Aye Mate!

Chapter 15: A weekend to remember.

Good evening boys and girls, thanx for stopping by.

Okay okay, so the end of week 6, means the beginning of week 7. Seeing as week 7 is reading week, the end of week 6 can be called the week 6 weekend, or the pre reading week party fiasco!

Saturday: I'm preparing myself and my suitcase to go to belgium. I take a shower, get dressed, have a quick microwavable mac & cheese, then rush out to take the last bus out of St andrews, with as destination... Glasgow. I arrive at Glasgow Bus station at about 11pm. As i wanted to make sure I got the right bus and the right time for my bus to Prestwick Airport, I asked someone around for confirmation. The answer the old, fat, short, glasgean(?) man gave me was "Aye!". And I smiled, thanked him, sat down and thought about the fact I felt like i was in a modern day pirate movie. of course, without the water, the boat, the parrot, de stealing, the jewellry, the sea monsters, the chests... Ok, basically just the Aye! made me feel in a story :)

I took my bus to the airport, got there. Dead Silent. I mean, there isn't much in Prestwick except for a WHSmith, a souvenir shop, a Starbucks and a Café. All of which were of course, closed.

You might wonder why it was important for me to have a more diverse environment. Well dear readers. I arrived at Prestwick Airport at about midnight, my flight was only leaving at 12, Half a day later.

And no, I am not a masochist, there was just no option for me to take an early bus and make it on time for my plane, as on sundays buses leave at 10am. And it takes me 3h to get from St Andrews to Prestwick. That was not an option.

Sunday: Well yes, after midnight, it's another day! So anyway, what I did, was sit down against a pillar, pluged my computer in and watched Planet Earth until about 3:30. Then I saw two men sleeping on the cafés couches. Luckily for me, there was a free couch! I then slept there until 4:30 and at 5, the café turned the music up so loud, in order to get us to leave. I of course, was too tired and too hip to understand what the hell they meant. So i just stayed there, lying, and enjoying the music -which i must say I thought was a bit loud- until someone came and knocked on the coffee table to signal me to leave. I never understood why. There was nobody that was at the café, so I wasn't bothering anyone, but even so, I moved, waited for Starbucks to open, and bought a latte and a muffin.

Then started the "stuff your barbour pockets with things that weight" because there was a 10kg limit, and when I weighted my luggage at home it was about 18. Sooo in the end, my coat weight as much as my suitcase. I had everything in there, nearly litterally, I had my computer cable, my phone cables, my adaptor, my wallet, a tshirt, biscuits, and so on... IT was amazing :)

Thankfully the plane was on time! and When I landed, as I hadn't checked my luggage in, I was out in a second. Saw my mother waiting for me there, and rejoyced at the fact my long journey was about to be over.

I got home, texted Olivier a couple times, still with my not-so-much of lie that I was going to Glasgow on Saturday. Only thing I told him was that i was staying there for the weekend and coming back on sunday afternoon. So i was still talking to him in a general way, asking him what he was doing and such...

At first my plan was to wait for him after classes, wait for him in front of his uni. But I was home, and it was 3pm, and the thought of being so close, distance wise, to him and not seeing him for over 24hours did not please me. Soo I asked my mum to bring me there and, after making sure he was home, I rang on his doorbell. It took him a while to get down, at first I thought he wouldn't open because he wasn't expecting anyone, or that he woould look through the eyepeep hole thing, so I kindof hid. And eventually he opened up. Stood there, silent, holding the door with a facial expression that looked roughly like "ö". And then I kindof move inside the house (omg i invited myself in!) and then he grabbed me and kissed me. Then said something like "when I was coming down the stairs I thought "could it be her" but then i said "nah what am I thinking, she's in glasgow" and now, you're here!". IT was an amazing moment. being surprise and surprising is something i love. When the surprise is actually something you would be happy about.

I slept there that night because we were going to do something the next morning.

Monday: Well that thing, was horse riding. Well no. I lied. He was going to do have his dressage coaching, and I was going to watch him be pretty on horseback.

we get there, I enter the piste and I see his Godfather, who, not knowing me says "I'm Pierre!", so i replied by "Hello, I'm larissa", so he said "aaaah so it's you. Sorry about that, it's just that i asked him yesterday when you were coming back and he told me the 20th of december, so i was quite confused as to what girl he was bringing in!". It was quite funny.

Anywhoo, after proving myself right, and seeing how well Olivier actually rides, we went back home, ate, and then we went to his lectures. Accounting. Truth be told, it was immensely boring. So what we did along with Raphael, was do sudokus and crosswords.. for two hours. Also, we were scheming an evil plan to disgust "the redhead". (nb: the redhead is a redheaded girl who was hitting on olivier, and dissing me openly to him. anyway...).

So when the lecture was over, olivier went and talked to her, went outside and talked outside the uni building, I came after along with Raphael and Paula, a university friend of theirs, passed in front of the redhead, interrupted their -certainly very deep- conversation by kissing him. The whole thing was to look at her face. Apparently it was amazing and undescribable, i'm just dissapointed i didn't see it. :(

The rest of the week: was just me catching up with friends, going out, having fun, and not working, at all. Despite the fact that I had taken my two heaviest books with me, which probably would have saved me 5kg, had i left them in st andrews.

Friday: I was leaving today to go back to St andrews, i chose friday instead of sunday, because i have an essay due monday, and i knew i wouldn't do it during reading week, so i gave myself a weekend worth of writing.

Olivier came with me to the airport and, it was, yet again, very hard to leave him there.

I got back to st andrews at about 7ish, and as hard as it was to leave belgium, i was happy to be back. That's because it's St Andrews.

Saturday: I was supposed to work, and i can't work when it isn't tidy, so i tidied my whole room and then went to the library and got the movie i was about to analyse -Titanic- and a few books to help me. That night I watched titanic and wrote the front presentation page for my work.

Sunday: I wrote my essay, procrastinated, alot, drank about 5 liters of tea, and watched my titanic moment probably about 23 times. It was not the good way to work, and I am not expecting a high mark. I'm not expecting anything. :)

Well, that is finally it!

Have a tight night Boys and Girls, and Stay Classy!

Buff yourself up, smile, stand still...Click!

Chapter 14:  a rush of blood to the brain.

It's week six boys and girls, I'm half way trough my semester! It went by so fast, I seriously feel like i've only been there 2 weeks. So much happen, and there's a world wide famous sentence that states "time flies when you're having fun". Well well, I guess I can say that I'm having great fun at this amazing university.

To be honest with you, everyday I say to myself, that I couldn't have picked a better university or lifestyle for me. This was the best decision I've made for my life so far. And it will influence it greatly, and positively!

Tuesday, I had my first photo shoot for the calendar. The shot was really hard to take. well no, you just had to put the model where she had to be and press the little black button. What I meant by that is that the surroundings and mise-en-scène, if I dare say, were really un-photogenic! In the end I think the picture turned out quite well.

At about 3 on that same day, I figured since the NHS is being such a sweetheart to my health, I'd return the favor. And so I went and donated a pint of my sweet sweet blood :)

I felt the needle go in, but it was just a split second sting-y feeling, nothing to worry about. At the end of the bloodsucking, if I can say so, they keep you lying down to make sure you don't make sudden movements right after, and then they send you off to drink sodas and cold drinks along with eating cookies. you have to recreate all that blood you just gave away!

I was expecting to feel like fainting or something like that, but nothing. I was pretty impressed at myself. although I felt a bit week for german, but that might not be because of the donation! 

later on, before dinner the two callums wanted to have their shot taken in the Eden Court staircase. the shot was really funny to take and I find it comes out amazingly good/funny. :)

Callum H was so excited about it, he couldn't stop telling everybody he met that they were going to shoot for the naked calendar.

I went to rent some dvds at the library that I would watch during the night until 5am, when the results of the us elections would come out. I watched billy elliot and letters from iwo jima. And then at 501 I looked online, and to my greatest pleasure saw that the world had now turned a new blank fresh page, as Obama had been elected President of the United States. I could now go to sleep in peace.

As a matter of fact, I slept in such a peace that I forgot I had my film tutorial and so, missed it. And that was the stupidest thing I could do, ever. It was probably the most important tutorial, THE thing I shouldn't miss, and I missed it. Now I don't know how I'm supposed to write my 2000 word essay for week 8. Doomed I am, Doomed!

But wednesday wasn't all bad, apart from missing my tutorial, not going to archery and having a semi town-wide blackout that caused me to not have tennis, I had a good day! I finished my Arabic assignment, and I passed an audition for a film. It was pretty funny. I don't care if I'm taken or not, I had my go at the audition, had a nice time, and the film looks really funny so I'm looking forward to watching it.

Thursday I had three extra calendar shots, including in the one of my own roommate.

First one was a shot with the rand piano, the second was in the green room, with only a book to hide the genitalia. The third one was Chrissi behind the kitchen counter right next to our master chef Don. The best part of this shoot was not the actual Chrissi getting naked and Don most probably seeing her so, no. The best part was when Chrissi was dressing up again and Don went "well, I guess I'm going to need a cold shower now". You should've seen the look on Ben and my face, it was amazing. an unforgettable moment.

Friday before lunch I had my very last shoot, it was meant to be in the tv room, but it was just too uninteresting that I took my male model upstairs to the bathroom and I opened the window and had him stare out. I'm quite, very, satisfied of this photo. 

I will end my post here because from friday onwards, it doesn't belong in the same chapter, as it's not the same atmosphere AT ALL.

Cheerio!

xx Lar

Its that time of year, when you can be a nature smoker.

Chapter 13: Brr.

Yes boys and girls, it's becoming quite chilly in St Andrews! It's still pretty nice weather, but since there are no clouds, it's a wee bit cold. Time to get your gloves, mittens, hats and scarves out!

Monday nothing really interesting happened apart from the fact that I'm now an official photographer for the Naked calendar. Exciting!

Also, Arabic is becoming harder and harder as we speak. the plural forms are mostly "irregular", or Broken Plurals like the teacher prefers us to say. We're actually starting to make sentences now... sure it's nothing particular but it's a start!

Tuesday's screening was The Conversation by FF Coppola, very interesting film, quite long but it did indeed help understand all the different sounds there are in a film.

At Wednesday's archery we learned how to "perfectly" hold our bows by making slings, or however they're called, out of shoe laces. Now that's what I call recycling!

Later I had an Arabic study group with Joely, Rachel and Travis. Truth be told, it was actually useful, and fun. So that works out well. :]

Also I forgot, today I had my presentation on Sound. I don't think it was amazing, but at least it's not graded, and OVER. 

Thursday I had a great Polo lesson. We were only three, that means that we had more time on actual horses. I find this is important. Sure it's important to practice on the wooden horse, but on there, the horse doesn't move, and neither does the ball. So you don't really get the challenge polo actually is. You can do great on the wooden horse and be shit on an actual horse, because they don't always position themselves how you want to according to the ball.

Saturday I visited a flat on Howard Place, and I fell in love. with it. It's so beautifully lit by the sun, it's got three sides, so there is A LOT of light in it. It's newly refurbished with 3 rooms, a bathroom and an en-suite shower room. Basically, it's amazing!

The agent was really nice too, that's always a good thing :)

Then I had my eye test, for free, because the NHS covers it. Long live studying in Scotland!

Truth be told, I'm glad I had the good news of not having to pay, because I had the bad news of knowing I went from -.5 to -1.5.

But then I got another GREAT news: I won't have to pay £83 for the glass lens! because I'm under 19 and, yet again, the NHS covers that. NHS <3

As you can tell, I didn't have too much going on this week.

I would like to give kudos to both Oliviers for sending me a letter each. Seeing that I have post lights up my day, it's crazy. It truly is an ego booster, hehe.

Anywhoo, that's it for week 5. only 7 more to go.

night night,

xx Lar