Booze and Blathering

Hi there people.
I haven't posted anything for a while. Sorry about that. Actually I haven’t felt like posting anything here for the whole week. But now I shall provide you with the latest news from this stormy, god-forsaken place.

I’ve been a bit under the weather lately. I've got no routines here yet, which is somehow liberating, but at the same time it makes me feel like I was floating in the air, I just can't get a grip. Every morning when I wake up I find myself thinking what the heck I'm doing here. I came here to study, but as it has turned out, I have only practised introspection and consumed alcohol. And frankly put, I don't even bother to think about serious studying right now. At the moment, I just want to party, which surprises even myself. It’s me, Laura, who is always the least wasted person in parties. I can already see the psychiatrist asking me a year from now where my drinking problem started, the answer being, “What do you think, in Glasgow, of course!” ;) He he.
Too bad my tummy doesn't co-operate with my intentions. I’ve been eating like a bird, 'cos most food just puts me off. Gladly I found oat flakes a couple of days ago at Iceland (that's a supermarket chain). I've had a terrible craving for oat porridge since last Saturday :D

Well well. What has happened since Sunday then.

On Sunday I felt lonely and miserable so I went to see Anna-Riitta in the evening. She found a perfect flat in the private sector, just a five-minute walk away from my place. I was green of envy. It felt so homey, at least compared to my 10-square-metre cave.

On Monday I had my first lecture about onomastics. I almost fell asleep. I wouldn’t have thought it that boring, but I mean really, the lecture was tedious :D This sent me off pondering that okay, in the catalogue this course sounded the most interesting, so what about those courses then that didn’t sound that interesting? What the heck am I gonna study here? Oh, well. As we all know, I’m not here for serious studying, which is attested by the fact that on Monday I also went out drinking again. Petra turned 23 so I kinda had to, didn’t I? ;D We were at Queen Margaret Union, the same place as on Saturday. Nothing special about that, except that it turned out that there must be something seriously wrong with my brain, ‘cos my toes didn’t curl when Petra tested my reflexes on my sole. She’s a medical student, so she knows. Maybe I’m just brain dead, too much booze and too little sleep, I guess.

On Tuesday I went to see my study advisor, who basically approved all of the courses I had chosen even though there was far too many. He just asked me to drop some of them once I have been to the first lectures and decided which I really want to take. I forgot to ask him what happens if they all turn out to be crap.

On Tuesday I also got a Vodafone pre-paid and probably made a world record by using 21 pounds of credit within 24 hours. The prick who sold the sim card didn’t bother to tell me that international calls cost 1,50 pounds per minute. PER MINUTE!! Well, actually even if he had told me, I wouldn’t have made sense of it. I was there with this Kiwi guy Sam, who basically had to translate every sentence to me in proper English. What, me, a student of English? Not! :D
Anyway. On Tuesday I made an 8-minute call, with the consequence that I ran out of credit as early as Wednesday evening. Not only I, but also my phone went mad after that. I ended up fiddling with it so much that eventually it blocked itself up and asked for the PUK code.
So on Thursday I was sort of compelled to go to the centre and drop by at that Vodafone shop again. This time the bloke behind the counter was much more customer-oriented, and sorted out all my problems.

After that me and Anna-Riitta hopped on a bus and set off on our trip to the outskirts of the city, where Ikea was to be located. Thanks to the bus driver, we found our way there, even though we couldn’t grasp his slurred Glaswegian patter at all. Nor did the locals, as it turned out.
Two hours of frantic shopping in the DIY heaven, and we were done. Rain was pouring down and the wind was blowing at 30 metres per second when we, two poor Finns, struggled with our 20kg bags back home. I was wet all over, mutta perkele sentään, it was well worth it! I got a bedspread, some sheets and pillowcases, plastic mugs and boxes, cutlery, knives, a bottle opener, a blanket, and most importantly, a table lamp. Lighting is everything. The new lamp wiped away the bleakness of my cave and replaced it with comfy warmth :)

Yesterday I was also drinking again. My digestion system has already signed itself off, so why bother curing it. Ok, I only had one glass of wine, so I wouldn't really call that Drinking with a capital D. But still.

Okay, that was my week. I’ve attended five classes altogether and wasted money on booze and blathering. Only one course seems worthwhile at the moment, but it’s concerned with so basic TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) stuff that I honestly don’t believe I would learn anything new here. I’m still waiting for two courses to start though. Maybe they’ll be worthwhile.

What is worthwhile though is tomorrow’s trip to Edinburgh with the International Society. And I reckon it’s so worthwhile that I’ve decided to act like a sensible adult and go to sleep early, as I don’t want to be totally knocked out when I see that gorgeous city again. So I guess it’s time for me to shut up now and wish you all a nice weekend there in Finland :)