Summer

Hello all!

Well... my time here is officially finished scholastically! Finals are different from home. Most of my classes had a final worth 80%. I'm sure I already told most of you that. The stress involved with preparing for an 80% test was incredible, and not in a particularly good way. I much prefer and will be happy to get back to the American system of continuous examination through the semester.

Anyway, school went well, I have a newer opinion on the most productive way to study and I'm excited to see if it works at home!

Students here are beginning to head home, including a few of the exchange students that had made a sort of "American-kids-that-eat-dinner-together" group of mine. We had become fairly close and it was really hard to watch the first few of us head home. There was also a pretty emotional evening down at the pub for me the other night when my Scottish friends (well, I should say British friends as some of them are from England and will be sure to correct you) put together a "we'll miss you" present. Jamie organized everyone's signing a HUGE going away card and filled a box with some momentos of fun times had in Aberdeen. For example, I now have a deck of cards of Kings and Queens of Scotland and a pin with both the American and Scottish flags criss crossed. Also in the box was a CD of tunes that had come up over the semester... all... of course... by British song writers. It was fantastic to have another (possibly final) night at the hole with good chat, good friends, and good fairwells.

On Saturday I head down to Glasgow for a few days to stay with Jamie's family and see a bit of the 'in your face' Scotland life. Wahoo! Rumor has it I may get a home-cooked Haggis.... awesome.

I'll have a final few days in Aberdeen after that but almost everyone will be gone. Just me and a few exchange students packing up and heading home. I've started day-dreming about things I'm excited to come home to..

1. Mom, Dad, Mark and Hayley first off! But also can't wait to visit everyone else.
2. Summer weather (as in, it's actually warmer than 65F hehe)
3. Windsor Road (Church)
4. Sitting on the back-porch cooking out, laying in the hammock or playing with Hayley in the grassy back-yard
5. The farmer's market
6. Going on random day-outings with mom
7. The pool
8. Cooking
9. Driving

And many others... so yeah, I'm getting ready. It's weird to consider the time here to be over so I'm trying not to think about it until I actually have to go, haha. Anyway... if there are any gift requests, speak now 'er ferever hald yer peace!

Spring Time in Aberdeen

Hey Everyone!

So, as my friends at home celebrate their being DONE with finals... I've got an entire week to study for mine and THEN take them. JOY! Haha. This week is revision week so I'll be hitting the books and wracking my brain. I have four finals.. Linear Algebra, Probability, Old Testament, and Critics/Defenders *in that order* on Tuesday(26) , Wednesday(27), Thursday(28), Monday(1). So now you guys know... if I fall off the face of the planet during those days... you know why.

Recently things in Aberdeen have been amazing. I have groups of friends larger than I thought possible for the time I'm here. Going home will be very hard... but I am getting home-sick pangs again. The thoughts of summer.. Indian Acres, watching Marky play baseball, sitting on the back-porch with mom and dad while dad grills out... yeah I'm missing home some :) But it will all come round in time. Right now I'm trying to focus on A:exams and B: making the most of the time left.

Here are some photos from my recent adventures... and a few nice ones of the park for mommy :) the tulips have passed now but they were AMAZING for about 3 weeks.

Enjoy!!
Ann



The park I walk through to get to Uni every day had these fantastic flower arrangements

The park in the spring.. so gorgeous and so different from the park in the winter (first few posts)

This is a cool shot of the 1100's chapel on the road to school from the view point of the path you have to take through the park. I'm going to miss walking past it every day... the steeples are so high you can see them from the beach.



There was an end-of-term party at the pub (with a silent disco!) and all the girls got ready together.. too cute and SO much fun!

A great shot of Toril, Katie, and Myself. These girls are so wonderful! I'm planning on visiting them in Chicago when Toril comes for her "america trip" from Norway

A cook-out on the beach with "team america" haha...

My partners in crime

May in the 'Deen

HAPPY AMERICAN MOTHER'S DAY!! *Grandma, Mom, Kim, Cami, Aunt Bev, any other mothers that read this.. :) *

"Mum's" day here in Aberdeen was in March, apparently they do things early. Not sure when father's day is here.. hmm...

My time here has been fantastic. Most of my classes are done with lectures or have one left. Next week will be mostly review material. The week after that is Solely revision... basically everyone studies their BEHINDS off. I'm a bit nervous about these exams because they are all 80% of the course grade. In other words, the test makes the class. The good news is that I've done very very well in my two divinity courses. Not quite as remarkable in the math courses... but that's alright. I'm trying, what more can I do? :)

Anyway, my exams are May 26, 27, 28, and June 1st. Then I'm done!! So extra love via email or snail mail during that time would be woonnnddeerrfffulll. And Lots of prayers please. :) Especially because my math courses come first. YIKES!

Anyway, my ticket home is a few weeks AFTER that so I'll have some time to relax in the 'deen!! This is nice because it means I'll have a little mini-summer-break before heading back to Champaign for summer classes.

I've been practicing more regularly with the football team. Recently there was this huge parade called the tortures parade (everyone carried sticks with fire on 'em). The girls made this float and then dressed up like rock stars. I helped make the float but went to a birthday party that night. Anyway, the day of the parade was amazing because it was sunny, gorgeous, 65 the whole day... and get this... I got a little sun burned! yah.. I know.. amazing.







The American students I know also decided to try making s'mores since mom and dad were so kind in bringing graham crackers!!! We had to do it in the microwave though.. because it was raining on the day we all had time to do it,.. ;) Scotland.






I also recently got my hair cut... check it out!





Well that's all for now guys... gonna be productive with my Sunday. I might go to the service at the 1100's era cathedral down the road tonight... we'll see!
Love from Scotland! xoxoxox

How the Time flies...

Hello everyone who "followed" the past month of inactivity!! I apologize to those of you itching for some crazy stories, I've been busy gathering them up, having a blast. :) School is going well and I'm making some great friends. Hopefully I can be forgiven.. my lack of updating is a sign of my involvement!! ... I will try to update more often. Sorry :)

After my trip to London, school continued as normal. There weren't many big 'events' going on.. mostly just papers and minor get-togethers like birthday parties and what not. I've been getting along well in my classes so hopefully that can continue!

Spring break is THREE WEEKS long here. Honestly, that might have been too much! It was wonderful having the time to visit people, but coming back was a little challenging. Spring Break involved a trip to Dublin, Galsgow, A visit from mom and dad, and a visit to Ben in Spain!


Mom and Dad came for a visit and we hiked out to the castle at Stonehaven

Little did we know the castle had attempted to disappear in the fog..


We went through loads of walks through Aberdeen.. which was wonderfully colored by the flowers that were in season!


We had a great couple of days in Edinburgh where we hiked up Arthur's Seat together!! Phew!! But the view was fantastic




Feickert even made it down to Bilbao when I was there to visit Ben. This was great, the three of us get/got along so well


Oh the boys are in Europe..



It was actually funny... I realized while traveling during Easter break that what REALLY matters when you're on vacation is who you're with. Cliche, I know. But I had the most fun visiting friends and family! It didnt' matter that I didn't jet off to some crazy european adventure! I went to plenty of exciting places with the people I love!!

So now school is back in session. Exams are around the corner. The weather is tempting me to go outside and play almost every minute of every day... :)

The next time I post I'll post some more "day to day" stuff from Aberdeen... that's probably what you're mostly interested in anyway. There's a possibility I'll be going to another Ceilidh tomorrow night... we'll see!!

Love.

HIYA!
I'm so sorry it's been so long since the last post!! You know what this means... THIS post will be a doozy!

So, two weeks ago I went on a saturday trip to go see Elgin. Elgin is a small town to the West... very pretty and quite small. We stopped at a Castle, a Cathedral, a palace, and... A DISTILLERY! Hahaha and NO I'm not just excited about that because I like whiskey (although I do like whiskey) I'm excited about that because of the Chemical Engineer in me! Sheesh!

The trip was fairly quick and I did learn quite a bit about the distilling process but I won't torture you all here with that. I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves.









The LAST weekend was my trip to London!! The Uof I study abroad program for British Exchange put this weekend together so we could all get together and tour about London. It's true what they say... when you're tired of London you're tired of life. The city had an amazing ability to be absolutely gigantic but still feel small enough so as not to be overwhelmed. The best part of the trip, I'd say, was the company. Matthew Feickert came from Cork and Kristin Segovich and Michael Theis came from Leeds while I came from Aberdeen with Katie. What a BLAST it was to see everyone again. Of course, there were a total of about 45 of us U of I kids when we all had dinner and what not.
We arrived on Thursday night (March 5th) and had delicious gormet pizza with some really tasty wine. The first night was mostly just good food and conversation since everyone had traveled pretty far to get to London. Day two, friday, everyone had the hotel's complimentary cereal and toast before getting on a bus for a city tour. I know it's cheesy, but it made me so well oriented for the rest of the trip. I'd recommend bus tours on the first days of trips for almost any place you go... we got a little taste of everything so that we could pick what we wanted to come back and see in more detail.
The bus dropped us off in Trafalgar square the big group broke off into smaller groups for the afternoon free time. Feickert, Katie, Michael, Kristin, and two other guys I can't remember.. went to China town for some lunch. Then we hit up Westminster Abby... HOW AMAZING!!!! They don't let you take pictures inside but it took my breath away, really. Well worth the visit. We also saw Parliament and Big Ben. Then we headed back into the inner city for a Pub Quiz and my first ever Guinness courtesy of Matthew Feickert. How appropriate.







The next day Katie and I went to London Bridge, the Tower of London, and the British Museum (PHEW... LONG DAY!) Before meeting everyone for some really amazing food and a performance of traces... modern cirque de sole basically.
Sunday was our last day. Katie and I hit the town about 9:30 seeing Buckingham and then winding down through the Harrods shopping district to catch the tube back to Heathrow airport and coming back to Aberdeen.. ahhh home sweet home.










OH! I almost forgot! I've joined the football club here and even played in a game!! Apparently I'm "that crazy American keeper who dives around like a maniac". Fantastic. I have so much fun practicing with those girls. I probably won't play in any more matches this season because of class conflicts so I made them take a picture at our game last week. Bahaha I got SOOO much crap for that. Apparently it's a VERY American thing to do to take pictures of everything... yeah... oh well. :D





I'm doing great guys. I really love it here.

Points of interest

I've finished my first large assignment! I wrote a hefty paper about Ezekiel 38-39 and Daniel 11:40-45 for my Old Testament study class. It was a beast to write but I'm done! So, as a reward, I'm going to go to town after class today and shop for a self-awarded birthday present :)
I got a smaller assignment back yesterday for another class and did very well on that too! Hurrah! Apparently this whole 'never having any tests' philosophy isn't failing me yet. It's a wonderful encouragement to have at least a glimmer of an idea of where you stand with the class material.
I've also noticed some silly things that I either miss or that are just different...

1. The hot water faucet here is absolutely BURNING hot within seconds of turning it on at every sink I've ever used. Apparently they don't bother with the idea of 'luke-warm' and 'non-scalding'
2. I haven't had ice in a drink since the first week when I specifically asked for it.
3. I miss Jimmy Johns and Panera because I knew I liked what was on the menu and I knew it was cheap.
4. Stores here have very specific items... even the drug store doesn't offer as wide a variety of items as, say, Walgreens.
5. "Mother's Day" in the USA= May 10 "Mum's Day" in the UK=March 22
6. EVERYONE recycles EVERYTHING that they possibly can. It's great.

Anyway, just some silly things. I know this isn't much of a post but I'll have a more interesting one soon since I'm going on a day trip this Saturday.

Working working working

Hello everyone!

I just wanted to say thank you to anyone and everyone who has sent me emails, letters, packages, videos, etc. during this first (almost) month!! The videos are like a little slice of home and you have no idea how great it is to get a little piece of home in the mail... or really, just to get mail in general! And I know it's really expensive to send it all the way here and I wanted to say thank you SO much, your thoughtfulness is incredibly appreciated.
I have a small piece of blank wall right next to my medicine cabinet/mirror in my room and it has become the "card wall" so any card I get goes up there! It's so pretty! It cheers me up in the mornings.

So, sadly, although I would love to run out and have more Scottish adventures this INSTANT... study abroad does involve some STUDYING and right now I have to write a large paper and do a reading. I've decided my reward for finishing this homework will be to go to dinner with some folks on Thursday night and to get myself some boots for my birthday. WAHOO!! All the girls wear these cute flat-boots here... gotta fit in! Haha.

I'm headed to Elgin this weekend for a day trip to a whiskey distillery and another castle so I'll have more pictures soon!

A Very Scottish Birthday!

Well, you are no longer reading the Blog of a Teenager!! That's right world, I'm 20 years old. Wow. And day one of being 20 (or day 365 of being 19 depending on how you look at it..) was AWESOME! Some of the other Americans here had gone to Glasgow for the weekend but I hadn't wanted to go there too terribly badly so I went on a day trip to Stonehaven with Caroline! We caught a bus into town, caught another bus to Stonehaven, and walked the 1.5 miles over to Dunnator castle! It was fantastic. The views were beautiful and my pictures SURELY don't do it justice. Mom and Dad, we'll have to go here when you come... it was pretty breathtaking. (because it was beautiful and because it was a HIKE! hahaha)

Dunnator was great and then we ate in Stonehaven and headed back to town. We got some groceries to make pancakes for my birthday dinner :) they were super yummy. On our way back into town, however, Scotland threw me another birthday curve ball and we ran into bag-pipers!!! I felt so cultured... haha. Actually I was very surprised, the people standing around and watching them weren't rolling their eyes like "oh, tourist attractions.." no no, the locals were THRILLED and moved to dancing (some of them) and eager to drop a few pence in the pile for the players. Cool!

After dinner we headed to a Ceilidh. I'd never been before but I'll surely go again. It was all scottish music, guys in kilts, organized dancing in groups of 2,4,6,or 8 and lots and LOTS of twirling around in circles!! I smiled the whole time... my face was sore before my feet were!!

Thanks to everyone who sent early cards or emails or wishes on and around my birthday this year!! I miss everyone back home but couldn't have thought of a better way to spend my day here in Scotland. It was fantastic.

Valentine's Day

Hey everyone!

So I wasn't expecting too much this Valentine's day. I was away from Ben and from home and all that. But the girls I'm hanging out with and I got the idea that we'd go to these winter gardens! The plan was to go to the winter gardens, go to dinner, and a movie! A girl date! It was great. Caroline, Katie, and I hopped on a bus around 1pm and caught a connection over to the other side of town to walk around Duthie Park. It was a little cloudy/windy but generally warmer than the past week and it didn't snow so, all in all, fabulous weather. The park was nice (though it will be AMAZING in the spring) but the best part was the winter gardens!! In the middle of the park there was a big series of greenhouses that were VERY well kept with hundreds of different types of plants... we had a BLAST walking through the gardens and smelling the flowers and taking pictures and laughing at all the little scottish children running around. Fantastic.
Then we came home and got some food (just in the dinning hall to save money :D ) before we went out again to see a movie! A few more girls joined us and we went to see "He's just not that into you" haha. It was actually more fun than I had expected, seeing a movie, because you can escape and almost feel like you're at home. Not to mention it was an american made film so the whole 2 hours were filled with MY ACCENT!! YESSSS. hahahaha





It was like being in a rainforest in there! It was warm and cozy and smelled of growing things...


This is what it looked like outside! Still snowy and a little cold... I think it was about 45 degrees F that day



AWESOME CACTUS ROOM!!




Katie, myself, and Caroline seated on one of the many memorial benches. Caroline found one that said "In memory of my wife. She made it easy to love her." awwwwwwww



Oh So many lion statues... so little time.. what's a girl to do?


I found Nessie!! She's not in Loch Ness anymore! she's here in Duthie Park!