Packing Begins for Real

Today's adventure is the scariest one I've faced so far;

Packing for Real

I know, I know, I know. I said a few days ago that I was starting to pack, but what I meant really was that I was organizing myself to start packing. I really started packing today. My suitcase is half full and I'm really thinking I'm going to have to leave a few things here. Maybe a few books or some of my shorts that I probably won't be using in the land of the rain. I don't know really. I suppose I'll just have to see what happens when I get all my stuff shoved into my suitcase.

I leave here for LA on Tuesday. Do you know what that means? I only have one more day to pack! AH!

Vets and Catan

Yesterday I got super busy and didn't get a chance to post my adventures for the day. It was a pretty...hectic isn't the right word, but it definitely was busier than I would have liked it to be.

Vet Visit and Catan

So, my first adventure was a spontaneous vet visit courtesy of my Golden girl, Arwen. Now Arwen is the love of my life and I can't imagine what it would be like not to have her around. She's technically the "family dog" but everyone knows that Arwen is really mine. She loves everyone, but I've been the one taking care of her in everything but money since she was a year and a half. Arwen is now nine and a half years old. That's not terribly old, but she's still considered a senior dog. So yesterday morning when I woke up and Arwen wasn't putting any weight on her left leg and didn't want to eat standing up and didn't want to move at all I went into panic mode. We decided that since yesterday was not only Friday, but the Friday before a long weekend, that we should take her in. That duty left to me (not that I wouldn't have gone anyway) so I took her early afternoon.

Our vet loves Arwen, but it's really hard not to love Arwen. She felt all up and down her leg and had Arwen walk and felt her leg some more. She couldn't feel anything wrong with Arwen's leg (no swelling or broken things) so Arwen was prescribed pain meds for a week and I was instructed to tell my parents to bring her back in if she was still limping.

Arwen is fine this morning...I think she's faking so she can try and get me to stay. She knows what the "suitcase" means.

After the vet I had a few friends (Lilly and Fiona) over to play Catan. It was like a last board game before I left. This was their first time playing Catan so I did win, but they both gave a really good game. I know I'm going to miss those two when I get back as much as I missed them last year. But I certainly am ready to get back to Aberdeen.

4 days and counting...

Dirty Sinuses

Ready for today's adventure? For those of you who are squeamish, this might not be the post for you. Today's adventure;

The Neti Pot

For those of you who don't know, a neti pot is a tea pot looking thing that you fill with solution and stick up one of your nostrils. Then you bend over a sink, tilt the pot so the liquid goes into your nostril, and then wait until the solution starts coming out your other nostril. The purpose pouring this liquid in one nostril and out the other is to clean out your sinuses. Sounds fun right?

Ok, it doesn't sound fun at all and to be honest, it isn't all that fun to use either. So, why am I using it? Because I had been having horrible sinus headaches for the past week and I was tired of having to take decongestants and pain killers. I wanted to try something different. This is definitely different.

Now, the one way I never ever ever want to die is by drowning. I would rather be burned alive than drown. That, my friends, is how much I do not *ever* want to experience drowning. You may be asking yourself, "If she doesn't want to drown, isn't using something that pushes water up her nose really uncomfortable." Yes, gosh yes it is! I HATE the feeling, but I have to admit that it actually feels like it's working.

I used this thing twice today. I used it in the morning and right here before I went to bed. The first time I got the water to flow nicely through both sinus canals and had...a lot of stuff come out. This time right before bed though I had a little trouble when pouring the solution through my left nostril. The directions say that the solution won't drain into your mouth through your throat as long as you aren't bending backwards. Well, no matter what I did tonight, the water was draining into my mouth. My first thought after I made sure I was not bending backwards in any way was that there was something blocking the solution. So, I decided to blow my nose again only a little more forcefully. Sure enough I ended up going through about 5 tissues before I felt like there wasn't anything in there. I think the fact that so much came out of my nose is a sign that this thing is working.

So...Gross? Yes, very. Uncomfortable? Yes, very. But I might not have a horrible sinus headache tomorrow morning when I wake up. So, I think I'm going to use this twice a day for the next week and see how I feel after that. *reaches for another tissue*

Good night everyone! Pleasant dreams. *blows nose*
Erin

I Hate Faxing

One of Today's Adventures:

Facing the Fax Machine

Ok, I might be a child of the technology age (well, not as much as those 3-year-olds who dont' think that if doesn't have batteries it isn't a toy, but I digress...) but I still hate faxes and faxing and faxers. I shall tell you why.

If you follow my Dog Blog you know that recently my last GDB puppy in training was Career Changed (a nice was of saying flunked out of Guide Dog school). Now, I decided to officially adopt her as my forever dog, but to do that Guide Dogs needed her certificate of spay. Why the clinic couldn't fax it over I shall have to bring up with Allyson someday, but today the job fell to me. So, first I had to figure out how to plus our fax machine in (needed to get it in today so that I could get the adoption papers before leaving for Scotland) which could have ended up badly. I still don't know if I've messed up the home phone or not. Then I punch in the number, put the papers in, and watch them go through the scanner. My machine says "2 pages sent". Sent where? I know I punched in the number given to me, but there is no one on the other end to say, "Yes, this is the Guide Dog puppy raising office."

That is why I hate faxing. For all I know I sent over Hilly's certificate of spay over to a lawyer's office.

Peace,
Erin

First Day of School

Today's grand adventure was;

The First Day of School!

No! Not my first day of school. Silly geese. I don't start for another month. Today, however, was the first day of school for most of the schools in California. How is other people's first day of school an adventure for me?

I live around a lake. There are small circles within a larger circle and right outside of the large circle is an elementary school. Because the school is so close most of the kids who live in...this...round lake surrounding place go to school there. And obviously, most of them walk (why waste gas when it's over $3 a gallon?) Now, here's where we get to the adventure part. These kids are all walking to school as I'm walking my dogs around for their daily walk. I have a large Golden Retriever and my parents have a little labradoodle. Both of these dogs are sweet as pie and love kids to death. Unfortunately Arwen, my large Golden, is...well...really, really big. Her head is over most of the kids' heads. So, while she badly wants to love on the children and have the children love on her...she kinda scares them. And Rosie, the little labradoodle, will just stand there looking up at the kids until they pet her...but they're all too scared of my big baby Arwen to come near. So, imagine this. Me (I'm pretty small) trying to pull back my large 70lbs. Golden from running over to the kids and scaring them half to death before school while at the same time trying to hurry Rosie up and keep her from just standing in the middle of the sidewalk.

Also, both of my biological parents are teachers. My dad teaches at the University in town and my mom is a University Professor turned High School teacher down in the LA area. So my dad was at work all day today and I'm just about to call my mother to ask her how her first day of teaching the kids of the stars was.

An adventure? I think so. One that I think I'll miss next year...

Looking for a New Place

I'm starting to look at places to rent next year. I'm hoping by the end of February I'll have a place reading to move into next semester and the roommates to go with it. I'm looking more at houses than flats. Why? Well, obviously it's because I need a place that allows animals if I'm going to raiser for GDB UK next year...which I really want to do. So, that's the main criteria for my place next year. I've already seen a few houses that have backyards and private gardens! I think that's what I've been missing really. If I want to go outside to read I have to find a park, but there isn't one close to where I live now so I've been using the cemetery. Reading in a cemetery does have it's charms but still, it would be nice to have a garden next year where I could walk outside and feel grass beneath my feet. That's going to be my main adventure these next few months.

The whole "studying" thing is going pretty good. I think after I do laundry today I'll head over to the library or maybe the Hub to get some work done. I have this problem of not doing work in my room because there are a lot of other, more fun, things to do. Like blog...

Oh! I don't know if I told you about this, but sometime...oh, I want to say early December, I found this really large, sort of old fashioned rain coat in a thrift store. It was only 4 pounds so of course I bought it. The only problem was that it had built in shoulder pads. The fact that it was a size 22 (I'm a size 8 at the largest) plus the shoulder pads made me look like I had ginormous shoulders! So, what have I finally been able to do with the help of Lisa and her small scissors? I have removed the shoulder pads and am much happier with the coat. Now, it just looks far to large on me (which it is) instead of making me look like I'm hiding a "Hulk" body underneath it. :)

Yesterday

So, I felt so accomplished form yesterday that I decided to sleep in and be lazy this morning.

Yesterday, I finally got a UK telephone number which means today I can finally set up my bank account which means that I'll have a local bank card which means I won't have to worry about ALWAYS having cash on hand.

I also figured out (sort of) the bus schedules and how much I need to pay and all that. 1 pound 70p for a one way ride to the city centre and 3 pound 50p for a day pass. I might get a day pass today if I think I'll go back into to town. Yes! I actually went into the city centre yesterday too. That's how I got my "Pay as You Go Phone". You know what else I found there?

An H&M!!!!! I have yet to find one of these in the States but that might just be because I live in California. But I love H&M. I have a pair of jeans from there but that's only because I stole them from my brother's girlfriend when she came for a visit. What did I find at H&M you ask? I rain jacket! I very pretty rain jacket. Now, most girls love shopping, I personally have to be in the right mood for it and yesterday I really wasn't. But I figured since I was there and since I had just pulled money out of my account I might as well try and find one that I liked. I did, but it took a while. I have no idea what size I am here. I know I'm a Small to a Medium in the States. I'm only a Medium sometimes because of my gosh darn broad shoulders. I settled for a size 10 here. The 6 fit me perfectly around the waist and bust, but apparently Europeans don't have broad shoulders or long arms...or maybe I just have really long arms. 2 Sizes up and the shoulders fit "OK" but not ideal, but any larger and it would have been WAY too big for my waist and bust instead of just a little too big. But it's a nice rain coat and I love it.

Now, time to talk about the bus schedule. I held up the line a little both times because I'm still trying to figure out what to do here and you could tell the bus drivers were both a little annoyed. But that didn't bother me because if he couldn't tell by my accent (yes, I have an accent here) that I wasn't a native then they can just kiss my...feet, and deal with it. On the ride home I accidentally got off a little too early. I'm still not too sure where all the stops are and I didn't want to end up on a street I didn't know. Because of this I had to walk a ways before I got home. I don't mind walking, I actually really like it. But it was raining pretty hard and my feet were cold so I was hurrying to get home. As I was walking another bus came by and went through a big puddle right next to me. You can guess what happened. I looked like I had gone down to the harbour and taken a dip in the North Sea. What did I do? I started giggling uncontrollably because I thought it was the funniest thing in the world. So there I am, soaked from water that has God knows what in it, and I'm laughing.

When I got home I quickly stripped out of the dirty, wet clothes and slipped into over sized sweat pants and a long sleeve T-shirt and then immediately did laundry. Even then, my room kind of smelled like a wet dog all night. Now I normally wear "real" clothing when going down to the wash room, but I really didn't care at that point. I had been out for hours and was wet and dirty and tired so if people have a problem with my comfy clothes then, to quote Madeline ( yes, Madeline use to be my favourite cartoon ever!) the smallest of all, Poo Poo to them.

Oh, another reason I was so tired and wet is because I went to register with my GP (general practitioner) yesterday. For those of you who don't know what that is exactly, it's just my doctor. As an international student I am entitled to FREE consolations, Free Check Ups, and FREE registration. The only thing I have to pay is 3 pound for any medications prescribed to me if I get sick. I'm ok with that. Ah, Socialism. Everyone else is paying for my medical care and I really don't care at all because I'm paying an arm and a leg to go to school and learn stuff so I can be a functioning member of society when I'm all grown up. Then I will gladly pay some some other kid's medical care because I want them to be able to buy food and not have to worry about what happens if they get sick while they're studying at the University. Call me a Socialist, but I am glad I don't have to worry about what would happen if I got really sick in a strange country all alone while I'm paying $10,000+ to go to school so I can get a job and not mooch off of my parents or others when I'm older.

That was my adventure yesterday. I deserved a little R&R after that so I did take it easy this morning. I talked to Ryan for quite a while and didn't have to worry about getting out at a certain time which was nice. And now, I'm going to tell you my plan for the afternoon. I joined the Aberdeen University Roleplaying Society. Yes, I know, nerdy. But I've always been interested and what a better time to try it? Hey, if I want to unwind on Sundays by make believing I'm an elf why not right? Haha! Ok, so now that you all have a different opinion of me, I'm going to finish getting ready so I can go to the first Roleplaying Association meeting in two hours. :)