Sarah and Kasey go to the Eiffel Tower...

Our mission for today was to experience Paris: the stereotype. We bought a bit of cheese from a street market stand and then ate it with bread at a cafe, along with a truly delicious lunch of some type of fish and pasta with basil and tomatoes. From there we took the metro to the nearest station to the Eiffel Tower. We couldn't see the tower from the street so we started wandering around looking for it. We definitely looked silly because we were spinning around in all directions trying to peek over buildings and when we finally caught a glimpse of it we both said "OH!" really loud right in front of a bunch of what looked like tour bus drivers having a smoke break. They laughed at our reactions but we were already off to get a closer look of the tower. At this point it was dusk and there weren't many other people around so we got a few minutes free to take pictures in front of it. As it got darker we kept walking nearer and nearer and kept finding new fantastic things like ponies and carousels with bubbles and music playing. There were so many cute French kids running around looking like big, multi-colored marshmallows in their winter coats. One little boy was especially cute as he followed his dad while dragging four little balloons on a string behind him. Sarah and I had a great time snapping photos but we were freezing by the time the lights came on, so after basking in the general splendor of a sparkling Eiffel Tower, we retired to a nearby cafe for coffees and creme brulee. Honestly, both Sarah and I were so overwhelmed with our little adventure that while eating the creme brulee we started to tear up a little. It's ridiculous I know, but it really was that good... the creme brulee as well as the entire day.

Carousel, with me looking on from the left, so unreal!

The small child with balloons

Today was spent on a hunt for turkeys. Not in the literal sense of the word, because guns were not involved, however it was still quite an adventure running around to markets all around Paris only to find an intimidating display of half plucked turkeys that would surely not fit into the tiny oven, much less be done cooking before 10pm. So we decided to celebrate Thanksgiving with chicken instead, already cooked and delicious from the market. We brought it back to Sarah's place along with her friends Pierre, Davey, Randy and Gaetan. Dinner was perfect, accented with a glass of... yes, red wine. Oh! Davey, who is a chef, made dessert which was a truly fantastic Tiramisu that we ate at probably around 4am! I even offered to take the dishes into the kitchen to wash them so I could scrape out the last of that delicious-ness.

Sarah and I with black licorice!

The English speaking is entertaining. There have been many hilarious moments of mixing up pronunciations and words and such, and of course I laugh at them but then I realize how ridiculous I must sound whenever I try to say anything. I know so little French, honestly... like three phrases. Apparently I have a good accent though, which I've been told after squeezing out a couple syllables of rehearsed French. Being with these guys and not being able to communicate with them has really woken me up to how important and amazing learning another language can be. Knowing only one language restricts you from knowing some of the most interesting people of this world, and I'm going to work on not letting that happen to me. Luckily I've been able to have decent conversations with all of these guys, even talking about our hopes and dreams for the future with Gaetan. Sometimes you don't even need to talk to communicate though, like teaching Davey to play a bit of Mad World by Gary Jules on the piano. These guys are all so sweet and I'm so happy I got to meet them!

Current Location: Couch - Sarah's Place - Paris!

Eeeek! I'm in Paris!!

That's what I've been thinking about every three minutes since I've gotten off the plane last night. I spent a bit in the airport waiting for Sarah, but then she showed up with her friend Pierre and we took a taxi into the city. We went to her friend's place and stayed up 'til 5:30 in the morning, when the metro opened again. All of her friend's are French and though they all speak a little English only Pierre speaks it regularly. It would be so nice to know enough French to have a conversation, but I still enjoyed being there immensely, just sitting and soaking it all in. You never know how much you can understand by just body language and inflection until you're put in a situation like this... and it's amazing! I especially enjoyed when Davey started doing magic tricks because he was really good and clearly enjoyed entertaining us. The guys all liked a lot of classic rock too, so it was great fun to sing along together. I have just had so much fun the whole time I've been here and can't wait for the Thanksgiving dinner we are cooking tonight! Sarah's place is this beautiful apartment with big windows overlooking the courtyard and paintings all over, so I don't mind at all that we haven't yet left the house today. Honestly, I think this is the best way to experience Paris!

Current Location: Gate A7 - London Heathrow Airport

Wowzer, it has been one of those days. You know those days when you have an impossible number of things to do in a tiny amount of time and for some reason you don't write it all down because it's so much better to stress yourself out by repeating the list in your head over and over so you don't forget anything? Yeah, I had one of those. I suppose it was all because of this essay I had to write for my Environmental Systems course. I've been trying to write it all week and spend the past two nights tortuously scrawling out something decent to turn in, which is unfortunate as this essay counts for 80% of my grade for the course. But it is done, and turned in, and there's nothing more I can do about it.... thank goodness!

Thank goodness especially because I am on my way to Paris! In an act of spontanuity, I bought a plane ticket last week to visit my friend Sarah who's studying there for the year. We're going to celebrate Thanksgiving together! By the way, Happy Thanksgiving! Hope your dinner was better than the shockingly tasteless chicken salad I had on the last flight. Honestly, I'm not a picky eater and I've got no expectations for airplane food... but I could not bring myself to eat all of that "chicken". Perhaps we'll have something nice on this next flight...

By the way, I almost didn't make my last flight. It was a horrible dejavu nightmare of the London to Aberdeen debacle, except this time there was no suitcase to blame it on. I left Hillhead at 2:30pm to make a 3:20pm bus to the airport for my flight that was at 5:15pm. But no, the bus was fifteen minutes late and then we proceeded to stop at every single bus stop between the city center and the airport. I was just sitting there thinking, "This cannot be happening, there's no way!!" and I honestly started feeling ill just thinking about missing this flight. Luckily I flew off the bus and was speedily checked in with the help of a nice attendent and made it just fine. I met up with Mary who's an American in my study abroad program who was on her way to meet up with family in London, so we sat together on the flight and chatted about how much we didn't want to leave Scotland. It was a pleasant flight, but I'll be looking forward to a bit more time to try to relax from this crazy stressful day.

My flight's boarding now... so I'll post again while I'm in Paris! Going to the mainland for the first time, woot!

SNOW!!

Oh my goodness, so much snow is falling right now and it makes me so happy!

WE GOT THE BELL!

Since Saturday was the day of the Monon Bell football game back at DePauw University, I decided to support my team from thousands of miles away with a little facepaint and a sparkly gold eighties jacket. I went to Matt's room to listen to the game online because he's from Wabash College, our rival school. It wasn't the most interesting game though since we DOMINATED THEM so I skyped my mom and sister while we racked up the points and Matt hung his head in shame, and rightly so.

WHO'S GOT THE BELL?!?
:)

Oh what a week...

Monday: Left Wavell in a rush to print out and turn in my first assignment for my Environmental Systems course. I submitted it into the dropbox but then had to sprint off for the train station in town. I arrived there breathless but ten minutes early to catch a nice relaxing train to Glasgow.

Journal Entry:

I'm in a train headed to Glasgow and I can't imagine a place I'd rather be. The sunlight from this beautiful blue-skies day is filtering through the window on to me as I watch all of Scotland flying past. I love this place! The green pastures dotted with wooly sheep or big brown cows... ending abruptly with rocky cliffs dropping straight into the ocean. It reminds me of a softer version of Homer, more rounded and old and worn. And of course we just passed a golf course situated in a perfect cranny raised just above the ocean. I can tell from here that every single golfer down there is ecstatic to be there, here in Scotland living the dream on this perfect sunny day. Makes me wish I played golf so I could experience that sort of joy...

Outside of the train station now... always a harsh transition. I know airports, I know trains now and buses but as soon as you step out of that nice linoleum, heavily signed and directed place, it's right back to the real world where no one cares if you're lost and finding your way around takes a lot more than following the "Way Out ->" signs. But I needed to get out of there so I took the first opportunity to do so which lead me to sitting on this sun-warmed bench looking across George Square. It is extraordinarily lovely to sit without a place to be or go. The guys get here at 3:40 so I better enjoy my freedom while it lasts. I choose to spend it here, with loud techno blaring from cars behind me, staring at pigeons through the glare of sunlight bouncing off my eyelashes. As nice as this is, I must soak it up and head out.

Found the hostel fine, it seemed like a really cool place so I booked a room and tried to get to the third floor, where my room was. Couldn't work the door so I hopped on an elevator with another girl who happened to be assigned to the same room as me AND going to the same concert. Her name is Kat and she had been working in the Highlands all summer and was just returning home to Pittsburgh. I was hungry so I bought some bread and cheese and went down to the River Clyde to eat in the sun. I was asked for directions by two different people so I must look like a local, awesome! I left to meet up with the guys at the train station which went fairly smoothly. It's very easy to find your way around in that part of Glasgow. The guys decided against getting a room for the night, opting for wandering around Glasgow after the concert.

The Concert: Left with Kat and Steve to make our way to the Barrowland Ballroom. It was a neat venue with a giant wood dance floor and high ceilings. We staked out a place in the front row on stage left to enjoy the opening bands. They were completely high energy and I was feeling very tired by the time it came to Flogging Molly. Oooooh they were so good! I actually teared up when they played "If I Ever Leave This World Alive", which is the song I'd like to have played at my funeral. No tears for the other songs though, just straight up rockin' out. After the show I was able to corner the guitarist Dennis Casey, gave him a big hug and thanked him for the concert. He seemed surprised by my American accent and asked me where I was from, so we ended up talking about Alaska for a while. Then he signed my new t-shirt on the sleeve, "From one KC to Another" which made my night. I suppose the chips I got afterwards, served by two very nice old ladies at a little shop nearby, also made my night.... as did going back to the hostel to crash on my bed for a few hours.

Signed Flogging Molly t-shirt!

Tuesday: Ugh, waking up sucked but at least breakfast was nice: toast with raspberry jam and rice krispies. I walked the streets of Glasgow confidently back to the train station and spent the next couple hours on the train alternating between reading New Moon and dozing off against the window. Train travel is the best way to go by far!

Got back to Aberdeen, but there was no time to spare. I went straight from the train station to my CS practical where I started to mildly freak out about my CS Assessment which was due that Friday. I ended up skipping the rest of my lectures to work on that and got about 3/4 of the way through. Dinner was a rush and I finally passed out in my bed, oh my lovely, lovely bed.


Wednesday: Another crazy day of making up for missing classes Monday and procrastinating my course work. I decided that despite all the work I had to do, I would accept my Computer Science professor's invitation to celebrate Bonfire Night (November the 5th) at his home. How many times will I have the opportunity to eat dinner with a professor in Scotland? The house was easy enough to find but I had a bit of difficulty getting the front gate open and kind of felt like I was a very poor thief trying to do a B&E (breaking and entering for those non-Dane Cook people out there). Still, I did get in and was warmly welcomed by my professor and his wife. There were two other students as well, both international, and we sat and talked politics for awhile. Dinner was chicken stovies and it was fantastic. Even though I had already eaten dinner at Hillhead, I still had second helpings. I think I'm a little starved for home cooking. We shot off a few fireworks and called it a night. Even though it was just dinner and conversation... gosh, it was so cool to be in that house with two Scottish professors who had lived there for many, many years. I definitely got a good peek into normal, everyday Scottish living.

Thursday: Got to finish this psychology study I was in today. It was about memory and I'm afraid I wasn't the best subject because part of it was recognizing these faces that popped up on the screen and I'm certain I was rubbish. The other part was tricky because this interviewer asked me about real and fake details in a movie clip I watched last week. Basically it was a study on the reliability of witness statements... and how easily they can be altered by questioning. I think I was a very good witness. The rest of this day was spent putting off my research paper until 10pm... then writing it until...

Friday: at 2:00pm with a little sleep mixed in. It was time to celebrate turning in my paper so I played a few games of beer pong with my friends Palmer, Colin, Steve and Stijn. We ended up at the Watering Hole, the bar with no atmosphere but cheap drinks, where I met some interesting people before finally making it to my bed. I do like meeting new people, it's probably the best thing about traveling ever.

Saturday: Waking up for breakfast is always difficult on a Saturday but I love eating so much that I always make a point to. Not planning on doing a lot today... just recover a bit for...

Sunday: because I'm going to an Aberdeenshire rugby game in Glasgow. We were told that the Glaswegians are an intense team so I was a little intimidated going out on the field. All that went away when it started to downpour.... which quickly turned into hail. It's hard to be intimidated when you are miserably wet and cold. I played as flanker and made quite a few mistakes so it wasn't the best game for me. I still feel proud of myself though... simply surviving was good enough!

The Aberdeenshire Quines

And that's a week in my life here... :)

Happy Late Halloween!

Since I didn’t have any classes on Friday I spent nice morning waiting in eager anticipation for everyone to come home from classes. I love Halloween and I honestly still get excited for it just like when I was young. There’s something about dressing up that will never get old for me. Gill and I decided to go to rugby since we felt guilty about skipping on Wednesday, so we had very little time to get ready once we were back. I was just so super exicted that it took me forever to get my fake eyelashes glued on cause my hand were shaking slightly. Once they were securely in place it was just a matter of slipping on my dress and dousing myself in glitter to become:

Tinkerbell!

This is me with another girl who was dressed like Tinkerbell. It ended up that there are not really that many things to dress up for on Halloween so you got to see a lot of people with the same idea as you. I think Tom's was the best because every other guy in a banana suit would stop to talk or give him a high five. Most everyone else dressed as zombies so I felt a little silly being all glittery and such when they had all their white face paint and crazy contact lenses.

The zombies, note crazy contact lenses.

The guys actually found it entertaining to squish the nasty fake blood stuff onto the non-zombie people throughout the evening so as the night went on, I became a more and more scary/maimed/dead Tinkerbell. That stuff would not come off either! Ugh!

Me getting devoured by my zombie friends.

We went to Liquid, a club known for being popular with first-years, which was completely packed with the most crazy assortment of costumed people I’ve ever seen. I honestly enjoyed looking at everyone’s costumes more than I did dancing in my new heels that ended up crippling me by the end of the night. I suppose my favorite was a guy dressed up in a Dalek costume, a character from the Doctor Who television series. I think I was a little too excited but the guy, Stephen, was very nice about letting me take a picture.


So yeah, Jenny-Shannon-Liz, that one is for you guys. Rock on TARDUS-style!

I danced until my feet were hurting too much to continue, cursing myself for thinking I could pull off the giant wedges I had bought that matched my dress. At least I hadn't tried to wear the pink stiletto heels... I'd probably have tripped and severely injured myself before even making it to the club! All in all it was a good night ending with a tasty Margherita pizza, a horribly long wait in the taxi queue, and the wonderful feeling of taking off those ridiculous shoes.

The Wavell 3 girls, all decked out.

Me n' Sean, tired at the end of the night.

I actually didn't fall asleep after getting back home. As tired as I was, I still wanted breakfast and thought it would be better to just stay up for forty-five minutes. It was completely dead that morning and I felt a little self-conscious eating by myself, fake eyelashes still in place and smudges of that nasty blood stuff stubbornly remaining. Saturday was useless after that, but a good Halloweeen is always worth a wasted next day!