PurpleHello98

 Well, I guess it's time to blog about the end of my semester abroad! The end of an era, as Blue called it on his blog.

The rest of my Scotland trip went well! One day I spent shopping whilst Blue was sick, and I went to all the stores I could've gone to in London, or gone to basically the same ones back in Missouri, but it was fun anyhow. I bought some CDs from All Time Low, Paramore and MCR at HMV, channelling my inner scene girl. (I've wondered whether I should try the sideswept bangs, although I agree with Green that my current blunt-ish bangs really suit me. I used to have a subdued version of them, inspired by Dan and Phil, back pre-transition when I had short hair, but when I grew my hair out to be longer that got weighed down and exposed my five-head, and getting bangs was potentially the best fashion choice i've ever made.)

We also spent a day in St. Andrew's and went to the beach, to a museum of St. Andrew's University, and finally to St. Andrew's Castle! It was a nice little ruins, but mostly Blue and I went and lay down in the grass. It was a beautiful day, just the right temperature with a cool breeze, plenty of sun to bask in, a blue sky to gaze up at and nice, soft, green grass to lay in. It was so peaceful and amazing. Until a bird SHAT ON OUR HEADS. That was a rude awakening.

Other Scottish highlights: I tried haggis! Deep-fried, but it was pretty good. Though it basically tasted like a big toasted ravioli. We went to the National Museum of Scotland, which was really cool! And we found a sheep store nearby, where I bought a little magnet of a sheep with a newsboy cap. Also, one night, Blue and I were both tired from a cold we fell ill with on the trip and so we DoorDashed food, and I found what I thought was a reasonably-priced pub burger (everything in Edinburgh is ridiculously priced) but when it got there it turned out to be a "gourmet" burger from Burger King, which was basically just their normal crap burger with very little meat and sauce, and no flavour in what there was, but with some fancy aged cheese and a box about three times the height of the burger that unfolded very dramatically. Anyways, it was a total ripoff and not even a good burger.

When Blue and I got back to London my mum arrived and stayed with me for a few days! Blue left the next day but the one day we spent together we had Korean food in the village, went into Central to see "Oh, Mary!" starring Catherine Tate (quite good) and had some bad bao in Chinatown. Though honestly at this point I was tired and very emotionally overwhelmed. I had a bit of a breakdown and I needed some time to relax the next day.

My mum and I spent a day in Brighton! We went and lay on the beach and dipped our toes in the Channel. it was really nice! Though the Brighton Pier was overrated. It could have been fun as a date, though, or if it weren't only kids on the rides so I didn't feel like I couldn't go on them. I want an adult trampoline in my future house one day. Trampolining is fun, good exercise and therapeutic to me! There was an incidnet where a scary man who was off his rocker or something was trying to fight with the owner of a fish and chips shop by the sea we were eating at, but other than that it was nice! There was also a chip shop called "Belgian Chips" that was the same concept as a place called Brussels Fries I went to in Korea—something I'd never seen anywhere else!

My last day in London was amazing—the perfect bookend. My mum and I went through Waterloo station one last time--the first big station I went to in England and still my favourite. We went to Fleet Street to my favourite charity shop and the owner called me their best customer! He gave me some extra jewelry and candy on the house and gave me the best gift bag, and said that whenever I went into the shop people followed! It was really flattering. Then we went to Big Ben and I tried a new K-pop shop my friend recommended to me. Next we went to Putney (through Putney Bridge station, my other most frequented station) and bought some stuff for the voyage home i.e. a new suitcase. And then I went on one last adventure! I had this goal to go on all the TfL (Transport for London) modes of transport while I was there: I went on all the Tube lines, the DLR, the Elizabeth Line, the Overground (only two of six lines because the Overground is boring) and the Cable Car, and so my last one was the Trams! I got a tram from Wimbledon and ended up at a dying mall in Croydon, with another dying mall across the street.

I couldn't find how to get a tram back since I guess they only go the one way at the station there but then I got on a bus and found one that took me as far as Kingston--another place I visited a lot that I was glad to go to one last time! And then I went back to the uni and packed up all my stuff and left. I'm glad that my last day had one last adventure and took me to so many of my favourite/most frequented places.

We got to the airport hotel, I had an overpriced burger that was trying too hard to be fancy (and was lucky I was starving and inhaled it since otherwise I wouldn't have liked it) and then went to bed. I got to take the Elizabeth Line one last time (my favourite, since it shares my name and my signature colour of purple) to transfer between terminals and then almost missed my flight because I took too long to get to the terminal since I was blogging here! I was the last person to get on the flight—the second to last to get to the gate but I had to consolidate my purse, backpack and carryon into two bags, which was hard since everything was jammed full. But I had a nice flight home and arrived safely. But that's a blog post for another time!

These four months were one for the book. An amazing though difficult experience. I'm really glad to be back but I also will always love and miss London. Forever a Londoner at heart!

Well, it feels like I'm finally back on track here lately---if I ever have been since arriving here in the first place. I've organized everything nicely, vacuumed, started doing my homework more proactively, and finally started cooking actual meals again instead of spending too much on takeout this or microwave that. Which is also helping my wallet---which is suffering, poor dear.

I think it's partially because I'm both a resident and a tourist. I'm here too long to just be on vacation, but short enough that there's still an impending sense of everything being over soon and I feel like I have to constantly be doing some fun attraction every weekend. Speaking of, last weekend was so cool! Saturday I had two big firsts.

Firstly, I went to London Anime And Gaming Con, my first ever con! I went with some fellow American friends from my British uni, and it was super epic. My highlights include: getting FOUR Streetpasses at once, seeing a ton of cool and cute cosplays and getting some cute stuff from the Artists' Alley! My favourite finds are a cute phone charm made to look like a lavender Nintendo DS game cartridge and a big bag charm shaped like Girls' Generation's lightstick with chibi heads of the members inside!

After the convention (thanks again to my sainted friends for helping me do all the stuff I wanted to do in my limited time!) I got the tube and met up with Blue! I needed to grab a quick lunch, but the Hammersmith station's ramen vending machine (a real thing!!) wasn't working! :( So I got Chopstix instead, which is a Chinese chain probably comparable to Panda Express for my American readers. I had their "soymazing chicken" and lo mein, but didn't get to sit on the train so I had to eat it standing up. And then when I got to Covent Garden station, there were really long lines for the escalators. "I don't know why they won't just take the stairs," I think, as I pass them by and start up the stairs.

I was not thinking the same thing 200-300 steep spiral stairs later. And what makes it worse is that I was cutting it very close timewise. I got lost in Covent Garden Market and had a lot of trouble finding the bus, and made it to the theatre with about three minutes to spare before the show started. I met up with Blue and we found our seats!

The show was really good!! It starred Hugh Bonneville from Downton Abbey, which my parents watched all the time when I was growing up, and it was insanely surreal to see someone so famous in person! It was matched only by the coolness of when I saw Verivery in person. He's probably the most famous person I've ever seen in person! And everyone's acting was wonderful. The show, in case you don't know, is about C.S. Lewis and his relationship with his wife, and how they cope when she's diagnosed with an illness. It's spectacular, and I hardly have any criticism for the show. It was funny, happy, sad, and got me reflecting about life and death in a valuable way.

Then we wandered around the West End for a few hours before trying to find a place to eat. We settle on Din Tai Fung, kind of a fancy chain that does handmade dumplings and other Taiwanese food. It was really delicious! Although I didn't realize how expensive it was till the bill came. But I'd say it was worth it. I had chicken dumplings, egg fried rice, garlic broccoli (split with Blue) and this cute little (non-alcoholic) peach drink! It was delicious. I could totally imagine a K-pop idol eating there! For some reason, my mind goes to Hyolyn from Sistar and Tiffany from Girls' Generation. I'd like to come back when I have the money. ^-^

I've also been spending less lately. I think my rock bottom was when I went thrifting with a friend last week and spent a concerning amount of money, though I won't divulge the figure here, given my admittedly low budget. I'm not bankrupting my family, but after adding up my spending for the past month and a half since coming here, I've become really anxious. Granted, there are plenty of reasons why it might not be entirely my fault or something, but at the end of the day I just need to take responsibility and do better. Which I did today!

I was going to just do my weekly grocery shopping, stop by the post office and maybe treat myself to some press-on nails today, but I ran into a cool person from my uni's K-pop club who I've been wanting to hang out with, and we ended up spending the day going shopping together! But besides the stuff I had had in mind, I only ended up buying about £10 worth of stuff! Part of which is a surprise for Grey. :) I also bought myself a bracelet and a box set of the first five seasons of Gossip Girl on DVD. It was really cool and, I hope, the start of a friendship.

And that's about it! Blue and I are going somewhere cool this weekend, which I hope to update you about as soon as I return. I still miss Grey a lot, but we're doing our best to appreciate the time we get to spend together anyhow. I'm trying to do all my work and everything, and I think I'm doing better than I was, thank God. I hope I can work on my site tomorrow as well! Anyways, I've got to go get ready for bed. Toodles! (-_-)Zzzz

I've had a wonderful Christmas! It's not quite over yet, as Blue, Green and I still have to have our gift exchange this coming Tuesday, but so far I've been able to spend a lot of time with my loved ones. Last Sunday, I went over to Grey's and we had a gift exchange with his brother and sister-in-law! (I probably need to make them their own blog names at some point.) Grey and I wrote each other letters and I love his. :D And he got me a Microsoft Word 2003 guide book/textbook since he knows that's what I use on my XP laptop! I made him a scarf and he loved it, thank God. :) And I just barely finished it! Which reminds me, the day before I had gone to Red's Christmas potluck and just barely finished the scarf whilst I was there! Blue and I also watched The Muppet Christmas Carol---a Christmas must for me---on Monday!

Besides that, his brother and sister-in-law gave me some tea and cocoa, and some mugs, and even this really cool Gilmore Girls cookbook and matching Luke's apron! I'm definitely going to use those, especially when I stop living in dorms with no kitchen and my parents' house with a kitchen in disrepair.

Then, on Wednesday (Christmas Eve) I had a double Christmas. In the morning, I went to his dad's family and met his dad for the first time! It was really nice to meet everyone and we had some fun watching Christmas movies and checking out his dad's racing rig---a steering wheel, pedals and triple monitors that let him play racing games as if he were actually in a car! His dad and the rest of that side of the family got me some fancy lotions and perfumes and stuff, and even a Kate Spade bag. I thought it was really sweet of them to think of me!

That evening I went to my dad's family's Christmas. There was some good food and I got to catch up with some people, at least, but a lot of people were missing and Mean Aunt was there. Thankfully I got by without saying above five words to her. But it was pretty boring. Grey's mum got into town (she lives a couple hours away) that night and I really wished I could have been celebrating with them instead!

Christmas day my parents and I got up and we had our own little Christmas! My mum got me this really lovely Jane Austen tote bag and I got some travel stuff, too, plus my mum is having a beret made for me by this nice local lady! Then we got in the car and headed to my mum's family. I liked seeing my cousins and chit-chatting with my family, and I even learned to double crochet! But I still wished I could've been with Grey and his family. Oh well. I got some nice Victorian novels from my grandma! Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte, Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell (one of my favourite authors) and The Small House at Allington by Anthony Trollope. One of them was wrapped in a massive box for a kick, LOL!

And then yesterday I finally got to meet Grey's mum! We went to this nice little Chinese restaurant for lunch and then back to Grey's apartment, where she gave me my Christmas present! I was really surprised and touched she got me anything in the first place, and a little bummed out I didn't get her anything! She got me a beautiful leather-bound journal to write my study abroad adventures in and some amazing erasable pens in an array of colours to match, and got me and Grey matching game controller Christmas tree ornaments! They have our initials written on the back. :) She also wrote me this really sweet and heartfelt card. :) And then we three played some Puyo Puyo Tetris! I was nowhere near either of their levels, but I found a 3DS version so I'm going to train up before I see her next. And I did beat her once or twice. :) Granted, that was with me playing on the lowest difficulty and her playing on the highest, but... a win is a win!

I'm just glad that meeting Grey's family went well! Everyone seems to like me so far and I like them too! I also met his best friend today at lunch and we had a nice time. :) And all of my friends he's met so far seem to like him! The only one of my best friends he hasn't met yet is Rose! A few of my non-best close friends he also hasn't met, but I really want him to meet Rose. Maybe if everything ever aligns and we're in town at the same time as her and her boyfriend, we could go on a double date! That'd be really fun. I still need to see if Green and his partner are available to do a double date like we were planning over Thanksgiving break! Sadly I was too busy then.

But yeah. It's been a great week! It's only now hitting me, though, that I'm gonna be gone for a few months! I'm really going to miss Grey and all my friends! At least Blue will be there with me, though! And Grey's going to come visit. :) I'm really gonna miss him but I have no doubt we'll make it through and come out on the other side a stronger couple for it!

Well, I'm off to go play some more Tetris. It's addicting!!!

Well, visiting Blue was super fun! Friday we went to this thrifting area in the city---I forget the name but it was super cool! We went to this little boutique with this very strange woman. I asked her if she was related to a certain friend of my mum, since the two of them really looked quite alike. She said no, but then launched into a story about how apparently someone around town had been impersonating her a while back and taking dumps in at least one parking lot (?), and customers would come into her store and ask if it was her. She was also apparently in a rock band and has had nine different phones hacked into. She also has a celebrity crush on someone with my same last name, which I know because when she saw my name on my credit card she asked "do you know (firstname lastname)? She's my girlfriend". I said "no", but before I could say "good for you" or anything, she said "she's not actually my girlfriend, I just have a massive crush on her, actually I have a boyfriend, but this woman's voice lulls me to sleep every night". Which is valid, I suppose, but a bit out of nowhere. But she did give me a $98 dress which was half off for only $30 because I loved it and it was the last one! I hope she's well and I wish her the best!

Then we went to this thrift shop where I found a whole bunch of cute dresses. I was slinging them over my arm left and right to try on, and then took so long in the changing room (because I had ten dresses, a skirt and a pair of shorts I thought was a skirt) that we accidentally stayed a good twenty minutes past closing and I had to skip the last one, although I don't think it would have fit me anyways. But I came back with three more cute dresses---and all four of those dresses are comfy and have pockets as well!! So I basically struck the lottery.

Then we went to this fancy pizza place for an expensive West Coast dinner, because that was one of the items on our checklist, seeing as I'd never been to the West Coast before, save for a layover in San Fran on the way to Korea. It was really quite nice! And it started raining during our dinner. It was so cozy, since the whole outdoor dining area was lit by fairy lights! So it was absolutely splendid, in summation. We then went back to his dorm and watched Clueless, which is a really good movie! I love the fashion---which I think makes sense for me!

Blue rode with me in the car to the airport on Saturday and bid me farewell, and we finally came up with a secret handshake as well after being best friends for I don't know how long! It was a lovely visit and I was sad to leave. I'll definitely be going back!

The weekend was rather uneventful. I went over to a friend's dorm yesterday to do homework together (and to be the subject of a mental examination as he's a nursing student) and it eventually turned into a pizza party/game night! I played Yahtzee for the first time ever and came in dead last of him, me and our two other friends, but we played Monopoly Empire as well and I won! It was the first time I'd played that kind of Monopoly, and I liked it---especially the dated tech companies like Yahoo and Skype! And it was the first time I'd played Monopoly in probably ten years. It's really a fun game!

Today has been busy but not too notable. I stayed and chatted with some people from my k-pop club after our meeting tonight and we explored the basement of the building we meet in! We went further than I'd ever gone before and discovered some random storage rooms and such---it was actually really cool! And there was some grafitti as well. But eventually we heard some strange noises we didn't make... yeah, we got the heck out of dodge. (That's such a weird phrase. Who came up with that?)

So it's been a pretty nice day, although I really need to not stay up so late! Tomorrow, guys. Tomorrow I'll get in bed earlier. Anyway, good night for now!

Okay, so my week itself was pretty boring, but I had quite the exciting day yesterday!

I started it off right by calling a certain someone, and that's all I'll say!

Then I went to a birthday lunch for a family member. Except I didn't know it was a birthday lunch, or that the birthday girl was even attending, or even who she was. Or half the people there, either. But it's okay! I did go into the women's bathroom and come out of the (only) stall face-to-face with my aunt and cousin (to whom I'm closeted--but my cousin is a high school art teacher, so I don't think she cares at least) and had to make some excuse. But anyways, beside that it was cool! I got to see #2-#4, and show everybody my pictures from Korea, and have some nice chit-chat with what family members I did know. And I had quite a good lunch!

I also met a new cousin--this one a second cousin--that I had never met before, but we clocked each other as trans pretty much right off the bat. Which wasn't hard, to be fair, as that cousin literally had a trans flag bracelet. But he apparently also likes K-pop--although much more casually than me--so I might have myself a new friend-cousin! Except that the cousin is young enough that it feels weird to be all buddy-buddy with him right off.

Anyways, after we all left, just the group I know (including this new long-lost trans cousin) all went to the Dairy Queen to get ice cream. And I realized my art teacher cousin--who I haven't seen in a couple of years--is kind of the spitting image of one of my good friends from college who's also a language major and future teacher. I texted this friend about this and she joked that they might also be long-lost cousins! Hence the title.

Then I went back to my hometown and Blue, Green and I went out on the town! As much as we could in this weather, anyways. We went to a little CD/DVD shop, a book store and a vintage store! My haul is a DVD of High School Musical, VHS tapes of The Muppet Christmas Carol and Mary Poppins, Julia Child's My Life In France, a jean maxi skirt and a cute nightgown! An excellent haul, methinks. We also had Thai for dinner and went back to Green's house, where we played Mario Party with his little siblings! It was a busy day but a really fun one.

Today was much less eventful--I watched TV and went to work--but oh well! I'm having a nice relaxing evening. :) I'll talk to all y'all later--toodles!

I'm a college girl now---and not just because I had my first ramen in my dorm yesterday! (It was a little Hello Kitty noodle cup I got at the World Market in St. Louis when I took a trip thither with Blue on Monday---it was actually really good!) After my post last Thursday, I spent a couple of days making some last rounds before college! Friday was my last "normal" day, and then Saturday and Sunday I visited each side of grandparents. I also spent part of Saturday packing, but spending a little more time packing would've been better. Pro tip: don't leave most of your packing until the day before, because then you'll be up until 2 AM! And then Monday, as I said, Blue and I took a day trip to St. Louis! My mum drove us because she really wanted to see the Doctor Who anniversary display at the Science Centre. Keyword: display---it was a Tardis and a few Sonic Screwdrivers. Granted, that was cool since they were real props from the show, but it was massively underwhelming.

Then we went to Missouri's only k-pop store, Kork! It was really fun, even though it was pretty small. We also had St. Louis Bread Company for lunch! It was kind of sad---it was literally just Panera to the point that even the cups and ads said Panera. We also got lost in the mall trying to find the bathrooms, which are hidden at the end of a long, skinny corridor that's really hard to spot. What the fluff?!? Anyways, afterwards we went to Penzey's and the World Market (where I got so many noodle cups and tteokbokki cups) and checked out Five Below, which I had never been to before! It wasn't that special, but oh well. It was a really fun last hurrah of summer holiday before college!

But honestly, all that kind of seems a world away now, because I moved into college this week! I'm living pretty far from home, but thankfully not too far to drive down there for the weekend or something like that. But luckily there's been enough to do during this orientation week that I've made some potential new friends! Especially my roommate. I'm in a suite, and my roommate and I, as well as our suitemates, have really hit it off! I also have a new group I'm hanging out with that met because some of them and I (I don't have colour named for them yet so I won't W them individually) are in the same department! There are a couple who seem especially cool so far, and I've been having quite a bit of fun hanging out with them all.

Speaking of, yesterday one of them and I went thrifting! Another new acquaintance came along too and it was lovely. I came home with a couple new outfits! The big school events are mostly just standard fare, I think---school spirit stuff, getting-to-know-you stuff, and so on--- but they've been really fun! If I remember anything particularly interesting (my brain's a little fried from getting in bed late all week) I'll make sure to tell y'all! But other than that, I'm really not in my routine yet, so I don't actually know what to do with myself when i don't have any activity to do. It's really odd... I'll have to try and figure that out. So far it's resulted in just aimlessly going on-line whenever I have downtime.

Speaking of the Net, I had to redownload Instagram to connect with people, because Instagram is always the first thing people ask for to communicate. It's a serious bummer to an old neo-Luddite like me who's been planning on getting a flip phone for ages---should I just start giving people my number instead? But then I'd feel left out... ugh!!

But yeah, this seems to be going well so far and I look forward to making aquaintances into friends, meeting new friends, and (of course) classes and all that junk! Sorry if this was incoherent as I'm tired. I'll talk to all y'all soon---toodles!

So yesterday, my mother and I were at a strip mall to get me some new school clothes (ugh, less than three weeks), and whilst we were there, we stopped at a dollar store. And me being me, what should've been a $5 trip turned into a $20 trip. I got two tubes of lip gloss (I LOVE LIP GLOSS), one a bright pink and one a subtler lip colour. I also got a little blending sponge thingamajig, some gum, some cookies n creme chapstick that I could not resist, and an apple cinnamon candle.

I've also been on the hunt for some nice concealer recently and at said dollar store shopping stree, I thought I had found the perfect product. Or at least the best one that I had seen in any dollar store. It was the lightest shade they had available (or should I say lighter? They only had two shades.) and in the bad dollar store lighting, I thought it was a pretty great match for my skin tone. But let's see what happens when we contrast my pale, could-probably-pass-for-a-vampire-because-I-rarely-go-outside skin and this tan, pretty-much-the-colour-of-khaki-dress-pants concealer. So yeah, that's two tubes of concealer I probably won't use. But on the upside, maybe if I scuff my wooden desk I can use it to cover it up.

Also, for some reason I've been obsessed with Gordon Ramsay clips on YouTube recently. Like I've spent maybe 1/3 of my YouTube-watching time over the past few days watching Hell's Kitchen, Hotel Hell, and like all of his shows. I've also watched some more Murder, She Wrote, and I think I love that programme more and more with each episode!

Also, I woke up this morning to rain. Thank God! And I can see the forecast through Thursday, and none of the days have a high above twenty-nine degrees! YES! The heat index recently was above forty degrees, so this is a WELCOME change.

Also, in quickfire news, the other day I was making some Kraft Dinner for lunch, and I meant to cook half a box of pasta. I put in the corresponding amount of water to half of a box of Kraft Dinner, but only after I accidentally added a whole box of pasta. I'm just glad my "not thinking whilst cooking" incident was when I was making Kraft Dinner, not something that can explode or something. (I'd hope Kraft Dinner isn't explosive).

But the weirdest thing about all of that is that somehow I managed to eat an ENTIRE BOX of Kraft Dinner. It was just a box's worth of microwaved macaroni and cheese, but by the way I acted, you'd think I'd just singlehandedly devoured an entire Christmas dinner meant for a family of ten.

But yeah, anyways, that's all that I have to talk about tonight, so I'll talk to you all later. Bye!