Aberdeen!

Omg today has been insane and I'm beyond tired... but I will faithfully copy down the numerous events :)

This morning came wayyy too early. I felt totally fine considering how much I've been watching my alcohol input, but Bree was pretty hung over. She decided to try the Scottish cure for a hang over, Irn Bru. It's this weird bright orange sugary pop drink that tastes exactly like bubble gum... I haven't figured that out yet. But a ton of people swear by it, but maybe it only works for the Scottish since it had quite the opposite effect on Bree. But Mags and I enjoyed a nice breakfast and I gave her the Amish potholder and key chain thing. She seemed to like it a lot and she told me how she was interested in the Amish, since there is no culture like that around here. It's kind of funny how keen Europeans are about the Amish... but I guess looking at them from another view does make them seem something different. But anyways Mags took us to meet up with the Arcadia people and jump a train to Aberdeen! The ride was all excitement and the scenery was beautiful, of course. We rode up nearly the entire way by the east coast, but we of course saw a ton of farms and little villages. As we got more north the terrain became much more rugged and the forests more thick. It really was a nice and easy trip from Edinburgh. If only the nice and easy could have lasted, though....

Upon arriving in Aberdeen there was some confusion about getting a taxi (money) or taking the school provided buses (free), and we ended up voting for the buses since everyone wants to save some money (even if Arcadia did give it to us... shh lol). But the glamor quickly faded when we had to wait for nearly 2 hours with a group of people to actually get on the bus. Everyone (and their brother) moved into Aberdeen today and there are a shit ton of freshers here so even coming up the street to the apartment buildings was impossible. So the bus ended up dropping us off at a grocery store at the bottom of a massive hill which we had to walk up ourselves with all our luggage. That was no fun journey... the cobblestones make it impossible for bags on wheels and my duffle was crazy heavy. We were supposed to be brought up all the way to our hall so this was definitely not fabulous and if I have any back problems in the future, I'm blaming Aberdeen :P. We ended up getting our keys just fine though and we had much assistance from the other Aberdeen students volunteering over break since they heard that we were made to walk up the hill. In the end we laughed it off, but I'm for sure sore.

My flat is nice, or as nice as it can get in the sketch building complexes loving called (the ghetto). There are definitely some alarming differences between this and Wooster lol but I'll do just fine. The kitchen area is really nice, and my room is more or less small and comfy. Or it will be once I get more moved in and get some posters and photos up on the walls. The lack of provided bedding by Arcadia was not superb, and the quest for pillows, duvets, and sheets was quite interesting and long. We spent more than 4 hours walking and riding all over this city to find a store with cheap bedding. It was proving to be a most stressful and unhappy adventure since so many places close at 6, which is inconvenient considering we didn't even get moved in until 4:30. We did get lost a few times and fruitlessly found some stores. But we ended up talking with some nice younger people who pointed us in the right direction and at about 7:30 we reached a wal mart type store with all we could ever want and more. On this journey I discovered that the store which is known as TJ Maxx in the states is actually called TK Maxx here... I have no clue why. Also, walking up to someone stopped at a light and saying "just one question" isn't as creepy as some people might think lol.

We ended up eating pizza right by the ocean and the views at night were so beautiful. The moon was out over the water and you could see distant lights of the barges way out. With a surprising quick ride back, I decided that this really is a lovely city, and I'm excited to get to know it better.