A Lack of Adventure

Originally, I pictured this blog being all about my adventures abroad. Unfortunately, sometimes these kinds of things give you more of an experience than you had bargained for. In my case, this meant that I got to experience being pretty sick without having access to creature comforts, like staying home from school with my dog, or my mom making me soup to try to make me feel better. This time, I'm living in Scotland, a few thousand miles away from my family, friends, and doggie. So on Friday, when I started to get a sore throat, I figured that I'd be in for quite the un-adventurous weekend.

And right I was. I did absolutely nothing but watch romantic comedies, read some books, and work on a crochet project. Not exactly the exciting, explore Scotland weekend I had envisioned, but it was productive nonetheless. I had finished Catching Fire earlier that week, so now it was time to read Mockingjay. I won't spoil anything for anyone here, but I was really looking forward to finishing the Hunger Games series. I started with The Hunger Games over Christmas break, and instantly fell in love. It's about time that I finish the series! I thought The Hunger Games and Catching Fire were amazing books. Most of Mockingjay lived up to my expectations. But my the end of Mockingjay, I was done. I wanted nothing more to do with the series. I'll put it this way: There's a meme of J. K. Rowling saying "It's hard killing off so many characters." Suzanne Collins does not seem to share this sentiment. Rather, she seems more than happy to pen the deaths of many a beloved character. (Really trying not to ruin anything for anyone, but I needed to rant about that just a bit!)

Now, I'm reading The Help. I've heard only good things about this book, and I'm two chapters in and already I love it. I've also seen the movie, and it doesn't look like the ending of this book is everyone's death, so I'm looking forward to it! But seriously, it does seem like a really good book, and since I really enjoyed the movie, and have yet to watch a movie and thought "You know, that was a lot better than the book," I think The Help will turn out to be an excellent read.

As for my crochet project, I was inspired by a friend from my hall at Arcadia to learn how to crochet. She was in my Harry Potter seminar, and for her final project, she crocheted a Harry Potter doll. So I decided to make my own Harry Potter. (I'm glad I'm starting to feel better now, because if I was still feeling sick, I'd probably have more than one of these lying around!) He doesn't have glasses, but you get the general idea.

Me and Harry. What better place to be a Potterhead than in Scotland? Now he just needs glasses, and Hedwig. 

So, like I said before, not an adventurous weekend, but certainly a productive one. And I was very, very happy to get to the doctor on Monday. I woke up Monday morning and literally could not speak. I tried to talk, and all that happened was a weird kind of breathing sound. On top of that, every time I swallowed, it made me want to cry. The first time it happened, I did cry, only to find that crying somehow made my throat hurt even more. The whole crying thing lasted about five seconds. So I headed to the medical center, wrote out my request to make an appointment, and missed my French class that morning. I really hate missing class, and I really do want to become fluent in French, so this was particularly frustrating. I went to the doctor, she told me I had an infection, told me to what medicine to get from the chemist. When I asked her to write down the name of the medicine, since I'd never heard of it before, she asked where I was from. When I answered "Pennsylvania," she laughed and said she thought I might be foreign, but honestly couldn't tell if I had an accent or if my voice was just that hoarse.

But all that said and done, I can now talk, though I still sound a bit like an elderly person who smokes a lot, I no longer burst into tears if I swallow, and I was able to eat something other than soup for dinner. And, in my opinion, this gives me an even more rounded experience of Scotland. I got to enjoy a simple weekend of doing nothing, and I got to experience a little piece of the United Kingdom's health system. (Dear United States, you could learn a thing or two. A government health system--or even a publicized health system--really isn't such a bad thing. I'm certainly happy to have health insurance!) But again, I digress. I don't mean to compare the politics of the States to those of the United Kingdom. (I like UK politics better! But then again, by American standards, I'm probably considered one of those scary socialists.)

Politics, books, crocheting, romantic comedies, and doctor visits. Not what I envisioned when I thought of studying in Scotland, but I feel like all these experiences are giving me a truly unforgettable experience abroad.