November-January: A Recap...

I'm afraid I've gotten rather behind on these updates and then when deciding whether to post several different updates about the different events over several days vs. posting one big long update blog I would just not come and update this blog; so the time between updates grew....Since the last post was back in early November there's a good bit to recap. Fortunately for you, dear reader, you didn't/won't have to wade through all of the little daily details of life here in Aberdeen, though. So, here are the bigger events:
I'll start by showing you one of my favourite (I'll be using some of the local spellings in this post) views, the view from my kitchen window out towards the River Don, particularly around sunset:

November:
Thanksgiving: Caitlin and I made our own Thanksgiving meal. It wasn't on Thanksgiving day because Thursdays were my class-day this last semester. And, alas, our tiny little ovens wouldn't have been able to fit a Turkey if we'd tried. So instead we had chicken with a variety of side dishes from stuffing to my grandma's potato casserole. Between my birthday and Thanksgiving (thanks to the cans of pumpkin my parents sent) I was however, still able to eat plenty  of pumpkin pie! and even share some with my small group. Oh, that reminds me, well actually, I'll come to that in a little bit.

[a probably less than appetizing picture of our food]

Another reason why my flatmate and I didn't eat our Thanksgiving meal on Thanksgiving day was because we had mistakenly purchased tickets to see a musical that night; thinking that a random Thursday in November would be just great! And it was fun! We saw Dreamboats and Petticoats. It's a musical based on the songs from the 1960s and, well, although I enjoyed it immensely, I don't think Caitlin quite had the same classic oldies music training as I did when I was young. But for our second show at His Majesty's Theatre, it was grand and I'm looking forward to heading back there for another student-discounted show in the near future!

As many of you who have been following this adventure of mine from the beginning may remember, I found Aberdeen and the programme I'm in through a scholarship. The Saltire Scholarship to be particular. As you may also remember, I got that scholarship! As did one of my classmates and my flatmate. Since that particular scholarship is sponsored by the Scottish Government, they invited us, along with a variety of other International Students who had won a variety of other scholarships, to a reception in Edinburgh. So, I got to go on my second adventure to Edinburgh. Caitlin and I got there early enough to take in some of the sights (which included a Christmas Fair!) and then we made our way to the venue. It was held in a gallery of one of the museums in Edinburgh and it was lovely.

 


December:
So, you know that thing I mentioned above in the Thanksgiving recap that I was reminded to tell you about? I don't remember if I've told you this or not already, but here you go: since the first full Sunday I spent in Aberdeen I've been attending Aberdeen Christian Fellowship (aka: ACF)! That very first day at church I was invited along to one of the B.i.G. (Bridge-it-Groups - instead of calling them Small Groups) Group meetings that was happening near my side of town (and was offered a lift - yes that's lift, not ride - to and from). Because of that first Sunday of going to ACF and getting plugged into that group, I've been getting plugged in with people and other events at the church. Well, I was asked to help out with a youth weekend in early December by the youth leader, Gillian, one of the gals in my B.i.G. group. It was fantastic. A fun weekend spent with a fun group of youth kids, and an interesting cultural experience. By cultural experience I mean to say that these youth kids were the first to really be interested in the fact that I am an American, and for better or for worse I have introduced them to the terms "bobby pins" and "j-walking". The girls all think it's cute that I call "kirby grips" (or just "kirbies") bobby-pins. And most of the guys have started using the term j-walking in all sorts of different ways. To explain, for my American readers, j-walking isn't illegal here. In fact, it's not a thing. You can cross the road wherever you feel like it, whether that's at a crossing (cross-walk) or not. So, when I told a few of the group, as we were walking across the road, that in America it was called j-walking, they ran with it (in some hilariously awful, but fun, American accents at that). Anyway, all that to say, thank you for those who have been praying for me to find Christian community here in Aberdeen. So far I've been blessed to find ACF and to get plugged in, and I know that at least the youth leader is praying that God keeps me in Aberdeen indefinitely.

The rest of December was spent either doing homework and going to classes, or swing dancing (for those of you who don't know, I've been going to classes and events put on by "Swing Dancing Aberdeen", the Aberdeen University Swing Dancing society that makes up most of the swing-scene here in Aberdeen).

On the 13th of December I received scary news from home. I learned that my friends Ramon and Allie Vidaurri had just found out that Ramon had a tumor in his sinus cavity. Since learning that and spreading the word to ask for prayer for them, we've found out that that tumor is cancerous, the cancer has already spread to a few other places in his body, and thankfully he's recently started chemo-therapy. Please keep them in your prayers as they face this fight against the cancer in Ramon. And join me in praising God that they have already been beacons of hope through this ordeal to those around them. They have not been far from my mind ever since I heard the news.

On December 17th I flew to London to spend Christmas and New Year's with my friend Becky who's currently studying in Dublin. It was a fantastic, dream-come-true sort of trip to London. Here are just a few of the pictures to show you some of the things we did:



we were staying in Kensington, which is not far from from Kensington Gardens, where Peter Pan was raised by the fairies before he went to the Neverland (but after he ran away from his nurse, of course). In other words, the place where J.M. Barrie lived and was inspired to write Peter Pan.

And no trip to London would be complete without visiting Dr. Watson and Sherlock Holmes' famous digs at 221B Baker Street. (After this visit, we walked down Baker street to a cinema and saw the new Sherlock film!)








And Shakespeare's Globe, of course:

We also went on a day trip out to Oxford and soaked in the beauty of this little university town where the likes of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkein and Lewis Carroll all studied/wrote.

and we ended our evening there at the Eagle and Child pub, home of the Inklings (Lewis and Tolkein's group)



Another day trip found us in Stratford-upon-Avon, finding the birth and burial places of William Shakespeare. This house was where he was born!

In case you were wondering, this was more than just a literary tour of London. Here you'll find St. Paul's Cathedral (where we went for a Christmas Eve Carol Service), the London Eye, Big Ben, us in front of Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, and a taste of the West End (England's Broadway), Covent Garden, and the Tower Bridge. There was a lot more that we did, but these are just some of the highlight pictures.

 

 everything was a buzz with Olympic excitement in London!

Although it's dark, we're in the Tower of London, therefore the grim faces...

 Along with the literary places, and the iconic/touristy places, we also planned a few stops such as:
a Trip to Portobello Road (as sung about in Bedknobs and Broomsticks - a main market street in the neighborhood of Notting Hill)

 We got to know the underground like locals. This was taken in our usual/local tube station: Gloucester Road

 Speaking of King's Cross (as per the tube sign above)....we found our way to Platform 9 3/4!

 and then we went to the British Library! That was a glorious morning/forenoon. Listening to original recording of the Beatles! Reading a portion of Jane Eyre written in Charlotte Bronte's own hndwriting! Ok, so there was quite a large literary component to this trip, but can you blame us?

 What do you think? Do I make a good addition to the fab-four here crossing Abbey Road?

Since it's still January I can't really give you a recap of everything that's happening. But after returning from that glorious holiday in London, I had to get back to school work and after some mentally and emotionally grueling weeks I finished my first two essays, and therefore also my first two courses, of graduate school! This week and next are exams week for most of the University, but since we had papers instead of exams in my programme I'm free (well mostly free, this time is for starting to read our books for next semester) and I'm headed off to Dublin in a few days to experience some of Ireland with Becky. When I return I'll hopefully be better about continuing to update this blog on a more regular basis so that the posts won't be quite so long...but for now:

Allons-y!