I like this song.

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Okay, so I’m the biggest loser at university right now – I pre-ordered Blackout and I’m proud of it. And the night before the delivery me and Matthew (after much begging and coercing) are going to have a total Britney night!

Britney night = Popcorn + Crossroads + me dancing around to lots of Britney while Matthew tries his hardest not to be sick all over my bedroom floor.

IT’S GOING TO BE THE BEST NIGHT EVER!!!!!!! Just me and Matthew because I’m not sure my friends are ready to be acquainted with my Britney-loving trueself.

This week has been sooo much fun! But my university work is suffering as a result, which isn’t so fun.

Tuesday was usual union free bop night.
Wednesday night was Isoc’s Eid barbecue.

Thursday night was Ministry club classics at Starfields 07 (SO MUCH FUN!!! but I wish I had gotten VIP tickets).

Friday was the usual semesterly Asian society Bindi (bhangra mixed beats – very cool).
And I worked a 7 hour shift which took up most of my Saturday, and did some ASDA online shopping at my ex-flatmates at night (it saves lots of money – I got 3 cartons of Capri-Sun for like 5 quid)

I know I’m not excelling this semester as much as I was last year, it’s annoying because I know I could do it if I really tried. I think a big reason why I did so well last year was because I didn’t have a laptop and there’s nothing to distract you. Now I’m never off the damn thing.

Oh and I dyed my hair, and this time it worked!!! But it’s very slight. I really want to save up and get it professionally done because at one point in my life I want to have lightish hair – blackish dark brown hair gets really boring.

RANDOM PEEKTURES!!!

Me and my new mommy Meagan (I have no doubt she will be the best academic mother ever)

Me and Zahra who bought me a book of 500 (500!!!!!!!!!!!!!) cookie recipes for my birthday – she knows me well.

My halloween outfit off ebay, it’s sort of obvious who I’m meant to be… am contemplating a blonde wig.

Technorati Tags: University of St Andrews, Starfields, Ministry of Sound, Bindi, Halloween, Alice in Wonderland, costume, Fergie, Clumsy

I’m so sick.

I worked a really long shift yesterday and went out to a couple of parties that I’d promised to go to (have to keep to my word!) but to be honest I was already SO tired halfway into my working shift, and I could feel a fever coming on. By the time I got off work, my head was spinning, my legs were aching and I was sneezing a lot. Went to the parties but headed home relatively early.

Today I’ve just been getting sicker and sicker even though I’ve been trying my hardest just to chill out and relax a little… and I’m supposed to be doing a shift tomorrow from 9am-5pm which I really don’t think I can manage. It’s only my second week of work and I was so afraid of calling in to tell them I’m sick, because it puts forward a pretty bad image of my professional work ethic. But I had to, and now I’m just waiting for a callback from my manager telling me whether she found anyone to replace me.

I REALLY HOPE SHE DOES.

I’m a very sick bunny today

Finished my second working shift in St Andrews ever!!! And I like it.

Okay, so I’m tired and my working schedule is going to mess my assessment/assignment grades this week because I’m working more hours than usual (training) and I missed first week of Russian so am having to teach myself the alphabet on my own… but I think it’s a job worth keeping.

Having said that I will probably be fired by the end of the week haha.

We get paid weekly so this is going to be SO good for my bank balance. I have a huge debt to pay off, it is called Matthew. He pays for my O2 contract because they wouldn’t give me one, because I’m foreign. He buys my food; he says it’s in return for my cooking meals for him but still. And he spoils me with lots and lots of presents – because I’m a brat and when I don’t get love through a material medium I get very agitated over time.

Case in point; Today I got this in the mail!!

Very spoilt. You have no idea how much I have wanted this book. I LOVE Pret food, and now I can cook it at home

Anyway, so I’m going to pay my phone bill debt in full (over time) and I’m going to spoil him back.

Happy now that I’m making money and not just spending it. Too bad it will all fade out in the morning when I realize how royally screwed I am in terms of university work!

Technorati Tags: work, university, pret a manger, book, money

So I get to drop Modern History because I’m a joint honors major, so the guy who set the requirement was willing to waive it. SO THANKFUL.

So I switched back to Elementary Russian (RU1001). I’ve missed the whole first week of lectures… a lot of introductory cyrillic alphabet stuff!!! But am going to try really hard to catch up!

Did my first shift at work, and it was okay. A little tiring having to stand up for 6 hours, but all my Starbucks training came back to me as soon as I got on the coffee machine, which was really useful. I’m going to save up as much as I can from what I earn for travel. Me and Matthew really want to go to Spain and/or Morocco sometime next year, and I would feel really guilty asking my mom for extra money, so I’m going to try and do it on my own.

I was right about not having much of a social life now that I have a job and am doing Management with two foreign alphabet languages. Switching between latin, arabic and cyrillic alphabets is not easy. I get confused. My hand gets even more confused because Arabic runs in a different direction. My brain will get confused starting from next week because my Arabic assessments will run on the same day as my Russian one. Arabic from 10am-11am and Russian from 11am-12pm.

I did kinda get myself into this, and I keep trying to convince myself it might be useful being able to recognize all these different languages – if it doesn’t drive me crazy first!

Am saving one precious night off from work and study to go to Starfields (Ministry of Sound club classics!) and the night after for the bi-annual Asian Soc Bindi (lots of hip hop with a bhangra twist… I love it).

Okay, I exaggerate – I go out a lot more than once a week haha just not as much as I used to, or would like to, because I get so exhausted!

I wish I’d remember to actually take pictures when I go out, but I think it would be really random to whip out my phonecam and start snapping at everyone – it makes me feel like paparazzi.

Matthew got me a university hoodie for my birthday (among MANY other things) but it’s so comfy, I practically live in it now.

Home made dinner after lectures

And finally, my idea of work…

… and play.

Technorati Tags: university, module, timetable, starfields, arabic, russian, modern history

I was right about my laptop being mad at me. I tried checking the warranty on the UK Fujitsu Siemens website and apparently it’s invalid… but I called the International Lifebook hotline and they managed to track it down and tell me I have a year left on my warranty.

So I told them about my ridiculous fan noise and error messages and they’re sending someone to pick up my laptop in a few days and send it to Germany. So soon I’ll be without a laptop… AGAIN.

This means less frequent updates etc etc but I’ll try to do SOME. Matthew is coming back up on the 25th (or 26th?) of October so if my laptop isn’t back by then I’ll just use his to update. I don’t need much anyway: notepad, photoshop and a computer that can detect my Sony Ericsson because I use it to take all my photos.

In slightly more exciting news (note: sarcasm), I have my university modules confirmed for this year and they are:

AR2001 – Intermediate Arabic
MN2001 – Management & Society
MO2007 – Europe and the World, 1850-2000

The last one is a modern history module, I HATE history but apparently this one is compulsory if I want an honors degree with the Arabic component. I had the first lecture for it this morning and oh boy did it all go over my head. First lecture and we covered the formation of nation states in Europe from 1859-1871 i.e. the Kingdom of Italy and the German Reich. I’m in trouble with this module.

I also landed my first job in St Andrews this morning! I’m going to try it and see whether I can handle it with my university, society and dance requirements this semester. I start on Friday, working at one of the coffee chains in town. Excited!! This means I can afford to go to Starfields (Ministry of Sound) on the 18th.

As geeky as it sounds, I actually have a lot of study to be doing tonight. First week of second year hasn’t been as kind as first week in first year and I’m getting overloaded, very, very fast.

Quick question to anyone who knows ANYTHING about computer glitches: Lately my laptop hasn’t been able to run programs, and it seems to be spreading. Now I can’t run Winrar, Adaware or Skype. I didn’t have the problem last week and I paid for a licensed version of Regcure to try to fix it and it didn’t help anything. I think it’s malware, but if anyone knows for sure what it is… leave a message? I NEED my skype for webcamming, so I want to get this all fixed ASAP.

Technorati Tags: University, History, Malware

I haven’t updated since I left Asia, so much has been happening and I just haven’t had very much alone time.

Just before I left we had a little birthday thing for me! I had a really lovely birthday cake…

… spent time with my family on my last night…

… made some apple crumble (used a recipe off Epicurious)…

… and it was GOOD!!!!!

I got my nose re-pierced in KL!!! It bled a lot, but I LOVE it.

This cat was staring at our food when we ate at the Indian restaurant on the corner in KL.

The queue in front of me as I waited to check in for my flight from KL > Dubai > London.

Especially hard saying goodbye to Ronald McDonald, no fast food binges for me in St Andrews.

SHOPS SHOPS SHOPS!!!!! At Dubai Airport. All I got was some Diorshow Black Out Mascara, which I love.

I got back to the UK about 2 weeks ago, Matthew picked me up at Heathrow on exactly the same day he picked me up on my first trip in a year ago! (The 17th) We didn’t get to spend any time in London and got to Loughborough at night. London was so cold, I think I just flew in on the wrong day. Loughborough was so much warmer!!!

Look at all the stuff we had to lug around.

Very happy to be back with my bestfriend.

And what a good looking bestfriend/boyfriend he is.

Showing Matthew my new nose stud!

I got to spend just under a week in Loughborough, I got to meet the people Matthew works with at the bar and we made a trip to Nottingham for my birthday shopping! I’m fussy with presents so this year Matthew gave me a budget and let me go on a complete spree around Nottingham. I love Nottingham shopping but after a few hours was so burnt out!

View outside Matthew’s new flat.

I got this made for him in Brunei with the measurements he sent me, it’s a traditional Malay outfit.

The day before my actual birthday I was sitting in front of the TV in my pyjamas and he brought me out a Spongebob cake with candles in it If you spoke to me in Brunei you’ll know I requested a Spongebob cake from my mom for my family birthday dinner before I left and she laughed at me! But you can never be too old for Spongebob. Next year I want a cake in the shape of Bloo from Foster’s Home.

In Nottingham.

One of the gazillion new tops I bought.

My laptop is mad at me. It sounds like a lawnmower.

Anyway, then we got back to St Andrews and the number of new kids was so overwhelming for someone as painfully shy as me. So I hid away for the first few days, until my birthday! We made a trip to Dundee because I love dancing and St Andrews 90s cheese isn’t my kind of music. I LOVE Fat Sam’s. AND I bumped into a girl who I haven’t seen since primary school (I think), it was really cool, and weird, because of all the places to see someone from Brunei and be recognized after so long… DUNDEE?

It’s my first day of lectures today. My module choices got a little messed up because after my advising session I got an email from the Spanish department telling me they were throwing out 2nd years and giving priority to 1st years. So I have to be readvised bla bla bla, and I have to do it fast if I don’t want to miss a lot.

I’m doing 2nd year Arabic and Management modules this year, so for my 3rd was thinking of either Elementary Russian or the study of Linguistics. I went to the first Russian lecture to see if it’s something I think I could be interested in, and really liked it – but I’m not sure handling two foreign alphabets at the same time is a very smart thing to do. Linguistics is this afternoon so I’m going to try that too.

I sound like such a robot at university because all I can talk about is work, but I’m a foreign student (ridiculous fees) and I know how hard my parents work to send me here so I feel obligated to work. And to be honest, I actually kinda enjoy it (most people will automatically put me into the category of geek at this point).

I miss home a little, I miss my family and my kittens. And now I miss Matthew because he’s gone back to Loughborough. But I think once I settle in to the whole lecture/social routine I’ll be okay.

Clock at the quad.

Technorati Tags: Pictures, Birthday, Kuala Lumpur, Dubai, Airport, London, Loughborough, Nottingham, St Andrews