HAPPY BIRTHDAY THOMAS!!!

caroline: but what about all the girls in their slutty costumes?
lindy: i don't know. it's all fun and games until someone loses an unnecessary appendage.

it's been getting pretty cold lately.

bacci (that's kisses in italian)

I FOUND MY CALCULATOR IT WAS UNDER A CHAIR IN THE KITCHEN (WHICH WAS UNDER A DRYING TOWEL SO GIVE ME SOME CREDIT).

me: "calculator i was worried sick!! don't you ever do that to me again!"
calculator: *sheepish look* *holds out stubby arms for hug*
we embrace.

it was beautiful. and i am so happy. i still got a new calculator though after my friend told me there are only like 2 types of calculators allowed in university exams, of which james (calculator) is not. oh i am so happy. and such a huge nerd.

san bernardino

in this country, both sports betting and fireworks are legal. GOD SAVE THE QUEEN.

company man

once again, i think my choice of clothes should influence the weather. i was watching some 'arrested development', and it was like being back in southern california for 45 minute intervals. kelly and i were also doing a load of towels in the laundry. i paused the episode, grabbed my keys and some 20p coins, and ran out to change the load from wash to dry. I went downstairs, out the door, sprinted over to the building where the laundry room is, and as i fumbled with my keys in the dark, in my boxers and grey shirt, i realized, I am in SCOTLAND. and it is COLD. furthermore, i am getting WETTER the longer i fumble with these keys.

note to self: boxers and grey shirt not sufficient for arctic temperatures. invest in some mittens and some common sense.

haiku for my lost calculator

gentle seas of trig
with your wind behind my sails
how i have loved you

fall line

i will ponder these things in my heart, and bundle up on the outside because it is getting COLD. i looked up the weather forecast and the high/low numbers go down further every day. getting one of those i-will-rob-you ski masks is probably a bad idea... but a prudently bad one! i don't know how else my face will stay warm. spankies and scarves only cover so much of the body...

story of my freakin life

Whom have you so dreaded and feared
that you have been false to me?

-God


please tell me where you want me to be.

lay my head down

kelly's mom arrived today. she took us out for dinner at this indian restaurant that kelly and i pass all the time and always want to go in. there are prety flowers (like a single big one) on the tables- which i found out tonight are fake!! this is heresy. the food was spectacular, but all respect is lost. fake flowers? that's crap. in the form of plastic. but-

Check out those bloomin' flowers!! but seriously... 'bloomin' like... but it also means... BRITISH PUN!! in just a day. now i have to take a wet kleenex and wipe off the pollen-y parts before i stain all my clothes while leaning in real close to smell the amazingness of the flowers. I wish i could post a scent. you would all be nose-and-screen with your computer. sniffin away. but not in the drug way. ok time to get off the computer.

bestselling author

two fabulously wonderful things happened today.

Firstly, I saw Trey! Yay! I knew he was going to be in Edinburgh this week, but he hadn't called or anything (some cousin... i tell ya the American family is falling apart). But, as I was walking into the building my bio class is- there was Trey! he just got out of this interview/presentation that i think went something like this:

trey: I am clearly very smart and going to save the world.
people: while you're at it let us give you all of our grant money.
trey: brilliant.

i had a half-hour until bio so we went to a cafe on the 7th floor (which only trey knew about... i spend all day on this campus yet don't even know if the doors open out or in). then i was like, "this lecture is repeated at 4" so we went to high street area to a pub. We were planning to get something to eat, too, but then the wait staff (of one) performed this amazing disappearing act and we just had our respective pints. mine was okay, i wish i knew how to drink beer and judge it.

we talked about lovely things like his research and his baby (one of the prettiest white babies i've ever seen. no offense all you crackers, but we got the short end of the stick in average baby cuteness), and american politics and how trey saw the same guy in this pub three years ago and we speculated as to if he'd ever actually left the pub in that time. I left at 3:30 to get on a bus back to campus, but not before getting a muffin at starbucks because you shouldn't drink on an empty stomach. or a stomach that will not soon be filled...? don't question this logic! it's all i have!

in class we talked about flowers... again. we talked about them on monday and i was like, "oooh flowers" all during class. which was repeated from 4-5 today while i was like, "oooh flowers" and tried to pay enough attention to take notes. after class i got new guitar strings and second thing of wonderfulness-

I got flowers! and a vase!


well not technically a vase but isn't it awesome and sort of americana? i think so i think it's adorable and you're all jealous. I got the beautiful flowers that will bloom over the next week. and you walk out of the kitchen and 5 minutes later walk back in and you think, "you've been blooming... don't deny it you've been blooming and i can tell!" and they are so stunning. i'll take pictures every few hours/days and you can watch the beauty unfold. oh hooray.

they're in the kitchen but when i'm feeling lonely (and selfish) i will move them to my room.

i don't feel like dancin

Ok so some of you may know this, I'm trying to decide whether to stay for the year as I intended or leave after this semester. Kelly said I should make a pro/con list. So I present... the list. (if you click on it it will open bigger in a new window i think)



not like this makes the decision any easier. any ideas?

california show your teeth

i hiked ben nevis! it's the tallest mountain in the UK! at about 4400 feet i think. and my legs are feeling every inch. It's a nice hike, but LOOONG. i didn't realize how long it was until i was hiking down at which time i was like, "i hiked up this? I hiked up this?" and yes, i did. now i will show you:

I started pretty early in the morning. sometime before 8. i'd arrived the night before when it was dark, so i didn't actually know which way to go. I asked some other hikers who pointed me in the right direction (the one with the signpost that said "Ben Nevis", but like i said it was early) and i started the ascent.

See, the trail is very pretty! A little wet. And rocks the whole way, which i don't really like. But you're walking along this other mountain/hill and it's pleasant. I saw some other hikers (saw them pass me) and it was lovely.

You get up to this little part between mountains when you switch to another one that takes you closer to Ben Nevis, it's here:

See? so pretty! a little loch then the trail continues and it's LOOSE ROCK. WHICH I HATE. it's like running on sand, you're getting nowhere slow. but there was this tour group behind me and i was like, "ok there is no way i'm getting behind that tour group" so i just kept walking. I was going at a snail's pace, but i didn't stop and I made pretty good time. I looked online and it said allow 5-6 hours and i made it in 4. So, about 1-1.5 hours on the nice side of mountain trail, another 30 minutes on the second mountain nice trail, and the last 2 hours on all loose rock. but here's the best part: the fog.

I knew that climbing by myself wasn't smart. But at first i was like, "ok you don't hike or in the morning because of bears and mountain lions" i am such a california girl. but then i thought, "bear- indigenous to the pacific rim" (right?) and "mountain lions- just north america" (also right?) so i was like, "full speed ahead!" well, hiking by yourself is not smart especially in 10-20 meter visibility. near the top there are these gullys like above that you don't see until you're basically falling down them. But I stayed on the "trail" if you can call it that up there. It's all loose rock, with big piles of rocks every 15 meters or so to let you know where to go. But after asking around I found the peak and here is me!

Yay me! I'm wearing my spankies (see rachel? they totally come in handy) wool socks and shorts over them. spankies on top, day camp shirt, rain shell. which of course wasn't enough. it was super wet and incredibly windy up there. there's ruins of an observatory up there (though i don't know what you'd see other than cloud) but they provided little to now shelter, being ruins and all. So i stayed for like 10 minutes and read two psalms (8 and 139) and went back down.

You see what i mean about the no visibility? and the stone piles? seriously i'm glad i made it down ok. even though my ankles are about to secede from the union that is my aching body.

But the highlands are beautiful! here's the picture that's currently my desktop background (yeah it made the cut)

And now I'm back in Edinburgh. I got a bus home. I fell asleep of course (Ben Nevis + dramamine = coma) and when i woke up could hardly get off the bus. I feel like an old lady when i walk up or down stairs (or walk at all). I finished my lab report (3 days early! it's an early christmas miracle!) and although I should do my astrophysics, I'd rather look at flights to germany and ireland. Although, it has occured to me that i could take a BOAT to ireland!! a boat!! bridget i could take a boat!! so i'll keep that in mind. BOAT! i'd pull a titanic the whole way, though.

i am so excited about this boat! a ferry! i'll wear my rain shell the whole way, after i've gotten my sea legs.

p.s. rachel (and anyone else who is interested) a 'munro' is a mountain over 3000 feet. there's upwards of 200 of them in scotland and some people make it a point to climb all of them. in cali there's the 14000 club (or something like that. fourteeners? much less creative anyhow) and somewhere between 20-30 of them in cali and people make it a point to climb all of them. so they're sort of dinky in comparison... but they're our dinky mountains. but actually not that dinky. for all intensive purposes they are super tall and i am therefore a BADASS CLIMBER.

p.p.s. i saw "english muffins" in tesco today but of course they only said "muffins" and i was like, "wait a minute.... OH I AM SO CLEVER!" yeah, i'm going a little slower these days. intellectually and on my feet.

homeslices

can you spot all the things god has given me?
- a mom who sends halloween sticky things
- the sunset
- edinburgh and the opportunity to study here
- jawsome curtains and a mom who knows how to hang them
- a digital camera to share this with you
- other stuff.


some cousins were going to visit this weekend but their plans changed (i.e. didn't materialize as i had hoped) so i'm hiking ben nevis instead! it's the tallest mountain in britain at a staggering 4400 feet or so!! haha, you scots with your 'munros'. anyhow, that's going to be awesome. and if the weather is crappy there's other stuff to do, smaller mountains to climb, etc. but now i have to get my work done so i can actually take my saturday 'off'. peace.

three county highway

as of today I have been here for one month!! and have accumulated the following:
- 2 sets of sheets which I have actually changed (my mom will want to read that)
- 7 edinburgh facebook friends
- 5 classes (3 difficult, 2 medium)
- 2 new sweaters
- 3 pairs of stockings/tights
- 1 new word in my vernacular: "cheers!"
- 1 guitar, 3 guitar books, 1000 new songs i want to learn
- 0 new bags (I am so proud of this one)
- 1 new pair of shoes, birkenstocks... in scotland...
- 1 grocery store card (like a ralph's card)
- 0 bank accounts (not proud of this one)

and other stuff.

but it hit me today- a month! that is so long... but it's so short, too. I have a year calendar on my wall where I check off the days. Less in a count of monte cristo way, more just for my own edification. and I will be here for so long!

part of me says, "Ok guys, this was fun. I'm ready to go home now. I learned some new words and your accents are pretty coo, too. But I'm ready to go home." is that wimpy? or pathetic? I thought a year was the way to go, and there are no negative things making me way to leave... more reasons I want to return home.

There are things I can't do here that I want to do. I want to wake up at 8 a.m. and call brooke to go to breakfast/chano's with me. or call caroline at any time of the day to get an omelette at eat street. and tuesday night worship at a.g.o., and jesusfruit (our jawsome bible study), and pushing my homework off my desk and going to santa monica. and seeing my j.e.p. kids and teaching them math (or reading, like happened this past semester). and going home for the weekend and volunteering at m.p.p.c. because they know me and i know them and I can just slide in and be comfortable. or just randomly seeing people I know around campus. those things don't happen here.

God has blessed me with people: my roommate, my small group, the people I know in my classes. Thank you, Lord. Thank you. You hem me in- behind and before; you have laid your hand on me. I have friends at home I can call, and friends here that you have prepared for me. And a church. And tonight (!!) a woman at church invited Kelly and me over to her house to have dinner with her husband and their two children, and it was amazing! They are so generous and welcoming.

I think about that and I'm glad I'm here, but i definitely miss home and get myself in a little funk. On saturday night my small group got together to hang out and watch a movie. And how it's set up is a PC connected to a projector so we have like a 14' screen, which is sah-weet. For whatever reason we ended up google earth-ing our houses. And I got so excited! watching it zoom in on the bay area, into atherton, to my house. you can see my dad's car and the pool and the cabana. I showed them USC- the coliseum, the rose garden, tommy trojan, my apartment building.

I can't quite explain it- I miss USC but I'm happy here. I'm gonna pull a chekhov- "any idiot can face a crisis, it's this day-to-day living that wears you out."

beurre corporel

why am i still up?!? because i wrote a bitchin' 9 page fluid mechanics lab report, that's why.

money made you mean

#1: MY MOM LOVES ME. last year in bible study the question was asked "who loves you and how do you know?" and i was like, "my mom because she tells me, 'lindy there are things you don't want to do that you have to do' ". but there are other reasons. and they arrived yesterday via airmail. She sent me: my guitar music, other guitar stuff (capo, picks, etc.), the new indigo girls c.d. (hence the title of this post, my current fave song on the album), and HALLOWEEN THINGS!!! sticky ghost and graveyard scene for my window, light up jack o'lantern that can be turned around to last through thanksgiving, ghost playing card, flash light that has different caps so you can project halloween-y pictures on the wall, candy corn stickers, basically one of everything in the target halloween section. even the new indigo girls album is orange!! my flat is awesome now. and very... spooky.

#2: today I went to princes street to get a sweater and some tights and some underwear. you know, the essentials. i also looked for boots but i think i'm gonna end up getting some uggs. this whole 'shoes with heels' thing ain't gonna fly. but, i was in body shop smelling all the wonderful things there (brazil nut- who knew?! i got lotion and i smell like a divine goddess of brazil nut now) and there was this techno music i was like, "whoa, body shop is awesome!" then all of a sudden it stopped. and i realized i had missed a phone call. but seriously, no one calls me so i forget what my phone sounds like! maybe i'll make some friends with generous phone plans. and a penchant for techno music. specifically, the kind that comes standard on a motorola.

boogaloos

2 wonderful things of note:

1. All we need now is the jackets (that's my flatmate Kelly)


















2. SOMEone sent me dvd's of recent m.p.p.c. services!! I haven't watched them yet, i have to send something to a friend and give in and buy a stats book because my lecturer is worthless. but it means SOMEone is thinking of me and I don't know who!! which is sort of better than knowing. or at least I'll relish it for now.

brother of mine

this summer i taught my pandas and kangaroos and incoming 1st graders (like 4-6 years old about, my classes at m.p.p.c. over the summer. m.p.p.c. = home church. i don't know who reads this blog so i don't know how much i have to explain), about Daniel. And how the king has a dream, and nobody knows what it means so Daniel prays for God to tell him what the dream meant. God tells him and when Daniel goes to the king he doesn't say "this is what you dream means" he says "I'm only telling you because there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries and he revealed this mstery to me" (or something like that) and the lesson was: God wants us to tell other people what he does for us.

so i'm telling you this:

On Friday before classes (which start at 12) I went guitar shopping. Because I really miss playing here. And I went to a few places. I didn't want to spend a lot but I also didn't want like a log with some steel strings on it. I ended up getting this 55 pound (sorry I don't have that symbol on my keyboard) guitar that sounded OK. Other options were a 70 pound one... but I got a new guitar book so I went with a cheaper guitar. I went home and played for a while and it sounded like crap. It sounded twangy, not full like my seagull at home (seagull = guitar brand, i.e. the kind i have), I played songs I knew and they didn't sound right. I tuned it to itself (no tuner yet) and it sounded a bit better, but still unfortunate.

But it was too late to bring it back because I had to leave for London. So I left and I was like, "I'll return it when I get back." which I did today. Or rather, which I tried to do today. To make what could be a long story short, I walked down to the guitar shop with it and prayed, "God please give me the right words and strength" because I feel so awkward returning things and I knew this would be wierd to just say, "I don't like how it sounds."

I got in the store and was told that I couldn't return it. He proceeded to tell me I couldn't sell it back to him, that I wasn't in America anymore (he brought it up, i was like, "yes i'm aware..."), that no there was no written no-return policy, no he would not put one up for future customers, and this is now my problem. That makes it sound pretty one-sided, it wasn't. There was a pretty long back-and-forth because his reasons were like, "But what if someone just bought it to play for a weekend and make money then return it" and a lot of what if's, none of which were valid. But, after he told me all the reasons (none of which were valid in this situation) why I couldn't return it, he told me "there's no argument here". So I left.

I meant to stop by the grocery store when I went home but I couldn't because I was (still) carrying this guitar. And I was so angry at the guy at the store. I wasn't angry at anything I'd said, or hadn't said. I knew whatever the argument (or non-argument) he wouldn't have let me return it. But I was angry at him for being so stubborn and condescending. I stewed in that for about two or three blocks, but being angry and upset really sucks. And I didn't want to remain in it so i was like, "God please take my anger because I don't want it." I immediately felt better. For about 1 block.

I remembered I was still carrying around a crappy guitar which I couldn't return, and would only get like 20 pounds for if i sold it somewhere else. So I had a crappy guitar, and didn't want to invest in another one. I especially didn't want to invest in another one after the aforementioned incident. I was angry at the guy again, mad that I couldn't go to the grocery store, upset that I had a crappy guitar. So I prayed, "God please make this guitar good." That's the main problem, the quality of the guitar, so I prayed that God would make it sound good or somehow get me a new guitar and get rid of this one. Or something. I just didn't want to be in this situation, and expecially wanted this guitar that I had to sound better.

By this time I was back to my flat. I went up to my room, got a diet coke, and opened my guitar case. I know this is going to sound wacko or something, but my guitar sounded better! I played it and it didn't twang or make that wierd low noise when the strings aren't on just right. It sounded fuller, and just better! I might still change the strings (who knows how long they've been on there), but seriously you guys GOD HEALED MY GUITAR. did you know god can heal guitars? he can! my family's sending me my guitar stuff so I will actually be able to play on a GOOD guitar that God gave me (really. I bought a crappy guitar and God gave me a good one). I'm so happy and God is so good to me.

I live in a sea of blessings, I'm wrapped up in a duvet/comforter/blankie thing of God's goodness. I'm gonna write a lab report I feel so good.

mancation

it should come as no surprise to you that the bane of my existence is now facebook news feeds. every time i log on it's like, "200 of your friends are attending a.g.o. barbecue- and you can't go!", "13 of your friends are going to a party you were also invited to but you're in scotland", "none of your friends have to deal with stockings", "1 person on the facebook network actually thinks new feeds were a good idea."

it hurts, facebook, you cut me deep.


but here's the ashlee pic!! oh... hard to the core.

bent

let it be known, I saw ashlee simpson in 'chicago' here in london.

let it also be known, she was horrible. i mean, i love ashlee. i think we could be friends... just not friends who let friends perform when they clearly have inadequate talent. friends you can trust to say, "get off the stage before someone gets seriously hurt"

i have a picture, i'll post it as soon as i get back to my puter in edinburgh. it's wierd that i can travel for quite a few hours on trains and a plane and a bus... and still be in a foreign country.