A Very Merry Unbirthday

This year, my birthday fell on a Monday. Unfortunately this past Monday was a day where most of us (including me) were very busy. I decided to postpone my birthday until yesterday. At first I thought I would ok with no body really celebrating my birthday until Thursday, but I was a little sad that I had to wait a few days to feel special. But, yesterday I did feel special. Which is always nice.

Eight of us went out yesterday afternoon for a meal. It was a lot of fun as I don't really see two of my friends much any more and it was great to catch up. Then after the meal we went to buy snacks for boardgames. We headed over to the designated house of gaming and played a few board games. I didn't win any and, to be honest, I got quite annoyed at one game. (Can I just say, "Stupid Thief card in Dominion!! I will beat you!)

I also got to watch an Irish comedy called "Mrs. Brown's Boys". It was interesting and really did feel like I was watching my Irish friend, Ryan, up on TV. 'Twas interesting and very enjoyable.

I also got a package from my parents (admittedly I did have to pay for the import tax and had to collect it this morning since it didn't come until after I had left for lunch). I'm thinking about buying myself a game. I always like buying myself a little something because I'm sure to love it. Oh, I know that sounds shallow, but let's be honest people. How many times have you gotten a birthday gift that you had to pretend not to laugh at or put on a happy face even though it's not exactly what you wanted? We've all done it which is why I have installed my "one birthday gift for myself" rule. But, let's not misunderstand what I say. I'm appreciative of every gift I receive no matter if I want it or not. They usually show that people have been thinking of you and that's always a nice, warm feeling.

Seriously though, I had an enjoyable unbirthday yesterday.

Blogging Month Comes to an End

Well, I think we can all fairly say that I failed Blogging Month this year. Ah well!

Even though this year didn't go exactly as planned with regards to Blogging Month, I'm a little glad that it didn't. It means that I was more focused on University and going out with friends than making sure I was home everyday to write a blog post. That's more than I can say for last year. Last year I didn't focus nearly enough on University work.

Tonight is Pub Quiz night and I haven't been going all that often this year so I'm probably going to end up there tonight. I won't buy anything though because I spent 35 pounds on a new memory foam mattress topper. I was tired of feeling the springs and waking up with back pains. Hopefully that's all over now, but we'll see.

Tomorrow starts some real working on my part since I've taken Monday, Tuesday, and today of this week off when I wasn't suppose to. I was going to stay on campus after the film viewing for English today and get some work done, but there was a strike today which meant that I didn't have to go on to campus as the viewing was cancelled. And since I had to wait in until my mattress topper came in, I didn't do a whole lot of work. I need one day where I'm completely focused to get me back into the swing of working after a week of rest. But tonight I shall spend with friends.

We haven't won the pub quiz in a long time, so let's hope tonight is the night!

What I've learned from this month is that I don't really post enough on this blog. So, I am going to try and start posting once a week. I'm thinking about taking an idea from my dog blog which was a stolen idea. It's Worldess Wednesday. That's where all I do is post a picture. I'm thinking it could work. Or maybe every Friday or Sunday I'll post a litte something abou the previous week. We'll see how it goes.

Committee Meetings

Last year I was the First Year Rep. on the AURA committee. I decided that I liked it so much that I wanted to be a part of the committee again this year. Well, really, I wanted to see what it was like to do something on the committee. You see, First Year Rep. is really there just to break ties in votes and since we don't do many votes I just sat around a lot last year. This year, I do actually get to do something.

I am the Secretary. This means I write down the minutes for our sometimes pointless committee meetings. I take note of votes and what the President says needs to get done. I'm also in charge of the email list (which I really should update soon...). This year, the secretary also had a new job added to it. I got to make sure that everyone signed a liability sheet. It basically said that if any member went a little nuts a threw a chair out of a window we, the society, would not be responsible and the member would have to find a way to pay the damage. Simple. And yet it was a bit of a pill to do this year because we ran out of sheets and had to take names on a computer spread sheet and then track them down. Luckily, I have tracked down most of them.

Anyway, the committee this year is made up of a lot of my friends. So, while the University has gotten something stuck up it's ass butt and decided to close the Hub on weekends, the committee meetings aren't all the bad. Sure, we have to make sure to have lunch before/bring one with us because the library cafe is usually out of sandwiches by Sunday afternoons, but at least we can all sort of sit around and make jokes. I guess, if we get done early, we don't have to sit around feeling awkward until games start at 2pm. It's a nice feeling to spend an hour a week with friends. Even if we are talking about Christmas Meals and Society Hoodies.

Right-o, on to apparently what I've started as a description of all my characters.

My third character was for a very short game that only lasted a week. Her name was Florence (or Flo). She had a lioness named Zenyatta as an animal companion. Flo was smart and a hopeless romantic. Zenyatta was there to make sure that she stayed out of trouble. It didn't always work. I liked Flo and Zenyatta, but like I said, the game only lasted a week so I never truly got emotionally attached to them.

"Lady Date"

This is what my friend Marlene called tonight. We went to see "My Week with Marilyn" together. We had asked some others as well, but as we were the only ones who could make it she dubbed the night a "lady date".

A little bit about Marlene. She might be the funniest person I know. And she doesn't even try. It's just who she is. I also think I annoy her a little, but I think that I annoy everyone to some degree. You see, I talk a lot...and I have really strong opinions about some things. I think I can be a tiresome person to be around because I don't like it when you cut me off especially when I'm in the middle of a rant. Marlene, even I do annoy her, doesn't do that. Nor does she show that she's annoyed at me (so this is all, really, just speculation on my part). I, of course, thinks this causes me to talk more and more when I'm around her alone because there's no one there to tell me to shut up. For that, I am grateful to her.

She talks too and I think we both need that. Amy isn't home all that much and Lisa isn't the most talkative person in the world, so when we're together we do tend to talk. Just to get it out. Haha!

Anyway, walking home this evening we saw two drunken men mooning anyone who would watch and who then proceeded to call us "fucking ginger". Then we passed an old man who said "woobedoo" to Marlene. After we parted ways I saw a pretzel massacre on the sidewalk. Those poor pretzels. Saturday nights in a city huh?

Night is always a tricky time. It's hard to judge when it's safe to walk home and when it's not. Generally on weekends I make the cut off a little sooner because I don't want a repeat of what happened my first night back. Tonight, I started out a little nervous walking home because it was half past nine when we left the cinema and I knew it would take a least half an hour to get home. But when we parted ways I was able to really feel the night air and I relaxed almost instantly. It's the end of November, so we should be getting snow, but we haven't had a single flake yet. And tonight was actually too warm for a jacket. I walked home in just my sweater and let the light breeze soothe my nerves.

It's nights like tonight when walking home alone is the best. I wasn't concentrated on getting home as fast as I could to warm up. Instead I concentrated on the past week. I was able to think. It was nice. There's no other way to describe it, but Aberdeen gave me such a nice night that I was able to think.And when I got home, there was a gorgeous view of some very white clouds against an almost indigo sky. Beautiful. I am in a very good mood, which I hop rolls over to tomorrow.

On to the roleplaying part:

The character I made before Angie (so that would make this my 4th character) was Mysha Snow. The game was based on George R.R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" series. For those of you who haven't read them I highly recommend them. The first book, "A Game of Thrones", is now a series on HBO. Anyway, Mysha Snow is really Mysha Stark heir to Winterfell, but she was captured by Braavosi sellswords when she was three at the orders of her uncle her killed her mother and father and now she must prove that she is truly a Stark. Unfortuantely, the game ended. I think it was because of the wrong GM for the game thing. I'm still rather proud of Mysha though. I hope she did prove that her uncle is a murdering bastard and reclaimed the seat. I like to think she did.

My Friends

With only five days left of November I think it's time that I start my next theme. I'll still be doing a little bit of the teacher thing, but I wanted to get this started before the end of the month. This theme is Roleplaying/Friends.


Now, making real good friends is not something that I do often. I am very friendly and when I'm forced to do work in a group or be around other people I think I make good impressions and make people like me. But I don't immediately add them to my facebook list of friends, get their cell numbers, and try and meet up for coffee every weekend. That takes time. I wish that I made friends easier than I do because then I would have...oh goodness. I was about to say back up friends which makes me sound like horrible, horrible person. I guess what I mean is that if I had a different group of friends I wouldn't have to worry about not having anything to do Saturday because all of my friends have roleplaying games. That, and I would probably have more of a guy pool to work with. Oh, there I go sounding like a horrible person again.

Not that I don't love my friends. My friends are kind of awesome. Really awesome to be honest. Friendships to last a life time I guess. *smile* We're all sort of nerdy and really geeky and I like that about us. Hey, anyone who wants to pretend that they are an elf in their spare time is a friend of mine.

I think what I'm trying to say is that even though I don't have many good friends, the few that I do hang out with are pretty darn awesome and I'm kind of really glad I joined the roleplaying society. Even if I got some weird looks last year at the Fresher's Fayre when I went over to the stall to sign up.

To end this hopefully flattering post about my friends, I wanted to share the most recent character I created. She is for my Friday night Vampire of the Masquerade game (yes, I'll be heading off soon). Her name is Angelina Sophia Beaureguarde or Angie for short. She's a member of the Brujah clan which means, basically, she's really stubborn. Brujah's are also, traditionally, fighters and Angie lives up to that. She was political science major before being turned so she's also really smart. I think she's the character that I've put the most thought into. I really, really like her.

2 1/2 Weeks

Well, I leave for Aberdeen on September 7. That's only 2 1/2 weeks from today! Classes don't start until the last week of September, but I wanted to get back to my flat and set up and settle in before I get caught up in classes and work.

Also, I miss my Lisa. Haha!

So, I think I'll try a do a post every few days about the exciting adventures during my last few days here at home. Today's exciting adventure:

Ingenious with the Peeps!

If you've never played "Ingenious" google it now! Then go to the store and buy it. It is one of the funnest games I've ever played. Ok, I could be exaggerating a little because I like games like chess. Mind thinking games. Anyway, my friends and I played for three and one half hours and then I had to leave. Whilst playing we called each other names such as "son of a *****" and "a cultural back setter" and told each other to "**** off" and "burn in ****". Overall it was a pretty good couple of games. We tend to get potty mouths when start playing games. Unfortunately, time passes too quickly. So we're planning a meeting in a few days before our Christian goes back to University. A good-bye party for me and him.

Peace

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 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.

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.

One Week

Alright guys! Here we are on Saturday! I've been here for exactly one week today. Pretty amazing if you ask me.

Things I have accomplished this week:

1. I have basically all my furnishing for my flatroom. Sheets, towels, trash bags, laundry things, cleaning solution...ect.
2. I have pretty much figured out the the building I'm living in.
3. I know my way around town sort of. It'll take a while before I comfortable with it, but I know how to get to 3 different grocery stores and I know how to get into town.
4. Took my first bus ride here and I'm slowly learning the schedules for different buses.
5. Met all of my flatmates. 2 of which I really like, 1 of which I haven't really gotten to talk to but I like her, and the other I'm not so crazy about, but some rain must fall into every life I suppose.
6. Registered for classes and met with professors.
7. Learned the campus. I rarely get lost anymore though I do always carry a map.
8. Met people outside of campus at different Society Meetings.
9. Signed up for Societies. I am going to be a part of 4 if not 5 this semestre.
10. UK phone number, Registered with the GP, set up a bank account and learned where to get my clan kilt made. (Clan MacGregor baby!)

Things I still need to do:

1. *MOST IMPORTANT* Get my timetable. My student portal is being stupid and not showing me my teaching timetable. So as of right now I have no idea when or where my classes are. I'm dealing with that today.
2. Make my room a little more cozy. It's nice now with my GDB stuff and my flowers and different pictures, but it still needs a little something more.
3. Really learn the Bus Schedule
4. Figure out where to get my mail (only thing I really haven't figured out yet)
5. Learn how to miss Ryan less so I can focus on my studies (that's going to be the hardest I reckon)
6. Make solid Friends. There a few people who I think I can make solid Friends with here. One of them is my flatmate (I didn't get her name this morning, but I like her and it would be nice to have a friend so close by) another two are in my Improv Society, another one is in the Roleplaying Society, and one I met at the airport.
7. Find a Damn post office so I can mail the many letters I have.
8. Go to a pub with friends...it has to happen at least once right?
9. Get a pair of gloves
10. Find a hair drier!

So that's what I still need to do. I also should take more pictures of the town. I promise you I will. For now, off to the Edward Right Building to get my stupid timetable so I can actually go to class!

Friends

I think Erin might have some friends guys!

I went to "register", which apparently was code for sit around in a room, a VERY pretty room though, for an hour talking to people and maybe talking to a teacher. Anyway, I went to "register" my History of Art and Philosophy class and I met a few people there. I ended up going to another Freshers' Fayre for the Society sign ups with a few of them. Then afterward we went to have lunch at the Hub. There I met a few of their flatmates. We parted separate ways after lunch because of my stupid bank and student portal situation and they had to take care of some things as well.

Then I came back to my room for a little while before going out again. While here I went to get an early dinner (nutella sandwich. oh yeah!) in the kitchen area when who should I meet? A flatmate! Amazing really. He's the only guy on our corridor...I think maybe the whole floor. Anyway we talked for a little bit about American politics (yes! I've been missing that!) even though he's from London (well, Nigeria originally. How cool is that?). Then I left.

Why did I leave? I signed up for the Improv Society today and I went to my very first meeting where I met a few people I think I could actually become friends with. Two of them were Germans and another I'm pretty sure was Scottish. But they seemed like the kind of people who I could really be around for a while. You know? Like friends. I'm really happy about this.

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.