Day 32: "Cake and Dates"

Bruno's two favorite things. He loves cake and dates. I would admit, they are good things; it only got weird when he said he liked "dates in cakes" and I was like, uh, I mean, I wouldn't mind eating cake on a date, but a date IN a cake?...sounds strange.



fruit jokes.




ANYWAYS. This past week has been good and BUSY. I started working for real, three shifts, and they went well. I like waitressing. It's fast-paced, fun, and kinda scary, which makes it more fun. But I guess it will get less scary. Which might mean less fun...

My blog is going to become less frequent, in order to make you readers weak with anticipation and therefore more exultant when the next post is finally released!

I feel like things are kinda falling into place here in Aberdeen, after a little over a month. For one, today, the realization of how I want to set up my room finally hit me. I knew the layout wasn't preferable as soon as I moved in, but I couldn't quite grasp how I wanted it arranged. But I got it now, so I'm 'bout to feng shui the crap outta this place.

I've been walking and running everywhere, in order to get my exercise and avoid paying for the heinously-priced bus. I really like walking though, and the more I walk the more I like it, and the more I realize that if more people walked for transportation, the world would be a better place: People would know their community better, they wouldn't be in as big of a rush, they would say hi to their neighbors, they would notice how quickly flowers turn from blooming to bloomed to wilting and how pretty they are in each state, they would have more pocket change from picking up what they find on the sidewalks, they would be healthier, they would smell the seasons changing and hopefully less car exhaust, they would feel the drizzly rain on their faces but realize that it's not much more than a mist and it shouldn't banish you to the indoors.

I did my first loads of laundry today, too. Typical Abi.

I love anyone who reads this, really, and the few of you who have messaged me separately to tell me you're reading or that you enjoy the blog are just great, and it's meant a lot. I like knowing that people back home, or around me, are still interested in what's going on with my life. Don't forget me, America. :)
ALSO, read this article I wrote for a little online magazine, Off the Blueprint: http://offtheblueprint.com/2012/10/20/caged-in-flying-free/

Thanks!

Day 24&25: The Deer Pants

So apparently I was making an embarrassment out of myself without even knowing it, but that's not too hard to believe. Yesterday at choir practice (still sounds weird), we were thinking about singing a song with the first line "As the deer pants for water" and I kept making a joke about my deer pants (gotta go huntin' to make some new deer pants, in my most ridiculous redneck voice (WHICH BRINGS ME TO ANOTHER POINT: I had to explain to them what I meant when I said "hick" and "redneck" and when I tried to describe them using things like "drive around with confederate flags on their trucks or NASCAR, they didn't understand either of those examples. It was a crazy moment), etc.). But it wasn't until over an hour later when Harin casually told me how pants here are underwear, and what I know as pants are called trousers. Making people feel awkward since I can remember...
Anyways, I also skipped class yesterday, and it was great. I got a lot done at home actually, organizationally and took a nap and went on a run. All good things. After choir I introduced some friends to candy corn and THEY ALL LOVED IT and my heart was glad. Then we watched a Bollywood movie at Carmina's flat; thanks for that experience, Bruno..

Today, I woke at 9 and sent my absentee ballot back to the States and then went on a really great 40 minute run wearing just a t-shirt! Look at me! I'm adapting so well! I saw some really pretty big ol' mansion-house thingies on this run. Most of them had been converted to businesses or hotels or restaurants (the types of restaurants you go to if you're rich and middle-aged and have a husband who takes you nice places---or not rich and middle-aged but just have a husband who takes you nice places). I finished my run but hadn't reached home yet, and since I am going to be sticking to a specific training schedule I didn't want to keep running extra to get home even though I felt great, so I walked in my short-sleeves all the way back, and really wasn't even cold. I stopped in to the bike shop that I pass on my way to school every morning just to have a look around, and it was quite nice. Then I stopped in to the "American Candy Store" which just opened on Union street but it was literally just a British candy store. With American cereal. The only American candy they had was stuff that I assume is world wide, the big brands that I've already seen around, and Twizzlers, maybe those aren't usually here. Alas, it would have been too good to be true.

I then ate and stretched and took a nap. Then I found my favorite area of Aberdeen (so far) on a superb walk to the bicycle cooperative thang in Old Aberdeen, through the University of Aberdeen campus. I have decided that I wish I went to Aberdeen rather than Robert Gordon. The Garthdee campus is ugly and modern with its steel and glass buildings, but I have always put too much stock on my setting's aesthetics, I suppose.
Anyways, I went away bikeless. It's a cool scheme they have going, but they didn't have any bikes that wouldn't still be crappy even after they were fully functional. To be expected, I guess. I will possibly still concede at a later date, but for now my brain is working on a plan B.

Games games games and fun.

Day 23: Michael Jordan

23 is just Michael Jordan's number, and I appreciate that.

Also: Today is the day that marks the beginning of the Year of Faith in the Catholic Church! May we all be enlightened and encouraged as we grow closer to God and our faiths. Mass was great, and the bishop already knows my name, sooo, I meannn..I don't like to say this too often ya know, but..I'm kinda a big deal. (Also, Bishop Hugh's voice during the homily was reminding me of Count Rugen's...not a good thing, but at least the content of his message was quite different than anything that six-fingered man would say (go watch The Princess Bride if you don't understand this reference))

And: Life for me right now is hilarious and good. I received a package from my mother with CANDY CORNNNN and great socks:) She knows the way to my heart. I fear that I've already eaten more than half of the first bag of candy corn. Luckily this stuff is really good for me and my teeth and all of that. Basically a vitamin. SPEAKING OF HEALTHY: I went jogging through the cold Aberdeen streets today. Wound all around and had quite a nice little run. This is going to continue happening. Abi is shaping up. We'll see what happens when "Winter" actually gets here. Actually someone in my class today mentioned how Autumn is late in arriving this year... Oh really? Are you sure you don't mean it was quite premature and that's why we're living in an ice pit already?

But seriously, I exaggerate. It hasn't been too bad. Only at night really, when the sun goes down, do I suffer. And some other times. But all in all I'm still contentedly waiting until I really need to pack on the layers.

I can't believe there is no free gym membership at this university. Free freakin' healthcare and a university that is having hundreds of thousands of dollars (pounds) pumped into it by its faithful pupils can't even give us free treadmill use. Boo.

The trees are finally kinda starting to turn color though, but it seems like more of a pattern of Yellow then immediately falling off, rather than the great transitions we have in Virginia and other similar places. However, I shall continue to observe the development.

Day 22: Words

It's that moment when there is so much to say, you can't say anything.

I have done so much thinking since I've been here in Scotland. Some of it has come through on this blog, and you've seen that if you've been reading, but not all of it has.
I'm glad for all this thinking; I was predicting/hoping I would do this much thinking and reflecting. Being so far away from what I know is an obvious way to push me out of my comfort zone and force me to focus on what matters, what I want to do, where and who I want to be.
Obviously, I haven't gotten everything figured out, but pieces are falling together and more than ever I'm feeling God's presence.

So I won't pour out all the thoughts boiling in my brain, threatening to bubble out from my tongue. I will leave you with some of my favorite quotes that I've written in journals and such over the past year and that I read through today. I see even more relevant (and new) meaning in them now than I probably did when I scribbled them down.

"Leaving home in a sense involves a kind of second birth in which we give birth to ourselves." -Robert Neelly Bellah

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, Discover that I had not lived." -H.D. Thoreau

"And the danger is that in this move toward new horizons and far directions, that I may lose what I have now, and not find anything except loneliness." -Sylvia Plath (but she's always a bit depressing, am I right?)

"There ain't no way you can hold onto something that wants to go, you understand? You can only love what you got while you got it." -Because of Winn-Dixie, Kate DiCamillo

"Nothing remains as it was. If you can know this, you can begin again, with pure joy in the uprooting." -Judith Minty


and maybe my favorite quote, from my favorite book (so far), Jane Eyre, "It is in vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquility: they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it."
 

Day 21: Three Weeks

To the tune of "One Week" by Barenaked Ladies (for all those to whom this is not apparent)

It's been..
Three weeks since in Aberdeen,
Cock my head to the side and say, "Really?"
Five days is like all it seems, saying
Gettin' it together, comin' so easy
In my flat, I stay in my room,
I realize that's most my fault, but Jenkins smells, too.
Really hope you're forgivin' me--
was a cruel joke 'bout my flatmate, and I say I'm sorry.

Hold it now and watch my rhyme skills
As I make you get chills
You'll think you're listening to Eminem
I put veggies in my dish, although I like the meat and Swiss
Too poor for sushi
And that is why I'm crying, man.
Just like my 5p when I see dimes
Get caught for fraud crimes
Because I'm using foreign currency,
Annie Lennox got the mad hits
She needed babysits, 'cuz this is where she went to preschool.
Gonna make a break and take a fake
I'd like a stinkin choc'late shake
Or a vanilla, it's the finest of the flavours
Just want ice cream though, cause don't ya'll know
Need my tummy to grow
Cause it's so very cold,
I've thrown away my shaver...

How can I help it if I think it's funny I'm post grad
Growin' up like a champ makes me feel sad
I'm the kind of "quine" who laughs at a funeral
Kilts underwhich there is none
Gimme quite a thrill.
I have a tendency to right my mind in my blog
I have a history of doing silly things

It's been three weeks since in Aberdeen.
Throw my arms in the air
and say "That's crazy."

Hope you appreciate.

Yes, yes three weeks, and isn't that lovely. My midweek weekend has started, I even had a class cancelled today. So I came home and slept for five hours...Normal.
Jenkins has informed me that he's trying to transfer to new housing. We shall see how that goes; honestly I haven't developed full thoughts on what I feel about this, but, I think as long as I get a new flatmate in his place I'd be fine with it.
If I don't, I'll just have to find other places to be a lot so I'm not lonely/ I'll just invite someone to come live with me, the school would never know there was an occupant in the extra bedroom. Anyone not tied down and trying to move to Scotland? Lemme know.

Day 20: On My Own

The deleting of my Twitter account happened yesterday. I don't even have anything against Twitter; in fact, I probably have less against Twitter than I do against Facebook. However, Facebook at this moment is a necessary evil and deleting it would mean severely limiting the contact I could have with my beloved Americans. Twitter, I enjoy, but it's a purposeless enjoyment. It might bring me a laugh or two on the daily, but I've found that I mindlessly scroll through my news feed too often, just because I am bored and feel like I have nothing else to do. Then, I post things that I could just write on this, or keep to myself, or tell someone in particular. I just realized that I don't really feel the need to broadcast my thoughts to everyone who follows me (not like its really much of a crowd).
If I keep more things to myself, maybe they will turn into greater things later that can inspire a greater thought process, rather than being an immediate splash of words for me to get off my chest and have others glance at momentarily, if noticing them at all, while I forget them completely.
Plus, I just kinda want to distance myself from this desire for social media and constant interaction. For almost a year I was completely devoid of any of it, and I enjoyed that. But when I came back to Facebook, I went all in and got a Twitter soon after, then a tumblr, and then a Pinterest. Well, I don't use tumblr anymore, and I won't get rid of Pinterest because more than anything its just USEFUL! and fun. so many recipes that I actually try, and it provides me with inspiration for art and such. But, the point is, I need to limit. Eventually I hope to get rid of the Facebook again, life was so much better and less wasted without it. But not yet, for now I must wait.

These ramblings were actually written last night, and hence, it is hilarious that for the second week in a row, my Sunday contemplations have led perfectly into issues brought up in class on Monday:

Mondays are setting a trend for being thought-provocative days. My Digital Age class again caused a fire to swell inside of me. Not this time with sentimentality towards the written book, but with a (I now see it as a truly American notion) vigor to protect and maintain my liberty and privacy. Big Brother is at it, all over Europe, but more so the UK apparently, and people are okay with this?! "CCTV" is watching people at all moments in public, on buses, on the streets, and in the universities and schools. "To protect the citizens and work as a preventative measure, for keeping the peace" or whatever, but now they're implementing audio tracking as well! So that hateful/prejudicial speech can be monitored and stamped out.
Maybe it's just me (and in my class today it was), but this view that cameras and recordings are the best way to keep a society in line is complete ridiculousness. A society should be able to function through the character of its own citizens, aka if someone is being a racist jerk, then the people around should be upstanding enough to tell that person directly, not wait for The All-Seeing Eye to send a minion out to swoop down and punish. This practice seems to be a demoralizing one. Why would people continue to feel responsibility in standing up for their convictions and for the Good, when they think someone else is already in line to do it for them, someone sitting behind a TV monitor...
This discussion was included in the broader discussion that the world is becoming more visible in all ways. People disclose their lives or most parts of it on Facebook, Twitter, and other ways that are seen by hundreds of "friends" and possible others, too. My teacher was saying that in ten years we will be laughing that we thought "audio recordings of our actions in public was something to be hesitant about" and saying that everyone will be used to having their lives in the public domain, it will just be written in their minds that it is "normal."
He was making the point that everyone wants to be normal, so if it is normal that everyone is hooked into social media to such a great extent, then everyone will do it. Likening it to the fact of everyone having a mobile phone now: if you don't, you aren't normal, you are strange; cell phones have become basically necessary since it is how everyone communicates. He then asked the class "who wants to be strange, or doesn't mind being excluded from society or regarded as normal?" I raised my hand. To hell with Society! Bah!
This is making me almost choose to not get a cell plan over here at all. Who WANTS to be normal? Not I and especially not on the platform that it means being so plugged in to the digital environment that I am losing touch with the REAL WORLD AROUND ME. The lands I travel to, the BOOKS I READ, the sights I see; if they are all seen through a lens of virtual existence then what even IS there?!
I hope that as a global community we don't continue to slide down this slippery slope, and that people will realize technology is a tool not a lifestyle.

Day 19: Pasta is Cheap and Pasta is Good.

Sunday, a day of rest.
Yes, indeed. I slept in.
I watched many episodes of Arrested Development. Which I also did yesterday.
I went grocery shopping with my last 14 pounds and now have 57 pence left. Alas, have no fear, for my bank account is opening, so I just have to transfer my money, shrink it, and boom it'll be ready to use!

I then made some bread and some pasta, left the dough to rise and the pasta to sit in the 'fridgerator, while I made my way to St. Mary's Cathedral for the first time since I've been here, to go to my second mass of the weekend and my second choir. Yes, that's right, I've found myself included in two choirs now.
Tea at the church after mass with a couple "already" friends and several new ones was nice. Zoli was a-playin' on the gee-tar. All the Indians were yelling in different languages and making fun of their respective states and laughing, while me, the American, Zoli, the Hungarian, and Martha, the Czech, plus Evelyn, the Old Lady, were left in unawares. Good times. We were eventually shooed out of the church when we found ourselves right outside in a brief sing-along session to Adele, Train, and the likes. We are currently in the planning stages of a karaoke night to come.
We walked back, and I popped the bread in the oven and ate my pasta. And I just have to say. Pasta is good without doing much to it. Carlay, I'ma give you a shout out, because I know you are Patron of Meager Toppings, and I can appreciate that. Some cheese, garlic and olive oil was all I had-- and all I needed-- to fully enjoy my dinner. Being poor isn't the worst. Just gonna be carb loading for a while, ya dig?
Now I suppose I shall do some work or something.
Good night. Good weekend.
Hello, Week.