesterday was the midnight premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 and I wasn't with the friends I had been for the past 4 years (still haven't seen it, I will soon), today my boy turns 10 months old, and next week is Thanksgiving. I won't go into my feelings of Thanksgiving right now, but I'm slightly homesick. I won't lie. But it'll pass soon. I can tell this is just a fleeting thing because it started this morning and hasn't escalated at all, so I'm fairly certain that tomorrow I won't even feel it. Here's hoping at least. :) Sleep now...Erin stayed up past midnight for the past two nights. Sleeeeeeeeppppp....zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

November 19: Explode

What happens when Erin forgets that there is an essay due in one of her classes very soon? It's an interesting process, but the basic idea is this.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And then my head explodes leaving no trace but icky, gooey crap stuck to my walls. All I can say now is, "Bring it on Modern Gaelic Culture Essay!!!!! Just try and hit me! I dare you."

November 18: AURA Quiz

Hey all! Last night AURA hosted a pub quiz style quiz without the alcohol. As I am part of the committee I got to help come up with the questions and helped read them out. :) It really was a lot of fun, though there was a few points of stress here and there, but I'm not going to go into that over the Internet. Let's just say that there were...issues with a person.

But besides these issues I think we all had a spankin' time. I know I did. We got to sit on stage looking all superior and mark quiz sheets and all that. I felt very high on the food chain. Tehe. We were on an elevated stage and it at least made me feel important.

There were 7 rounds to this quiz and we have decided that next quiz it'll be a shorter one. Anyway, we had Arts&Literature (but it was renamed "books" because that was all the questions were about), Film, TV, Weird Science, Weird History, General Knowledge, and a Music round in 3 parts. There was the Guitar Intro better known as the What the Hell is Jamie Trying to Play? Part (He actually did very good, but that is what the question sheet had on it). Then there was the Acapella round or What in the World is the Committee Mumbling at You? Part. And finally there was the Finish the Lyric Part which I have renamed the WFT Mate? round. This is because one of the questions was;

"STOP!"

And we only accepted one specific answer though there are four possible answers. :)

It really was great fun.

November 17: Girls' Night In

Last night a few friends and I had a Girls' Night In. All you other bloggers who are female knows what this means. But for those of you who are male I will indulge your curiosity for a second. It's a night where a few girls (in this case four including myself) get together and bitch, eat, complain, laugh, eat, talk about boys (which is where the bitching comes from), and play a game. Generally it's a card game and our night was no different. We played Munchkin. :)



For those of you who don't know Munchkin then...get it, learn it, and play it.


Let me tell you of some of the adventures of the night. Lisa and I went to get drinks and a veggie pizza for me. This took a good hour. We learned never to send Erin and Lisa shopping. We ended up with 26 bags of crips. For four girls.

This is our pile of crisps. :) Do you also see the box of biscuits in there too?

Anyway, after finally getting to Vera's we made pizza which turned out badly. The oven started smoking and we couldn't breathe and all that stuff. It was interesting and fun. Then Vera thought, let's make it in the microwave. Well, I couldn't eat it because it was a meat pizza. But I hear it was almost like you had to drink it.

After that we ate some more and played Munchkin and talked until almost midnight. It was great fun. :) Rules don't allow me to tell you anything that was spoken about, but needless to say, we got a lot of our chests.

Our game of MunchkinLisa. :)
Vera and Marlene.
Hey! Who's that girl with purple hair? Oh, that's me!
Our legs...

Me and Lisa. :)

More of Vera and Marlene.
We got into a discussion on facebook about this and decided that Marlene kind of looks like she runs a brothel.
This is the face Marlene gave me when I told them I eat M&M's on my pizza. Priceless face.

an t-Samhain 16: Gaidhlig

Note: A few of the words have grav accents, but my computer isn't set to make them so...sorry.

Madainn mhath! Is mise Erin NicGriogair. Tha mi nam oileanach aig an oilthigh ann an Obar Dheathain. Tha mi a' fuireach ann an King Street Exchange. Chan eil mi a Alba. Tha mi a Ameririgea. 'S toil leam Obar Dheathain. Tha mi a' fuireach ann an flat beag an-drasta. Anns an flat tha coig seomaraichean-cadail, coig seomariachean-ionnlaid, agus cidsin. Tha an rumaichean gle bheag. Anns an rum mo tha leabhaigh, bord, agus seomar-ionnlaid. Chan eil amar agam. Tha fraisair agam.

Tha mi a' deanamh Gaidhlig, Beurla, agus Ceiltis aig an oilthigh. Is fhearr leam Gaidhlig. Tha mi beagan Gaidhlig agam.

Tha da bhrathair, Greg agus Elliot, agus aon piuthar, Marlyn, agam. Tha tri coin, tri cait, agus aon iasg agam anns an Ameririgea. Tha Arwen Golden Retriever. Tha Rosie Labradoodle. Tha Rocco Yellow Lab agus tha e Guide Dog Puppy in Training. Tha Mia, Sylvester, agus Lucy Tuxedo Cats. Tha Cunningham Beta.

Translation:

Good Morning! My name is Erin MacGregor (note: this is a false last name). I am a student at the University in Aberdeen. I am staying at King Street Exchange. I am not from Scotland. I am from America. I like Aberdeen. I am living in a small flat at the moment. In the flat there are five bedrooms, five bathrooms, and a kitchen. The rooms are very small. In my room there is a bed, a desk, and a bathroom. I don't have a bath. I have a shower.

I am studying Gaelic, English, and Celtic at the University. I prefer Gaelic. I speak a little Gaelic.

I have two brothers, Greg and Elliot, and a sister, Marlyn. I have three dogs, three cats, and a fish in America. Arwen is a Golden Retriever. Rosie is a Labradoodle. Rocco is a Yellow Lab and a Guide Dog Puppy in Training. Mia, Slyvester, and Lucy are Tuxedo Cats. Cunningham is a Beta.

This was all that I could think of the say at the moment, but I thought you guys would like to see how I was doing with my Gaelic. I really do enjoy the language. In high school I was forced to take Latin, which was fun but I wasn't passionate about it. Then they didn't offer the language I really wanted to take so I took Spanish. Since I really got to choose this language I'm having so much fun learning it. :)

November 15: Fire Alarm

My building has a hyperactive fire alarm. Now this is a good thing and a bad thing. It's good because if there is actually ever a fire we'll all know about it and be able to get out unharmed. The bad part of this is that when the time comes that there is an actual fire none of us are going to believe the fire alarm and we're all going to burn up in a horrific death.

Now when I say it's hyperactive I mean that almost everything sets it off. It went off once because someone was taking a shower in the middle of the night and the steam set it off. Where I am, we don't get many fire alarms in the middle of the night. We've only had one so far. At Hillhead I've heard there have been at least 4 or 5. It's the benefit of not living where most of the other Freshers live because most of the people here don't get nearly as drunk and stupid. Some do, but not in the same proportion as at Hillhead (they have a cheap bar at the activity centre there). It was an interesting time this late night fire alarm. My flatmate Vivi and I ended up coming out of our rooms at the same time. Both of us had a look of, "This better be a real fire or else." It wasn't and I'm slightly happy about that because I forgot my glasses and I wasn't wearing contacts so if there had been a fire I would have been blinded until January.

The reason I am bringing up the fire alarm now, 2 months since I've lived here, is because of what happened today. It happened before. The first day I was here it went off just after I got out of the shower I took to get the 20+ hours of travel off. I scrambled to get clothes on and got as far as the hallway before the fire alarm shut off. Ok, I can deal with that. But this morning I didn't have to wake up at any specific time. It's reading week for my Gaelic and English classes so I don't have class until after noon all days except Friday. So about 10:30 I stepped into my shower and turned on my jazz songs and started singing along. About two minutes into the shower I realized that there was a noise that wasn't part of the song. It was the fire alarm. I let out a sigh, switched off the water, and quickly dried off. I did this and got clothes on all in under a minute and started heading down when the alarm stopped. I mumbled an inappropriate four letter word and turned back to my room hoping that the alarm had shut off because there was not a fire and not because the fire had disrupted the circuits. My thought was that I was going to be in the shower so I would be dripping with water and therefore I would take less time to burn up in fire.

*sigh* (looks towards to sky) Erin is not amused, Sir. Not amused one little bit.

November 14: Birthday

Today is my bestest friend in the whole world's birthday. I thought I would post a little something in honour of her and our friendship.

Now, I realized something a little while ago. I was looking in a New Age store and found a birthday card that she would love so I bought it for her with the intention of randomly showing up at her house with the card then kidnapping her for a movie or something no matter what she had planned that day. Then I realized I'm not going to be there with her on her birthday. This got me very sad. We've seen each other on our birthday, every birthday, since our 6th birthdays. This means we met when we were 5. This is a long time.

Anyway, I send her the card and she got it and I gave her a big facebook HAPPY BIRTHDAY. But I'm looking forward to seeing her when I get back to give her her birthday present (a pretty damn awesome one I must admit. I know her so well). But for now...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LILLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is me and Lilly at age 5 or 6. I can't remember right now.

November 13: Hair

Not so much to say today except that I got my hair trimmed. I didn't so much like the trim so what did I do? Oh, well, I did what any logical teenager would have done. I dyed my hair purple so fit the hair cut.

Yes, I have purplish/black hair now. It's a big step away from my natural blond that had finally finished growing back out after my last dye. I actually quite like it. It makes my eyes look super blue.

Anyway, there will be pictures eventually...I mean soon. Soon I promise. I'm going out with a couple of friends tonight so perhaps I'll get a few pictures then and I'll post them tomorrow.

Keep your life colourful! :)

November 12: Peanut Butter

Today I was going to post about my love of the library and how my geek side squeals in delight every time I go to the lower ground floor level where they keep the folios and the REALLY old books, but instead I thought I would post something funnier.

Now I'm a big peanut butter eater. As a vegetarian I have to get my protein from somewhere and since I LOVE peanut butter I generally get enough protein from the amount of PB I eat. I may have mentioned to my cousin Thad before I left that not a lot of Europeans eat peanut butter and that it's pretty expensive here. It's in little jars about half the size of a normal one (for me) but they cost about twice as much as what I can get in the states. So, imagine my surprise when I was told that I had a package waiting for me at the post office around the corner.

I went over not expecting much but then they hand me this giant package that was heavy! Thank Goodness that I didn't have to carry it home from the package depot. When I got home I was very anxious to see what Thad had sent me. This is what I saw when I opened the box.

For those of you who can't tell what these are...
That's right! He sent me 12 jars of Skippy Peanut Butter! 12! I'm not a big Skippy fan...I'll be honest it tastes more like sugar than peanuts, but the thought is what counts. And it's Peanut Butter! HAHA! I just find it so funny. I laughed out loud when I opened the packed. I mean...12 jars! They now have a special spot in my room.

Now the question is...What am I to do with all the Peanut Butter?! :D

November 11: Irresponsible

I was irresponsible last night! Aren't you proud of me? Well...I am so I suppose that's all that matters. Seriously though, after I did laundry and did my grocery shopping I just stopped caring. I have never before not cared that I had class in the morning. He's a great fact about me, I've never ditched a class. Ever. I still haven't, but I'm considering it...

Anyway, my day started with meeting Jamie for a pre quiz drink and a talk at St. Machar's Pub. Jamie bought me my first ever Vodka and Coke (though not my last). It was pretty good until the vodka that pools at the bottom hit me like a freight train. *Shudders* I really wasn't expecting that. Anyway, we met up with Mr. Tweed and headed down to Slaine's Castle. We were about an hour early (what good committee members we are) so Jamie bought me another vodka and coke. I also made sure to eat something during the second vodka and coke (good thing too). Now, when everyone started showing up I wanted to try one of their "Seven Deadly Sins". We all know what the 7 deadly sins are right? Well, these are drinks named after the 7 deadly sins. I tried very hard to get a good picture of my drink but alas it was not to be. I had envy which is Creme de Menthe, chocolate sauce, and cream topped with whipped cream. It was quite possibly the best thing I have ever had. The night went on as normal. It was a great laugh and we won the pub quiz!!!! (sure there was some shameless cheating going on, but who's counting?)

Then it ended and most everyone left. Soon there was just Jamie, Marie, Ryan, Fredric, James, and myself left. I don't generally stay all that late, but I was trying to be irresponsible. In that time we all had a good chat Jamie bought all of us envys then James didn't like his and only drank half of it so Jamie passed it to me. Then Fredric bought me a Vodka and coke. Which I only drank half of.

Then we all headed home around 11:30. I got in at midnight and didn't get to bed until 3am. That means I had all of 4 hours of sleep...maybe. But do you want to know what's really disappointing. I had 5 drinks...5. That's a bit, but I only paid for one of them and I don't want to be rude. But, I'm not going to lie, I was thinking eh, if I get tipsy I get tipsy. But instead I got nothing. Absolutely nothing. I didn't feel it at all. In fact when I woke up the morning after my 5 drinks and 4 hours of sleep I sort of sprang out of bed and said to myself, "Well, time to start the day." Deeply disappointing. But, I still had a wonderful night.

Pictures!

I like this one because of Marie's face and because Ryan has antlers.
Again, Marie's face in the background.

Poor guy, he's being hugged by and Irishman...
sings It's guy love...haha! I love scrubs
Jamie and I posed for a few pictures.

See what I mean. I don't remember what was so funny. Someone said something that made everyone laugh and that's the time the picture was taken.
The girls in the game.
The girls...+Ryan
The whole gang (-Sandy) of the game.

The drink total for Erin...Haha! Just kidding.

November 10: Pub Quiz Tonight

Since I don't really know when I'm going to get home later this evening I thought I would post this now.

My Wednesday's are lovely days. I only have one class, but that class happens to be at 9am. So, I can't just sleep the day away. Generally after my Gaelic class I head to the Listening Centre to do my Oral Gaelic homework. That didn't work out today because when I got to the centre it appeared that everyone else had the same idea that I had. All of the tape players were used up and I just couldn't be bothered. So, I decided that it would just have to wait until tomorrow and left for home.

Wednesday is also laundry day. Now, I'm a tad annoyed with this in my building. Why you ask? Because there are only 3 washers and driers for 5 floor with 3 flat complexes each that all hold 5 people. That's 15 people per floor and 75 people per building. It's true, that not all 75 of us wash our clothes at the same time, but college kids aren't known for planning ahead. This means that most of the time I go down there and one or two of them are still filled with clothes. That's just kind of irksome. I make sure that I'm going to be around when I do my laundry (and I set a timer so I know when to go move it) and I don't understand why everyone else seems to think that it's their own private laundry room. But I can deal with that even though I feel awkward taking someone else's laundry out of a drier...delicates and what not. But what really kills me is this. The driers don't dry. Not well at least. The washers fit and wash the week's laundry but the driers can only dry about 3 days worth of clothes. I could do my laundry every 3 days, but that would be a waste of my time and money and the Earth's water. So I don't do that. Instead, if there are driers open and no other load in a washer, I will take up two driers and split up my clothes. This works out really well because not a lot of people do laundry Wednesday mid morning. Sometimes I will have to put the whole load in one drier and run it twice, but that's not too often. What does all of this come to equal? 4 pounds and 20 pence. That's about $8 American money just to wash one load of laundry. Does anyone else see a problem with this? At home I could do it for $2 maybe $3. High living expense here in Aberdeen.

I also do my grocery shopping every Wednesday after my laundry is done. It's a nice walk though it's a bit tiring when you're loaded down with groceries on the way back. But Exercise is good for a person. And I desperately needed groceries today. I didn't have any cereal for breakfast so ended up going to the Hub and getting juice and coffee and a muffin. Not the most healthy breakfast I know.

When it's all said and done, do you know what makes the Workful Wednesday all worth it? Every Wednesday is pub quiz down at Slain's Castle with the roleplaying society. Yippee! I enjoy this immensely. So, guess what I'm going to try to be tonight. Irresponsible. I've never tried it before (seriously, ask anyone who knows me) and I thought that tonight I would try it. Just for fun. :) Pictures tomorrow.

November 9: Improv Society

I don't think I've ever told you of the other society that I've actually managed to stay a part of. I am a part of the Improv Society. It's not exactly what I expected, but I'm able to do a little bit of acting this semester and hopefully next semester I'll get into a play or something. I just didn't want to audition this semester.

Now, I'm actually pretty good at Improv. Or, I can be. It's hard to explain, but on an Improv team you need to be very well in sync with one another. This is why my friend Burke and I kicked butt at it back home. I don't' know exactly why, but he and I seemed to know each other's moves when it came to Improv. We were the one's who would give the talk in the beginning Drama class about exactly what Improv was and what it's few but important rules were. It was the same with all of my friends. We just knew each other so well that we knew what would bother/annoy the other so we were able to stay away from those topics. It is a delightful experience when you know the person so well who is doing your scene with you.

I'm still getting to know these people in the Improv Society. It doesn't really help that fact that a few of us have a different native language. Not that that's bad, but it sometimes hinders the communication on stage because of the different cultural backgrounds we each have. It's a learning process and it takes a while for a new Improv team to be truely "good." But every Tuesday I go and have fun. Tonight we're suppose to be going out for drinks afterwards, but I don't know if I'll go. I don't mind the occasional distraction, but I do have another essay due on Friday that I haven't started on...but, perhaps it's time for me to try being irresponsible. Just this once.

November 8: Brain Fart

Ok, so I actually finished my English Essay and got a great vote of confidence from both my parents who basically said "Well, change this one thing, but otherwise it's good." And that one thing was I accidentally forgot a word or I ended a sentence in a preposition. So I was feeling goo about it. So good about it I decided that since it's due Tuesday that I would write my introduction and conclusion and recheck my footnotes today and then turn it in tonight. Good plan right? Well, it would be a better one if the paper happened to be due Tuesday. Haha, Erin got her papers confused. It was due today by noon in the office and in "turn it in". Oh dear. It's ok though, I talked to my tutor and she said that one day wasn't so bad and it's going to be in first thing in the morning so good.

Now all I must to is finish my Art History Essay (I've stitched a picture because I couldn't find enough written on Madonna Litta) or rather I should start and finish my Art History Essay and get ready for a seminar I'm suppose to help lead tomorrow. It's going to be a long night.

November 7: Transformation

Alright guys, my transformation to total nerd is now complete. Do you want to know why? Because I bought my own dice. Yep, I am now a proud owner of a d20, d12, d10, d8, d6, and a d4 and one that I'm not too entirely sure of the purpose. Yes, I'm a geek and rather proud of it...now all I need is a cooler carrying case for these die.

Anyway, just a few pictures of today's roleplaying session for you all.

We noticed that Jamie and Sandy were standing in the exact same position, though Sandy in his usual manner was standing with a bit more vibrato.

We were missing one player today, but it was an overall fun session. And we got to fight a dragon. My character is almost dead now, but I got to summon a frog to try and fight it. Needless to say the frog did nothing, but I felt like I was being helpful. :) If you're my friend on facebook check out my Roleplaying Session notes for some funny quotes.

November 6: Essays, Essays, Essays

I actually have gotten work done on my essays! That's ok people. No need for applause. :)

I haven't finished them yet, but I'm hoping to finish one completely tonight and the other tomorrow. AND I found out that one of my essays isn't due until Friday, so I'm going to sit on that one while I work on the ones that are due on Tuesday. I'm making real progress with my English essay, though I'm actually having a little trouble making it flow properly. Writer's block is my worst enemy. Well, actually I am my worst enemy. I'm sure I just think it's not flowing. But we'll see when I send it off the my editors (Mother and Father) and if they have time to read it over and tell me if it's crap or gold then I'll know for sure.

In other news I wasted my Saturday shopping. I got a robe (finally) at the Disney Store here which is much cooler than the one I have at home and a new pair of boots. Sadly, my Ugg knock offs that I've had for years just aren't keeping out the wet anymore. So, seeing as it's going to get a lot wetter from here on I've decided to retire them. I also bought one more thing, but that post is for tomorrow so you shall have to wait.

November 5: Bank Trouble

Do you guys remember when I was having some trouble with the bank? Well, no more I say! That's right! Erin has finally gotten an account successfully set up with the Bank of Scotland. That took a little more effort than I was really hoping it would, but I did it nonetheless. :) So, guess what came today? My bank card, that's right! I'm very excited about this because this now means that I don't always have to worry about having cash on hand and it means that I won't be charged every time I take money out of my account. YAY! But there's one little glitch. They're sending me my pin code at a separate time and seeing as today is Friday I'm not too sure if I'll get it until Monday which means that I might have to wait until Monday to start using my card. Oh well. I have it and that's the important thing. :)

On a side note I finally got started on my English Essay. But there is just so much I want to put into it. I mean Fairy Tales go back to the beginning of the spoken word and they expect me to make a clear point in just 1000 words? *sigh*

November 4: Procratination

I'm trying very hard to get these essays done, but you see I have this big problem. I'm a chronic procrastinator. I just can't seem to kick the habit no matter how hard I try.

What usually sets of the procrastination is that it's something I don't particularly want to do. I love writing, but writing essays just sort of bores me. And this time I have to write 3 different essays for 3 different classes all due on the same day. Each one of these essays is suppose to be done in a different format and style and I just don't quite feel like going in between the "British" version of MLA to...whatever it is my Art History essay is suppose to be written in. There's just so much more fun things to do.

For one, blogging. I like this kind of writing. It's fun and free and you can pretty much write about anything. In an essay I am set to what the markers want to read. If it were up to me I would go on long rant about how fairy tales used to be this great oral tradition of all of our ancestors and now they are a ploy of the movie and book industry to make more money than God (no offense Big Guy). But instead I have to write about how transformation can be analyzed phycologically (this is a word I've never been able to spell so, sorry) in fairy tales. Needless to say I'm choosing one of the many variations of "Beauty and the Beast" and saying that the Beast represents the young girl's fear of growing up into sexual awareness and her inhibition of the opposite sex. And I'm also using Snow White to point out that older women also have this fear of growing older and that the reason the queen turns into an old, ugly hag is because that is how she now sees herself. Nothing too exciting, but I have to find articles and books and journals that back up my point which is where I'm running into a wall on this one. I hate searching for journal articles because sometimes the most useful article only says one or two things on the subject but it's the most profound thing you have ever read. Only, you can't find those articles easily because they generally only show up on the 5th or 6th search.

See what I mean? There are just a lot of things that are more fun than sitting in the library searching endlessly through journals. This includes things like studying my Gaelic and cleaning my room. I know I'm weird but I do enjoy cleaning to an extent. A clean room allows your mind to become less cluttered and Lord knows I need a good sweeping in there.

So for now, to increase the quality of my essays you understand, I am going to unclutter my room so I can unclutter my mind.

If any of you have any advice on how to help with my procrastination I would welcome it.

November 3 (Part 2): Pictures

For my History of Art essay I am suppose to choose 2 paintings from the 1400-1600 and compare and contrast them. Here are the two paintings I chose to compare.

This is Madonna Litta by Leonardo Da Vinci. He was a painter of the High Renaissance so this is, obviously, a High Renaissance painting.
This is Madonna with the Long Neck by Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola, or as he is better know, Parmigianino. This is a Mannerism painting. Mannerism is the last part of the Italian Renaissance.

The reason I chose these two was because the subject matter is the same. They are both painting of the Virgin Mary with the Christ Child. I figure it would be easier to compare the different styles and mediums and techniques used if the subject of the paintings were the same. That and I love Leonardo's work and Madonna with the Long Neck is one of the most interesting paintings I've seen. It's just my personal opinion of course. Parmigianino has also painted a few other paintings that I have found particularly interesting.

November 3: Never Do Art History

This is the pile of books I brought home from the library yesterday. I should have had 3 more, but one of them was larger than the largest book in that pile and I couldn't find the other two. I'm thinking about going back today to get the larger book and pick up a book I had reserved, but that one's not due back until 11:59 tonight so that one might not be in just yet.

The moral of the story is to never take an Art History calss. It's a lot of fun, but the books are ginormous. You should see some of the folios they have over here. I swear some of them look like they're heavier than me. And they told us that we were more than welcome to take the folios out of the library...if we had the upper body strength.

Anyway, these books should help me write my Art History essay, my English essay, and my Linguistics essay. All due next Tuesday. YIKES! But hey, only 1000 words! Who do they think I am? A first grader? I don't even know if I can get my point across in my English essay in 1000 words...and we have to count footnotes. Sigh...I hate having to condense my work. I think essays should be "write until you've fully answered the question."

Funny little tidbit about our library by the way. We have to use our Student ID cards to get in and out of the library. They are those turn stiles (I think that's what they're called) like the subways do in NY and LA. They read the barcode on our cards and the turn stile allows us to pass into the large and wonderful cavern of old books. But, they allow us to forget our card up to 3 times. After that they say, "sorry, go find your card or buy a new one." Fair enough. But when I was told this in a "How to Use the Library" lecture I started in a fit of giggles that I couldn't stop. I imagined a person trying to leave the library but he had forgotten his card one too many times and the librarians wouldn't let him leave. He was forever trapped behind the turn stiles with nothing but old books and newspapers for company. :)

National Blogging Month

I just found out that November is National Blogging Month. I'm a day behind, but I figure I'll probably post twice one day to make up for it. So, I too am going to try to do one post for every day in the Month of November without boring all you readers to death.

This week is reading week for both my Art History course and my Linguistic course. What does this mean you ask? It means I have to lectures or tutorials for either class for the whole week. The point of this week is for us to spend time working on our essays which I fully plan to do. I'm choosing my paintings for my Art History essay today and checking out books for all the essays I have due next Tuesday.

Speaking of that, I hate that all of my courses have their first essay due on the same day. It's rather frustrating because I have to jump between writing styles and essay questions and mode of thinking fast and effectively to write several different essays in my different courses.

October 31

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!!!!!!

This is my first holiday here in the UK. I can't help but miss my friends and what I used to do on this day. No child is going to come to my door shouting "Trick-or-Treat!" tonight and I have to say it was one of my most favourite things. I love handing out handfuls of candie to little kids and then giving 15 and 16 year-olds a piece or two as my way of telling them they should be having a party with their friends rather than trick-or-treating. Anyway, I don't really have that great of a costume. I'm probably going as a black dog with white ears because I don't have black socks. But to be honest, I'm not feeling all that well. I think I'm finally getting a cold or a flu. It's about the time of year that I normally get sick so I'm not terribly surprised. The Roleplaying society is going pub crawling tonight, but I'm probably not going to go. I would have gone to one pub if I were feeling even 95% but I'm down to about 70% so I'm probably going to come straight home after the session today and sleep. Hopefully I'll get a good night's sleep tonight, something I haven't had in that past few nights.

Ryan's Visit

Well, Ryan left yesterday morning to go to Kent before heading back across the pond. He has friends in Kent and wanted to visit them seeing as he doesn't make it to this side of the globe that often. I didn't like seeing him go, but I understood. He's gotta get back to work and back to his friends at home. Gotta make the monies.

Anyway, I really loved seeing him and I think it's the sweetest thing anyone has every done for me. I mean, he came all the way to Scotland just to see me. And he bought me flowers while he was here. That was nice. Yellow roses...my favourite flower by the way.

What did we do while he was here. Well, we explored mostly. I don't have any close friends yet, I do have friends though, but no one to go out to a pub or walk around with or any of that stuff. So we tried out a new pub which I quite enjoy and walked around the city centre and we even went to the local theme park.

Yes, Aberdeen has a theme park. It's small and old, but it's pretty cheap and pretty fun. Ryan is a bit of a theme park nerd. he's ridden...380 roller coasters I believe. Maybe 390...I know it's a rounded number like that and that it's in the 300's but I can't remember if it's 80 or 90. Anyway, he was like a kid at a candy store when we went to the park. And there were bumper cars! Not the stupid bumper cars we have in the states that are all concerned with safety and all that. The past few bumper car rides I have ridden have only been around in a circle and there was a sign above the parking place for the cars that said "No Bumping". These were dangerous bumper cars and the kids there were quite ruthless. I don't generally like ramming into 8 year olds but they started it so I can't help it. And they thought it was the most fun thing ever, so I don't feel any sympathy for them especially since I got a bruise or two.

I do have pictures but I don't really feel like posting them right now so I might post them in segments.

Again, I was sad to see him go and I have no idea what I'm going to do tomorrow alone, but I couldn't be happier that he came to see me.

Dropped Philosophy

I don't know if I ever posted about how much I really wasn't enjoying my Philosophy course. I really like Philosophy, don't get me wrong. I don't mind studying the different schools of ancient Greece and all theat. I even want to name my next cat Socretes. But any class can be ruined when you don't have the right teacher and the lecturer for my Philosophy course just wasn't the right one for me. She's a nice enough lady and I think I would really enjoy just talking to her, but she just didn't hold my attention in the lectures. I've never before fallen asleep in school because I really enjoy school. I really do. I'm quite the bookwormish nerd, but there were a couple of times when I found myself drifting off during her lectures. So, what did I do. Of course I dropped the class. This might seem like the easy way out for some of you out there, but rest assured I stuck through it for a month and still wasn't enjoying it and wasn't able to focus during class. And I was already taking one extra course so I don't have to find another course to supplement the credits I'm going to be losing. So, I'll have a normal workload, I won't have to go to a class that not only gets me no closer to my degree but also doesn't hold my attention or interest, and both of the days that I stay until 5 I now only go until 4. It seems like a win/win situation to me.

So, I have a question for you guys. What classes were ruined for you during your college years (or right now if you're still in your college years) because of a teacher who just couldn't teach? Did anything good come of it (like finding a new interest and course that turned out to be your true calling)?

Guess What!

So, I have to say I have the most amazing boyfriend ever. Why is this you ask? Well, of course I'm bias but how many other boyfriends would fly half way across the world just to see their girlfriend? That's right people! Ryan's coming for a 2 week visit!

Needless to say I am very, very happy. He's bringing two very important things that I forgot at home. One is my stuffed bear Patches. I had every intention of bringing Patches, but when it came down to it I just didn't have room so I left him behind. To answer the question that I'm sure is going through your head right now, yes I do still sleep with a teddy bear. In fact at home I sleep with multiple stuffed animals every night. But that brings us back to the space in my suitcase issue doesn't it? Anyway, he's also bringing me my GDB 2010 Calender. I totally meant to bring that, but when I unpacked I found that I had left it behind. :) I'm very happy to have it back. (Speaking of GDB, check out this post from my Dog Blog about my issues about not having an animal here). He said that my dad and step-mom also gave him a few things to give to me, but he won't tell me what they are. I guess I'll just have to be patient. But it's really hard to do right now.

He's coming in on Sunday which means I'll probably have to leave the Roleplaying Session a little early to meet him at the airport (Jamie if you're reading this I'm sending you an email straight after I finish up this post, but I'll definitely still be there for the Committee meeting).

Didn't I tell you guys that I was on the committee? You remember? I wasn't too sure if I was running but it turns out that I was. You remember! Well, I think the only reason I won was because I brought my cat with me and said "I'm a first year and I have a cat. And I'm American so I know how Democracy works (which got a big laugh and groan from the group)." Anyway, they either voted for me because I brought a stuffed cat with me or because they felt worry for the poor American who thought that her country actually knew how to govern itself...and I believe I was described as looked like a Hobbit because I have a Bob cut and I happened to be wearing a cloak that day. Anyway...

So yeah! That's my big news! I'm very excited for Sunday!!!! But for now, on to my first essay (well, it's really only the opening paragraph of the essay) of the year!