It's Been Way Too Long

I haven't blogged in the longest time, so sorry about that lads. Unfortunately, I haven't gone on any amazing trips since Dublin so I can't talk to you about that. However, I do have a pretty interesting life here in Aberdeen. So I guess some updates are necessary.


Uni (aka school)...
I finished my first coursework in my Jurisprudence class. My classes are either 30% coursework and 70% examination or 100% coursework. Uni here is set up a lot different than it is back in Tulsa and I have decided I don't like it very much in comparison. I don't want my final grade in the class to come down to one paper and one exam (let's talk about stressful much?) My paper in Jurisprudence was on whether or not I thought parents should have the right to refuse medical treatment on behalf of their children. In my view, no one should have the right to deny medical treatment for someone else which would in result cause harm. Parents should only have the right to permit medical treatment and that is about it. My paper also went a little into how some religions do not believe in certain treatments. I am sure you don’t really want to hear any more about that but it has consumed a large amount of my time. I blame writing my paper on the reason why I haven’t wrote in my blog. But classes are classes. My worse class is money and financial markets. I will just tell you what a typical tutorial is like in that class. Every week, I watch a group give a presentation by reading directly off a piece of paper. The presentation lasts about 10 minutes and then class is over. I can’t wait until our presentation so we can show the class how to give a presentation instead how NOT to give a presentation. The good thing about school is that I only have it on Monday and Tuesday. The bad news about school is that I am there all day.


Work
I have never really worked during the school year so it's been a struggle. I enjoy work but it takes up a lot of your time. Monday through Thursday I am gone from at least 9am to 5:30pm so it is difficult to stay motivated when you get home from work or uni. If I am at work for the day, I stare at a computer screen all day at work and then come home and stare at my laptop. It really hurts your eyes! I am sure I will be blind by the end of this experience. By the way, the end is less than two months away.. OOO noo. It has already gone by so quickly. 

So other random stuff.. I made American dinner last night. I made butter chicken, baked potatoes, broccoli and then for dessert I had ice cream and cookies that I warmed up. I love Mondays because we get dank food! I tried to cook my potatoes in the oven but it did NOT work. They were in there for over an hour and hardly cooked. So I put them in the microwave and that wasn't really working so then I boiled them. The boiling water kept on jumping out at me tho! Then I also burnt my finger on the oven getting the chicken out. We don't have real life oven mittens so we use a kitchen towel. Kitchen towels are really thin and they don't really stop the heat from burning your hand. All and all though, I think the meal was pretty good. I was proud of myself for not making pasta which is what I make every other night. Today, Kristen and I were riding the bus to school and saw the most beautiful rainbow! You could actually see the entire rainbow from one side of the arc to the other. I thought there could have been a pot of gold at the end of it. I wish I had my camera on me but I didn't. Sad day right! 

Kristen and I leave for Italy on Thursday! I can't wait. My parents are meeting us in London on Thursday night and then we are flying to Pisa on Friday morning. We will spend the day in Pisa and then travel to to small towns around Italy with my aunt and uncle who live in Florence. Then on Sunday, I think, we will travel to Florence for a couple of days. Then to Rome on Thursday for two days! On Saturday, April 9th we come back to Aberdeen. I am sure I will have a novel for you to read once we get back.

So, my puppy, Shadow, passed away on Thursday. He was going to be 13 on April 1st. This weekend was a pretty sad weekend for my family and me because Shadow was a big part of our life. He was the best dog anyone could ever wish for, but I know he is happy eating ice cubes in Heaven. Love you Shadow.

Cheers
Americans should travel to Europe more often because it is great!

Here is a little Spring for you!

Running through Dublin

Happy St. Patrick's Day! 

What a great weekend! I just got back from my trip to Dublin. I left on Thursday morning and just got back tonight around 8pm. Dublin is an amazing, vibrant city. The city is what you imagine it would be with shamrocks painted on storefronts, live Irish music being played in the pubs, and buildings lit up with green lights. The city is full of tourists especially Americans. Almost half the people are walking around with their maps out and cameras ready. I too was "one of those". On Friday though it rained all day and my map got soaking wet and fell apart. It is hard to read a map ripped in two. I decided that this trip I was going to write down everything that happened to us on a notepad in my purse. Throughout the weekend I would randomly take out the notepad and just begin writing. I even wrote in it while sitting in a pub watching a six nations rugby game (yes I know I am super cool).I had a list of things I wanted to do in Dublin and I was able to cross everything off except climbing a hill. We really did a lot of things this weekend and I am exhausted. Dublin's city centre is huge! I think we easily walked more than five miles every day.

Thursday was the most hectic day ever. We took the Megabus to Edinburgh then flew to Dublin. The bus was suppose to go from Aberdeen to the Edinburgh airport. When I booked it, Megabus did not tell me that we had to take three different buses to get to our final destination including a public transport bus in Edinburgh. Our first bus dropped us off in Dundee and from there we took another bus. The driver did not warn us that the bus's final stop was in Edinburgh's city centre and not at the airport. We rode the bus all the way into town and when we got off I asked the bus driver if we were at the airport (dumb question since we were obviously in the middle of downtown). He looked at my like I was a dumb American and told me that he yelled 30 minutes ago and asked the bus if anyone needed to get off at the airport stop. Of course we didn't hear him and I still swear that he didnt scream anything. So instead of arriving at the airport at 1:55, we arrived in the city centre at 1:55. Thank God the bus driver was nice and got us on another bus for free that would drop us off at the right place. We arrived at the bus station we stopped at earlier and didnt't get off at at 2:30 (mind that our plane was suppose to depart at 3:30. And of course at this point I was freaking out thinking we weren't going to get on the plane). Another bus came five minutes later and took us to the airport. That bus took another 20 minutes and we finally arrived at the airport at 2:55. We ran to security, asked a family that didn't speak English if we could cut in line but they said no, got through security, SPRINTED to our gate and arrived at 3:05 just in time for us to get in line and board the plane. No one in the Edinburgh airport even checked our I.D.s or passports so the security was very reassuring. But we made it!! Wow what a crazy two hours but the trip was definitely worth it. We took a taxi to Globetrotters which was the hostel we stayed at. I was a little nervous staying in a hostel but it was extremely nice. We got upgraded to our own private room so it was basically like staying in a hotel but we had to share a bathroom with other guests. The hostel was full of Americans. It was weird seeing Americans again because there aren't a lot in Aberdeen. I have only met one other American besides team America that I came to Scotland with. It actually made me really grateful that Aberdeen isn't a touristy town. That night we went to the Temple Bar area which is full of pubs and clubs. Kristen and I went to the actual Temple Bar and listened to live music. It was three guys playing the guitar and singing a mix of Irish and American music. They were really good and even nice to look at ha. When we were walking back home, Kristen and I decided that we wanted to get some food before heading back. We walked into Burger King and saw Eric sitting alone eating a burger from BK. Crazy right? Who would have thought that in this huge city we would find Eric in BK?? Lucky for him though because he would have gotten lost and never would have found his way back to our hostel.

Friday was rainy just like Aberdeen. I tried to read my broken wet map but that didn't really work out. The map was from the Hostel and didn't have all the street names on it. We took a wrong turn initially which automatically made us lost for the rest of the day. We walked around aimlessly for a long time until we came across a really pretty cathedral. Dublin really had some amazing churches and it made me feel really proud to be a Christian. After the church, we walked around more in the rain. I got splashed on when a car ran over a puddle. You would think this only happens in movies but it happened to me in real life. We went on a tour of the Guinness Storehouse. It was seven stories of the history of the beer and when you got to the 7th floor they gave you a free Guinness. It was my first Guinness and surprisingly enough I enjoyed it! I was worried about how dark it is but it is delicious. The bartender even put a three leaf clover in the foam! After the tour we took another tour of Dublin castle. It was pretty cool that the castle is still in use today. The new President will be inaugurated in November in one of the rooms we toured. My favorite part however was after the tour we decided to play tag in the courtyard of the castle. It was so much fun! On the way back home we found a shake shop. You could get any kind of candy bar or other sweets mixed up in your shake. I got a chocolate chip cookie shake and it was delicious. This day kind of made me think that even though you don't plan stuff and your map gets ruined you will still run into fun things to do with your friends. It was a very successful day. At night we stayed in the lobby of the hostel for a little and met more Americans. We went out with all of our new friends back to Temple Bar.

On Saturday we met up with our new American friends Jamie and Summer who are currently studying abroad in Seville. We walked to Trinity College. Then we got a horse drawn carriage and got a tour of the city! I felt like Cinderella! It was great! The horse, named Charity, tried to eat my umbrellas though. After getting off the horse, we went to St. Stephen's Square. I thought it was going to be a park but instead it was a huge shopping area. We found a burrito shop and I was in heaven! I love Mexican!! There was a spoon playing man sitting outside the bizarre. Unfortunately he was put out of music by blaring pop music.  After lunch we tried to find our way to St. Patrick's Cathedral. Of course we couldn't find it. I asked an old man how to get there and he just had us follow him. I secretly think he was a leprechaun! He was such a jolly man, humming Irish songs, and yelling at the top of his lungs when he talked to me in his Irish accent. He was the first person I met that was originally from Dublin and on our walk he told me how much the city has changed and grew  since he was growing up. St. Patrick's Cathedral was gorgeous. I couldn't believe how beautiful it was with stained glass windows, old battered flags, and a grand alter.

On Sunday we got up early to pack our bags and get on the DART train to Howth, Ireland. It was about a 20 minute train ride to this harbor village. Kristen and I did some research before going to Dublin and found out that you could see seals in the Harbor so we decided to try to find them. Howth was really cold with freeing wind but that is what we are used to in Aberdeen. We walked all around the Harbor and couldn't find any seals. We started heading back to the train station for our train that was going to leave in the next ten minutes but I saw a bunch of people crowded around by the water. I started running full speed ahead to figure out what they were looking at. When I saw it was a bunch of seals I screamed "SEALS!!!" to the other and they started running. Again we didnt have enough time so we had to book it to the seals. I don't ever remember seeing seals in the wild and not in the zoo! We could only stay and watch them for about five mintues before heading back to the train station. They were so adorable and looked like dogs treading water in the sea. It again was a successful trip! Right before we left Dublin, Kristen and I went to a souvenir shop and bought an Irish flag. We decided we are going to get flags from every country we visit so we can hang them in our rooms next year at school.

I am now back in my room in Aberdeen so you know I made it back safely. The trip home was a lot less eventful than the trip there. Dublin was a lot of fun and I suggest if you have the chance to definitely visit it.

Cheers
More pictures will be uploaded to facebook

Guinness with a shamrock on top!

My new best friend Charity. He was trying to be sneaky.

St. Patrick's Cathedral

I live in a Zoo (preferably a petting zoo)

I am currently trying to write a paper for one of my classes but cannot concentrate because there is a zoo outside of my window. I can hear cows, seagulls, cats, sheep, screaming children, etc. If you are currently saying to yourself, I didn't know Hannah lived by a zoo it's probably safe to say it's because I don't. Instead, I live in Woolmanhill which is basically equivalent to a zoo or better yet a fraternity. I guess its the fun/ cool thing here to make animal noises at 11:30 pm on a Tuesday night. I am not sure where these "animals" are. I looked outside my window and saw nothing. Maybe I am just going crazy but there is definitely a zoo out there somewhere. I swear. Ironically enough, yesterday someone told me that I would be so happy if I found a petting zoo here. I agreed and now what do I get.. A ZOO OUTSIDE MY WINDOW!

My blogs are becoming more few and far between. I guess its because I am keeping myself more occupied with other things. I am finally beginnng to do some school work and becoming productive with my life. Life right now is a lot different than it would be in Tulsa. Its neither better nor worse just different. Everyone in Tulsa is looking forward to spring break and summer and it feels like I just started school. My days here usually go from 9am-5pm. I am either at school all day or at work. There is no time during the day to just sit and relax at home. I am sick of having to wake up two hours before class starts so I have enough time to get ready, eat breakfast, and hop on a 30 minute bus ride to school. I like being able to wake up 15 minutes before class and make it there on time. I also wish I could wear sweatpants to school. Most say I shouldnt do it but I will before school is over. Maybe sometime next week. Last night my roommates put baby oil on the outside of my door. If you don't know how to clean up baby oil its probably because there isn't a way. I tried soap and water but my door is still slippery. I'm surprised i haven't run into the door because that is something I would do.

We are going to Dublin on Thursday. I can't wait to tell you all about it. My goals in Dublin are... to do an Irish jig in a bar, to drink a cup of Guiness with a four leaf clover in the foam, to visit Trinity College and St. Patrick's Cathedral, to see seals and to climb a hill. We come back from Dublin on Sunday night and are staying in a hostel while we are there.

Last Friday I went to a really pretty beach. It had natural sand dunes, white sand, fun sea shells and everything else a good beach should have. I also went to a Mexican restaurant. I had a really expensive burrito that wasn't worth it. It didn't even come with a side of rice and beans. Eric and I split a delicious brownie stack with warm brownies, vanilla ice cream and hot fudge. Although I said it wasn't worth it, it was definitely a neccessity because I was craving Mexican food like none other!

These are pictures from the beach

Groups of Americans should never make sounds as if they were all in a zoo.

Cheers