ochayeminscotland

it’s been a long time coming

hi y’all! i might be officially the worst blogger ever. i’m sorry about that. i promise to be better. or at least try to be better, who knows what will come up. i’m hopefully going to be writing for a website soon (more details when i know them) so y’all can just read that when it gets started. 

anyways! new year! new term! new clothes! new CROCKPOT! woo! and a french press that my wonderful dad bought me while they were over visiting. french presses are really hard to use btw. well, really hard to use well. i have been drinking a LOT of coffee flavored (flavoured?) water lately, but it’s cool. i still like it. and we bought some coffee beans and aidan should be getting a grinder today so we can make it properly. oh aye. 

and i’m not sure what to make as my first crockpot meal in this brand new, beautiful crockpot. i don’t want to just make any old thing off pinterest since like half the time those are really gross. i’m thinking pot roast/beef stew. but idk. let me know any suggestions! 

in other news, classes have started up, really enjoying them. i decided to take playwriting 2 instead of the work placement because i get to work one on one with a playwright (douglas maxwell, he’s amazing. nicest guy ever.) and at the end of the term we have to have written a full length play, which will then have a staged reading at the tron this summer! it will probs just be like a 15 minute excerpt but its with professional actors and director so thats pretty sweet. my other classes are cool too, one of them is basically dramaturgy for devised theater, so right up my alley, and the other is shakespeare adaptations, so also right up my alley. i’m trying to finish up my scoping document for my dissertation, which i’m sure i’ll write all about later. right now i’m kind of frustrated with it. 

it was really wonderful having my family come visit for christmas and new years (hogmanay). i got to show them glasgow and we visited edinburgh and mull, both of which were super fun. took them to a panto and a ceilidh and everyone had a great time. plus aidan’s family and my family got along really well so that certainly makes my life easier! :) it was a fabulous trip and i miss them a ton but luckily for me i am going home in march for kiki’s wedding!! i’m so excited! i’ve been planning out the most efficient ways for me to get through the airport haha. glorious. 

i saw The Maids last night at the citizens. it was really good. really weird, but i expected that. i’ll need to keep stewing on it to formulate official opinions, but i did enjoy it a lot. so that’s a start!

and that’s pretty much it. nothing really too exciting going on with me. just happy to be here, and planning to stay as long as i can. worried about getting another visa, but i am confident it will all work out. 

love you lots! i’ll try to do better keeping up with this thing. :) 

xx

natalie

fraidy cat

Random question for all my readers:

Am I the only one who, when home alone, freaks the eff out when the bell rings or someone knocks on the door? this keeps happening and every time my brain tells me that its obviously a murderer who has somehow stalked me down and chosen 12:30 in the afternoon to come attack me in my flat. which has super security and stuff. what? is that weird? 

probably.

anyways. working the passion pit gig tonight. hope everyone attending is on their best behavior bc i’m not in the mood for dealing with crazy people tonight. hahaha. who am i kidding? i’ll get a coffee before work and be straight buzzin, thus able and excited to deal with the crazies. :) 

aaaand yeah. thats really it. aidan and i have a date day/night planned tomorrow so i will probs not be online. we made a pact to turn off our phones/not get on skype/the internet. we are going to have a nice picnic lunch (or if its raining a museum lunch) and then get all dressed up fancy and go to dinner at the wee curry shop and skyfall at the cool cinema who’s name i will never be able to pronounce. grosvenor. rumpus. 

i’m thuper excited. :) 

lots of lurve

natalie

some catch up and emotional spillage

I know i haven’t written in ages. no excuses really, just haven’t felt up for it. sorry. so. update on my life. 

when i was sick it was with a chest infection/streppy symptoms. i got antibiotics and felt better within a week. phwew. 

work has been good. i’ve been busy but i really do enjoy it. and i like my co-workers a lot so that helps. during halloween we had a competition during flyering where whoever committed the most to dressing in costume got a bottle of wine from our boss. i painted myself green twice and went as the wicked witch of the west. best/easiest cheap costume ever. 1 pound for green face paint. wore all black. had a witch hat from work. scorezies. 

had a halloween party on halloween (duh). most of my classmates came and a bunch of aidan’s/my friends did as well. it was really really fun, and a ton more people came than i expected. we made wamboozie and played ring of fire and it was good fun. aidan and i dressed up as archer and lana (from archer). sadly, i was too busy being a hostess to take any pictures. i suck, i know. no need to rub it in. and our costumes were pretty bangin so i’m sad i didn’t get any really. 

went and saw glasgow girls last night with katie. loved it, but it needed a lot of work. i won’t bore you with my critical reactions to it, but if you are in glasgow, go see it. it’s about unfair treatment of asylum seekers in the uk, in particular the detainment/jailing of children of asylum seekers. it was very good, but it’s attempts at being non-biased were still blatantly one sided and that annoyed me immensely. it was, however, a musical, with really great dance moves and some pretty awesome original songs. 

aidan and i got a tv, finally (in his opinion) and he’s teaching me how to play video games like star wars knights of the old republic, or kotor for the cool kids. its hard, and i’m still grasping the basics of games as a story telling medium. lol naive, i know. i’m open minded though and it’s pretty cool.

we will be having thanksgiving at aidan’s aunt’s house. i’m really excited and have been eagerly planning the menu. they are all pretty stoked too, first american thanksgiving and all that, so i think it will be pretty sweet. special shout out to kevin green for all the thanksgiving goods which will be used then. :) 

i’m also working on my 20 minute play, of which the first draft is due monday. i’m about 1/4 of the way through, so as soon as i finish writing this it’s back to the writing board (?) haha. i’ll tell more about it when it’s done. i also submitted my 500 word play to the traverse 50 competition, so here’s hoping on that! i won’t find out if i won until dec 19… and i probably won’t win but it was worth a shot. 

DISCLAIMER: do not read this next section if you don’t want to know about my emotions and junk. 

ive been doing a lot of growing up in the past couple months. it’s hard, and wasn’t entirely welcome at first, but i am starting to like it more. being an adult that is. i don’t even mind paying bills, or doing chores or any of that. i kind of like that stuff. it’s routine, and i like being clean and organized so it fits my m.o. the hard stuff is having intellectual discussions while being polite. not getting your feelings hurt over everything. (and that’s particularly hard for me right now bc i’m so emotionally volatile with all this growing up, missing my family (both sorority and biological), and the whole S.A.D. (seasonal affective disorder) nonsense that i almost certainly have.) i do love it here, and when i remove myself from my self-pity and realize where i am, i am so grateful to be here. it is hard to do all the time, but i’m getting better. and i’m glad that i’m growing up here. i am a bit of a homebody, and when i’m hurting i just want to go home and curl up on my couch and have my family all around me. this is forcing me to get over myself in a way. so if you’re anything like me, move far away when you graduate undergrad. take yourself out of your comfort zone, because as hard as it is (and it will be hard most of the time) it’s worth it. i love what i’m doing here. i love who i’ve met. and i’m loving who i’m becoming. 

so thanks scotland. you da best. 

i’ll try my best to update at least once a week from now on, but no guarantees. november is going to be crazytown, but i’m done december 4th (pretty much at least) so i’ll be more free then. and then my family will be here! yippee!! 

lots of love and thanks for reading,

natalie

6 things that may interest you that have happened to me lately

i would like to start by apologizing for shirking my responsibilities as a blogger. im currently fighting a gnarly cold (which may also be flu… idk. im going to the doctor tomorrow). and ive also just been super busy with school and work and all that jazz. 

some funny and/or awesome things that have happened to me lately: 

1. i got talk-to-the-handed at work while handing out flyers. it went like this:

Me: oh hayyyy you should come to cheesy pop! (in a sing songy voice complete with awkward dance moves) 

Stranger: talktothehand 

they didn’t actually say it… but they did the motion and everything. how rude. 

2. vari and i ran out of flyers to hand out so we made our own sandwich boards out of posters and wore those. 

3. there was a college of creative arts induction on thursday night, and our class ran over by like an hour bc we all had to meet with the prof to discuss our 20 minute play proposals, so most of us were like 30 minutes late bc solidarity. upon arrival, the elevator opened into the room where the talk was being held and i fell out. super awkward, but ended up being fine bc it ended and we then got to drink free wine. holla!

4. i finally bought the perfect infinity scarf. that’s not really funny or awesome but i’m happy!

5. im not sure if i’ve written about this already but i’m entering a 500 word play into a playwriting competition in edinburgh for new playwrights. i’ll let everyone know how that turns out. 

6. saw paranorman. it was just as good, if not better, than i imagined. simply fab. 

and that’s about it for fun news. im a very melodramatic sick person so im lying around, coughing up my lungs and moping while watching heroes and trying not to diiiiieeeeee. 

will write more once i’m no longer on the verge of death via KILLER KOLD. (much like the kardashians, kolds are krazier when spelled with a k). 

lots of lurve

natalie

just your friendly, neighborhood blog post

After much begging (you know who you are) here’s another blog post! sorry it takes me so long to write… i have lots of reading to do and last week was fairly busy at work. not like super busy, but busy enough. 

so. that being said, my presentation went all right. i could have done better, but, as always, my nerves got the better of me and i ended up making awkward jokes and fumbling a bit. i’ll likely get a B (which is apparently pretty sweet over here, according to my professor). classes are great, as i said, lots of reading but it is interesting stuff so i don’t mind much. i mean, i should enjoy it right? it is my masters… haha. but really though, some great plays, interesting critical readings, i’m loving it. 

i was going to go out with some girls from work on tuesday, but i got called in to work at the last minute bc another co-worker called in sick. le bummer. but its fine, at least its money! and on friday i worked the door, and people were wayyy meaner (more mean?) trying to get in to the building than they are at the cloak room. i got pushed, and had my stamp grabbed. how rude. i’m working the door again friday, but i’m much better prepared now though, so watch out you hooligans! ain’t nobody gettin past me! 

aand a group of girls from my programme (it gets the extra m and e bc its british) went shopping on saturday and then to see medea. it was good, i really enjoyed myself during the day, but the play was kind of unnerving. i’ll save you my critical response, but in short, it freaked me out. and they had the kid on stage. i didn’t want to see that! it felt to me like an attack on working mothers—like, oh you work too much, so obvs its your fault when your man cheats on you with a younger model, so obvs you will go nutso and kill her through magic (?) then murder your child. but whatever. 

also saw looper, which i totally recommend to anyone and everyone. really good film. 

i’ve taken some not great pics on my phone that i will now put in another post (i’m not too great with this whole tumblr thing yet. sorry). but hey, you get to read TWO posts in like a 5 minute span. so really, this was all for you. 

lots of lurve,

natalie

sleep deprived ramblings

sorry for the brief hiatus y’all! i’ve been swamped with work and class and everything, and to top it all off i have what i’m 99% sure is a sinus/ear infection combo doozie. so i feel awesome. i have my first presentation tomorrow for dramaturgy, and since it’s 30% of my grade i’m trying my best to make it good, despite being ill. i think i’ve got it all done now though, and i’m going to go to costco with aidan’s mom (costco, in scotland! same thing! isn’t that fun?) and then practice practice practice until i actually present tomorrow morning at 10. 

yesterday a couple of girls from my program and i went to get 50p tickets for Medea next week. the citizen’s theater does this thing where you can get tickets for 50p, but basically you have to wait outside in a line really early bc they go on sale at 10 am and they only sell 300 of them. so we got there like 10 till 8 and were the second people in line, and it was 36 degrees outside (2 degrees celsius!!) but it was really fun. definitely doing that again. our picture should be on the citizens theater website if anyone is interested. 

work has been good too, super busy but fun. these late nights are kicking my butt though and i slept for 12 hours last night! in my defense, bc of my late shifts and having to get up early for class and tickets i got like 7 over the course of the previous 2 nights so the 12 hours was totally justified. that also could be why i’m sick now. but it’s cool. i really enjoy working there. i haven’t met a co-worker that i don’t like yet, and everyone is really friendly inter-departmental wise. it’s kinda perfect for me! :) 

now i’m off to costco. i’ll write more soon! :) 

xx

natalie

we’re in the moneyyy

just got my loan check (after tuition and stuff got taken out) and i’m rollin in it. there are three things i’ve been waiting to purchase… (though i’ll likely only buy two of them). are you ready for how lame i am??? 

drumroll please.

i want a crockpot and a new umbrella. also a coffee pot but i’ll probs just try and get used to instant. i miss coffee. and crafting. but i guess i can just rebuild my crafting supplies while i’m here! hello new hot glue gun, i look forward to making wonderful holiday decorations with you! :) 

good golly miss molly am i exciting or what! 

also, in other, equally exciting news, i had my first dramaturgy class and it was excellent though i felt kind of dumb. i’m not very quick so i struggled a bit, but i have a presentation due in a week (me and another girl are going first) and it is 30 percent of my grade so hopefully i’ll rock it’s socks off and thus feel less unintelligent. it’s not even that i don’t have the answers it’s just that by the time i get it worded to my liking in my mind it’s either already been said or we’ve moved on. why can’t people just raise their hands like civilized folk? jk. i’m really just too darn slow. i’ll catch up, no worries. 

and i’ve done about 1/3 of the work i need to do so i’m off to keep soldiering on in the great world of oral presentations. i’ll probably just pretend dr. thompson is in the back of the room making faces at me so i don’t get nervous. :) 

lots of lurve, 

natalie

this post is brought to you by the letter “B”

B is for Brolly. Which apparently means Umbrella. 

Enjoy your random bit of Glaswegian slang! I really wish i had brought mine, but alas, it is not a trip to Scotland unless I forget something important. Study abroad in Stirling? Forgot my coat. Last time I forgot my raincoat (different coats) and this time it’s my umbrella. Or should I say Brolly? I do have my eye on a very cute one in this wee shop around the corner, though it is 14 pounds. It’s got ruffles though! :) 

FIRSTDAYOFCLASSFIRSTDAYOFCLASS! I’m so excited I’ve been listening to Beyonce all morning. Even this rain sans brolly will not bring me down. i even know exactly where my class is. so here’s hoping i don’t manage to get lost. :)

xx

natalie 

work is crazy, freshmen are creepy, the end.

tomorrow is my first day of classes!!! 

i have promised rachel i will take some wonderful selfies of my first day of school outfit. super pumped. tomorrow is a high of 52 degrees fahrenheit soooo it will be rather chilly. but i’m so excited to go to debating dramaturgy 1! 

i have also decided i need to start taking pictures. i haven’t taken like any since i’ve been here and i want to. so i will. ha. 

last night aidan and i went to this thing called alien wars with his friends. its basically a walking tour where you are led by a “marine” in the style of the movie alien, and, you guessed it, aliens attack and you have to run through the tour being chased. its very fun. 

and on friday we went and saw Tam O’ Shanter and it was very good but very confusing as all the actors had thick glaswegian accents (since it was based on a robert burns poem). but i had to see it for my research methods class so i’ll at least have plenty to talk about! 

work is good, crazy but good. all the hordes of drunk freshmen are overwhelming but hilarious (for the most part. some are just mean). and it is very exciting. there’s this one girl though who is super creepy and keeps trying to take pictures of or with the staff, and we all tell her no bc thats weird but then on thursday she told me that she just takes pictures without us knowing and puts them on facebook. isn’t that illegal?! creepy as hell. 

so yeah. life is good. i’ll post again tomorrow with my first day of school outfit and a wee post about class! :) 

lots of luuurve,

natalie