Academics, I vanquish thee.

I just got out of my final final. All of them (Chem, History, and Cell Bio) went decently. I'm pretty sure I'll get As in Chem and Bio but I'm really not sure about History. I know I wrote decent essays for the exam but we'll see. And at this point, who cares?!

I am totally, completely, and utterly brain-dead.

Also, a ski bunny :)

My parents sent me ski gear as part of my Christmas present. There were two envelopes in the box as well, but I think I'll wait until Christmas to open those.

Aggghhh I almost don't even know what to do with myself now that exams are over. I could start packing up, go to the gym, walk around, go shopping, chill at home, go to a coffee house.... The possibilities are endless!

Can't wait for the rest of my vacation here :)

xxx

LeeAnn

LIBRARY

I think I should change my permanent address to the library. I spend all of my time here now...

In fact, there's practically nothing to say because I've done nothing other than revise. Here's the highlights- but are they really lowlights? I'm going to do a round of Awesome Not Awesome for you all. This is a segment from TBTL- if the thing is Awesome, it gets a "RAWR" and if it's Not Awesome, it gets a "C'MON!" Here goes:

Chem final RAWR

could have gone better (the practice tests online were easier than the real tests) but I think I still got an A (which is a pretty easy feat in this grading system for science students, actually)

Working out after Chem final RAWR

Spending 12 hours in the library on Wednesday C'MON!

The beautiful natural light is the only reason I tolerate this place.

Mass for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception RAWR

Getting a pinched nerve in my thumb from writing so much C'MON!

it's kinda getting better and I'm pretty much done writing for revision. On the plus side, my notes are beautiful- look at the pretty colors!

Skyping yesterday with Tasha, Marissa, and Faith (seperately) RAWR

Inheriting things from Tasha RAWR

I'm getting her fridge, hot water kettle, fuzzy blanket, lamp, and lounge pillow while she's abroad :D

Discovering the leak in our flat did not get fixed C'MON

the security guards came by yesterday and said the flat next door had a leak, which was supposedly fixed last week when they disabled our shower. They are not doing that again-they can wait a gd week until everyone leaves for Christmas break and noone's home.

Christmas episode of Glee RAWR

Snow partially melting C'MON

as much as I'd love to see the snow gone, this leaves a layer of water over the refrozen ice, making walking about a million times more difficult than it was yesterday

Recurring dream about leaving C'MON

in this dream, which I've had 3 times, I find myself at home having left the UK in a hurry. None of my things are packed properly and I've not said goodbye to anyone

Scripps housing crunch C'MON C'MON C'MON C'MON C'MON C'MON

this gets a millions C'MONs. Scripps needs to get their act together. Noone wants to live on south campus Pomona. This whole problem could have been avoided if they stopped admitting so many gd freshman and started using the waitlist more. SERIOUSLY. I had better get a room on Scripps, even if it is a double.

So, it seems that I've done more than I thought, although I really have been spending all my time at the library.

This is my "Finals Bemuse me Face." I'm off to get a coffee from the library cafe...

Long Time, No Blog

Hello my peoples.

I am very sorry I have been remiss on posting to my blog- so much as been happening! I will try to be better about it from now on.

Sooo- I will be posting a few blog posts all at once, to be found under this one. I know- SO OVERWHELMING.

Here's a recap of the new ones (this list is least recent to most recent but they're posted most recent to least recent, ie "Nat visits" is on the second page- scroll down and click "older posts"). I recommend reading them in the order listed below:

Nat visits

Maria visits/ St.Andrews

Spring at Scripps

Dad visits

Audrey visits

SNOWMG

Revision

Christmas Homesickness

I now invite you to kick back, put on some Christmas music (that's what I'm listening to), perhaps pour a glass of wine or tea, have a seat by the fire, and catch up on my goings-on.

Or you can stay where you are and just skim them, looking at the pretty pictures. It's up to you.

Love,

LeeAnn xxxx

Christmas homesickness

On Friday we had our IFSA-Butler (that's the American program that my school goes through) farewell tea. It was kinda bittersweet because I realized I wasn't going to see most of my casual acquaintances from that program again. It was also bittersweet because everyone kept talking about how soon they're going home.

Most people are leaving by the 18th December because that's when exams end. That was my original plan (Plan A) too, until my mom convinced me to stay overseas for the holiday, since I was going to be there anyways.

Then I thought, why doesn't my oldest cousin come to meet me and we can spend the holidays with our family in Europe? Following Plan B gave me an arrival date in the States of 5th January- still a week and a half at home before semester at Scripps starts on 18th January.

However, Plan B quickly gave way to Plan C at the urging of Sarah, Zoe, and Alice on Halloween. Plan C now involves a ski trip in the French Alps (!), but means I won't get back until 12 January. The obvious problem: I have 3.5 days at home before moving back to Scripps on 16 January.

This would have been fine because my original arrival time was going to be in the early evening (dinnertime), which gave me another half day. But then, after recalling my dad's travel problems, I realized this wasn't going to work. To save money, I booked a round-trip flight from Chicago O'Hare to Edinburgh. My plan was to fly Alaska to and from Chicago. Coming here, I stayed in Chicago for a few nights with my uncle and his family (see wayy below).

However, going back was just going to be a simple layover. I though, nbd- two hours is plenty of time. Until I realized that since my flight reservations weren't connected, AND the international terminal is different than the domestic terminal, it would be a lot harder than originally thought. I would have to clear customs in terminal 5, get my bags from baggage claim, get to terminal 3, re-check my bags at the Alaska counter, get through domestic security (and Chicago is the WORST for getting through security), and get to the Alaska gate. I started to realize that 2 hours from arrival to departure was NOT going to be enough time. Luckily, there's more flights that will get me from Chicago to Seattle that day, preventing an overnight layover. My choices: straight-shot that arrives at 10:20 or via Portland which only saves me an hour. I think I'll end up opting for the straight flight because it gives me more time (2 extra hours in Chicago). I really have no idea how long this switching process is going to take, and I can't think of anything more stressful than running around the airport like a chicken with it's head cut off after traveling cross-Atlantic. Sooo, that means I'm really missing out on the entire evening at home.

When I discovered this in the library, I almost cried. Well, a few tears escaped but I managed to keep it from becoming a full-blown sobfest. To be fair, I think this also had to do with my choice of music: Rascal Flatts is pretty emo for a country band.

Anyways, I'm better now and I have a LOT of things to look forward to: Christmas on Islay with Christy (and a real family!), maybe visiting Robbie on his farm, New Year's in Edinburgh, the ski trip, and a chance to say goodbye to all my uni friends here/my Scripps friends coming for spring semester since I'm leaving after term starts. Even so, exams are putting me off of happy thoughts and making me realize how long I've actually been here- 12.5 weeks. It's a long time to be away from home, and even though I think I talk to my parents more often than when I'm at Scripps, it's unusual that I haven't been home yet for the semester. And there's the entire US and about miles of water separating us.

So, my mood's a bit melancholy at the moment, but I'm almost positive it will pass once I get past exams. Plus, Robbie's taking me to see the Secret Gardens at the Festival Theatre this Sunday. Since he's a bartender there, he gets free tickets to shows. YAY! If it was the Nutcracker, it would be perfect, but this is going to be pretty good as is.

ALSO, today I made a realllly pretty Christmas ornament at the National Museum of Scotland, for FREE. The museum liked mine and my flatmate Giulia's so much that they took our picture with our finished ornaments. Pretty cool, eh? Maybe they'll put me on the website.

Pretty awesome huh? There are 4 sides, but those two are my favorite.

Anyways, mucho love to all of you!

LeeAnn xxxx

Revision Revision Revision

Revision: British for studying.

My new favorite place is the library. I seem to be physically unable to study in my room without getting distracted by my computer/everything, so I've been spending literally hours per day in the library. I've got favorite spots, but unless you get there early, don't bother because all of the individual study desks are going to be taken. For a uni of more than 20,000 students, you'd think they'd have more room to study in their library. I guess to be fair, they're redoing it a floor at a time, so the entire 3rd floor is under construction and unusable. But still, it's kinda ridiculous.

The exam schedule here is so different- there are two weeks worth of finals and since there isn't a universal class timetable, all the finals have to be carefully crafted not to overlap. My first final is Chem on Tuesday, followed by History next Tuesday, and Cell Bio the day after. My general revision plan is to go through all the notes from the lectures. Luckily, I started looking at the past exams and got a pleasant surprise. For chem, there were 5 sections and there's a question on the final about each of them. Not surprising, but you only have to answer 3 of them. That means you only have to study 3/5 of the course and you could still get 100%. How ridiculous is that? I'm still pretty nervous about the Modern Scottish History final- the lecturers for that course were awful and rambly and I don't feel like I retained the main ideas. One of the girls in the course is organizing a study group, which I hope helps. I guess I could always email my tutor as well for questions. I really wish we just had to write another essay or had to do a final project for history because I have absolutely no idea how to take a history final.

The other thing going on while I was studying away is that there were people doing construction on our bathroom to fix a leaking pipe. This means I didn't have a proper shower for a couple days, which was excruciating. And, it made our flat smell. But everything's good now.

I kinda had a day off today (I'll explain in the next post), so after the student mass tonight, I'm going to get down to it and head to the library when it opens tomorrow (7:30, uggghhh) to get my favorite spot.

SNOWMG

So you may have read from my last blog post that it started snowing like CRAZY basically as soon as Audrey came.

Well, that was Friday and it didn't stop snowing until a week later. Edinburgh is surprisingly ill-equipped for snow. Apparently, they don't get this much (we probably got a good foot and a half) and definitely not this early. It's kinda got a lot of people worried and stressed.

It started getting warmer yesterday, though, and the snow is starting to melt and people are starting to get their act together. The streets and sidewalks are finally getting cleared. I mean walking on the snow was fine when it was hard and packed, but it started getting to be the consistency of sand. And walking on sand is f-ing hard. It started taking an extra 5 minutes to walk anywhere because each step you took only took you half as far as it normally would. The snow was really pretty though (until recently) and a lot of people took advantage of it to go cross-country skiing through the Meadows.

I can't decide if I'm happy about it melting. I guess it's not so bad except I don't know if it melting and then icing over if it gets colder is going to be worse than if it kept snowing a fresh layer over everything.

Ah well, we're Walking in a Winter Wonderland indeed and Baby It's Cold Outside.

Pristine :)

Om nom snow :)

AUDREY

Sorry guys, I'm running out of creative titles... :(

So last weekend (wow it seems so much longer ago than that), my friend Audrey came to visit me. Audrey is a fellow Scrippsie studying abroad for a semester at University College London (UCL). The Friday before she came to visit, I went to Robbie's sister, Katie, flat for a get-together for her birthday. She's a psychologist so she has a lot of doctor friends. I had a really good chat with one of them about what it means to be Indian having been raised as Caucasian. I think we're probably related in some way because his family is also from Madagascar and speaks Gujarati. Robbie and I also chatted with a really nice older couple. Anyways, then we went to Sam's for a flat party and I slept in suuuppppeerrr late the next day.

But, I dragged myself out of bed in time to meet Audrey at the train station- I had perfect timing, actually. Unfortunately, it had started snowing on Friday night so everything was snowy and kinda hard to walk in.

We had grand plans for what we were going to do that weekend, but then it kept snowing and snowing. I got up early to a beautiful snow-covered meadows and went to mass at the university chapel. I really, really enjoyed it. Then, I reconvened with Audrey and we went to the German market set up on the Mounds. It was rather less exciting than I thought it was going to be. Only a few stalls were really based on Christmas and the rest of them sold things I could find in the States. We did get a pretzel though, which I had been craving for a looong time. Delish! Then it started snowing again, so we went back to the flat in order to study/hang out.

That actually ended up being the rest of the weekend for us- lots of Christmas music and studying. We tried to go to the Castle since it was free in honor of St. Andrew's Day, but it was closed because of the snow. Monday night we did go out to dinner for my friend Sarah's 22nd birthday. That was an experience- we ended up walking back in the snow because there weren't any taxis around because of the snow. It was quite an experience, filled with snowball fights and lots of slipping and sliding.

All in all, I'm kinda glad that we didn't end up doing more of the touristy things. It was nice to just hang out with a friend again. I do feel kinda bad that Audrey didn't get to see more of the city... I guess she'll just have to come back! ;)

It's Daddy time!

Sorry about the title, it's a spin off a TBTL audio drop called "It's granny time!" and I couldn't come up with anything better, really.

Anyways, this post is about my dad's visit to Edinburgh. After a rather harrowing journey here involving many missed connections, confusing building numbering conventions (finally, someone understands about the STUPID street name changes), and amounting to an extremely long two-days of travelling, my dad met me at his bread and breakfast. The accommodations were alright, although the matron could definitely have been nicer. Since I haven't dealt with many customer service people, I can't be certain that it's not a difference between Scottish and American hospitality but from what I have seen here, I think she was just crabby.

As I've mentioned before, my favorite pub here is the Greenmantle, a friendly neighborhood pub. On Thursdays, they do live folk music, so of course that's where I took my dad (after he had a chance to eat and rest, obviously). We got to hang out with my friends Sam, Megan, Alice, and Robbie. It was really nice for my dad to meet everyone who I've been talking about.

Friday, I had morning classes but my dad wasted no time in exploring on his own. After we met up, we basically walked around the Royal Mile and Princes Street Gardens, exploring the main tourist areas. That was my first time walking around there so extensively, and I'm really glad we did- it gave me a better idea of the city. To this day, I'm still discovering new areas of Edinburgh and all of them are delightful. That night, we had to do some bar-hopping, of course. We sample a few different whiskies and I had a chance to get some more of my mulled wine from the Reverie :)

My dad got some pretty good images of the city walking around on his own- this is

Edinburgh Castle.

He was pretty impressed by the old water wells in the Grassmarket area.

Saturday, we had a traditional Scottish breakfast- haggis, black pudding, a fried tomato, a tattie scone, baked beans, bacon, sausage, a hash brown, and an over-easy egg and of course, breakfast tea. It was all decent, except for the blood pudding. That was disgusting. I've had haggis a few times before this, and have actually enjoyed it. We hiked this heart-attack-on-a-plate off at Arthur's Seat, a volcano in the middle of the city. We took the steeper route up and came down the other side, where there's the ruins of an old cathedral inhabited by hermits. Fittingly, it was named after St. Anthony, the same patron saint of our home parish in Renton. Following the trail down put us at the bottom of the Royal Mile next to the Palace of Holyroodhouse (where the Queen stays when she visits Scotland) and the new Parliament building. The Parliament building is pretty controversial- it was designed by a Spanish architect who wanted to incorporate the landscape of Scotland into the design, but it ended up going way over budget and being a somewhat Louvre-ish situation (in terms of the pyramids designed my IMPei). We walked up the Royal Mile again, semi-souvenir shopping as we went. We met a really nice girl working in one shop who was also studying in Edinburgh, but at a different uni. We started to explore the castle, which lies at the top of the Royal Mile, but we decided to come back the next day to truly explore it. As we started to venture north towards New Town and St. Mary's Cathedral for vigil mass, we came across a shopping mall and I discovered my new favorite department store: John Lewis. It's like a cross between Macy's, Nordy's, and Jo-Ann Fabrics. Basically, anything I could ever want. The cathedral itself was pretty as well- one of the oldest places of worship for Catholics in the city- but it was undergoing construction to one of it's wings, so we didn't get to see all of it. Mass was nice, though, and much less rushed than my previous experience the week before. We had dinner in a rather dodgy fish and chip restaurant before heading back. We did another pub-crawl, this time with my friend Christy. She did a double-take when she realized the whisky was for me and the beer was for my dad. Apparently, I'm made of stronger stuff than she thought. This is good because I'm going home with her for Christmas and on her home island of ~1000 people, there are also 8 distilleries, making it a major whiskey-producing region of Scotland. Pretty amazing ratio, huh?

At the top of Arthur's Seat. We're at the highest point in all of Edinburgh!

The debating hall at Parliament. The part at the bottom is made from exclusively Scottish oak. One of those beams actually fell shortly after Parliament opened, interrupting a session.

Sunday, we started out with a late brunch, and continued to the castle. Dad was really fascinated by all of it. I was really fascinated by the crown jewels ;) We followed this with a tour of the Scottish Whiskey Experience. They had this weird barrel ride/ animatronic video thing that explained the distillation process. After that, they did a really good job of explaining about the different whiskey regions in Scotland and what makes them distinct, and we got to taste a whiskey from one of the regions of our choosing. My dad chose one from Islay (where Christy lives) which is reputed for really smoky, peat-y whiskeys. Too strong for my taste! This museum (?) also houses the most extensive whiskey collection ever, bought from a collector who lived in Brazil before his death. There were a TON of whiskeys in that room! We finished the night with a nice dinner at an Argentinean steakhouse in between my flat and my dad's B&B. I miss Mexican food SOO much!!!

There was an exchange of stuff- my mom had sent some new clothes (I love them!) and some food- tea (for a place that drinks tea all the time, they only have a couple kinds), peanut butter, and popcorn. I sent back some clothes and coats that I didn't think I'd need anymore. I still don't know how I'm going to get all of my stuff home...

Dad left on Monday morning, and had another tumultuous trip- ending with him sleeping in his office since Washington was hit with a snowstorm! Aggghhh the travails of travel.

For my part, I allowed myself about 5 minutes of crying/homesickness/frantic calling to my friend Audrey who is in London studying for the semester before I got myself together. It was harder than I thought to say goodbye to Dad, especially since he had brought all the news about home. It's little things like businesses closing and neighborhood gossip that you never realize you miss til you're gone. And it's not like I'm talking to them less this semester than normal. If anything, we talk on a more regular basis than when I'm in Cali. It's just knowing that I'm really far away and not just a 2-hour plane ride that really makes the difference.

And on that melancholy note... haha. It's better now- I still have a lot to look forward to this semester. More on those things to come! xxx

Spring at Scripps

I got assigned the most awesome registration slot for spring semester- Monday at 8:15 am. That's either the best or second-best time. I had already scouted out the classes that I wanted to take, carefully crafting and recrafting my schedule, molding it as if it was clay and I was a master potter. Then, I got the worst news ever: an email, sent the Friday before my registration slot, informed me that I was going to be unable to register during my awesome time slot. Luckily, my dad is SUPER AWESOME and called (because of my multiple promptings), convincing them to give me back my super awesome time.

Drumroll for my super-awesome schedule.....

Advanced Laboratory in Chemistry

A survey of advanced laboratory techniques including physical chemistry methods, analytical chemistry (especially instrumental methods), and synthesis and characterization of compounds.

Principles of Physical Chemistry

A course designed to investigate physico-chemical systems through classified thermodynamics, statistical thermodynamics, kinetics, quantum mechanics, and spectroscopy.

Race and Ethnic Relations

This course examines major concepts and theories in the study of race and ethnic relations. Attention is given to the social construction of race as it relates to interethnic conflict, immigration patterns and the intersections of class, race and gender.

A History of Social Dance

Issues of sexuality and gender, race, appropriation, religion and censorship as they emerge in the genres of social and ballroom dance. Lecture/discussion with readings, video viewing, and live performance.

and my favorite....

Typography and the Book Arts

A Scripps College Press studio course, emphasizing fundamentals of typographic design and letterpress printing. Experimental projects in book design and printing, using original texts and original graphic imagery.

This is technically an overloaded schedule, and I'll be doing gold (advanced) latin dance on top of my other CCBDC activities and have 3 jobs: half-time ochem lab TA, ochem tutor, and jsd office assistant. So, I might end up auditing the social dance class because it doesn't fulfill any major or general education requirements.

This may be an overcompensation for this semester since I feel like I have wayyyyyy too much free-time, but we'll see.

Also, I've been reading these books called the Kushiel series by Jacqueline Carey and they're set in a land called Terre d'Ange. Throughout the main characters' adventures, they're always like, "It's hard to be an exile from our beautiful country, even if it is by choice" which pretty much sums up my feelings about Scripps. I didn't even realize how perfect Scripps is for me until I left. And I can't shake this feeling that next semester is going to be AMAZING, which, quite frankly, is quite alright with me.

So, here's to the Rose Garden, beautiful dorms, Malott Commons, 5-Cs, Edmunds Ballroom, Tiernan Field House, Seal Court, sunbathing while studying on the quad, and all of my other favorite haunts in Claremont. I CANNOT WAIT to get back to you.

Scripps-tabulous

The second weekend in November, another Scrippsie came to visit me :) Maria is studying abroad in Galway, Ireland and does ballroom with me back at home.

We started out going to the Museum (I feel like I could go there a million times and do something different every time- it's not really that big, but it's really overwhelming in its non-cohesiveness) and I discovered a pretty cool rooftop level, which would have been a lot better if it hadn't been raining and super cold.

We warmed up at another favorite cafe, Press Coffee, before heading back to my flat. We ended up having dinner with one of my flatmates and her friend at my favorite pub, the Greenmantle. They have these buffalo burgers which are sooooo delish. We went for a drink (mulled wine- YUMMY!) at this posh pub called The Reverie. Here's Maria, modeling this delicious beverage:

On Saturday, we both took the train down to St. Andrews. We met up with Marissa (Nat's friend) and she showed us around. St. Andrews is a super cute, but super small, town- literally 3 streets. There is a really cool castle ruin and cathedral ruin. I especially loved the cathedral. It's also right on the coast, so there's always a sea-breeze in the air. We basically just looked around and did some shopping- there were some pretty cute Christmas markets being held that weekend.

Maria and I in front of the Castle ruins. The bishops and archbishops of St. Andrews used to live here. It was also used as a prison.

The castle, from farther away.

The Cathedral ruins. There are actually two ruins- the bigger cathedral from this picture was built after the ruin of the smaller church. The grounds are now used as a cemetary.

That's what it looked like, once upon a time.

I don't know if you can tell, but the windows are different- pointed arches vs round arches. Apparently, the cathedral took so long to build that by the time they got halfway done, the popular style of windows had changed, so they decided to continue with the new trend.

There were these pretty cool rock formation things that looked like fingers jutting out of the mainland. The tide was really low when we went, which is why we could see them. There's a site between two of them that people jump into at dawn on a certain day to rid themselves of curses.

Maria left really early on Sunday, which gave me the whole day to work on my essay for Modern Scottish History. AWESOME.

Natalie's Visit

Alrighty. It's now been almost a month since Natalie visited, so this is probably going to be a little trip down memory lane for me as well as you.

When she got here Saturday, we decided to go shopping with her friend from high school, Marissa, who studies at St. Andrews as an undergrad. We started by heading up Calton Hill. It's this hill in Edinburgh with a ton of rando monuments on the top.

Ahh yes, there we are. (L to R me, Natalie, Marissa)

This is the the National Monument on Calton Hill. Yes, it looks like it should be in Rome, and yes, it's most distinguishing feature is that it's only halfway built.

As we were walking back, I finally got a chance to hit up all the charity shops on Nicholson/Clerk. It was less fruitful than I could have wished, but I wasn't really in the mood to shop. We also went into this shop that turned out to be a surprisingly hip vintage shop. Natalie found an uber cute fur coat which we convinced her to buy.

As we stepped out of the shop, it obviously started raining and we parted ways- Nat and I back to mine for Dr. Who and siesta and Marissa to the train station to get back to St. Andrews.

That night, we went to a (rather demure) flat party at a friend of a friends, which ended up being super close to my flat. Some highlights:

(Finally, a picture of Robbie)

Beautiful Scrippsies!

Nat's favorite picture, for some reason. I guess she looks cute. I just look... awkward.

The next day we basically stayed in and did work- Natalie had a ton of essays to do and I was doing something, I think. Robbie had a roast at his flat that night, which ended up being really cool. Can you guess which plate is mine?

Answer: the Christmas one, obviously.

Monday, we went to the National Museum of Scotland and worked in my favorite cafe, Bean Scene. This was really cool because there was a tour talking about printing presses which fits in with my interest to take Typography and the Book Arts at Scripps, where we get to make our own book.

Since Natalie was taking an overnight bus, we stopped by a pub, Sandy Bells, for live folk music and a drink before dropping her off at the bus station.

Homemaker

Have you ever heard of Stumbleupon.com? It's this great site that uses parameters set by you to find random sites on the internets that might interest you. I keep getting a lot of baking and craft websites that are making me feel all homemaker-y.

So, yesterday I bit the bullet and bought 10 pounds worth of baking supplies (flour, sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, baking soda, and baking powder) as well as a cake pan. And I made a cake, of course. A simple white cake with NUTELLA! The original recipe was for cupcakes, which probably would've worked a lot better, but cupcake tins are expensive.... the cake still turned out really yummily and I'm already starting to think about what I want to make next- I think banana bread because I have a lot of bananas ripening in my cupboard at the moment :) What a great snack to have with tea, right? yummm

Also on the schedule for this weekend:

Natalie, one of my best friends from Scripps who also lives in Seattle, is visiting me! She's studying abroad at the London School of Economics for the entire year. We've already been shopping in the charity shops on the main street next to the University. I didn't buy anything but she found a nice vintage fur coat for only 30 pounds. I love how cheap Edinburgh can be!

We're going to go to the library tomorrow when it opens to get stuff DONE and then see what happens. Robbie and a flat mate Charlie are hosting a roast dinner tomorrow night. I keep offering to bring things and getting shot down for my dishes not being "roast-y enough." SO I'm just gonna show up and eat.

Monday I have class, but only for an hour, and Natalie doesn't leave until Monday night so I have no idea what we're going to do! I think I'll probably take her to the National Museum- it's free and I haven't even been there yet.

What a fun, sexy time for me (that's a TBTL reference, btw)...xxx

LeeAnn

Even More Fantabulous

So, Saturday night definitely lived up to its potential to be awesome. Megan, Sam, Alice, and I carved pumpkins and pre-gamed then I went over to some other friends' flat (they were all dressed as lions- so cute!) before finally going to Mark and Barney's for their Halloween party. It was super fun- their flat is beautiful and they decorated it really nicely. All in all, a great night.

Sunday morning rolled around and I woke up at 10:20, realizing that because of the end (or the beginning?) of daylight savings it was only 9:20! So, I went to the store to get eggs and made a super delicious scramble with onions, bell peppers and goat cheese, and a kiwi and banana fruit salad. SO GOOD!

At 12, I went to the library which is when it opens, even though that seems really really late to me. I got a lot of work done and then came back to my flat to chill/take a break. On my way back, some older business man just started talking to me, even though I obviously had my headphones in and then gave me his card and told me if I emailed him, he would buy me a drink. It was a pretty random experience, when I all wanted to do was go home and watch some 30 Rock...

Around 7, I went over to Alice, Zoe, Katie, and __'s flat because they invited me to go out with them in their lion pride since last night was actually Halloween. I did the whole 9 yards: tail, ears, face paint, teased hair- people over here are really into face paint, as I discovered. A costume really isn't considered complete unless it includes face paint. So, we got ready and then headed over to this club, Lava Ignite, aka Cav, which was super fun! It was a huge club: the bottom floor was chart singles and the upper floor (which may or may not have been the top floor but I think I was advised never to go on the top floor- the British floor-numbering system is different so sometimes I get a little confused) was cheese, another popular British tradition. It was basically music from past decades, like boy bands and rock, etc. Sarah and I went back to her flat, where it took me ages to get the face paint off. YUCK! It also took me TWO shampoos to get all the hairspray out of my hair.

I woke up super hungry this morning and wasn't really sure what I had to eat in my flat, but then the song Tomato Soup by The Lonely Forest came on and I realized that I had tomato soup! So, I'm going to go eat now, and will hopefully be posting some lion pictures soon.

LeeAnn.xx

Fantabulous

Today was a fantastic day, which is great because yesterday turned out pretty so-so. I woke up and was almost late to class, the weather decided to start raining every time I walked outside, my head ached and my throat was sore, and going out was ok but not great.

Today, however, the weather was beautiful, so Robbie and I climbed Blackford Hill. The views are ah-mazing- we could see everything from the castle to the firth to Arthur's Seat and everything in between :) I came home and took a hot shower to warm up before watching 30 Rock while making roasted vegetables (beets, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and onions) and tuna for dinner. Delicious!!

Also, I got an email saying that the class schedule and registration times are posted for next semester- I love scheduling! It's that great time where class descriptions look really interesting before you get tired of them and find out what they're really like. Plus, I got one of the earliest registration time slots, so I'm basically guaranteed to get whatever classes I want! AND I have no class on Friday other than dance (practice + gold latin= 4 hours of ballroom) AND I don't have class until 10 on Monday/Wednesday which means I can go to team breakfast EVERY DAY! Oh my goodness, I can hardly contain my excitement. The schedule so far (and this is probably pretty final) is Advanced Lab, Physical Chemistry, Typography and the Book Arts, History of Social Dance, and Race and Ethnic Relations. Pretty cool, eh? I love liberal arts schools :)

So this day is already sounding pretty darn awesome, BUT WAIT, there's more! I got a letter from my Grandma! I still need to send her and Aunt Laurie's post card.... And Christopher's birthday card... And Nani's postcard. Oh, dear. I've really been slacking on my post :(

I'm hoping tonight lives up to the high standard the rest of the day has set- I'm going to a flat party celebrating Halloween, of course. I've already thought of and rejected about a million costume ideas. I think the winner might be "nerd"- glasses, calculator in pocket, suspenders, the works :)

It's the end of daylight savings tonight, which means this marvelous day is going to be one hour longer than a normal day. Stellar, no?

Hope your days are going similarly swimmingly :)

Love,

LeeAnn xx

A Wee Weekend Trip

Last weekend we went to Inverness, a town in the Highlands of Scotland. It was really cute, but we didn't get to spend that much time there over the course of the weekend because we were spending hours and hours commuting between other tourist-y destinations.

Destinations like:

Watching the Jacobite Express (aka the Harry Potter train) cross the viaduct for the last time this season

Culloden Battlefield where the Jacobite rebellion against the English monarchy was crushed, complete with scenic fog

A functioning sheep dog farm where we got to see the incredible training of the sheep dogs which puts Peppy's manners to shame, as well as sheep dog puppies- this one was only 7 days old. Oh and we got to shear sheep. No big deal...

Glenfiddich Distillery

aaannnd last but not least, beautiful Loch Ness and the Urquhart Castle, which was passed back and forth between the Scottish clans and the British royalty. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see the real Nessie :(

From the little we did see of Inverness, we really liked it. The bars were cute and one of them had great live folk music. We also met and bar-hopped with an Australian uni graduate, Andrew, who was staying at the same hostel we were. He just graduated with a math degree and was planning on taking a grad trip along the Australian coast before starting work. His plans changed when he woke up the day after celebrating turning in his thesis with a plane ticket to the UK. Oh, college.

This week was the same-old, same-old. I'm looking forward to a quiet, (hopefully) productive weekend. I'm also super excited about the new clothes my Mom sent me:

Cute, no? Self-timed and improperly zoomed pictures do not do them justice. She also sent some of the clothes that I owned already, but didn't pack the first time. Yay for new stuff!!

Anyways... I have a source analysis to write about the consequences for women following the transformation of Scotland between 1750-1830. Very Scripps appropriate, don't you think?

Bisous chers amis et a bientot!

LeeAnn

Fashion

So. This might be the most shallow, least Scotland-related post I'll be posting while I'm here but after studying extremely hard this week, I need to think and blather about something inconsequential. Not that looking nice is inconsequential, as we all know first impressions are the basis of a lot of relationships, but it often has less immediate and dire consequences if neglected than, say, writing lab reports. Which I did last night, and it turned out beautifully and very professional-looking. I had to reinstall MarvinSketch onto my computer to draw some structures, which I hadn't done since my harddrive crashed, and it's making me feel so hard-core and chemically oriented. Does that even make any sense? Probably not, but neither does this post.

Hopefully my mom is going to send me a few things from home soon (please Mom?) but there are also a few things I want to add to my wardrobe. Every time I do this, I inevitably have nothing to pair with whatever trendy pieces I add, so I guess I'll end up either buying them and not wearing them often or I'll have to buy more things to wear with them.

What:

1. High-waisted skinny jeans.

2. Flowy tank tops.

3. Knit, baggy sweaters.

4. Everyday skinnies, because my other ones have a huge hole in the knee :(

5. A pair of shoes that's dressy, yet casual. I'm thinking some sort of ankle, oxford-inspired boot but I really haven't seen anything that I'm super in love with yet. Any suggestions?

6. Long socks I can wear under my Uggs, outside of my leggings.

Where:

Have I mentioned all of the charity shops along the main road in Edinburgh? They're everywhere! And actually inexpensive! I recently found a coffee shop with a Motley-esque called the Bean Scene and I kept getting distracted from my studies by a charity shop for the prevention of heart disease that's across the street. They had some legitimately cute items.

Also, there's this store, Top Shop, that has some extremely cheap sale items. I haven't been in the actual store yet, but if it's anything like their online sales I'm going to have a hard time finding something in my size. Unless I get lucky and get there the day they put new things on sale. I think my luck is running out, though. After some kid threw the entire contents of his piggy bank out of his 3rd floor (American 3rd floor, not the British 3rd floor which is actually the 4th floor) window onto Sam and my heads, I was finding a coin on the street at least every day. Granted, it was usually only a 1 or 2 pence coin, but sometimes I'd find a 5 p and once I found a pound. This all changed when I left Edinburgh for my homestay. Although, I am going to the Highlands (to see the Harry Potter train and hopefully the Loch Ness monster) so maybe leaving the city again will bring my luck back.

Who:

... are my role models? It seems like a lot of people I know have great fashion sense that I feel like I could never pull off.

My mom, for one, has a great sense of style and routinely dresses me much better than I would dress myself. Unfortunately, she's not here to reassure me when I ask, does this look weird? Because I know she's telling the truth, whether it's what I want to hear or not, and she just wants me to look my best. Kinda like when we're skyping and she always points out my breakouts. Yes, Mom, I know I'm breaking out, thanks for reminding me that everyone else does too. I say this in the most loving way possible, by the way. That's kinda like how people always say "No offense, but..." As if saying that activates a ward that prevents people from taking offense/getting hurt by what follows, because "No offense, but" is never followed by "you look really nice today" or "I love hanging out with you." But really, Mom, I mean it in the most loving way possible and I don't want you to be embarrassed, or anything. I mean honestly, how many people besides you reads my blog anyways? That's what I thought.

Going back to my original point, I would describe my mother's fashion sense as, ironically, much edgier and younger than mine. While she's all metal buckles and leather jackets, I'm very much a cardigan-aholic, although I don't own very many of them. So while I admire and wish very much to emulate her style, I'm not exactly sure how to.

My other role model is my friend Natalie. Natalie is a definite hipster/trendster who is always meticulously put together. Her style is much more similar to mine but I don't know how she does it. Part of it is that she just has SO MANY clothes to work with. I literally brought 5 everyday shirts and thought, these are all the shirts I wear anyways so this will be no problem. Needless to say, I was literally bored of them within 2 days, which if you can connect any dots means that I hadn't even worn all of the shirts yet. I guess I wear different things than I thought I did. Natalie is in London this semester (well, actually this whole year) so when I go visit her in 2 weeks I'll make her be personal shopper for me.

I'm not exactly sure why I thought that UK fashion was going to be so different from US fashion. Everyone here is wearing leggings as pants (which I have totally bought into, even after I think I posted on facebook that I would never understand why leggings could be considered pants) and similar boots and scarves and everything that's also trendy in the US. Hence, my mom is sending me some of the things I'd left behind. There is one trend here that is WAY bigger than in the US that I really think I will never understand: denim shorts and miniskirts over tights. I could imagine (perhaps better than I thought) an outfit that utilized some high-waisted linen shorts over patterned tights with a button-up flower-print blouse and oxfords, and I would consider that to be trendy. HOWEVER, cutoff jean shorts over black not-quite-opaque tights (although I can't decide if opaque tights are worse) with a t-shirt and cardigan is NOT classy, or even edgy. It just looks silly, and slightly trashy. To be completely fair, some people definitely pull it off better than others, ie nice jean shorts instead of cutoffs, but still. That being said, if this trend continues long enough, I may or may not get pulled in.

On a tangential to fashion, I'm trying to decide on a Halloween costume. Actually, I think I just decided on my Halloween costume. Unfortunately for you, my dear readers (aka Mom), you will have to wait until after that date for me to post pictures. Trust me, though, it's gonna be good.

Wow. That ended up being way longer than I thought it would be. It was also less unrelated (more related) to my trip than I thought- there were some gems mixed in with the pyrite. I'm off to pack for my weekend excursion- I must remember to make sure my camera's fully charged this time...

LeeAnn xx

PS I'm really sorry about how long this is and the lack of pictures.

Address

I just realized that I forgot to post my new address in my last post, and since I'm sure you will all be sending me mail, I had better get that to you ASAP.

So, here it is:

Miss LeeAnn Allen

19 Sciennes

Edinburgh EH9 1NH

UNITED KINGDOM

I look forward to your letters/packages. ;) x

It's gonna be a good life // This right here is my swag :)

ZOMG A POLICE BOX. ...That's a Doctor Who reference, btw.

Sorry it's been so long guys! This is gonna be a pretty dry post- basically just an update about what I've been doing because I have no energyto be creative and funny, although I'm sure that you all have experienced/will experience my wit in person, so never fear. I am going to be sprinkling in some Scottish slang words/sayings, so be on the lookout for them...

Fresher's Week

We had Fresher's Week at the University of Edinburgh which is apparently world-renowned. There were a lot of activities and parties that were sponsored by the uni. I didn't go to as many of them as I had originally planned because on Monday Imet actual Scottish people (well, boys). They're both really cool- Robbie and Sam- so I hung out with them throughout theweek. It's nice to have an insider's/native's perspective on the city- I feel like that's how I'm really getting to know Edinburgh.

Also during Fresher's Week I cemented some relationships with Americans from my program- Sam (yes, another one,which may or may not get confusing) and Megan who are from Carleton College and Colgate University, respectively. Sam is actually from Ballard as well and we know some of the same people. Small world, huh?More small world: one of Megan's flatmates who was on our program is from Harvey Mudd which is one of the colleges in the Claremont Consortium with Scripps. SO COOL! Here's apicture of Megan, Sam, and I:

This is actually while we were waiting to see the Pope- it was the first papal visit since Scotland split from the Roman Catholic Church way back when. Pretty cool, eh? Actually seeing the pope was pretty anti-climactic, even if he was in the pope-mobile. The coolest part about it was the procession that came before- there were a ton of bagpipe troops and schools. The event was on St. Ninian's Day so every school in the country named after him was invited to participate in the parade.

At the end of Fresher's Week Butler organized discount tickets to a football match for us. Scottish football is absolute rubbish but the experience was definitely worth having.

Fresher's Week was really weird since we were in Edinburgh but hadn't actually started classes yet. I was really glad when classes started and my days started to have some structure, although I still can't get the hang of my class schedule and have to consult my calendar all the time.

Classes/Academics

In terms of studying/school things are going really well. At first I was really nervous because the professors are kinda all over the place and there aren't really books that are required for the class- they give you a list of recommended books and you have to find the sections that are relevant. However, the classes are split into sections with different themes and each section has different books. The library has all of them on reserve but you can only get them for 3 hours and since there are so many it's really not worth it to buy the books. I'm starting to realize how much Scripps really holds our hand through classes.

The labs for my science classes, The Dynamic Cell and Chemistry for Life Sciences, are where I feel like I have a total advantage- thank you AISS, Professor Grill, Professor Wenzel, and OChem. I have lab partners for both of my lab classes and my 2 chem lab partners seem like really cool girls :)

This is Ceci, one of my chem lab partners :)

I'm actually starting to study without having tests/quizzes hanging over me. The library (which I never use at Claremont) has these really cool PODS with a computer and seating. They're aimed towards group studying, which is perfect since Sam, Megan, and I are all in the same Modern Scottish History class.

I've also found a really cute coffee shop called the Bean Scene but I haven't actually studied there since I keep forgetting things that I need to study when I go. /I get distracted by conversations with the people I go with :(

Social Life

I had my homestay to the Lake District last weekend. I was with another Butler Edinburgh girl (Caitlin) and two Butler Glasgow School of Arts girls (Ariel and Kristi). The family we stayed with was really nice but they host American students a lot so it seemed less like a stay with a family and more like a touristy thing to do. It was beautiful and fun anyways and I had a great time. We went to a lake and hiked around rowed and then went shopping at some of the small towns nearby. By the end I was kinda homesick because the family was so nice and close-knit. Needless to say, I skyped with my parents that night :)

So my old room was getting to be WAY to far away for me to walk to and from social events so I moved. I'm now in Sciennes which is right next to this beautiful park called the Meadows:

My new room is a lot smaller than my old one but it's really cute and I love the way the flat is set up. I'm in an actual flat now with two other exchange students from Italy (Julia) and Singapore (Adelyn) and two first years from Scotland (Hazel) and Lithuania (Deimante).

My new favorite thing is headphones parties. Everyone has radio headphones and there are two frequencies to choose from. It's so funny because everyone is dancing and singing along but there's no music unless you're listening to the headphones. See this hilarious video:

Upside: this makes conversation with other people INFINITELY easier.

Downside: wearing headphones is kinda lame, but I think we pull it off :)

I really need to start joining societies and clubs here but it costs money to join and money to do the activities hosted by the clubs. I guess I'll just have to suck it up and do it (like I did with the 60 pounds for my gym membership. sad day....)

Shopping

In terms of grocery shopping, I went to Costco today! It was great- they had practically all of the same items as in the US so I stocked up on things like chicken nuggets and other easy frozen meals.

In terms of clothes shopping, I really need to start hitting up all of the charity shops on the main street in Edinburgh. They're second hand shops that are actually inexpensive, as opposed to the second hand stores in the US where a shirt still costs $20. Also, my mom is mailing me more clothes. Oh, fashion.

SOOO I'm gonna go now- I'm going blues dancing for the first time since I've been here and I should also maybe eat dinner, or something. And study a little bit. Maybe.

xo,

LeeAnn