Och, Aye! Oi! Oi!!

Before I get to the actual explanation of the past two (three?) days, please note that the title of this blog was influenced by the group of....British?....guys staying across the hall from me, who are LITERALLY screaming "Oi!! OI!!!". How ridiculous is that? "I don't much fancy Chinese food!" "A'righ, A'righ, I'm comin'!" BAAAAHAHAHA I LOVE IT. And Scottish accents, of course. I can't help but smile when I walk by people on the streets and hear them talking. I wonder what we sound like to them? Is it more fluent? Or more harsh? Pretty or ugly? Or pretty ugly? Speaking of pretty, there are QUITE a number of good looking people here, males and females! I think is may have something to do with the fashion, which isn't radically different, but different enough to be noticable. The haircuts are pretty much ALL short and sleek and straight, and most of the guys wear dark jeans, NOT hanging half the way down their ass, which is nice :) Girls are relatively the same as at home, maybe a bit more eyeliner and (hahah they just said Oi again) lots of cute flats. BUT I'm getting ahead of myself! The last three/two/whatever days have been a whirlwind! Unbelievable. Fantastic and exciting and tiring and new and interesting and delicious all at the same time! Well, I may take back the delicious part, but only in regards to the plane food (some kind of beef with a side of some kind of oat/grain/something else salad)...could have passed on that one, but it was a kind of "now or not for 5 hours" idea, so I ate it anyway. My parents and I left home early in the morning, and made it to Toronto with lots of time to catch up with my nannee, have a bite to eat. We left for the airport and made it there with time to check our bags (which I had to meticulously packed beforehand that the weight was dispersed JUST enough so that weight restrictions would pass). We luckily caught the first flight our of Toronto possible (we were on standby) and I got lucky as far as seat partners goes. I was stuck in the middle (oh yea, the MIDDLE of the middle) beside two young girls, one of which was going to do research in school in Cambridge, and both of whom declined my offer of fruit-flavoured mentos. Without so much as an hours sleep in total, we eventually got to Heathrow, and then looked around for a cheap connecting flight. After debating whether or not to take the shuttle to Gatwick to look around over there, taking a train to Aberdeen, and a few other undesirable options before finding a flight leaving in a few hours. We took turns napping at the airport (which was easier than you may think, albeit the hubub of people and planes taking off and what-not, because I had been up for almost 24 hours already). I knew at this early stage that jetlag was going to be a bugger. I suppose that's what happens when you get a 6:30 flight across the pond, though. Your body isn't sleepy enough to fall asleep at 6:30pm, and by the time you're ready to doze off, you're in the UK with another day ahead of you, and no sleep behind you. Anywayyy, we met a girl from the University of A at the airport (as well as an ADORABLE guy from RGU) and she gave us some maps and some advice, and was very nice! She helped us get a taxi, and soon enough, we were on our way to the guesthouse we had booked. I just about had a heart attacke driving on the left side of the road. Really. I was WAY more scared in that van than I was the entire time on the flight or anything. I kept thinking "OH CRAP" and then we'd turn at the last second, or I'd look one way and a car would be coming, and then the driver would step on the gas, but turn the OTHER way (so we wouldn't get hit) and....ah. I was just happy to make it to the place. The driver was verrrrry Scottish and pointed out a lot of places along the way for us to go see :) Basically all we did was take a quick walk up to the cornerstore to pick up some groceries, and then had supper at this great Indian food buffet place and then sent a few quick emails and went to bed! And let me tell you, never, have I ever slept so well. Well, apart from the fact that it felt like it'd only been 5 minutes when I was woken up. Today, though, was more adventurous! We woke up around 9pm (I think that was over 12 hours sleep -- nothing special for me, but it somehow helped in syncing my body to this time zone, because jet lag was all gone today! VICTORYYYY). Anyway, we got up around then, had showers and breakfast and got ready for the day. We went on a walk up to campus, where we explored on our own for a bit, then found a bank on campus, that I needed to register with. Turns out, it's going to take a while for my account to be set up, so I'll have to wait for a few weeks living off of the cash I have and my debit card from home. But anyway, it'll be convenient to have it right there on campus if we need it :) The lady that owns this place is SO FUNNY....I can't even explain it. She's a tiny little Asian lady who has this adorable little laugh and tells this little jokes that wouldn't be funny if I typed them out (the delivery is everything). And she's veryyy accommodating! I felt badly, actually, because I was trying to go to bed, and my parents kept knocking at my door telling me things or dropping things off or picking things up or whatever, and I was like "UGH, leave me alone, I just want to sleep! Is that so much to ask?" and then I was fiiiinally dozing off, when *Bang*Bang*Bang* came at my door again, so I screamed, in the most fed up voice "WHAT?!?!" and then I went to answer it, and this little lady was standing there, saying "Hi there, I brought you a towel!" Ohhhhh nooooo :( I am horrible, horrible, horrible. Anyhow, after the bank extravaganza, we went on a campus tour, just us and then this girl Sarah, from Seattle and her mom (both vair nice!) It was cool to see the buildings on campus (SO BEAUTIFUL!) and explore around a bit, even though I was lost 90% of the time. I'm sure I'll grab my bearings soon enough. Same thing happened at Queen's. It's neat here to see the history clash with the more modern buildings, though. SO much going on! My mom took a bunch of pictures, and I kind of regret not doing so myself, ESPECIALLY because it was such a nice day, but I hate feeling like such a tourist! I know it's silly, and i KNOW that means I don't have pics today to show you, but...they're coming soon, I promise! *side note* I just heard a guy come in from a night on the town, burp loudly, then pee, very, very loudly in the bathroom across the hall. I wonder if he even shut the door? Honestly. I heard everything. EV.ER.Y.THING. So yea, we had lunch on campus, then got my phone set up in the city centre, then came back here, did some more shopping, got takeout (aka "takeaway") supper and ate in our rooms as we watched this AWESOME show with a psychologist Derren Brown (google it!). Actually, I'll google it for you. Go here http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/6128688/Derren-Brown--will-incapacitate-viewers.html It explains a bit what was going on. It was like a hypnotist, but BETTER, because it wasn't hypnotism. Just read it. So, story is, I'm super tired, and need to be up super early to get everything ready to get in another cab over to the uni with all my crap to sign in and get set up, so I gotta hit the hay! updates soon! Thanks for reading, and pics coming soon, I PROMISE!! Beckers :)