Thursday: On New Acquaintances and Disappointments

I was up at the butt crack of dawn again. I had to get ready for school as classes started at 9 today. We were having lecture from 9-11, and then we were taking a field trip to the city/town of Mintlaw (still in Aberdeenshire, but not in Aberdeen city). We took the bus, but none of us taking it actually knew where we were going or which route to actually take… also, they have a different style of working the bus system. There are bus stops, but the buses for the stops don’t always stop at them. The only way to get the buses to stop is to wave ‘em down. If you don’t wave, they don’t stop. The buses here have the same digital display that they have back in Montreal, so it’s as awkward to read the displays there as it is here, and you don’t have the luxury here as home from knowing the bus will stop as it gets close enough that you can grab it if it is the one you needed but couldn’t read because of the sun glare. We got there, and took the tour, but the place was – Nat and I agreed – a disappointment. The place we went to is called the Mintlaw Discovery Centre, and is run by the Aberdeenshire Museum Service; it is the store of agricultural and sociological artifacts. Now, by “store”, don’t think they’re selling anything, it’s “store” as in “storage”. It’s this boring building that houses a TON of stuff. Some was interesting, some not as much, but it wasn’t as interesting as the profs had talked it up to be. Indeed, it was pretty much like a morgue tour is. The day was a long one; as I said, class started at 9 and went on until about 4:30… I was more than ready to take a nap when I got back, but I couldn’t. There was a group on campus that Natalie felt we should check out, so we did. I ended up joining and was required to pay (apparently, all student societies at U Aberdeen require students to pay membership fees to). While there, I met some really cool people and I may have gotten a bead on a possible job. I’ll report back on that soon enough. After the meeting proper, I went with a bunch of them to the Bobbin, one of the Uni’s pubs (I think there are about 4 in total). I hung out with some real nutters, so I felt right at home. The ones I see myself hanging out with most often from that group are who I’m calling the Js: Jenny, Jenny, Jennie, Julia, John, and Joe (there are Gemma, Callum, and Fiona as well, but I like the idea of the “Js”). I stayed at the pub until midnight and then walked back to res with Joe and Julia. Julia and Joe live in different complexes, but Julia’s boyfriend actually lives right next door to me. While he’d asked her to stop by his place, he’d not gotten back yet, so I invited Julia up and she hung out here for about half an hour or so. Each and every flatmate (except Edi who was – shock - asleep) made an excuse to come check her out a couple times… it was hilarious. Sad, but hilarious.