Saturday, December 08, 2007

Massive Updates

Ok, I know I promised to update regularly, but I’ve been manic with pressure. I have so much uni stuff to do, and then other personal things have been stressing me out in my life, so I haven’t had the time to do much updating. I apologize…again! Hmm, now I have to try and remember all the things that I’ve done over the last few weeks. Ah yes, before I forget, I would just like to mention that I got an 18 on my McDonald’s essay for my American class! Whoo hoo! That is the highest grade that she gave to anybody in our class, so I’m well chuffed. She also told me that I write so well that she would love to see me lead a teaching seminar for the entire class…yeah, like that’s going to happen! But, it is flattering nonetheless. Other than that, let me try to remember what has happened lately…I’m sure I’ll inevitably miss out on something that I’ve done, but for now, here’s what I remember:

Friday, November 2

Nathan took me to Crathes Castle (pictured right), which is near Banchory. As I’m sure you all realize by now, I’m a complete castle fanatic, so after much begging and pleading, he agreed to take me to one. The drive was really nice, but a lot shorter than I thought it would be…I guess Aberdeen is pretty close to many things! Whod’ve thunk? Lol. Anyhoo, we left pretty early so I agreed to buy us breakfast in exchange for him buying our admission tickets. We sat in the little café and had a nice meal, and then waited for our tour to begin. Unfortunately, you are not allowed to take pictures of the interior of the castle (all the castles I’ve been to have that rule…what gives? Of course we’re going to want to take pictures inside!), so I don’t have any of those to show you. Our tour guide did let us take a picture from a window high up in a tower, which I have included to the left. The view was spectacular! After the very informative and enjoyable tour finished, we decided to wander the grounds and garden. Unfortunately, with it being early November, the garden wasn’t as in bloom as I’d have liked, but it was still pretty nonetheless. While I was wandering carefree around the grounds, Nathan had taken my camera and was taking close-up pictures of all the different flowers scattered everywhere. I was wondering what he was doing, and was dubious that the pictures would turn out, but once I got home and downloaded them, my jaw dropped…they were absolutely gorgeous! Nathan is quite the photographer (unlike me, who just haphazardly points at something somewhat interesting and hits the button!). It had rained earlier that morning, so there were still drops of water on the petals, which when you zoom in really close, creates an amazing picture. I’ve included some of my favorite flower pictures that Nathan took below. I wish I could make the pics bigger, but then it would take the webpage forever to load, so I just hope that you can see the detail in them clearly enough with them being so small. Hmm, now that I think about it, I’m going to set them up as links, because it would be a shame not to see them full-size. So, if you click on any individual picture, you’ll be taken to a larger image. In case you’re wondering which flower is my favorite, it’s the last one (though the blue and yellow one comes in a very close second!)

So, there you have it, my fun-filled day at Crathes Castle with Nathan…it would be hard to top such a lovely day! As we were driving home, I asked him to take me to Aberdeen beach for a little while…I love the beach so much (as we have no oceans/seas in MN…and I’m sorry, but our 10,000+ lakes do not count as proper beaches! Lol) and hardly ever get to go down there. So, we walked a little and hung out for a bit before he drove me home. I’ve been giving him hints that he has to take me to another castle sometime this year…hopefully he’ll cave and bring me to another one!

Friday, November 9

Ross took me to the Torry Battery (pictured below to the right). When he text me asking if I wanted to go there, I was all like “I don’t know what it is exactly, but ok!” Lol. I found out after we got there that it was the place where they defended Aberdeen harbor (pictured left). Of course, it’s pretty much in ruin now, but it’s still impressive to look at. Ross took the long way to get there, so we got to go for a nice scenic drive. He even pointed out the radioactive beach (don’t ask! Lol). So, we parked and then walked around leisurely looking at everything. I even got to see my first dolphin sighting in the North Sea! Ross asked me if I saw it, and I was sad that I hadn’t, but then a minute later, there were like 3 of them popping out of the water! Too cute. We spent about an hour or so just walking around talking and whatnot…it was really nice. I hardly ever get to see Ross anymore, as we don’t have any classes together this year, so it’s nice when we get to spend time together, and I always try to stretch it out for as long as I can. After a while though it began to get way too cold and windy so we headed back to his car. We ended up sitting there for yet another hour or so just talking a bit more before we headed back into town. Overall, it was a really nice day, and I hope that I can bamboozle him into doing something else in the next couple of weeks.

Thursday, November 29

Today was Nathan’s 21^st birthday. We went to class as usual, and then Nathan and I went to the hub for lunch, as we usually do every day, and I gave him my presents. I had already bought him a birthday present about a month ago, so these were really just little side gifts. His main present was a really beautiful bonsai tree. He’s really into bonsai trees (and plants in general), so I got him a Loropatalum. He told me that as I had bought it, I should name it for him. I finally settled on the name Suki, which has a certain meaning in Japanese, but I won’t go into that here. It’s purple/pink in color and sprouts little pink flowers during certain times of the year. He kept going on about how it cost me too much, but I really like giving gifts to people who mean a lot to me, so I didn’t have any qualms about spending the money on him. So, as I had already given him his main gift some time ago, I decided to buy him an issue of Vanity Fair from March 2006. This may seem like a strange gift for a guy, but it has an inside joke attached to it…my professor in my American class keeps going on about how Vanity Fair is an excellent source for popular culture articles about the U.S., so Nathan was keen to see what one said. He also likes Scarlett Johansson…that’s important to know to understand the gift! Lol. The issue that I bought him showed both her and Kiera Knightly posed nude (tastefully, of course) on the cover. I figured, what guy wouldn’t like that? Lol…and I think he did. So, that was one present, and the other one was a framed picture of Crathes Castle (the one he took me to a few weeks earlier). I always try to personalize gifts, so that they mean more than if you just go out and pick something up from the shop. In the end, though, I think he really liked everything I gave him, which always makes me happy! Can I just say though, that I always feel so old when one of my friends over here has a birthday? I mean, come on!...Nathan just turned 21, and I turned 27 some months ago…talk about feeling ancient amongst friends! Lol.

Sunday, December 2

Today is Thanksgiving. Ok, so it’s really not, but it is the day that I chose to invite my friends over to celebrate a belated Thanksgiving dinner. And, the scary thing is…I was cooking! Aah! I invited Charlee, her boyfriend Bobby, Nathan and Ross. I was really nervous, as I’ve never cooked a full traditional Thanksgiving meal before, and stupid me, I never bothered to watch my mom cook it when I had to chance. So, I got her to tell me how to do everything, but being a mother, she does that cooking thing where you never measure anything out but just know how much to put in and whatnot, so it was like pulling teeth trying to get her to give me some measurements. I ended up making an 11 pound turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce made from scratch, fruit salad (the fluffy kind my mom makes with whipping cream, fruit cocktail and marshmallows), and apple pie for dessert. It was actually quite a lot of fun cooking, as everybody was crammed into my tiny little kitchen trying to help. Between all of us, we finished making the mashed potatoes, stuffing, and turkey gravy. We finally sat down to eat, and just had a relaxing meal amongst friends. Charlee enjoyed it so much that she said she wanted to have a dinner party of her own! In fact, I think it’s scheduled for December 16^th, if I’m not mistaken. So, we basically just sat around talking, eating and having some laughs. It turned out to be a really good evening, and it’s rare that I have the opportunity to be around all my good friends at once. So, even in Scotland, I got to celebrate Thanksgiving, and for once, I actually had much to be thankful for!

Thursday, December 6

Today Nathan and I exchanged Christmas gifts. We both have two essays to write that are due next week, so we decided to do the exchange today instead of later next week. I also had to wait until my presents for him arrived from the States. Nathan has recently begun to follow and like the Minnesota Wild for some reason. I suspect that it’s because it’s a team from where I come from (I only wished he liked the Vikings…even though they’re doing quite poorly at the moment). Anyhoo, as he kept talking about the Wild, and telling me their final game scores every other day, I thought it only right that I buy him some MN Wild merchandise. Instead of just going online and ordering it, I asked my mom to look around the stores back home to see if she could find some nice stuff. She did. I let her purchase a really cute miniature goalie mask (looks just like the real thing, only it’s made for a head about the size of a fist!), a miniature hockey stick, and a puck with the Wild logo on it. I also got him some good color pencils and a sketch book from a shop over here (he was always saying that he didn’t have any color pencils, and I know that he likes to draw like I do). I think he really liked all his gifts, which again made me feel really happy (I really enjoy giving people gifts). In return, he got me this really gorgeous painting (shown right) by a famous Yorkshire artist named Ashley Jackson. It’s a watercolor print of a little country road and house. I feel like such an adult with a proper piece of artwork hanging on my wall! Lol. So yeah, it was a good pre-Christmas present day.

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