So Here's My Journey: I'm sorry, so sorry.

You know how exciting my life has been?

So exciting that I forgot about blogging to you guys.

Okay, fine. That's a lie. I didn't forget. I just kept putting it off. And then today I was at the gym (yes, at the gym...you'll learn about this astonishing new fact soon) and I was drying my hair when all of a sudden I said (out loud) "Oh my gosh, I haven't updated my blog in OVER A MONTH!" So yes...time flew by so fast its uncanny.

Basically, what that was supposed to be was an apology, for anyone that may or may not read these. I will try my best to update you on my life here during the past month, and hopefully add a few pictures here and there as well, all the while trying not to bore you to death!

Where to start?! ...since October 24th, I have grown one month older, smarter, and stronger.

I've been to lots of fun things around here, starting with Aberdeen's annual Christmas parade! Unlike the Canadian versions, Santa Claus (a fat man on stilts with a giant costume so the legs just looked really long....which was quite scary, to be honest...)actually comes around to the crowd BEFORE the parade, and he was walking up and down the street, getting pictures with the kids and everything. After that, the parade started, which was good, but very short! I was expecting something like the Kingston (or maybe even Toronto) Santa Claus Parade, but it only lasted about 10 minutes! ...and it wasn't until AFTER that I discovered that the parade was a "12 days of Christmas parade" ....so there was one partridge in a pear tree, 5 golden rings, 7 swans a swimming, 10 lords a leaping...you get it! You can imagine my confusion at the time, when there were these 10 guys just jumping around all the way down Union Street.

These Scots, I tell you, they're crazy!!

Seriously, look at that and tell me you're not scared. It's a giant, out-of-proportioned Santa Claus on stilts!!

Here's the "Lords a-Leaping". Understand my confusion?

Oh yes, and the swans...again, a bit creepy, no? And then the 5 golden rings.

I've been busy trying to go to all of my mandatory concerts this term...we have to go to 10, so it's a tight fit! The worst part is that there's only a possible 22 concerts that can count towards the 10, and I didn't find out about the requirement until about 6 had already passed, and then of course some of them conflict with other plans or meetings, and some are just far away! So I've ended up going to a lot that I didn't really want to go to, and listening to more atonal music than I could put up with. I mean, don't get me wrong, I can appreciate atonal music, and it can be very interesting, especially when its written with contemporary instrumentation or uses electroacoustic sounds....but after so long, it just gave me a headache. It's not my favourite kind of music, and when you go to a concert where Schoenberg is a breath of fresh air, it says something.

All I'm saying is that there should be a wider variety of concerts available. I know that these atonal concerts were on the list because they were part of the Sound Festival here, but STILL. aack.

In other music terms, my trombone lessons are going really well! I like my teacher a lot, he's helping me work on things that I never really paid much attention to before, and is picky enough with details that it's making me practice more effectively.

I had my first performance with the University Orchestra...which was, in my opinion, kind of a mess. I don't think we were prepared enough. We only rehearsed with the choir once (and I don't even know if we were able to run through it even once completely) before the recital, and the strangest part is, since then (nov. 12th), we haven't had any rehearsals (only strings). Why wouldn't they just leave more time to rehearse and have a concert sometime in December or late November? It's not much time to put together a piece if you only practice for an hour a week... I'm not trying to condemn the decisions made, here. I mean, there was probably some kind of space booking issues that left us in this situation. But that's exactly what I mean! Things just seem so unorganized here all the time!!

I also had my first jazz performance a while ago (we played at a local pub), and although it was sad because it was on November 5th, which is Guy Fawkes night, it was a fun night! And that's when I realized that the drummer is SO ADORABLE. Why I had not noticed before? I have no idea.

Oh, and to fill you in on Guy Fawkes night, it's an annual celebration of when Guy Fawkes tried to explode parliament buildings in 1605. It was a failed attempt, and now to celebrate, people have huuuge bonfires, and burn dummies representing Guy Fawkes. There's also fireworks (professional and then also loooads of people just buy their own, too). Actually now that I"m thinking of it, there were fireworks for about a week afterwards, too!

OOO! Last music-y thing, we had our first trombone quartet rehearsal!! :) I really enjoyed it! I'll keep you updated on it as it contines!

Oh, and Hallowe'en! That seems so long ago!! Little Mia and I went as the Incredibles. And oh, it was incredible. We knew it was going to be a good night because we had been stealing salt and we had bought lemons/limes but then didn't get around to buying tequila...so we were just drinking other stuff at first. But then we met Jonny. And Jonny, conveniently, had a bottle of tequila, but no salt or limes!! The night started off great. We ended up on Belmont street, in the city centre, which was PACKED full of people (the entire city!) that it was like Aberdeen Street on homecoming x50. It was so insane. Everyone was dressed up (and an uncanny number of guys dressed as girls...I don't know why they like doing that so much here) and you could barely walk because there was so many people.

Another exciting thing I've done is I went to visit Mike in Leeds! It was so nice to spend a weekend with a familiar face, to get to see a new city, and to meet some other Canadians (AND AUSSIES!). I don't know any Canadians or Aussies here, so it was like I was living in a completely different place, although it was just 8 hours away.

The beautiful welcome sign that Mike made for my visit, and me in front of the Leeds Corn Exchange, one of the many places we visited on our tour of the city!

Queen's reunited!! :)

Funny story from that trip! -- when I was on the way home (8 hour train ride), I was just using an "open" ticket, which means that I don't have a reserved seat. Usually coach B (aka car 3) of the train is all for non-reserved tickets. So I wander onto the train, make my way to the 3rd car, and...oh crap. All the seats had reserved tickets on them. And so did the next car. And all the cars. And the train was already moving. Grrrreat! So I asked this random lady where people with open tickets can sit, and she just said "I think you can just sit anywhere". So i chose an empty seat, beside a Russian-speaking (i think?) guy in his late 20s, early 30s maybe. every time the train stopped, I crossed my fingers and hoped to God that someone didn't come on who had my seat reserved. Luckily, no one did, the whole time!

As you can imagine, it was a long weekend, with late nights and everything, and I was tired by the time I got on the train. I fell asleep, which I don't usually do on trains...but that's not the worst part...I woke up on the Russian guy's shoulder!! AACK! At least I wasn't drooling...but still, I think he was skyping with his girlfriend or something, who probably saw me in the camera. HOW EMBARRASSING!! I don't think I was asleep for too long, because I woke up and thought "oh crap" and sat up really fast, and then me and this Russian guy just looked straight ahead, not making eye contact, and no one said a word. But you know, I knew what happened, and he knew what happened, and I'm sure he knew that I knew what happened. Oh dear. So then at the next stop he so subtly decided to change seats. Trick's on him, though, because some younger cute guy sat next to me, and then the seat that Russian Man moved to was reserved and he got kicked out and had to stand for the rest of the trip! Bahahaha. Too funny.

But it gets better! The ladies that came on the train and kicked out Russian Man were SO FUNNY. They were a group of five or six 50-somethings who were having a girls weekend in Edinburgh. So they get on, I hear them chit-chatting, and then they all of a sudden pull out a 26-er of dark rum, a mickey of light rum, and 4 cans of double gin and tonics, and almost drink it ALL by the time we arrived in Aberdeen!! They were so friendly, they were telling me all these stories of their husbands and their dogs and their kids, and they gave me lots of junk food to last me the journey and some orange juice (after noting with a wink, "don't worry, hunny, there's nothing in it...just orange juice!"). People are so friendly here!!

More exciting news is that one of my pictures from Stonehaven (the sepia one of the castle with birds flying in it, that I posted in my last blog) was featured in the University paper as "photo of the week". Cool, eh?

But with all the good experiences, there's also been some bad ones. Namely, this one:

For those of you that haven't read my note on facebook yet, there was a huge discrepancy in marking by my TA for my music history course. Basically, let's just say that she unfairly took off marks, for reasons that stemmed from the fact that my presentation was humourous and colourful and not dry and boring like the majority of the other ones. I included all the information on the criteria sheet, and when I went to talk to her about it, she couldn't give me any solid reasons why I should loose any marks at all, nevermind 30%. On top of that, she called me American, which is SO NOT COOL. Discrimination, actually. I even emailed the course coordinator and wrote her a huge long email about what had happened; about how I was ultimately punished for being creative. It's been almost 3 weeks, and no response. Just goes to show the quality of education here. It's driving me nuts!!!

Instead of that nasty TA some even nastier (yet fitting) names, I'll just despise her quietly and be comforted in the fact that karma never seems to fail.

Oh, and another sad happening was that my glasses broke! I was walking to class, and the literally fell off my face! one of the sides just fell off. The screws went missing. Bam. just like that.

What else, what else?

Ohhh, I just remembered a story from the night of the Christmas Parade. Julia, Mia and Mia and I decided to go to Thai food at this cute restaurant after the parade. So we met, we ordered, it was all going quite well, until I got a piece of chili stuck between my gums and my tooth, right where my wisdom teeth are coming in. So it was like basically an open wound being rubbed with a chili. Sounds pleasant, doesn't it? I couldn't get it out, and my eyes were crying so much that my face was getting all wet, and my mouth was SO HOT, it sucked!! Now I know why some people don't like Indian food or other hot food. If they feel like that when they eat it...AHH! That really did suck.

I ended up going to the bathroom and eventually fishing it out...but even despite that, I'd go back. The food really was delicious!!

This was pre-chili. At the parade. I obviously didn't take any pictures while I was crying my eyes out.

Speaking of food, Mia and I (I need to find a way to tell you which Mia I'm talking about...let's call them Little Mia and German Mia). So Little Mia and I went to Sainsbury's last week, which is basically like Loblaws. It's a bit more expensive, but it's got a much wider variety. So, being students, we usually opt for the cheaper option, but we decided to check it out just to see what it was like. So we made it there okay, its probbaly only about a 15 minute walk from our halls. But on the way back...oh dear. We went out a different door than we came into the store by, and thought that if we cut across the parking lot and went up the hill, we'd end up on the road we were supposed to be on. But it wasn't. So we started walking one way, hoping that the road would connect. But it didn't. After walking about 20 minutes, we thought "maybe we should just walk back and take the route we know". But then it seemed like it'd be so much longer...there must be a quicker way, right? Wrong. So we ended up keep on walking, asking a couple for directions, which were either wrong or just poorly interpreted....needless to say, we were very, very lost. With all of our expensive groceries.

And then Mia's bag broke. And then we realized that we were about a 15 minute walk from the city centre. Which is about a 25 minute walk from our halls. So we EVENTUALLY made it back home (after another broken bag, the realization that we didn't have enough money for bus fares...you have to have exact change) and very very cold and tired feet. About 2 hours later. So yes, mom and dad and friends and family who always tease me, there exists someone else in this world with as horrible a sense of direction as me. Thought you might like to know. But on the bright side, we got a beautiful tour of the city (probably would be qualified to give a city tour now!) and we got a good workout, AND it wasn't raining! :)

That's what I like about Little Mia. I mean, I like German Mia too, but Little Mia is so much like me. We're both horrible at directions, we have burping contests (although even with this trait, she's been able to find a boyfriend and I haven't...) and she goes to the gym with me! Yes, folks, you read right.

The gym! The Aberdeen Sports Village is a new complex about 5 or 10 minutes from campus, and it's of Olympic standard. There's SUCH a nice atmosphere, because there's full glass walls where you can watch people training on the indoor track, lots of natural lights, looots of new equipment, and consoles to plug in your ipods and then control it on a touch screen bigger than my laptop, or watch tv! It's so great, I really like going!

Oh, and the weather!! Dear, dear!! Leave it to me to come to Scotland during a time when the UK gets more rain than they've had in 55 years!! No joke, it rains EVERY DAY here, and to see the sun is truly a blessing. It's getting cold now, too. Around 4-5 degrees most days, but it feels much colder because the wind is so strong. One day last week, I could barely walk, and I'm not exactly a twig! If it's going to be cold, there better be snow!!

I received a couple really amazing things in the mail that I'd like to give a shout-out to, as well! Katryna, Caitie, Erin, Mom and Dad (the Advent calendar I just got TOTALLY made my day!) were all reallllyyy appreciated! It's so nice to be able to hold something that you held! (Not that emails and skype are not nice. Letters are just so much fun!)

Oooo, and I decorated my room for Christmas already! One of my favourite additions, besides the garland, wreath, lights, and strings of golden snowflakes, is my new friend, Gunter (imagine the 2 dots above the U, pronounced "Goonter"):

This weekend, I was supposed to go to Loch Ness, but it was a really unorganized trip (so much that we didn't know how or when we were getting there) so we're planning a more exciting and organized trip for next weekend I think! By "we", I mean Agnes (my French friend who is sooo adorable), Little Mia, and I. And maybe Julia! Instead of Loch Ness, I went to the city centre, went to the Christmas market, went to see The Informant a the cinema, and then bought some good food at Mark's and Spencer's for supper! OH!! And I heard some street bagpipers playing Scotland The Brave and it reminded me of Queen's (I tried to video tape it, but by the time I got my camera out, it was over)...which was ironic, because I think it was at that very moment that Queen's was playing for the Vanier Cup! AND WE WONNNNNN!!!!! YESSSSSSSSSSS!!!!

Figures, though, the one year I go away is the one year that Queen's wins. Ah, well, I was there in spirit!

I think I'll leave you with that! I know there's probably more that I should have said, but that's the gist! I promise I'll try and fill you in more often!

In the near future, I'm going to Loch Ness, then Edinburgh...and then HOME!!! I can't believe time has flown by so fast!!

I'll leave you with these (and explanations for some of them which have left me in some awkward situations)

Funny word differences between Canada and UK:

(Canada word) --------- (UK word)

Pants ----------------------underwear -> I know that most of you know this one, but it's so hard to remember not to say "pants" like that. The embarrassing story has happened more than once in this case. The first time, I came in after a rainy day walking in the mud, and I came into my res, saw Alex, and just said "awww, my pants are all dirty!". The second time, it was with Alex again, and I came in after a rainy day (surprise, surprise!) and when I poked my head into her room she was watching a movie. So I sat on the edge of her bed, and she said "you can move back, you know, it'll probably be more comfortable for you" and I said "well I just don't want to get your bed soaking, because my pants are all wet!" baaaaaaah. When will I ever learn!?

kink -----------------------crick (I had a kink in my neck, and when I started complaining about it, Alex said "a kink? You mean a crick?" and I said "no, a kink" and she said "do DO know what kinky means, don't you?" Oh Lord. I said my neck had a KINK. not that it was KINKY. Yikes.

marker---------------------pen (yet, they call pens 'pens' as well. Weird.)

eraser----------------------rubber! (I haven't been personally embarrassed by this one, but can you imaging if you were in class and someone asked you for a "rubber"?)

stinky----------------------rank (a term often used to describe the smell in our kitchen)

bad/poor quality----------naff

res--------------------------halls

period (punctuation)-----full stop (this was a funny one. I was writing and my hand slipped at the end of a sentence, so the period was a long line. Alex saw it and said "what the heck happened there?" and I said "my hand slipped when I was doing that period" and she was like "EW! WHAT?!" Apparently here, "period" means...well, period. And "full stop" means "." The funny part is that earlier that day, we had a tutorial on referencing and bibliographies. I got chosen to read a practice question aloud, and for every period in the bibliography, I said "period". I wonder what they were thinking....

field------------------------pitch

like-------------------------fancy (I know you know this one, too, but I just laugh every time I hear it. And "wee". Like when they say "I'd fancy a wee taste of that", I just laugh to myself. Too good!)

small/little-----------------wee

and, my personal favourite:

birdie (badminton)------shuttlecock !!!! Honestly. Could they think of a more ridiculous name?

Oh, and one more thing! I also wanted to end with a funny picture...hopefully you can read what it says on the sign: