Its all fun and games until someone drops the banana

Ok so I know I promised you a post about kilts. And I have a story ready to share, BUT I am still working on getting photos and doing fieldwork on Kilts so I am going to save it for another day. I promise, there will be a post about kilts with pictures in the near future.

In the meantime I thought I would tell you about the student sports clubs. It all started out with a societies fair. I was curious to see the very expensive but very well regarded gym so I found my way over to it (its across the city and up six hills, four flights of stairs and one very precarious road btw). I did this on my birthday because hey, what more fun can you have when you are broke and its your birthday??? So anyways, I went to the society fair. It was A MADHOUSE. There were over 100 sports present, everything from the skiing club to swing dancing to a sport called Shinty, which is apparently hockey without the rules. I wandered through the halls and gladly spoke to anyone handing me a flier. When I got the the archery club, I met a nice guy named Graeme who encouraged me to go down to the range to try it.

Ok so I have to admit here, I have found an interesting correlation between the danger of the sport and how good looking the guys who participate are here. Running had ok guys. Rugby guys are gorgeous. Archery is more towards the rugby side of the world. :) But that is not entirely why I signed up. I also really liked the feel of releasing the string and watching the arrow hurl towards the target. One could say I was hooked.

Yet joining a club and being accepted into the club are two entirely different things. Check out what the Hares and Hounds made their new students do:



Yep they made them dress up like superheros (Banana superheros) and run through town carrying what else? Bananas of course. I happened to be walking down the street taking pictures when this group jogged by. There was a lot of laughing and pointing involved.

So what was the embarrassing things did the archery club make us do? Well it involved a pub crawl and lots of drinking. I have pictures but I will save them for tomorrow.

Well class is starting so stay tuned. I have more to share.

Settling In and Birthday

Ok so I am going to start by apologizing to you all. I know you have been dying for word of me and I know you have been dying for pictures. Well here is word of me, but no pictures. Honestly I have been so busy that I haven't had much time for camera sightseeing, and more over, my camera and the batteries around here are not mixing well. As soon as I get my technical difficulties worked out, I will get back to you with some stunning pictures, I promise.

So what have I been doing for the past week??? What haven't I been doing, would be a better question. I arrived on Friday, got hopelessly lost looking for my hostel and then again for an internet cafe. I found Edinburgh to be charming, if not a bit hilly, which since then has only come to be over and over again the best first impression I have ever had. I called my mom, who was worried sick because my original phone card didn't work, and I had to get a new one.

Saturday I moved into my new "flat" which is of course on what we would call the 5th floor of the building. You see, in Europe, they have a quirky way of numbering floors with the first floor being the ground floor and the second being called the first... I live in room 407 and you can imagine my delight to have to carry all my stuff up four winding flights of stairs. I live in the ONE building on campus without a lift. But enough complaining, because I think I must have paid someone off without realizing it. I have the most beautiful room, with a view of the Divinity school's garden. It is at least two and half times the size of my roommates rooms, so I am darn lucky. I could totally fit a couch and a table in here if I could get it up the stairs. I moved in, and went out in search of goods for cooking and such.

Sunday, more shopping, interrupted by an International Student Welcome Ceremony. It was mostly a waste of time and a mob scene. I escaped to the library to find it closed. More shopping ensused.

Monday, I went back to the library and was sent across campus to the law library, who sent me back to my flat to get my passport. In heels of course. I went back, looked at the additional reading I was going to do, decided I didn't want to do it and went on a tour of the Royal Mile instead.

Tuesday, yesterday.... I went to all kinds of things. I started off the day with a campus tour, which took me to all the buildings I had already found. I then went to a yoga class, which was surprisingly hard. What travelling can do to a body! Then I went to "The Museum of Childhood" which was put together by a man who hated children. It was a museum filled with old toys, creepy figures of children and hard to read displays. I totally cut out early. I went to a trade fair at the student union and then to an induction ceremony in the building I will be graduating in next summer. They totally repeated everything from the meeting on Sunday. I finished out the day by going to an international relations pub quiz party where my team won dinner for four and two bottles of wine!

So whew! That brings me to today. I woke up and went to the doctor to register. I showed up for a couple fresher's week events, but unfortunately they were too full. So I went for a walk down to the sports center and helped a nun get safely to a church along the way. She promised to get me on God's good side for this year! Woohoo! Then I went over the the sports fair and talked to about a million clubs. I am trying Archery, Skiing and Ultimate Frisbee this weekend and something called Shinty next week. I figure why not. I spent the afternoon walking around the shopping on Prince's street and this evening out with my flatmates at a show.

As you can tell I am having a great time, but I miss everyone terribly. I have lots more I want to tell you, so tune in tomorrow, for my next post, "those who wear kilts and those who should never wear them again." Good night all!

On the plane

Ok I am not actually blogging from the tarmac, I wrote this last night. If everything is going right this morning, my plane should be taking off right now. Wish me luck, the Scots have no idea what they are in for!

PS congrats to Mae and Eric on their marriage today. I hope you have a lifetime of happiness. But if you want to change your mind and pick Europe Mae, I am an email away :)

In Seattle

Well technically I am in SeaTac, which is the town between Seattle and Tacoma that formed around the international airport. My parents and I drove up this afternoon from Seaside and now we are just waiting out the hours until we go to the airport. I have been spending much of mine time repacking because I realized I can barely lift my suitcases and that is not good. So now I will have less stuff to begin with and a promise from mom that she will send it to me. Sadly my bed looks like someone exploded all over it. I suppose that I will have to get it all sorted before I go to bed.

So I am in the hotel lobby because it costs money to use the internet in the rooms. Thanks Doubletree. I really wanted to hang out in your overpriced bar. At least they have an airport departure board that we can reference and a free airport shuttle in the morning. We are all about not paying for gas and parking if we can help it :)

I have to tell everyone, my parents are amazing. I can't believe they put up with me leaving over and over again. I am just so lucky that they have taught me to follow my ambitions, where ever it might take you. I love them both so much.

Well I am sure there is lots more to say, but I have packing to get back to. Goodnight everyone.

Tonight's Topic: Don't Panic

Okay I am totally stealing a page out of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy with this one. Tonight I am repeating the mantra don't panic. Don't panic that you are leaving the country in less than 36hrs. Don't panic that you are moving some place where you don't know a soul. Don't panic that you learned your blackberry phone doesn't know how to float. JUST DON'T PANIC....

Okay outburst over. As you might have guessed the last couple of days have been a little crazy. I got packing done Monday night. I cleaned and organized and repacked and called lots of customer service lines today. I washed my car and in the process my cell phone. I cleaned out the interior of the car so that every surface is squeaky clean. I swept the porch, the laundry room and a wall (we got our dryer replaced). As a matter of fact, the above outburst took the last bit of energy I had out of me. Do you know how hard it is to not panic. Its about as hard as getting back to sleep at 3am when you suddenly realize that you are leaving the day after tomorrow. Like THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW. CRAP.

So don't panic. Keep busy and do laundry and cleaning and packing and organizing and driving everyone around you nuts. Because at least if you are doing that, you can cover tired with, well I had a busy day.

Night out and Portland again

So I am sitting here with Daisy on my lap tonight, tired from what seems like a LONG 24 hours. We had our party last night, which was wonderfully fun and full of great things like this:



And this:



And after awhile this:

Yes that is the wonderful and fabulous Jody cutting Jennifer's hair. She and her friend Andrea came late, after everyone else was on their way back to Portland and had a post party party with us. After Jody got Jennifer, C and me all squared away (we wanted to trim a little more off of my hair) we agreed to meet up at a bar called the Lighthouse. Jen and I got ready and went out to Yummy Wine Bar for one more evening of fun before we headed over.

Needless to say, when I walked in no one in the place recognized me! New haircuts and makeup are fun things sometimes. Well we had a glass of wine and talked to Yummy's great staff and owner Corey and then headed out.

The Light House bar is nestled between the towns of Manzanita and Nehalem and during the day it serves a full menu. At night they normally have a small crowd and karaoke- however last night was an end of summer dance party. It was CRAZY! I decided I was finally done when a guy grabbed my butt coming back from the bathroom. I just barely kept from punching him. Boy can I tell you how glad I was that I was wearing jeans and not a little skirt last night.


So this morning I got up and my mom was making waffles. YUM! After we were done, she and I got dressed and headed into Portland for more of that girlie bonding time we like to do. We went to the nail salon, over to Chico's and to Old Navy. When we got to Target over on 185th in Tanasbourne we realized that Labor Day weekend is a BAD weekend to be shopping. We had a great time though and were very glad when we got back home.

As you might have guessed from the photos, I have figured out a way to make my camera and my computer talk. This means more, lots more, photos when I go overseas in a few days. YAY!

Three days and 12 hours to go!

Where is the time going? I swear the last time I looked around it was September 1st and now it is September 5th! I have been so busy I think I might actually be in a time warp. So lets see, what has happened in the last few days?

Wednesday: I went to Portland and had a very yummy lunch with friends at Pastini's in Portland. I highly suggest eating there, its perfectly located next to the Guild theater and the food is FANTASTIC! I saw some of my friends from the running club, which was so fun! Thank you to Jeff H for putting the event together and to Rick, Kelly, Joe, Erika and Sarah for making it out to see me. It was wonderful to spend some time with you! Then I ran over to NE Portland and got my haircut. I added the picture above. Then I drove back to downtown, had coffee with Jessica (I miss you already!) and heard all about her impending trip to NC on Thursday. It sounds like she is going to have lots of fun! I went back to NE Portland to a doctor's appointment and then to dinner at PF Changs with mom.

Thursday: C's birthday and State Fair day! We went to the fair. I entered four knitting projects and got two 3rd places and two 2nd places. Jennifer got 1st with her crocheted pillow case. We wondered, we tried foods, we met bunnies... all in all it was a fantastic day! The best part was I finished packing when I got home that night!

Yesterday: I slept in and was lazy all morning. When I finally did get around to getting going, I went to lunch with my mom, Leslie and Leslie's daughter Sarah. Sarah just started law school at Lewis and Clark so it was interesting to hear about what she is up to. I went to the bank and to the post office. I picked up my new sunglasses and went by the Hospital to say hello to people. All in all it was just a good day around home.

So today we are having some of our old friends from Lake Oswego and Portland over for food and drinks. We have been cleaning and cooking all morning, but I think we are finally getting close to being done! I can't wait to see everyone again.

Well I best be running. I will post more later!

Kristie

Everything but the art final

So I had one big thing to do today, one thing that above everything else, has to be done. I have a final in an Art class I have been taking this summer that is due tomorrow. It isn't the quiz part of it that has been giving me problems, it is the essay portion that I simply cannot decide what to write. So today was the day. I got up early and stared at my computer. I watched Momma Mia and got Abba songs stuck in my head all day. No essay.

I got dressed, went down to see my mom for a second, and went and got a coffee. I sat at my computer and stared... then I picked up my knitting and got an impressive amount of rows done. Still no essay.

I looked at the clock. It was noon. I had nothing to say for the morning, nothing to show for the hours I had spent. No essay. Annoyed, I went down and checked on my sunglasses and contacts I ordered yesterday. I went to the outlet mall, and bought thank you notes. I bought long underwear and other unmentionables. I shopped at the travel shop (no clothes line there either) and got annoyed that they were offering a discount to seniors but not for students. I came home, realized that all the clothes I just bought were the wrong size. Still no essay.

I went back to the outlet mall. I even stopped at the library on the way to drop off my last required reading book. I went over to Warrenton and saw Sue. I determined that my suitcases were too empty and needed more stuff in them. I came home and sat and stared at the computer for awhile more.

I had dinner. Then I made a pompom and a scarf for a stuffed duck (don't ask). I packed up all the non essential things in my room and my bathroom. I even wrote thank you notes. And here I am now, 9:30pm, after over 15 hours of mulling on this project and I STILL DON'T HAVE AN ESSAY!

Is there any way I can do this day over again?

PS Is anyone else as excited it is September 1st as I am????