no, I still haven't finished those essays.

...But in honor of my last few days in Scotland for the next month or so, here's this thing I wrote on an early-morning bus to Glasgow a few weeks ago (which I found in my notebook and am now typing up instead of doing my essays. Good work!)

Things I adore about living in Scotland (2.0)
-The sound of seagulls
-mist--especially when it's pink because the sun's rising (or trying to).
-the x24 bus to Glasgow--and the fact that I can put myself on a bus to anywhere without going broke.
-the stark, vast landscape
-the smell of the ocean
-the minimal daylight that's awakened a renewed sense of CARPE DIEM, the likes of which my high school self would be proud.
-good ale
-red leaves, wet cobblestones
-again with the sunrise--but seriously, wow. the glowing red sky above the blank hills and a line of trees.
-hearing church bells on the hour
-wind. But I figure liking it is more of a survival technique.
-electrical sockets that switch off. Genius. Why hasn't America done this yet?
-the ever-so-sensible metric system.
-tea and biscuits
-LIVING SPACE! APPLIANCES THAT WORK! MY OWN CLOSET!
-Sheep :)
-finally adjusting to the climate

At this point, I believe I started to get a little carsick, so I stopped listing. But I'll continue briefly just now.

-"mingin"- my flatmate says it all the time, and I love it. It means something akin to gross, nasty, weird, old, dirty...all those things. It's possibly the greatest word I've ever heard.
-also "yous" in the Scottish accent. It's refreshing, and novel, and so much more pleasant than the New York variety.
-the fact that saying "what up?" (in my very American accent) gets more of a laugh than any joke I could make.
-being able to pay in exact change. always.
-chocolate. It's just better here.
-narrow roads lined with little houses with little doors and windows.

Yup. I'm thankful to be here. And also thankful to be coming home for Christmas :)

With that, I'm gonna get back to the grindstone...
But I'll leave you with this video. Because it's awesome, and cheesy, and everything I love.

Catch yous later!

planes, trains and automobiles: the prologue

Today, the cold I've been avoiding so desperately finally caught up with me. Ugh. I'm achy and sniffly and sore-throaty and yuck. And as always, the only week I need desperately not to get sick is this one. Immune systems can be vindictive little buggers, can't they?

So I'm bundled up under my down comforter, contemplating whether I need to go get my hat to insulate myself, and waiting for my Lemsip to kick in (Lemsip is amazing, by the way. It's like TheraFlu, but it actually works). And I'm totally unable to believe that (despite my current despair at my essay's current state of affairs) come this time next week, my assignments will be done--okay, or nearly done-- my classes will be over, and I'll be packing up for a whirlwind vacation.

And I really do mean "whirlwind." Next Tuesday, I'll hop on a bus to Edinburgh, where I'll meet up with Greg. From there, we'll catch the train to London. Then, we've got 2 glorious days of sightseeing...and I hear there's an excellent Christmas market on at Hyde Park for which I'm totally stoked. (Hear that family? I'm stoked for the Christmas market. The Christmas cheer I'm exuding this year is almost unbearable).

Then it's a (mercifully direct) flight from London to DC, and a day with his family before my own mom swoops down from NYC to pick me up! At this point, my incredibly jet-lagged self will hop in her car, drive down to Williamsburg, see some friends, yah de yah (SO PUMPED :))---

At which point we will collect my sister (who's driving up from South Carolina) and my brother (if he's not just staying in LA) and commence an epic cross-country road trip!

Yep. Cross-country road trip.

It's a long story, but to sum up, we didn't really have a place for our family to be at Christmas, so we opted for Tahoe. Because when in doubt, go to your happy place, right? And Tahoe most certainly is our happy place.

I'm going to cease the litany of transportation to note just how THRILLED I am to be spending Christmas in Tahoe: snow on the pine trees (well, maybe), a warm fire, and people I love sitting on the couch beside me?! What could be better?

So, even while my brain is fried and my immune system is sputtering out and it's mostly dark all the time, there's definitely a light at the end of the tunnel....Although in this analogy, I'd say its more of a crazy, multi-colored strobe light that might cause some kind of a stroke....But hey. Seems like the makings of a party to me :)

i throw my hands up in the air sometimes

--singin eyyyy-ohhh gotta let go.

St. Andrews Day Ball yesterday! It was fabulous. I made a glorious return to the world of ceildh (and brought my friend Tamara along with me! She's now officially as obsessed as I am. Victory), and requested Soulja Boy so that my friend Liz and I could show off the sweet the dance skills we'd learned so diligently in our freshman year of undergrad. Apparently it inspired one particular kilt-wearing Scotsman, because he started doing the dance, too. For the record, there are very few things more absurd than watching a kilted man gettin' down with his bad self to some American rap.

I went to bed last night with bruised toes (thanks, to a crowded ceildh and an indiscriminate stiletto-wearer) and an exhausted body, but MAN OH MAN, was a night of dancing precisely what I wanted! (despite the fact that I had to get up for lectures this morning- yuck).

Must remember to do more of this-- nothing makes my heart happier than actin' like a spaz on the dance floor.