[witty title]

Just a post summarizing the events of the past couple days... these are always the worst to write lol I should stay on top of things more.

Wednesday:
I kind of love Wednesdays. Only having one class at 11 is pretty fabulous... but then it throws you off for the rest of the day. This Wednesday I was super productive, though! It felt awesome to have busy work to do and just sit around doing chemistry problems and studying. I'm not going to lie, I miss having constant work to do. I like the feeling when I'm busy and getting work done lol it's weird. After doing a couple hours of chemistry work, I washed my laundry! It was a great day lol especially since I had extra time to sit and read Breaking Dawn. I'm liking that book a lot more the second time through. I'm not feeling so cheated about Jacob this time. But after my productive afternoon, I helped Toni and Johanne make pasta cabinera. Mina ended up helping and she made the sauce delicious. After hanging out in my flat in my onesie, I went over to Bri's flat and went to union with everyone. We met up with the normal people and the bar and hung out there until close. It was a great day overall.

Thursday:
Thursdays are always one of my busiest days. I have class from 10 until 3 with no breaks. BUT this week I literally felt like a total BOSS! My lab report was kick ass for the experiment and my professor greeted me by name. WOO! And after she graded it she said "excellent job, Lydia". So I walked out of the chemistry building an hour early feeling totally legit :) and then I had time to sit on my computer in the hub before my next two lectures. Inorganic lecture was that bad today, either. We were talking about symmetry and chirality and I was probably one of the only people who understood it because of organic chemistry! Vikings! lecture literally sucked though. It would be awesome if we actually learned about viking culture and history... but we are lectured on the conversion of Russia to Christianity. So during that lecture I may or may not have been instant messaging Erika and watching "Regi dances to Mamma Mia" with Kelsie, Zoe, and Catherine. That is literally the best video ever... and it's way funnier when a ton of people are in the lecture theater with you and Kelsie nearly forgets to mute the sound. After lectures I hung out in Bri's flat with everyone and we started getting ideas for our Halloween costumes. After much debating, we decided to go town on Friday and get matching costumes. I then back at my flat, Toni, Mina and I made dinner. I'm really learning a lot of Bulgarian recipes lol. After dinner I hung out in Bri's flat and went to union for a little. I didn't stay out too late, thought because I was super tired. I definitely think the events of the past month and a half are catching up with me, finally. Scary though.

Friday:
Friday mornings always come too early. If I didn't have a tutorial to start off the day, I probably would never go to my first class. But I met up with Kelsie and Zoe at half 8, we went to our tutorial for Vikings. It was actually a very informative tutorial for once. I finally feel like I know something and could write an essay. Which is good considering that I have to write two rather lengthy ones. Ugh I just really dislike survey classes. But after our tutorial, my afternoon class was cancelled so Bri, Kelsie, Zoe, Jo and I went into town to get things for Halloween. We ended up spending nearly the entire day in town, shopping and walking all over. It took FOREVER for us to finally make up our minds and find costumes. Bri, Kelsie, Zoe, and I are going as Disney princesses/characters. I'm pretty excited about it, the tiara is the best bit. I just didn't really want some stupid slutty costume, and we all look cute together. We made Bri buy this geisha outfit so she could go as Mulan and it looks absolutely ridiculous on her lol. It's in a bag-like shape and has a huge butt bow. It's really funny, but I don't know if she finds it as amusing as Kelsie, Zoe, and I do lol. We might have to go back to town and exchange it so she will look better.

Friday evening Johanne cooked a Norwegian dinner for us, salmon and boiled potatoes. It was pretty delicious and the Bulgarian guys and Jo came over. We had a lot of fun sitting in the kitchen before walking to the Bulgarian party. We actually walked through Seaton Park at night... pretty risky but there were 8 of us. There were all sorts of random university-aged guys briskly walking by us lol. I talked to some of them and commented on the lovely walk though rapey park at night. The Bulgarian party was a lot of fun, although it took forever to get there. Walking through campus at night was absolutely beautiful. Everything was really lit up and it looked like Wooster at night, except more Hogwarts-like. The party was really like frat parties, except it wasn't as crazy crowded and sweaty and everyone was Bulgarian except for Johanne, Jo, and me. We stayed there for like an hour or so and then jumped out the window to walk to some clubs lol. We started off at the Morrings, but didn't stay there for very long. Mina, Johanne, Jo, and I then went to the priory to dance. We had a GREAT time there. I couldn't believe how empty it was for a friday night. It was really nice to actually have room to dance without bumping other people. Also you could get a clear view of the creepers so you could stare them down with really dirty looks until they got the hint and backed off. We stayed there for a really long time, fiercely dancing and putting down shots. When we finally left, we were walking to Mcdonalds and out of nowhere Toni comes running up to us lol. It was quite the surprise. We ate a good amount of food in Mcdonalds and then got a taxi home. We all passed out after that lol.

Saturday morning:
I woke up this morning and felt pretty good, actually. Thank god for the midnight Mcdonalds lol. After eating I went over to Bri's flat so we could get ready to go into town. We exchanged stories from our perspective nights and it seems that Bri, Kelsie, and Zoe had an interesting night as well. but now we are getting ready to go into town so Bri can get a new costume. Then the Halloween activities start! I'm super excited to carve our pumpkins and watch nightmare before christmas. Then we are dressing up in our costumes and going to club at union. I hope it will be a good night, but the majority of our creeper shields are out of town so it will be interesting to see what happens...

Vikings really aren't that interesting...

The title probably isn't true in all contexts, but my Vikings! lecture is probably the worst thing I've ever sat through. I'm sitting in it right now... blogging lol. I think the Vikings would be cool to learn about, but I'm really failing at seeing the correlation between the conversion of Russia to christianity and raping/pillaging. The continuity in this class is awful... as is the organization.

This week has flown by, like every other week. I'm shocked that it's Thursday afternoon already! Tuesday was a more or less laid back day. Classes went well, and lab went well for once. The weather was absolutely horrible, though. Literally the worst I've seen since I've been here. I got completely soaked at one point walking to a lecture so I felt kind of damp all day... so sweat pants and a tasty dinner were definitely called for when I got back to my flat. Mina cooked some tasty beef with mashed potatoes lol and I hung out with Toni, Johanne, and Mina for a while before going over to Bri's flat. Bri, Kelsie, and I went to union (keepin' the dream alive) where we met up with some of our guy friends. Everyone was really out of it, though. We would just be sitting around and when a good song came on we would get really excited and sing to each other and then go back to zoning out lol.

The Cunning Stunts

Sunday was a really lazy day which was pretty nice. I stayed in my onesie until like 6:30 lol. Lindsay, Zoe, and I watched Labyrinth and that was a lot of fun. That movie is literally ridiculous... oh 80's pop culture lol. Kelsie, Bri, Zoe, Lindsay, Tara, and I ordered pizza, not over 110 pounds unfortunately, but it was still a lot of pizza lol. After munching down we headed to union for quiz night, where we met up with the guys. The gave us the name "Cunning Stunts"... lol. This quiz was really hard and not nearly as fun as the first one. I got really excited, of course, when I knew that a Boomslang is a species of snake lol. Even with my herpetology knowledge we ended up coming in like last place. Martyn had to take the booby prize for us lol. It's too bad that he always dresses so nicely, because the left over beer that he couldn't chug was poured on his head... we have some good videos lol. After the quiz we went back to south house to watch train-spotting, but the internet was really slow so it didn't download properly. I was really into watching the movie, so hopefully we will finish it later. After a while we all just decided to have an early night and go to bed. So I went back to my flat and was quietly chillin on facebook when out of NOWHERE the fire alarm goes off. And it's a really load, obnoxious sound that hurts your ears. We all had to go outside and wait for the porters to turn it off. All I could think of was how lucky I was that I wasn't wearing my onesie lol... not like it matters really since I wore it all over the residence hall area all day. But I didn't want to look like that one weird person lol.

Monday was a pretty interesting day, actually. My lectures and tutorial went well, even though I have to start thinking about my final exams and papers... ugh. I hate how stressed I get over things like that. I kind of really wish that I didn't have to do any of that sort of work. That would be perfect lol. After class I hung out in Bri's flat and assessed all the pictures from Saturday night. There are some really funny ones. The pictures were I look like a complete idiot are always the funniest. There are some extremely epic pictures of me and Kelsie singing Love Story to each other! We got so excited in union when T Swift came on! Lol after looking through all the pictures from the weekend for like 20 minutes I decided to upload some of the pictures I took of the house elf enslavement camp... We all look like crap but they ones where we are singing to Kelsie and really cute :) Such good memories.

When I got back to my flat, I was pleasantly pleased to find out that the Bulgarian boys were going to cook dinner for us. So after doing some work, I went in the kitchen to hang out with Mina, Toni, Johanne, and Jo. It was hilarious watching the 3 boys cook for us while we were all sitting down and drinking wine. They were actually really good at cooking, I really enjoyed the Bulgarian food. After dinner we all hung out in the kitchen, laughing and having a good time. Some pretty funny pictures were taken and put on facebook so that's a plus. It was a good night, but it got kind of messy towards the end lol. After a while, Jo and I went to meet up with everyone else at union, and we stayed there for a little before going back to south house. I didn't stay at south house long, I was pretty tired but I did have a good time seeing all the boys and talking.

This morning came wayyy to early. Vikings! lecture was such shite, literally a complete waste of an hour. I nearly skipped it, but I decided last minute to go since I missed some lectures last week. At least I got about a 2 hour nap after the lecture... I never used to nap, but now I nap all the time! It's ridiculous lol. But I'm glad I got that little nap in. The weather was absolutely awful today, though. I got completely soaked on my way to chem lecture and that really sucked. At least the lecture and my lab went pretty well. It's also starting to get dark really early which stinks since I really don't want to walk through rapey park during the "hours of darkness", as the sign advises against. But I'm glad to be back in my flat and in all my warm clothes lol. I nearly put on my onesie, I've been dreaming about it all day. But I think it really needs washed lol that's definitely on the to do list tomorrow!

I'm just a teenage dirtbag, baby

This weekend has been all sorts of busy and fun!

Kelsie, Bri, Zoe, Jo, and I were supposed to make all the Harry Potter t shirts friday night, but that definitely didn't happen. We at least got all the pictures ironed on and just decided to finish them saturday. Bri and I totally failed at making Kelsie's birthday cake... literally the one time our shite (yes I said shite and not shit) little ovens decide to cook anything, they burn the tye-die cake. It was kind of awful actually lol. I had never seen such a crispy cake. But, after working on the t shirts, I went back to my flat and ate the moussaka Toni had made for us. It was extremely good and I had a great time just hanging out in the kitchen drinking some of the rip-off boxed wine I'd picked up from the grocery store. I really enjoy sitting in the kitchen and talking with Johanne, Mina, and Toni. it was a lot of fun earlier in the day when Toni was cooking and everyone was in the kitchen and I was playing all the good 90s/early 2000s music lol. But after getting kind of drunk, I realized that I still had to shower and get all dressed up to go out for the birthday celebrations. It was definitely an interesting experience to be kind of tipsy and showering, I wouldn't recommend it. But I promptly changed into my cat suit and got dolled up. Everyone loves my cat onesie, but I don't think that the large group of Bulgarian guys who materialized in my kitchen enjoyed it as much as I do. They looked at me like I was psycho lol. But I put on my hot new dress and heels and walked to Kelsie's. 

Everyone (Kelsie, Bri, Jo, and I) looked great! We unfortunately didn't get any pictures, however. We will all dress up again sometime soon, I'm sure. Walking over the cobblestones to get to union was kind of a nightmare... I nearly killed poor Bri lol. But we safely got to union and greatly enjoyed all the heads that turned as we walked to our normal seats in the back. After that, things got a little messy lol. Since I was already kind of drunk, it really didn't take many shots to put me over the edge. But I stuck it out and sang Happy Birthday to Kelsie at the stroke of midnight! Some of our guys showed up to sing, too so we ended up staying at the union until close. We were going to go into town, but that definitely didn't happen. Literally, Kelsie's first act as a legal adult was running up behind me as I nearly puked in the hall of the pub, pushing me into the toilet, and asking me to "get down on my knees" for her. Lol she was right on the ball for that, but I repaid her in kind later that evening. We all had a good time at union, but it was kind of sad that we didn't get to go into any clubs with our nice dresses on. However, we definitely made up for the lack of dancing by buying more shots. Literally we took way too many, it's no wonder I puked. But right after I did, I immediately sobered up and then ended up taking care of everyone else. Kelsie and I became very close private area friends lol. When union closed, the bartender who saw me trying to fall asleep on the booth came over to me and asked if I had spewed and I just looked at him and said "No!" lol and he was said "I know you did, but did you get it all in the toilet?" lol then we went back to south house with some of the guys to hang out there (like we do everyday). Bri and Kelsie were completely smashed lol and then all of a sudden Kelsie disappears so Christian, Martyn, Bri and I organize a search party for her. We eventually found her back in her room, and she was not doing too great. However, I helped her out and then we had our own little slumber party :)

Saturday during the day Kelsie, Bri, Zoe and I worked like legit house elves! Writing on those shirts with sharpie markers was such a BITCH! We spent more than 8 hours making the 16 shirts.... but I must say that they all looked amazing! It was totally worth the hand cramps and fume inhalation lol at one point (like 6 pm) everyone had a giggle fit for no apparent and Kelsie looked at us and said "delrium has finally set in at the house elf camp" lol. It was kind of true, although we did have some little breaks. For example I made Kelsie a rhyme birthday card, and we all presented her with presents, and then there was cake and singing :) Lol I was soo excited about my birthday card and Bri just looked at me and said "calm down, Dr. Seuss" lol. I'm pretty sure Kelsie nearly cried when we all gave her the presents and Zoe brought in the cake (she went to the grocery store and picked one up, clever girl lol). But we had a great time being together in the kitchen and working like little house elves, even though we didn't finish until like 8:00 and we were set to pregame with everyone at 9:00. There was much running around, showering, and quickly getting dressed. My Bulgarians loved the shirt that I made lol and all the other Bulgarians showed up and they were reading it and laughing at how nerdy we all are. But it was totally worth it :)

We all then met up in Bri's flat and everyone had their shirts on and we looked like such a ridiculous group of people lol. The guys gave Kelsie a lot of alcohol and a really funny Cliff Richards card, for some reason Cliff has been a huge part of this entire semester lol. Greg looked at us and said "Someone's going to jump us tonight, and I don't blame them" lol. We didn't end up getting beaten up, but we definitely got a TON of strange glances and people coming up to us asking about our shirts lol. At union we all kind of acted crazy. We probably sang happy birthday to Kelsie at least 5 times, and we used our drink straws as wands and were casting spells all over the place lol. People were staring at us like we were absolutely crazy, but it was TOTALLY worth it. Then we kind of sang some more, and silly pictures were taken. At one point T Swift Lovesong came on and Kelsie and I sang it to each other lol. After a little, we went caught the bus into town and I must say that this bus ride was a lot more enjoyable than Tuesday nights bus ride. We were the noisy, obnoxious group so we could just laugh and have a good time. Right when we got off the bus Callum started puking, and I was the only one to help him. Greg took all sorts of pictures of him lol but it's funny how he always pukes, he's such a lightweight. He was fine though, so we walked on to our first destination, a strip club lol. It's hilarious that the first time Kelsie used her real ID was at a strip club. The girls and I of course had to buy her a lap dance lol her stripper was absolutely lovely, though lol. At least we didn't get her one of the nasty type ones. She was so embarrassed about the entire thing, but I'm sure she will laugh about it later lol. Then we went to a dance club, and that was a lot of fun except there were so many creepers out! We had like 7 or 8 guys out with us and they still had trouble keeping all these weirdos away from us. It was kind of sucky because we all just wanted to dance. We stayed at that club for a while and we were going to go to another one, but we got side tracked by McDonalds lol. After eating a good amount of food, everyone kind of crashed so we went to get taxis back to Hillhead. The queue was like miles long, not really but it felt like that, so we ended up standing around outside for a really long time. We went back to south house and took some more shots for Kelsie's birthday before everyone went to sleep. It was a pretty good night :)

I went to bed in my onesie and that was uber comfy. And now I'm in Kelsie's flat just hanging out in my onesie. Today I think we are just going to do some work and hang out lol and then later one can only hope we are ordering pizza before going to the union for quiz night. Woo :)

You know you're awesome when...

SO wednesday dawned way too bright and early for me lol. It was definitely a struggle to get out of bed, but fun was to be had in the kitchen before class. My tutorial went really well though. For some reason I was really motivated to talk and participate in the discussion. I think my professor was shocked that someone was actually raising their hand lol I'm pretty sure alcohol was still in my system... yay.

After working on my lab write up, I went to town with Lindsay for some shopping. We actually had a really good time even though it took forever for me to find a good dress for Friday. I ended up buying some things that I probably shouldn't have but I absolutely LOVE everything I got. My wardrobe is slowly becoming kind of hipster actually... The shorts with tights and leather-looking shoes is actually a good style for me :) BUT probably the most exciting purchase of the day was my CAT ONESIE!!!!! I literally love it! It's so warm and fuzzy and it has booties with little cat paw prints on them and a hood with cat ears and a at face! There's even a tail on the back lol I nearly flipped shit when I saw it in primark. I knew I had to have it. Lindsay was great to shop with because she actually found the perfect (and cheap) dress for me... and she found cat ears for me at H&M earlier in the day... and she told me that I get a student discount at New Look (10% per item!)... and she encouraged me to buy the cat onesie (instead of run away when I tried it on) lol so it was a very successful day of shopping. But the day only got better when I cavalierly waltzed into the kitchen to help Toni and Mina make dinner in my onesie lol Marie was in there too and they all laughed at me but said my "cat suit" is very cute lol. I actually met my new flat mate (???) while I was sitting in my room doing homework and I had forgot that I had my cat ear head band on... she didn't say anything so I'm pretty sure she thinks I'm crazy lol. But dinner was a lot of fun. Apparently American and Bulgarian animals sound different. Mina and I literally spent like 20 minutes asking what pigs, cows, chickens, dogs, etc say lol but the Bulgarians are great at cooking, they've promised to teach me a few things. It makes me really happy that we eat together every night. I like cooking with them and hanging out in the kitchen. Johanne has yet to see my onesie and I'm pretty excited to wear it tonight :) lol she will love it.

Wednesday night we did the normal thing, going to union and then hanging out with the guys. Lol but the night had some extra spice. Kelsie is extremely accident prone (especially in the shower lol) and last night she really did a number to herself. Apparently she leaned forward (bad idea in our tiny showers) and smacked her head on the wall. When I finally got over to Bri's flat, Kelsie had an exceptionally large goose egg on her brow... it was really funny but I feel bad now since it has kind of settled down around the bridge of her nose and her eyes so she looks kindof like the vampires from Buffy/ an orc from Lord of the Rings. We are hoping that it will go away before her birthday weekend, but no matter what she's still beautiful :) the night really wasn't too exciting besides that.

I was pretty worried about my lab today, but I actually scored a first class mark on my write up so that was pretty exciting. I had a good chat with my grader, too. I really like talking with my professors here, it reminds me of being back in Wooster. I think I learn better when I actually have some sort of connection with my professors and they know my name. Maybe I'm just more motivated to do well, then. But anyways I was really excited about my score on my lab and I think I did well on my tutorial, too so today was a win. Even Vikings! lecture was interesting today! It was definitely a pleasant surprise when we had a different lecturer who talked about Norse mythology. After Vikings! Kelsie, Zoe, Jo and I popped into the fabulous new library to hang out for a bit. I love how the building is made up completely of windows and you can see the North Sea from the one side :) It's a really cool place to go. The levels are split up so you can see all the way to the skylights in the top. Even the elevators are made up completely of glass so you can see the pulleys and gears and counterweights. It's pretty awesome. Zoe, Kelsie and I went to the top while Jo stayed at the bottom and we waved down at her lol. It was great :) And I saw Eagle the Seagull (our pet seagull who worm hunts worms outside Bri's flat and eats our pizza crust) do his worm dance! Woo!

Now I'm hanging out at Bri's flat preparing to make our Harry Potter theme shirts for saturday. I'm soo freaking excited! This weekend is going to be bumpin'. :)

Oh, and you know you're awesome when you wear your cat ears to your friends flat :)

Oh, the festivities

This week is pretty big for my group of friends in Aberdeen. Two people, Callum and Kelsie, are turning 18 and can finally (legally) drink! This of course means a TON of club hopping and drink buying is called for... only the strong will survive this coming weekend.

Lectures came and went on Monday like any other day. I definitely slept like a dead person until like 11... I could really get used to not having class until 1. The only really exciting part of the day was when Mina, Toni, Johanne and I decided to finally try out the online grocery shopping. We had a pretty good time sitting in the kitchen looking at the endless ASDA list of food. We have decided that we love to eat too much, though. It's kind of ridiculous how quickly we go through food, especially cookies. Literally we eat multiple packs of chocolate chip cookies a day. We actually are buying a cookie monster poster to hang in the kitchen. It's very fitting lol. But I really love living with my Bulgarians and Norwegian :) Dinner time is always really nice since the four of us have sit down dinners and we cook real food. Mina and Toni are really good at cooking, so everything is always so good! I generally stick to making salads, but I've cooked a good number of times too. They promised to show me some of their recipes. Mina and her mom are dying for a good chocolate chip cookie recipe lol.

Monday night was actually a little different than normal... we didn't go to the union!! Crazy, I know! Lol Kelsie, Bri, and I actually went over to the guys' flat in our pajamas for a movie night. It was a lot of fun actually. Especially when we show up in our frumpy clothes/onesies and none of them are wearing their onesies... they had a good laugh at that but I didn't care. My long underwear was perfect for sitting and watching Happy Gilmore. I kind of really love that movie lol. All the guys were so impressed at how well I quoted it. Then we started talking about some other movies/actors and they were like "lydia you watch too many movies"... it's true lol. But it was a really fun and relaxing evening. Definitely the calm before the storm (Tuesday night = Callum's birthday).

Even though I had a really relaxing night, I didn't make it to my 9:00 Vikings! lecture. It was the first one I've skipped, but I'm soo glad I did. Kelsie and Jo told me that they didn't even have the actual lecture because the computer was having issues in the lecture theater. What a win on my part. I definitely needed those couple extra hours of sleep. The rest of the day went pretty well. I had physical chemistry lecture and lab and both went surprisingly pretty well. I think the lab was alright because I have literally done the same experiment like twice before. It was a lot of titrations and stuff dealing with solutions, so it's good I was comfortable with it. I really am a nervous chemist in the lab lol. After lab, I went back to the flat to find 2 angry Bulgarians and a peeved Norwegian. The ASDA grocery delivery was running really late and everyone was hungry and we had no idea when we would get our groceries. It's pretty funny how food oriented we are lol. When the groceries finally came everyone rejoiced and we made an amazing pork loin and brussel sprout dinner...  yumm :) Johanne is finally starting to get the hang of the use of spices and marinade lol. Mina and Toni are really in to using spice, like me. But Johanne tells us that in Norway literally all the use is like salt and pepper. The young padowan is learning very quickly, though.

A little later in the evening I was walking to Bri's flat but ended up getting herded into Callum's flat kind of early so I was awkwardly hanging out with all the guys for a little bit before Kelsie, Bri, and Jo finally showed up. Catherine was there for a little, but we aren't super close yet so it was kind of awkward chats until I took over control of the iPod :) We all hung out in the kitchen and met Callum's kind of weirdo German flatmates. It was funny to see the different levels everyone was at even that early in the night. Everyone got kind of dressed up for town, but it was absolutely freezing outside. The rain and wind made you feel like you were dying, literally. Just walking to the union after hanging out in Callum's flat was really REALLY difficult. But the worst was yet to come. After hanging out at union for a little bit (Bri played our favorite song lol) we caught a bus to town. Apparently a lot of people have the same birthday as Callum because the bus was packed with screaming, annoying drunk people who kept singing happy birthday and acting like idiots. The bus ride definitely sucked, but once we got into town we had a really good time. Kelsie's fake ID was confiscated so she and Bri went home early which really sucked since I was pretty much left alone to help walk Jo (in her crazy high heels) all around town. We went to so many different places. Some kind of sucked or closed early or were having closed parties, so the walking wasn't exactly great. Thank god I wore flats. But my bare legs were kind of hating me fore sure, the wind was really harsh. At one point we were trying to get into Liquid and it was so cold at this point that James and Greg (who didn't have coats) were shaking so  hard that Jo and I did the awkward open your coat and you put your arms around me for a nice awkward hug with James and Greg. They were literally like ice cubes but my coat is totally boss and it kept us pretty warm. It was hilarious doing the like crab waddle in the queue. While we were standing in that line some assholes tried to cut us and we all ended up really yelling at some random douces. We nearly got into a fight... and then we couldn't even get inside that club because of the stupid closed party :P But we went to Priory and that was amazing. We danced for a few hours and hung out there. Greg was taking pictures the entire night, so there definitely are some of my fiercely dancing lol. We all had a really good time, though so who cares that I dance like a maniac. it was really nice that the club wasn't crazy packed so there was ample space for my spastic dance moves lol. After that we hit up McDonalds (soo American!) lol and then we all went back to our rooms and passed out. My blankets never felt so good after all that walking in like antarctic weather :P but I had a really good time with Jo and the guys. The pictures will be hilarious, even though Greg was way too committed about documenting everything (ie. how my skirt rode up way too much when I walked/carried Jo). I will get him back at a later date when he least expects it. I really don't want my legs/bum to be a topic of conversation with those boys when they go through the pictures... oh well. Everyone had a great time but we all agree that Callum didn't get nearly drunk enough (ie. not puking) so we will have some more festivities this weekend before Kelsie's birthday! WOO!

Another Weekend Come and Gone

It is seriously freaking me out how quickly time is going by here... I only have two months left here. As much as I miss Wooster and home, it's going to be really difficult to leave here. My close friends (Bri, Jo, Kelsie, and Zoe) have dubed ourselves "private area friends" lol. I really hope I never lose touch with my private area friends :)

Friday night we all got dressed up nice and went out to the Union Bar. We hung out there for a while and made friends with a new person, Catherine. We had a good time planning for Kelsie's bithday weekend and Halloween (woo!). After a couple hours of music listening and conspiring, we decided to seek out some "fun" (aka the boys lol). So we went to South House and did the normal stuff, but everyone went to bed pretty quick. At some horrible hour in the early morning, Kelsie, Zoe, and I were still in the kitchen with some of the guys and we decided to clean since parents were coming the next day. It really was a good choice, the kitchen was absolutely disgusting. But now I'm kind of worried that the guys expect us to clean their kitchen since they know that we will do it anyways. They will probably repay us with some drinks, hopefully. Or maybe we will be granted the privilege to utilize proper ovens and a stove... endless opportunities.

Saturday I went into town with Kelsie, Bri, Jo, and Zoe. We went to Primark and some other wonderful places to get ready for the coming week/weekend of birthday festivities!!! I'm so excited for Kelsie and Callum's birthday parties this week/weekend! It will be amazing :) But we spent most of the day in town and then later that night our groups hung out in Bri's flat. It was a fun night full of laughter and insight lol. But I didn't stay out too late, actually. Cleaning at like 2:30 the night before had really wiped me out, so I ate and went to bed kind of early last night.

After doing some school work this morning, I talked with my mom for the first time in Scotland. It was a lot of fun hearing about all the random things at home :) we had emailed before, but she is absolutely horrible at responding. So talking on the phone was really nice. I definitely think she has replaced me with our dog... their bond sounds quite strong lol.

I went to the Brig O' Don for tea (dinner) with Bri, Jo, Kelsie, and Zoe. It has such a homey atmosphere and the food is pretty good, so I had a really good time there. We literally stayed there for like 2 hours stuffing ourselves. It was absolutely fantastic. AND I ordered the dessert from heaven (sticky toffey pudding) again. I literally could eat that all day long, every day. It's amazing! Lol

I'm pretty sure that we are all going to the Union Bar later to hang out with the boys and prepare ourselves for a crazy week/weekend. Good times :)

Random Things Here and There

I literally can't believe it's Friday again... the week really does go by quickly when you go out to the pub with your friends every night lol.

After classes on Monday, Jo, Bri, Kelsie, Zoe, and I went on an adventure to the beach. It was a gorgeous walk through the park by the river Don, and the beach was absolutely amazing. There were some really cute pictures taken during the walk and at the beach. The best ones are Bri, Kelsie, and I standing in the freezing cold water lol. We were the only ones crazy enough to get into the North Sea in mid-October. I definitely didn't regret it, not even during the long walk home with sandy, wet shoes and socks lol. Later that evening we all went to Union Bar, but it was a pretty quiet night so the guys and us ended up randomly playing some badminton in the dodgy little gym by the pub. Jo and I were on a team together and we were pretty fabulous. Apparently I hope a little on my right foot when I hit the birdie and people were laughing at me. They were just jealous of my mad skills lol

Tuesday was an interesting day. My lab was a complete fail, but I am convinced that it was because of the apparatus set up. The system definitely was not sealed, otherwise how else would pressure decrease with increasing temperature??? Lol but it kind of turned out alright because I just got to copy the data for my results so I basically just spent like 3 hours playing with dry ice, liquid nitrogen, and mercury. Woo! I was really looking forward to karaoke, but it was cancelled for some reason. That was slightly disappointing, but singing was to be found later that night at South House with the guys and a guitar. So that was a lot of fun.

Wednesday was a crazy day full of all sorts of errands all over town. It really wasn't a very noteworthy day, except Johanne and I made tacos for dinner! They were absolutely delicious... but they kind of made me miss home which was strange. I also helped decorate Bri's flat for Halloween and that made me sooo excited for costume shopping this weekend!

Classes kind of flew by on Thursday. I did pretty well on my lab write up, which was quite exciting. But I definitely was just looking forward to cooking pasta with my flatmates and quiz night the entire day lol. I practically made the pasta sauce, and it turned out really well. I was very relieved that Johanne, Mina, and Toni liked it. Red wine would have been a better drink to have with it, but from my experience the cheaper red wines here just taste like vinegar. We made do with our nice Cawstone Manor box wine. It reminds me of Franzia lol. Our two gangs came together West Side Story style at the Union Bar, and we kind of ruled at Quiz Night. It was hilarious, especially when the Americans had difficulty remembering the American trivia. Who knew that JKF wasn't actually the youngest president of the US?? We all are convinced that the team that won cheated... wankers.

But today is Friday again. It is definitely shaping up to be a good weekend. Tomorrow we are going to start shopping for our Halloween costumes, and make our Harry Potter t shirts for Kelsie's birthday! SO EXCITED!

"You're Gorgeous"

After this week of classes, this weekend was extremely well received. I honestly couldn't have imagined a way where my lectures could have been more boring. At least tutorials are starting now and those are interesting and actually involve the class... So hopefully this week will be more exciting. I'm actually looking forward to having some work to do. It has really been strange going to university but not having loads of work to do for each class. I'm going to get back to Wooster and not have any work ethic whatsoever. Hopefully that won't happen, especially with IS looming...

Friday night I hung out with my Bulgarians for a while. We walked down to the river and it was absolutely beautiful. The cobblestone bridge and old-looking gas lights were very Narnia-esk. It was really great to hang out there for a while. I kind of love my Bulgarians lol they are pretty hilarious. After that I met up with my normal group at the union bar. We had a pretty good time just hanging out. It was a very, very chill evening... lol

Saturday mostly involved some work, grocery shopping at morrisons, and then hanging out with all the guys later in the evening. A few things went a little differently than I expected, but that definitely wasn't an issue at all... lol. Basically the day slipped by way too quickly, and by the time we actually got into town it was like 6:00. So I was kind of running around later trying to get ready and eat something before going over to the guys' flat. By the time we actually got out (8:30 ish), a lot of people were already pretty drunk so the night didn't end well for them. We played a few rounds of ring of fire (kings), but there were so many people around with our normal group and Greg's friends so that was kind of a fail. Then people started puking (out window and in sink...) and I of course had to help take care of them. Most of the way too drunk people went to bed, but some of them decided to make life difficult for the not so drunk people and we ended up chasing them to the union bar. The sober-ish group of people had a really nice time just hanging out, and the drunk person just passed out lol. Some exciting drunken activities then took place after that, and then we all went to bed. Lol the night was pretty great. Some awesome moments will forever be immortalized by pictures one can hope I will never see. 

After last night, today just involved some work and laughing about the events of the previous night. I must say that I love my friends here. They really do know how to support you and make you feel like a hero. They are the best :)

Karaoke!!!!

This past week has been kind of insignificant. My classes are going well and I've been having a great time with everyone here at Aberdeen. So far I've really been liking my Arthurian legends course and the tutorial was great fun. I wish I had that class more than once a week though, it could definitely take the place of Vikings! That class really hasn't improved much at all, but it really depends on the lecturer. I finally have a tutorial for it tomorrow morning, and the readings were interesting so I'm hoping it will go as well as my Arthurian legends tutorial went. I really like having smaller courses and more one-on-one time with the professors and that really doesn't happen here except in tutorials.

Tuesday night was loads of fun because there was karaoke at the union bar. I totally rocked it, too lol. All day monday and tuesday I couldn't think of anything else besides going out tuesday night and singing karaoke. I kept talking about it with my flatmates, so they ended up coming out as my "groupies" and supporting me lol. I'd never sang karaoke before, but I must admit that I loved it! I sang three songs, lol I was that type of annoying half-drunk girl who insists on singing more songs than she should. But apparently I sounded really good and everyone had a good time dancing around the stage and everything so it was fabulous. At one point I was dancing with Jo, Bri, Kelsie, Tara, and a bunch of other people, and I had put in my request for paparazzi like 10 minutes before, so when the DJ announced that Lydia was going to sing paparazzi I kind of freaked out and screamed "That's me! I'm Lydia!" lol. After I sang paparazzi people were like high-fiving me all over the place and saying how awesome I was. Two people actually pulled me aside to tell me that they thought I was great and "their hero" for going up to sing, but I think they were just being weirdos for a laugh. But singing karaoke was amazing and it made me feel fabulous! :)

Wednesday was pretty laid back until I went on the biggest grocery excursion of the century with my flatmates. My tutorial went really well and I did some other random work. Then around 4:00 Johanne, Mina, Toni, and I decided to make an intense grocery list and go to an actual grocery store in town, not the little discount one near our flat. Everything was going great, we bought our bus tickets and promptly went to the top of the bus and sat down. It's very exciting to go to a real grocery store and get nice quality meats and vegetables, so we were really looking forward to this quick bus ride into town. However, we were not expecting the bus to quickly drive in the opposite direction of town to the middle of a development where the hospital is. For some reason, none of us thought to check which bus we had quickly boarded, so we ended up going nearly the full route of this random bus which took approximately 40 minutes. Lol it was good for a laugh and since we bought an all day pass we kind of just rationalized that we were seeing more of Aberdeen... but by the time we finally go to the Morrisons we were famished so lots or random food was purchased lol but it all worked out, especially with Johanne making a Norwegian supper involving smoked salmon, shrimp, eggs, and bagels. Yum :)

It's all about the story...

This weekend has been especially crazy... literally from start to finish. Jo, Bri, and I have developed the phrase "it's all about the story" because when things really do seem kind of shit you just have to think about how funny they will be in 24 hours lol.

So friday started out like any other normal school day. My Vikings! lecture greatly improved in class mood (probably because of the amount of times the lecturer said "sex"). I felt totally bomb at inorganic chemistry... it was pretty fabulous lol. I love feeling so on the ball with chemistry. During lunch I met up with some friends and while I was attempting to enjoy some well earned subway, the fire alarm went off. For about 5 minutes everyone just sat around looking at each other in a very perplexed way, we would definitely have been quite toasty if there was an actual threat. The entire Hub was evacuated for about 15 minutes, and we all had to stand outside. At least the weather was extremely beautiful and sunny. It really is amazing how wonderful the weather has been, but I'm pretty sure that it will turn very cold and wet soon. After getting back to my flat and packing for the weekend, my Bulgarian flatmates showed me the Bulgarian/English dictionary that they are making for me and Johanne lol. It includes useful phrases such as "food" and "hungover"... it's pretty funny. At least they include pronunciation.

Friday evening Jo, Bri, and I met up to start our excursion. We were all kind of sad about missing a weekend in Aberdeen with our friends, but excited about seeing more of Scotland. After a fair amount of running back from the bus stop for forgotten items, we finally got our bus tickets and everything seemed to be going fine despite the kind of tight time schedule we were on. But, Bri decided that she needed to grab some food from the convenience store, since it seemed like she had 10 minutes before the bus started it's route... however it was more like 3 minutes and the bus started to pull out without her. Jo and I kind of watched as the bus drove from the residence halls, carrying Bri's bookbag, wallet, phone, and everything else useful on it. Fortunately after much pleading with the bus driver on my part, and Bri's little legs moving much quicker than anyone would have thought possible, we were all safely on the bus but running decently behind schedule. We booked it from the bus stop to the train station, arriving at 6:05, buying our tickets, and leaving at 6:16. The train ride was nice and the scenery was beautiful, despite us standing in a corridor for the first hour. We finally arrived in Edinburgh and were quite excited to be back in the city that we knew so well.

We checked in at a nice hostel (there were private bathrooms and shower rooms in the rooms!!!) and met up with some other people that we knew from the Arcadia orientation. After quickly eating some pizza, we headed off to Biddy Mulligans. We had a great time there even though our creepy-ish Scottish middle-aged friend found us... he's quite a character. But we had an early night, but going to bed at a reasonable hour really didn't guarantee any large amount of sleep. There were 8 beds in the room, but only 6 people that we knew. Therefore, the other 2 people were complete strangers. Strangers who snored loudly and walked around naked in the morning. To say the least, it was an interesting night/early morning lol.

After catching the Arcadia provided bus and tour guide, we were off to the North. We stopped at some small towns like Pitlochery and Kingussie, as well as a whisky distillery, Dalwhinnie, and a random place to see a man and his sheepdogs. It was really beautiful seeing all the scenery change and see how fall is setting in. The Highlands are very diverse and unlike anything I've ever seen. The tour guide was absolutely great, full of all sorts of information and funny in the witty way. The small towns we stopped in were very picturesque, with rivers and really pretty trees. The whisky distillery was really interesting, but I really don't think whisky is my favorite drink yet. It's a bit much for more now lol. But I really enjoyed watching the sheep herding demonstration. It was amazing to see how well those dogs listen to every command the herder gave. I'd never seen anything like it. Those dogs were so obedient and smart. Also, very cute too lol.

Before getting to Inverness for the night, we stopped at the Culloden battlegrounds and walked around. The mist was really setting in as Jo, Bri, and i walked around in the fields and it gives such a magical feeling to the area. But while walking around, we definitely figured out that the three of us are the dark horses of the Americans lol. For some reason the other people were the really snobby, annoying Americans who decided not to like us very much. Honestly I really didn't care, I love my friends and we are a perfect group together lol. We definitely made the overnight stay in Inverness (a very quite city that pretty much closes at 9:00) a lot of fun. After a quick dinner in a pub where I actually was the supervising adult since the others forgot their ID, we opened a bottle of whisky that we got at the distillery and greatly enjoyed the weird faces we made while taking swigs from it. We attempted to follow one of the whisky workers suggestion of letting some chocolate melt on your tongue before drinking some of the whisky, but that just ended in us eating a lot of chocolate and still puckering like crazy lol. Despite all this entertainment in the hostel's kitchen, we still ended up in bed by 9:30... lol

The next day involved more bus riding, a boat ride on Loch Ness, sight seeing at Urquhart Castle, some other small towns that I don't remember the name of, and Glencoe. I really enjoyed the boat ride on Loch Ness. The water is so dark because of the high peat level and it is actually deeper than the North Sea, so no wonder people think there might be some sort of monster in it lol. The area around the loch is beautiful, it was all misty and green in the mountains. The Urquhart castle is really cool, too. It sits right on Loch Ness and has all sorts of wonderful little photo opportunities nestled inside the stone. After Loch Ness, everything else seemed kind of boring. I liked seeing For Augustus and Fort William, but there really isn't a fort left only the towns. We were all starting to feel kind of sick of the touristy stuff by that point, I think. But Glencoe whipped away any negative thoughts about the trip. Literally just seeing the welcome center, some outlooks, and walking a few paths in the dark green forests made the trip. Hands down, the was my favorite part. I can't even describe how beautiful and unique the landscape is there. The mountains and valleys run together flawlessly, the rock formations tower high above in amazing shapes, and the forests are dense and feel very full of secrets. Sometimes you just have to stand back and say "I'm in Scotland" and just let the weight of that statement hit you. This was definitely one of those moments for me. I'd love to go back to Glencoe and hike around.

After the stop in Glencoe, we started heading back South. Basically the bus ride back was uneventful, even though we did drive by a castle in Monty Python's Quest for the Holy Grail lol. We arrived back in Edinburgh with just enough time to run onto our train and talk about getting back to Aberdeen and be very excited. Literally the entire train ride consisted of how much we missed our uni friends and home (Aberdeen lol). So of course after we finally arrived, there was much rejoicing and kind of a party at the union bar where our girl and boy gangs met up. It was a nice end to the weekend :)