well for one thing, i love the 90s

i am currently alternating between typing this and inhaling some of scotland's finest: fish and chips. it's going a bit like type type type (pause, take a bite) type type (take two bites) etc. so this entry might take longer than necessary, but please remain positive knowing that not only am i getting fried, greasy, post-party lunch heaven, i am also getting sustenance. win-win.

last night was the 90s party and it was a roaring, stellar success! after some minor setbacks with the decorations (no construction paper to make paper chains, malfunctioning printer) abigail had the brilliant idea to cut out "90s Y2K!" shapes and slap them on the wall. simple and effective. although at times the music couldn't be heard over the chatter, that did not stop anybody from singing at the top of their lungs to christina's "come on over" or britney's "oops! i did it again" or even sugar ray's "fly," just to name a few. nostalgia at it's absolute best. i made some new friends and chilled with some old ones and it seems as  though everyone else was doing the same! everything was fun and loud and carefree; the best kind of party.

thank you to the gracious, wonderful elise for letting me stay over in her room last night. it's actually a beautiful day today, still not warm but very sunny, so after a trip to tesco for some basic essentials, i stopped at the bookseller who always sets up on saturdays in the town square. i've been to Bouquiniste a few times now and it really is one of the best used bookstores. it's actually shoebox-sized, but i can always find something in there for really decent prices! i told myself today that i was just browsing and absolutely NOT buying any more books, but since when could i deny myself a book? i was persuaded into buying milan kundera's "the joke" after a friend recommended the author to me and after the bookseller told me that this first novel was "excellent, so excellent." so there we go; will probably read this on the plane back home. only 20 days now!

oh, so in the midst of all that book browsing i also told myself i wasn't going to buy anything to eat since i had already bought dinner from tesco. then of course someone passes me and i get a whiff of salty chips and well, here i am now with my haddock gone and about two chips left. i want to get at least 100 more pages of catherine carswell's "open the door!" in before tonight, then i will either reward myself by going to bed early or renting a movie from the library. again, win-win.

xo nicole

the beginning of the end

today was my last day of classes!

20th century crime-fiction class

it feels strange to be officially done with classes when all semester it's sometimes been a challenge to even remember that i'm taking classes, they were so few and far between! also, it still doesn't feel like spring grrr! i think my body is searching futilely for that hot, humid spring that always feels like "the end of classes." but today in 20th century crime-fiction, professor plain brought in bottles of red and white wine and tortilla chips to celebrate the ending of a truly wonderful class. i thought that was just the sweetest thing! so even without the legendary W&M blowout, i feel like the semester was righteously ended.

speaking of university traditions, tuesday was may 1st and the occasion for the famous st andrews  "may dip." as most traditions go, it doesn't make a lot of sense on paper and i was skeptical of the appeal to say the least, but nothing equals the actual feeling of participating in a timeless tradition, regardless of how insane. at sunrise on the first day of may, students gather at the east sands beach and run into the north sea, full speed, to symbolize what i'm guessing to be a spiritual cleansing, pre-exams. clothing is optional to this dip and, hilariously, so is sobriety. but i was in no way having that, so 5:30 a.m. saw me in three shirts, a sweater, and pajama pants rolled to the knee, nice and sober. i dipped twice and yeah, it was plenty cold, but adrenaline kind of cancelled that out. all i really felt was incredibly amazing. thanks to renee for getting the photos of abigail and i running down to the water! with the blessing of the patron st andrew himself (does he exist?) i will now pass my exams with charm, dignity, and grace. 

start

made it

finish

in other news, here's a list of what i've done in the past few weeks:

+ been a judge in an impromptu pub dance-off

+ became even better friends with my taxi drivers

+ bought a ticket back to bicester, england

+ bought a ticket for three days in dublin

+ had to call home for money for the first time all semester (yikes)

+ sped-read

+ saw "cabin in the woods" (go see it)

+ tried to piece together my summer plans

+ went on (a few) dates

+ finally managed to send off all postcards

+ made it down to breakfast for the 2nd time all semester

+ had a sleepover

+ napped whole days away

+ read whole days away in coffeeshops

+ wrote my last paper (asdkflaj hallelujah)

+ spent too much money on lunches out

+ whined and whined about the cold

+ missed home incredibly

+ thought about the parts of st andrews i'll miss 

+ got lost in st andrews suburbia 

+ hit a new low of air-drying my clothes to save pounds

leap

welcome the sun

look

the next few days, before my first may 12th exam, are going to be a test of how quickly i can read the 5 novels that i managed to neglect earlier in the semester. but before all that, i'm going to a 90s party this weekend that is guaranteed to be fresh to def. any outfit ideas are more than welcome!

xo nicole

weekends

tonight i saw a local theatre company production of macbeth, in the ruins of the st andrews castle.

caroline and i brought blankets and our heavy winter coats and settled down on what i consider the softest patch of grass i ever did sit on, at the very front of a group of people about 60+ deep. the sun was out for the majority of the day and had just started setting when the play started. thank god, because shakespeare in the rain would have been pushing it for me. overall, i'm not a shakespeare person. as an english major, i'm always on edge when conversation inevitably turns to him, either in or out of class, because sure i think he's crafty with words and character studies and universal themes etc. etc., but it really doesn't get too much deeper than that for me. so i knew i was already going into the play a bit biased, but i kept an open mind! i ended up finding the play pretty well done, with an unfortunately unimpressive macbeth but a really superb lady macbeth, with some great minor characters. but the experience of seeing a play set in scotland, while in scotland, is priceless and i'm very happy to have gone!

this upcoming week is dedicated to novel-reading (constantly), future travel planning, and, for all that is holy, weekend partying. i refuse to be denied any longer. titanic 3D excepted (emotional, nostalgic, and so well worth it), along with the first out-to-drinks meeting with a new friend, this past weekend was pretty much a study of what seems to be the st andrews nightlife motto: start early, end early, and don't complain about it because no one will care/be awake to hear you. saying it's been hard adjusting to this is an understatement.

all week i looked just like this

tomorrow i am turning this paper in and refusing to do any class-related anything. i will paint my nails at some point and if you need me, i will literally be crawling pub to pub.

xo nicole

i return

i get two weeks away from school and the one thing i do is avoid posting on the blog. naturally. what's wrong with me. 

granted, spotty internet is definitely one of my excuses for being away for so long! i still feel bad about it. but i promise, to the internet and to myself, that i'm going to be better now! half of my problem, i think, is feeling like every single entry needs to feel like something important and big, when it really doesn't have to be. yes, the english major in me has just been slapped. 

i thought about going into this whole long, detailed thing of how perfect my spring break was, with some expected ups and downs that only made it better, but then i felt like a lot of my spring break was more a mix of personal decisions and raised self-awareness rather than a bunch of stuff that needs sharing. so that's how i feel now! i guess i should probably go into general detail about what i did, but i obviously have a problem with short and sweet. also just heard today that my next paper is due this upcoming monday HAHAHAH WUT so i need to put all my  writing energy into that. yikes. 

updated flickr account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/76149855@N07/

and while we're at that, A WORD ON FLICKR:

1. with a free account, one can apparently only have 200 photos at any time

2. i currently have 172

3. that's not even a sixteenth of all the pictures i've taken

4. i got a flickr because it's accessible to the public and my friends/family not on facebook, but WHAT is the point when it gives me absolutely no storage space

5. no, i'm not paying for an upgrade. $orray. 

so all the pictures aren't there, but i tried to choose ones that meant the most. my mom also likes to see tons of pictures with me in them, so there's that too. dumbly, i only uploaded venice photos, so here are some from my uncle's house:

uncle's house

uncle's house

kitchen

kitchen to garden

dawn and chick

soil

sprouting blueberries

christ church, oxford

rousham manor, where lewis carroll wrote alice in wonderland

rousham manor gardens

sundial

uncle earic

precious sheep

cherwell valley

dawn in the garden

hey lady

pots and pots and pots

sprouters

potted

but in the next few days, hopefully i can get myself together enough to write about how everything was! because i guess that the writing will be good for me and a form of reflection, in itself. in the meantime, i am always, always down to talk until my teeth fall out, so if anyone wants to hear about everything just hollaaaaa.

for some reason, my body thought it needed a 4 hour nap to function for the rest of the day/evening, so now i am going to eat, speed through a novel due wednesday, and figure out how long i can put off doing laundry. #hipmondaynights

xo nicole