Weekly Routine

Wow this week....in a way, it's been no different from the last few weeks, but I think that fact that I realized it wasn't any different...made it different. I'm in Scotland, supposed to be having a great time, but I haven't been. I've been letting my school work stress me out, just going through the motions. I haven't made any new plans or done anything interesting or out of the ordinary, and I think that's been getting be down. I need to change things up a little bit, get out of this box that I've built around myself.

I'm going to go to St. Andrews next week. There's a professor there that I've been in contact with a little bit, and it's a funny thing about this guy, one of those things that makes you realize what a small world we live in. Before I left for Scotland last summer, I ran into my old pastor who lives just down the road. When I told him where I was going, he informed me that he knew a professor in Scotland who he had met on a cruise to Alaska, a Marine specialist. This in itself was an opportunity to make a connection that could possibly help my future, but that isn't all. When I was in e-mail correspondance with one of my biology professors back at Redlands, she told me of a professor SHE knew from previous research, who was currently working in St. Andrews. As it turns out, they are the EXACT SAME PERSON. I was so amazed at this discovery, I knew I had to go and see him, but as I said before, I got myself into this routine, bogged down by school and trying to keep a semi-healthy lifestyle, that I never got around to going. But that's going to change, because I'm buying tickets to go out there on Wednesday next week. I'm going to try and see him in the morning, spend part of the day with him, and if I have time left in the afternoon, I'm going to try to find the Old Course at St. Andrews where the British Open is hosted sometimes, and take a look around. In any case, it should be a fun day, and get me out of this not-so-fun FUNK that I'm in at the current moment. The only problem is I have a big Macroeconomics presentation on THURSDAY, so I'll have to get that done before I leave. Means a weekend of my nose at the grindstone, as my father puts it, but I think it'll be worth it.

In other news, the weather here has been AMAZING. if anything keeps me in a better mood, it's seeing the sun almost every day. Edinburgh is a beautiful city, and seeing it in the day time with the sun shining down on the castle, and the peaks of the cathedrals, even the ugly 1970's office buildings, definately makes me happy to be here. You get sunshine in Cali, but not these kinds of sights. I'm going to take my camera out on one of these cold, sunny days and just photograph my walks to class (which can be quite lengthy) so all of you can get an image of what I'm seeing, and so that I'll remember them. It's days like the ones lately that make me wish I had a better camera, but they'll be good enough. I really can't believe it's been so nice. From what I here from people who are from here, this is a complete phenomenon. Again, despite this lull, it makes me feel lucky to be here.

I think one of the things that's been stuck in my mind, maybe adding to the stress, I don't know, is my living situation when I get back. I've been trying to get off campus starting in January, but I'm a little nervous about it for a number of reasons. The place won't be furnished so we'll be buying stuff and borrowing stuff from Hailey's parents' garage (she's going to be my room mate). But there's a chance we'll only be there for like five months, since I'll be potentially going on another travel May term course, and it's too soon to tell what my summer holds. I've been debating with myself, with my friends, and with my parents on what I should do, and I need to make a decision soon since we're moving back in just over a month! Any ideas?

I miss you all, thanks for your support and continuing to put up with my spiratic entries.

Birthday Week

I think that one big lesson in this life is that expectations are rarely met and best laid plans often go astray. And you know that you've spent a good amount of time in this crazy world if you understand that lesson. I had a lot of plans and expectations for my 21st birthday (I've been dreaming about since I was what, 10?) and just the fact that I'm in Scotland pretty much sent all my original dreams about the big day out the window. And even the plans I made here didn't go as I meant them. But having said that, it was a very great birthday, and I've been celebrating, and will celebrate, more as the week goes on. The people that wished me a happy birthday, went out of the way to at least write to me or leave a comment on my facebook page, made it very memorable. Yes, it was a Monday, and yes I was busy writing my paper at the time, but all of that worked out, because I finished my paper, I was able to resist the temptation to party too hard on a Monday night, and it paid off. And as sad as I felt for not being able to party on my actual birthday, it was still a special day. So thank you, everyone who wished me a happy birthday, you are all very special in my life. I'm honored to have acquired so many friends, so many people that care about me and encourage me on to achieve something great in my life. You believing in me helps me to believe in myself. I've never been much of a self-motivator, so having that motivation from the people that believe in me is something that is priceless in my life, something I'll never forget.

I'll have some Paris info and pictures up soon, it's just such a time consuming task. Bear with me.

Love,
Addison

Paris!

Hey apologies, I haven't written in a while. If you're my parents or you have facebook, you probably know that I've got an essay due in a little under two weeks that's been stressing me out. On the bright side, I think I found out today that I only have ONE 1500 word essay for my econ class instead of two. But I still have to get my Physiology paper done, which is due the wednesday after my birthday. It's almost too bad it isn't due sooner, because then I could be celebrating my birthday over Halloween weekend instead of the weekend after my birthday (Mon the 2nd of November, by the way) because that weekend is a big weekend for my American friends, and it'll be hard for them to make my birthday. There's a York trip that weekend for the IFSA Butler students that I met when I first got here, and the Salzburg students from UofR are going to be in Ireland that weekend so my home school friends want to go see them. Oh well, I'll figure it out.

The real point of this post is to let you all know that I'll be in PARIS this weekend! It's a little ironic, because before I came here I had all these ideas of traveling to main land Europe, but when I was, Paris was far from the top of my list of places to stop. Yet as it turns out, it'll likely be my ONLY stop during this whirlwind three month stint in Scotland. Hitting up Germany and Italy like I wanted is turning out far more time-consuming and expensive than I originally thought, but again, that's how things go. Life's funny like that. Anyway, wish me luck, cuz I don't speak a lick of French, and I'll hopefully have some good stories for you when I get back!

Who's excited for beautiful buildings, great food, snobby but sexy french women, and a very suggestive tower right in the middle of it all? This guy.

The Force

Waterfalls in England are called "Forces". Seriuosly, can you think of a more perfect or epic name for this environmental phenomenon? I thought not. Again, I don't remember the name of this one and have to wait on feedback from my homestay family. Darn their slow responses!

Definately one of the most enjoyable, informative hikes of my life. And once again, very thankful that I had the handy-dandy video camera so I could share my ridiculous giddiness with all you folks.

Spaghetti and Egg Sandwiches

(Just a heads up, the time's a little off on this post because I wrote it last night as I was waiting for my video to finish uploading...which it never did, and I have to start over again.)

So I semi-successfully recreated by Dad’s “famous” spaghetti sauce last night for the second time, and successfully fed seven people, myself included. It was the first time I’ve made it from memory, and also the first time I made it in Scotland. This in itself is a feat, because if you’re an American and have been grocery shopping in a foreign country, you’ll know that the things you need are often named differently or taste just a little different. I say my Dad’s sauce is famous because, at least in my family, it’s what my Dad is good at in the kitchen, besides breakfast. I love my Dad’s spaghetti sauce, I think it’s the best in the world, and I’ve been to some pretty good Italian places. And it’s so ridiculous in its simplicity that I still don’t know how he does it. The sauce I made was pretty good…it was very good, but it still wasn’t my Dad’s. I think there’s just something about having something made for you, especially by a parent. It’s like the secret ingredient that isn’t really there. Whatever you call it, be it love, or magic, or genetics, this secret ingredient can make an ordinary meal extraordinary. My dad does it with his spaghetti, and my mom does it with her egg sandwiches. I used to ask my mom for an egg sandwich every morning before school (granted that she was home on a school day-that’s a different story) and she always made it just the way I liked it. Even when she cooked the eggs a little more than usual, it was still (yes, I just emboldened “still” for the second time) just the way I like it. I’ve remade both my Dad’s sauce and my mom’s egg sandwiches for myself doing the exact same thing, using the same ingredients, but it’s never been like the real thing, and it never will be. And I’m alright with that.

Today I didn’t have class. I worked out, and when I got home I had a bowl of cereal and I made myself a very delicious egg sandwich (yet again) with melted cheddar, ham, a couple of over-easy eggs in a toasted English muffin. For lunch I had a ham and salami sandwich with lettuce, cheese, and tomato. Again, delicious. And for dinner, I had two heaping helpings of leftover spaghetti with leftover sauce, and a nice big Caesar salad. At this point, I must permit myself to say that I think I’m doing pretty well for myself. I’m living basically on my own, and I like my roommates despite their drinking problems and complete inability to do dishes or recycle correctly. I’m working out, and I’m eating very well for myself, all the while keeping a pretty good budget. I split the weekly groceries with the guys, and between the five of us my cut ends up being around eight to ten pounds. That’s enough food to keep me fed for the whole week, all for around 15 bucks. I’d say that’s living pretty frugally. My overall spending has gone down since last month, just like my study-abroad advisors said it would, and it’s making me feel better. I’m still not studying enough, but my recordings are helping, and for some strange mysterious reason that is completely off-base to everything I know to be true…my textbook reading is actually somewhat enjoyable. So knock on wood, hopefully I’m not jinxing anything, but I’ve reached another point along this wild and crazy journey where I feel like I’m finally getting the hang of this European city life. I’m feeling…content. But maybe that’s just the spaghetti talking…it was a damn good sauce.

On a side note, I’ve become addicted to a new novel that I bought last summer. It’s a recent retelling of Zorro, entitled Zorro (go figure) by Isabel Allende. I know it’s a major distraction, but you know what I said about the textbooks being enjoyable? Well sometimes they still aren’t, and having something adventurous and swashbuckling to read can be a nice change of pace.

Kangaroo Falls

This was the first video that I was successfully able to load. This video is actually at the end of the day, I'll put the earlier videos up next. We stopped at this waterfall on our way to the slate quarry. It was tucked away high up in the mountains and it was so windy we almost couldn't get the car doors open. See for yourself! I found out the name of the falls, but I can't remember. I'll put it in my next post after I e-mail my homestay parents and find out where we were haha.

Off to Shap

Hey I'm leaving for my homestay weekend...literally right now. Don't know if I'll have internet access, as this is a farm town in northern England. I'll have tons of updates when I get back, but as of right now I'm offline and out of range for the next couple days. If you have to get in touch, I might have cell phone reception, but I'm not positive. I'll try to get online at some point tonight and give the number of where I'm at. Gotta go catch my train...wish me luck!