down the road, the sun is shining.

One Day You Will by Lady Antebellum

You feel like you're falling backwards

Like you're slipping through the cracks

Like no one would even notice

If you left this town and never came back

You walk outside and all you see is rain

You look inside and all you feel is pain

And you can't see it now

But down the road, the sun is shining

In every cloud, there's a silver lining

Just keep holding on

Every heartache makes you stronger

It won't be much longer

You'll find love, you'll find peace

And the you you're meant to be

I know right now that's not the way you feel

But one day you will

You wake up every morning and ask yourself

What am I doing here anyway?

With the weight of all those disappointments

Whispering in your ear

You're just barely hanging by a thread

You want to scream

But you're down to your last breath

And you don't know it yet

But down the road, the sun is shining

In every cloud, there's a silver lining

Just keep holding on

Every heartache makes you stronger

It won't be much longer

You'll find love, you'll find peace

And the you you're meant to be

I know right now that's not the way you feel

But one day you will

Find the strength to rise above

You will find just what you're made of

Down the road, the sun is shining

In every cloud, there's a silver lining

Just keep holding on

Every heartache makes you stronger

It won't be much longer

You'll find love, you'll find peace

And the you you're meant to be

I know right now that's not the way you feel

But one day you will

One day you will

I needed this, Lady Antebellum. Thank you for pulling me out of the little hole I had dug for myself. Each day gets better than the last. And I'll be with Justin in 46 days. That's all I need.

you've got a smile that takes me to another planet.

I haven't updated in almost two weeks again, but I'm going to blame this on the fact that not a whole lot has happened. We watched the entire first two seasons of Big Bang Theory in a single weekend. I went to see Glamis Castle with Jeff. And I have tried to do some homework, but that is slow going. Jesse, her boyfriend, and I (talk about being a third wheel...) went to see the movie "Whip It," which was really good and really funny, and Kelsey and I are going to see "Dear John" tonight (finally!). But other than that, not much has happened in the last two weeks. Granted, there was a volcano eruption in Iceland that has grounded all flights in and out of London, which has stranded a good number of Americans in places other than Aberdeen. That was some news, since I guess it hasn't blown in about 300 years or something. All I have been able to think about, though, this whole time, is going home. I've been here long enough now, I'm ready to go back home. However, that is not under my control, because I still have 4 weeks of class, a week of revision, and up to 3 weeks of finals. Drat.

Jeff posed an interesting question to me as we were walking through downtown Dundee: he asked, if I could do it all over again, would I still come here. I was slightly startled, because that was something I had never thought about. Ultimately, I think I would come back here, and that is what I told him. But I would have saved more money, bought less things in the last year, maybe lied on my RA reappointment application so I could have done that in the fall. Because, maybe, just maybe, if I had had more money here, I could have convinced Justin to come visit me if I helped pay for it. Or I could have gone home for part of spring break without needed my parents' permission, since I would have had my own money. And then maybe I wouldn't have to worry about trying to find a part time job on top of my full time internship this summer in a city that I am not familiar with. Maybe things would be different. I don't think money would help me feel less alone, but you never know. Since I've never in my life had an abundance of it, I certainly don't know. But I doubt it. That's something that I have been trying to tell Justin, but I just don't know how. Money, in the long run, doesn't matter. So what if we're broke after college. As long as I have some way to see him while I try to chug through graduate school, I don't need money. Our life together is all I need.

Graduate school is yet another thing that has been on my mind a lot lately. I thought I had the list of the 8 places I was going to visit and apply to. But now... well, last night, Justin suggested that I look at the schools in Tennessee a little closer to see if they have the programs that I am looking for. There wasn't a whole lot in Tennessee, unless I want to go into pharmacology or medicinal chemistry instead of toxicology. But I don't... and now I don't know what to do. I'm pretty sure the closest school that offers what I want is in Lexington, Kentucky, and that is 3 and a half hours from Nashville. Oy. This is going to be hard.

The graduate school issue is not, however, my biggest dilemma at the moment. I don't know when my finals are yet. And I have to get home. And Justin has this idea that I could fly into Nashville for a few days on my way home and then go up to Minneapolis, and then drive out to DC. Oy. If I could just find out when my finals are, we can figure all this out. However, this fricken place is beyond slow on the uptake, because finals times ARE NOT POSTED YET!!! They start in just over a month! I don't understand! Don't the regular students have to plan when they need to go home too? Dah. But I have heard from two different people now that they should definitely be up next week, because it is a) a month before finals begin, and b) the week after Easter break. So they better be right, because this is ridiculous. It's so hard not having an end date. I don't know what to look forward to and I don't know what to do with myself. I'm counting down to a date that might not even be right. I just wish I could be strong and carefree, but that isn't me. I'm a crier. I'm a planner. I'm so future oriented that I have trouble living in the present. These are things that I am learning about myself. Another thing that I have learned is that I must be hard to love. I'm impatient, I'm annoying, I'm overly emotional. How is it that I found someone who loves me? I'm a very lucky girl. That is what I have to keep telling myself during these next 56-ish long days. I'm so lucky. I'm so lucky. I'm so lucky.

I'm so lucky.

make a parallel line with the railroad tracks.

Part 2

Well, here's where the story gets interesting. You see, I lost my phone on Easter Sunday, somewhere between the B&B and my North Court flat. I don't know how it happened. But someone found it, and they called my friend Rose to tell her he had it. After several miscommunications, Jesse and I finally met with him (and two of his friends) in the creepy computer lab in the basement of the Hillhead central building. Gulp. I'm so glad Jesse was with me. Anyways, they kind of watched us from across the room for about 10 minutes before one of them (the guy who actually had my phone) came over to talk to us. He asked our names and all kinds of stuff before he actually gave me my phone back. And they insisted on taking a walk with us outside and tried to invite us to play table tennis with them, or go out to a club with them, or go pub hopping with them... and let me tell you, Jesse and I were not interested. They were nice people, don't get me wrong, but I'm not like that. I'm not the kind of girl that you can just pick up and I'm ok with it. No. So. Therefore, I was creeped out, and very begrudgingly gave them my email address so I could avoid giving out my phone number (although, if he was a smart person, he would have realized that he could get my number from the phone he had for 4 days). This is possibly a "to be continued" story, but Jesse and I have already warned our friend Jeff that he may need to help us out here. He has not responded yet to this warning, but we're waiting for it. Ok, now you know both parts of my recent adventures. I will try to update more often, but since I don't know yet what I'm doing for the rest of break, it's all kind of up in the air. We'll see how everything pans out. :)

runaway.

Well. I have some adventures to discuss, that's for sure. I'm going to split my adventures into two parts... part 1, the visit. and part two, the tale of the missing phone.

Part 1

My mom and my sister came to Scotland!! :):):) It was the best week of my time here so far, that's for sure! Not that I haven't been having a good time, but it has been hard for me to be so far away. And, lucky for me, I had a little piece of home come to my neck of the woods. And it was awesome! Between my mom, sister, and I, we probably took almost a thousand pictures. Here are the links to the facebook albums. Enjoy! :)

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2033978&id=1282740088&l=c9e924925d

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2033986&id=1282740088&l=8ea485f7ac

This was the itinerary for the six wonderful days that they were here with me. :)

Day 1: Mom and Lauren arrived at the Aberdeen Airport, hungry and tired. And I was ready for them! I had a delicious dinner planned, and even Lauren liked it. :) But first, we stopped at the bed and breakfast that we were staying at that night to drop some things off. Then, we had a nice adventure on the bus from the city center to Hillhead. I think it was Mom's first double decker, and maybe Lauren's, but I guess I didn't ask. After dinner, I packed up my stuff for the week and we went back to the B&B. However, I wasn't quite concentrated when I was packing my things, so I, of course, forgot some stuff in my room. Of course. But we went to bed that night, and all was fine.

Day 2: First thing in the morning, after a quick and not-so-filling breakfast, I hopped back on the bus to Hillhead to retrieve the things I had forgotten. Classy, yeah? Haha. Then we hoofed it to the train station so we wouldn't be late... only to find out that the train we were planning to take to Stonehaven had been cancelled. Not to worry, there was another one an hour later. But still. Not a good start to the day. But we did get on the train, got to Stonehaven in one piece, despite gales of wind and snow and rain. We walked a bit around the town and saw the North Sea before taking a taxi up to Castle Dunnottar. Now, if I could read, I would have maybe known that the castle wasn't open during the week in the winter. Maybe, silly me, I was thinking that the last day of March was no longer considered winter. Silly, silly me. But we did get to see the magnificent views of the castle from the outside, and my mom and Lauren got to see their first set of ruins, I think. If the weather had been better, it would have been a nicer visit, I'm sure. But in any case, we took another taxi back to the B&B we were staying at in Stonehaven, and curled up in bed for a movie and a nap to warm ourselves up again. Then we went back outside for a nice dinner, and got ready for bed so that we could catch our early train to London in the morning!

Day 3: Well. Wouldn't you know it that the train we were supposed to take to London was an hour late getting to Stonehaven? It started in Aberdeen, so I don't know what could have possibly taken an hour. Regardless, we finally got on and got settled for what was supposed to be about a 7 hour ride. Well, by the time we reached London, we were running almost 3 hours behind schedule. How frustrating. So, we got off the train, and I was fairly confident that finding out hotel should be no big deal. Well, let me tell you, it was a big deal, as in a big failure. After countless sets of bad directions and one short taxi ride, we finally reached the Thistle Euston, where we would be staying for the next three days. Because of our tiring day, Mom let us order room service, and we watched some TV and then some Glee on my computer. That certainly made the night better. Yay, Glee! :)

Day 4: We set off decently early in the morning to find the City Sightseeing bus stop that would take us all around the city. That bus was perfect! The first place we stopped to get off was at Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. We couldn't go inside the Abbey because it was Good Friday, but the outside was beautiful enough. My mom and I kept repeating this phrase: "this doesn't seem real." And it didn't, but it was, because I have the pictures to prove it! Then we walked across one of the beautiful bridges over the Thames and took a ride on the London Eye! That was just gorgeous, beyond words. However, during our brief lunch break, it started to rain. So when we went to see Buckingham Palace, it was very wet, and we were very cold. It was still beautiful, though. Then, we hopped back on the sightseeing bus, much wetter than when we started out the day, and went to the Tower of London. Very cool, lots of history, right up my alley. :) And, most of the stuff we looked at was indoors, so we were able to dry off and warm up a bit, which was nice. We were there for a while, and then we took the sightseeing bus back around the loop to the stop we got on at, and then we walked to our hotel from there. We had another nice relaxing night watching Glee. I love my family. :)

Day 5: This was the epically awesome day of travelling awesomeness. Haha. Ok, it wasn't quite that awesome, but it so was. We got an early start, getting picked up at our hotel before 8 am by the Evan Evans tour bus. Then we departed for Windsor Castle, our first stop of the day. The coolest part about this place? The queen still lives and entertains there. So we got to see some of the rooms that actually get used still! And I had a little mishap where I accidentally stole a book from a store... but they didn't notice, and I went back to pay for it. Haha. Then, we got back on the bus and headed to the city of Bath. Gorgeous, and the Roman baths were awesome too! So we wandered through there, and then got back on the bus again for... wait for it... Stonehenge! It was epic! Actually, it wasn't quite as cool as I thought it would be, but I'm still glad I saw it. It's one of those things that you just have to see, you know. :) Then we got back on the bus for the last time and headed back to London. Mom, Lauren and I had our own little adventure in search of the Hard Rock Cafe. The one in London is the original! So, of course I had to get something for that boyfriend of mine. :) He'll like it. Anyways, we waited two hours to eat, but it was worth it. I mean, the food isn't great there, but it was fun to be there with Mom and Lauren. And that's all that matters. Then, when we finally got back to the room, we decided to put a movie in at around midnight. Late, yes, I'm aware. But we were all wide awake, and Mom had never seen The Other Boleyn Girl. And I mean, we were in London, and she didn't know the story! Crazy!

Day 6: This was our last day in London, and we were super relaxed in the morning. We just hung out in the morning, and then caught the train back to Aberdeen in the afternoon. But once we got back to Aberdeen was when the second part of my story really takes place. More on that later. We shot up to Hillhead so Mom and Lauren could get their stuff together, and spent the night at the same B&B we were at on the first night. And then, the next morning, Mom and Lauren boarded a plane and headed back home. :( I was very sad to see them go, but I have so many memories now with them, here, in this beautiful place. I miss them already.

Well, this blog post was too long already, so I'm going to save part 2 until later tonight or tomorrow. It's exciting, so be ready! Haha. Until next time, live long and prosper. (Oh, yeah, I watched Star Trek with Rose today... haha.)

P.S. My font is not cooperating, so sorry it's weird...