Revision Week: Day 3

So, last night as I was walking home from a movie night with friends after a full day of studying I thought of something. I saw a father walking with his two children toss his cigarette aside without putting it out. Let's, for a second, ignore my issues with the whole "smoking around children" thing and focus on what it actually made me think of. He didn't step on it or throw water over it or anything. For a second I was really confused. If he didn't put that out completely he ran the risk of starting a fire right there on the sidewalk. Didn't he?

Well, maybe not. I live in the boring, icky part of California. It's hot nice months out of the twelve and always dry. It's dry heat and dry cold. Basically, it sucks. And everything is flammable. You know all those fires on the highway in LA? Well, I'm fairly certain that 99% of them start because careless people decide to throw their still lit cigarettes out of their car windows. But Aberdeen is definitely not as dry as where I live. It's wet and rainy twelve out of twelve months so...would he be completely wrong not to put out his cigarette? I'm not sure anymore. He's wrong on the account that he's littering, but he probably wouldn't have started a fire on the sidewalk. I do know that if he ever goes to California he might inadvertently start a fire. Lesson of the day: Put out your cigarettes and dispose of them in an appropriate manner.

These are the things I think about when studying. Anywho, I did my usual 6 hours of studying this morning.
7 days until the English exam (that's one week!!!!)
8 days until the Pyschology exam

"We all can lip read. We may not think we can, but we do. In fact, we do it everyday as a tool to use when processing speech. We use a lot of tools to help in speech processing and there is evidence to suggest that we also use the visual as well. The evidence is in the McGurk effect. The McGurk effect is, basically, when you hear something when watching the person and something different when you're not watching the person. If you watch someone saying "ga ga" you will hear "ga ga", but if you don't watch them you will hear "ba ba". Visual information helps so much with processing speech when it is muffled or deteriorated in any way. We don't depend solely on visual information to understand speech, but it is a useful tool." 

Why Scotland?

So, I'm asked all the time; "Why Scotland?" This is usually said in a state of shock or awe and the person saying it is generally a little impressed. Well, for quite I while I had a lot of trouble answering this. I'm "from" Scotland. My mother's family is MacGregor and my father is part Campbell (if any of you know Scottish history you will realize that my parents marriage was doomed from the moment they met because of this little fact and it is also, I suspect, why my brother and I have both gone through multiple "Identity crises"). You can't get much more Scottish than that. So, there was a pull to get back to my roots and learn more about my ancient culture. It's also gorgeous and I was tired of 100+ days back home. And there's history here. You can see it in the sidewalk. It's majorly cool. But, I don't think you can quite grasp this idea without pictures. So, here is my picture show of "Why Scotland?"

Because this is my town...

The yellow one is my building...I know, it's ugly.
This made me miss my mini, Jude. :(

Because this is my school and the street that runs through it...

Yes, this is one of my buildings.

Because there is a tomb on campus...

Because this is a run down apartment but I still want to live there...

Because I was sitting in a pile of leaves at this beginning of October...

Because the "Keep Out" signs are funnier...

Because I can buy Sherbet Lemons and feel like a real Harry Potter nerd...
There's quite a few more reasons, but this is pretty much it. It's gorgeous here. There are old buildings left and right and I LOVE old buildings. The weather is nicer. Yes, I'm aware it rains a lot here, trust me. But it's a lot more fun to walk in the rain that to walk in 115 degree Fahrenheit weather. Everything is just so green and cool here. I've never really been around this much water at once. You have to remember that I lived in the desert that in it's like billionth year of a drought. So having it rain almost everyday in September and October is weird for me (though I hear back home there has actually been rain). Leaves falling off the trees this early is weird for me. The fact that I can't find plastic baggies for my sandwiches is weird. The fact that people say "cheers" instead of "thank you", that the stove is the hub, that a jumper is a sweater, and that people complain of the heat when it's 80 outside is just weird. But I love it.

A Little Taste of Home

This afternoon I went down to the Hub to meet with some International Student Advisors and get my Fresher's Packet. When I walked in I went to the Student Support and Advice Centre to ask exactly where the Global Hub was. As I was waiting in line I looked towards the waiting room and saw a guy sitting down. What attracted me most to this guy was that he had a white cane. My first thought was, "It's one of my people!" Seriously, I am more easy going and less self conscious around blind people than I am with sighted people. I thought about going to talk to him, but I didn't. I wasn't sure how he would take a girl sitting down next to him saying, "Are you blind or visually impared?" Thinking back on it now I should have talked to him. He looked a little lonely all alone in that waiting room. Anyway, I didn't talk to him, instead I went one floor up to the Global Hub.

I should explain what the Hub is. The Hub is like the Student Union on American campuses. It has internet access, a food court, a school store, registration, info centres, and all that. The Global Hub is a place for International students to sort of mingle and get to know each other. We might all be from different places, but we're all feeling the same way.

Anyway, the Grub Hub is right across the way from the Global Hub. It was then that I realized how hungry I was. I haven't been feeling too well the past few days so I haven't been eating a lot. But, boy, my stomach was talking to me then. So I went in and had a little taste of home.

I grabbed a veggie burger with chips (or fries). I sat down all alone, yes alone, and ate alomst the whole veggie burger and almost all the fries. For those of you who know me well you know that that is quite a feat for me. I have a really small stomach. Generally I can finished maybe half the burger and about a fourth of the fries. But this time I ate three quarters of both the burger and fries. And you know what? That hot meal has really settled my stomach down quite a bit. I figure that my meals since Saturday (even Friday when I got on the plane in Alabama) haven't been that great. Here it's been cereal with milk (I'm lactose intolerant but I can't find soy milk or lactaid milk) for both breakfast and dinner and two pieces of bread, one with nutella and the other with their version of "peanut butter" and jelly for lunch. Not the healthiest. So, I'm making a point to get more well balanced in my meals since I've seen what it can do to my system.

About that whole "alone" thing, I still haven't made any friends. I've met one other person sharing this flat with me and she seems nice enough, but we just aren't out of our rooms at the same time. I do know she's a fresher like me and that she's here for French/History. History was my second choice when applying so I think we might have a little something in common. Fresher's Week stuff at night generally involves going to a club. I'm not much of a clubber and I don't really drink (though it is legal for me to do so here), so I haven't gone to any clubs. They're not really a place to meet people anyway because I can't hear a gosh darn thing anyone says. I'm what you call hearing sensory deficient. What this means is that if it gets too loud or too many people are talking at once I shut down physically. The words get jumbled in my head and I just can't think. So, clubs really aren't the best place for me. If I already knew someone here and they were going I might go with them, but it's just not the place for me to meet people. I'll join a society or something and meet people that way.

Anyway, it was nice to have that little taste of home even if people were starring at me the whole time wondering why I was eating alone. I feel like I'm starting high school all over agian except worse. I knew a few people in high school already and my best friends were with me. This is going to be a challenge.

By the way, it's midnight here. I can't sleep so I decided to post something.

Driving

One thing I will not miss is driving. I really don't like it. It makes me stressed and I can't handle all the cars and the people who can't drive. I am looking forward to the day that I don't have to drive everywhere. I mean, right down the street from the the main campus is a nice little pub. I won't be frequenting that very often because they don't have a lot of vegetarian options, but there's also a cafe. I haven't found a Costa(equivalent to our Starbucks) there yet but I'm sure I will once I can spend more time than 2 days there. Anyway, back to driving. I was cut off the other day and I was mad for a second then I saw the person who was driving. He couldn't have been more than 16. He obviously had just gotten his licence so I sort of just waved it off. I said out loud to calm my nerves, "Oh, he's just a kid. He'll learn." JUST A KID! JUST A KID!!! What was I thinking?! I mean, aren't I still just a kid?

Baseball

I've found out what I'll miss when I'm not in the States. I'm really going to miss Baseball. Last night we went to a baseball game and fireworks. I realized how much I really love the game and the feel of sitting in the stands. All last night my acid reflex was really acting up and I kept tasting those garlic fries I downed at the game, but I really didn't care. I got a shirt with my player's name and number on the back and I'll take it with me and I'm hoping to catch a foul ball this season to take too, but it's not the same.

See, I won't exactly miss watching the game because I won't be in Scotland during baseball season. But here in the states you can always find someone to talk to about the game and your team and all that jazz. I won't be able to find many people in Scotland who know much about baseball.

Happy 4th!

Happy 4th of July everyone! Tonight is a night for fireworks and booze...quite a dangerous combination if you ask me. But that's the American tradition right? We barbecue while drinking beer and shooting off dangerous, flammable rockets.

Today, I can't help but think that this is a very American tradition. It also makes me think about all the things I might actually miss while I'm in Scotland. Someone asked me if I would go down to Sweden to visit my brother during Thanksgiving. I had to remind them that I won't get Thanksgiving week off like students do here in the States. At this moment that's the only holiday that I can think of that I will miss (not miss it like yearn for it, but I won't be here for it) while I'm at school. I do plan on coming home for my 3 1/2 week winter holiday, so I'll be here for both the Winter Solstice and Christmas. But I'm sure that there will be holidays that I'm not use to celebrating that I will take part in during the fall semester. I'm looking forward to experiencing other traditions and a new culture. Most people think that since they speak English in Scotland that I won't really have a culture shock. This is not true.

Everywhere is different regardless of the language they speak. Heck! Someone from California who moves to Texas or Alabama would have a culture shock. :) Even though I know I'll yearn for the traditions of America while I'm gone, I'm really looking forward to this whole culture shock thing.