Let's start with the downs so we can end on a happy note. Last weekend I found out that my uncle Sam was taken to the hospital because he had been experiencing some confusion. After a ct scan it was found that he had a tumor in his brain. Not at all what anyone wanted to hear. He had a successful surgery on Monday morning to remove as much of it as they could, however, it was discovered that it is cancerous. This has thrown everyone for a loop. I am very proud of all my family for coming together to keep everyone positive and informed. Everything has seemed rather surreal. I have skyped with my cousin Rachel (Uncle Sam is her dad) who is studying in Denmark quite a bit over the course of the week. As hard as it has been for me, I cannot imagine the disconnected reality Rachel has experienced during the past week. I almost made a quick trip to Copenhagen to be with her this week, but alas, we decided it would be best for me to stay in Dundee and communicate via technology.
After more ups and downs early in the week after surgery, Uncle Sam is now at home to continue recovering before starting treatment for the cancer. He is a very strong man and I know that with the wonderful support of his family, friends, and excellent care he is in, he will kick this cancer stuff to the curb. This whole thing has made me realize just how far away from home Rachel and I are. It is kind of hard not to be able to pick up the phone and call home for an update (well, I could but it would be rather pricey). I have also realized just how wonderful my family is and how much they mean to me.
Sorry to lay all of that on you, but it is nice to talk about. Let's move on to the ups from the week! On Monday, while I was thinking of the Clark clan at the hospital in Des Moines, I went on an adventure with Lauren, Esther, and Ana, one of Esther's friends from home who was visiting. We walked along Perth road, that boarders campus on the river side and found a few cute thrift stores. Then, since it had cleared up from a rainy morning (just as I predicted in my previous post) the four of us decided to find the Mills Observatory! Let me just point out that on the map it appears to be rather far away from school. In reality, either I have a distorted thinking of the size of the area (this could easily be true from looking on maps of Iowa and the U.S. where there is a lot more land...) or there are just a ton of buildings crammed into a small space. I think it is a combination of the two. Anyway, it was not as far away as I first thought. The Mills Observatory is located on the top of a hill in a park. We had to hike up quite a few stairs through a wooded area in order to find it. It was a nice little hike, and atop the hill sat the quaint observatory! We explored it and even went out on the balcony and looked over the River Tay.
A picture down the street of the Tay on our walk to the observatory.
All the houses have these little funny "yards," if you can even call it that.
The sign at the bottom of the giant hill we got to walk up in order to make it to the observatory!
Mills Observatory!
Ana, Esther, and Lauren atop the observatory with the Tay and a lovely sunset in the background.
When I returned to my room I was happy see that I had two packages sitting outside my room. After all the thinking of Uncle Sam and how much I missed home, it was very nice to receive an assortment of goodies from my mom! Among the goodies were assorted kinds of American candy bars, including Milky Ways, so that I could share our version of the popular treat with my friends here. When I had them eat the Milky Ways, they all exclaimed "This is a Mars Bar!" It was kind of funny and I'm glad they now know why I was so confused about the whole Mars Bar/Milky Way situation.
All my American goodies spread over my bed!
Another rather exciting thing has occurred this week. Esther, Lauren and I are planning a trip to Paris. Well, we are really beyond the planning stages, as we have booked our plane tickets (only $58 U.S. Dollars round trip!) and our hostel! We are actually going to Paris!! We can hardly contain our excitement and every time we see one another we make some remark about the adventure! We are planning to take the train to Glasgow on the evening of Wednesday, March 2, where we will stay with one of Lauren's friends from home who is studying abroad there. We will then fly from Glasgow to Paris (the airport that is not actually in Paris because this is where the cheap flights were to) Thursday morning. Since the airport is outside of Paris, we will catch a bus into the city. Then, we will have to face the subway/train system to make it to our hostel. The whole hostel situation should be quite interesting since we are going with the cheapest one we could find. I'm sure I will have LOTS of stories to tell. We will then spend the weekend exploring the city, and I might get to meet up with Carly and Dani who are on the Guilford led trip to Italy! Monday morning we will again take the bus to the airport and fly to Edinburgh and take the train back to Dundee. I am so excited for this adventure!! I will be sure to put lots of pictures on here when the time comes!!! But we have a few weeks to wait....
Friday night Lauren, Esther and I had our second weekly "Heart-Warming Family Potluck." It is nice to get together and share food and stories from the week. I managed to make chicken breast, well in all honesty, I was too scared to deal with raw meat, so I bought pre-cooked chicken and just had to heat it up, but still it is a step in the right direction in me learning to cook. I have made it a personal goal to work my way up to cooking raw meat by the end of the semester. Lauren made greenbean casserole and Esther supplied the dessert, which were yummy meringues topped with raspberries and whipped cream. Since it was reminiscent of Thanksgiving dinner, we all wore dresses. It was a nice evening complete with Paris talk and "meeting" each others' family and friends via facebook. It was nice to talk about home given the events of the week.
Our yummy dessert this week! The whipped cream didn't quite work out as planned but it was still very delicious!
Today I was very productive!! This is probably the first post of mine where I will not be complaining of a lack of work! In fact, I have a presentation for history to give on Friday and a film paper due the following Monday. Let's see if I remember how to do schoolwork. This morning I woke up early, went to the gym and was in the library doing work by 11 am! After a few hours of reading about femme fatales for my film paper I decided to head back to my room since it might be a little embarrassing/awkward if I fell asleep in the library. After a nap and some pizza, I continued conducting research for my paper. I am happy to say that I have a very good start and I still have a week to work on it!
Tomorrow I am starting the day off with a hike up a big hill with Esther and Lauren at 11. Needless to say, I don't think I will need to go to the gym :-) I then hope to start doing research (and pick a topic) for my history presentation. It feels really good to be in school and actually have work to do again. If only things in physics would pick up...Oh, speaking of physics, apparently we are half way through our lectures, so this week we will begin learning about devices with a different professor. Maybe this professor will have a better teaching style...I shall keep you all posted.
It is now 10:28 and I think I am going to watch a few episodes of the I.T. Crowd, which is practically a British version of Big Bang Theory, except in place of physicists they are computer nerds and their 'Penny' is their manager in the I.T. department. It is rather funny!
I hope you all have had a good week and embraced your ups and downs :-)
Cheers!
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