I was feeling a little bit down earlier this week, so maybe that was part of the “W effect” of studying abroad. Supposedly you start out by being really happy before having a real low point where you miss home a lot. Then things get better until you have another low… but then you are fine and life just get better and better until you have to leave. In any case, it was a brief lull that was easily cured by shopping for my Halloween outfit yesterday. I ended up browsing the sale section for a good long time by myself and ended up with a set of wings, fake eyelashes, two pairs of shoes, green glitter, a skirt, a pair of pants (trousers), fish net tights, a little silver head band thing and a strapless green dress. I’ll let you guess what I’m going to be… and of course I’ll post pictures from this wonderful upcoming weekend. I love Halloween!

As I was walking back to Hillhead after my shopping I saw a bunch of people crowding over at King’s College playing fields. Hurray for rugby! I haven’t had many opportunities to watch rugby since I’ve been playing a lot, so I stopped to watch and became totally engrossed. I honestly don’t think any sports even come close to how awesome rugby is, especially when played by people who know what they are doing. And these guys knew what they were doing. It was the Aberdeen Firsts vs. Dundee, so basically my university’s best team. Every guy out there had these enormous thighs that I am very jealous of and despite their size they were extraordinarily nimble and quick. I really enjoyed watching the game, especially since it will help me in upcoming games. I’m just so new to the sport and there is so much to learn! Also, it didn’t hurt that number 14 was quite cute and really good at his position. I’ll definitely be down to watch the games this Saturday.

I’m in my Operating Systems lecture right now and I’m finding it impossible to pay attention. I mean, I like my professor and he’s really nice and all, but these lectures are boring and, to be honest, a complete waste of time. I miss my interactive lectures with DyKnow slides and class participation that I’d get at DePauw. This is probably the least effective way for anyone to learn anything but Computer Science in particular and I hate it. We sit in a lecture hall that is probably ten times too big for our class which means we’re all spread out. I’m the closest one to the front and I’m in the third row! Then, once we’re seated as far apart from each other and the professor as possible, Roly just launches into an extended ramble on whatever little insignificant details of Linux he cares to talk about, punctuated by laser pointer explanations of code and tangential musings. He’s talking about colors now, purple on black? When he was just talking about read/write permissions and shell scripts? I don’t understand! He literally just said, “And if you feel really bored, there’s this thing called…” Aaaauugghhh! - As Calvin would say.

I miss Dave Berque!