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.

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