… and I passed!

I’m graduating with an M.A. in Arabic & Management, which means I have to grow up.

The idea of being less childlike is so foreign to me, for the past four years, university has been filled with childish fun – we ate lots of ice cream, played games while sat in a circle in the living room until 5 in the morning, had whipped cream fights in the kitchen!

Even in the final weeks of university, right before finals, when we should have been thinking about beginning to grow up a little, we were in the park messing around.

And on the final day of exams, we were running around outside splashing each other with water.

Results came out while NYBoy and I were in Dallas, searching for apartments to live in once we move, so it was just further reinforcement of the fact that our lives are about to change, majorly.

For the most part, I’m excited.

And I’m glad I don’t have to take the next big step on my own, I’m going to be married to my bestfriend and he’ll be with me making the transition from student life to married/working life.

Congratulations to the rest of you in the class of 2010, who are just as excited/terrified as I am!

Tomorrow will be spent in NYC, exploring the East Village.

And Sunday, will hopefully be our first trip to the Brooklyn Flea Market, if weather permits.

You were in charge of the barbecuing at the Management Society annual BBQ.

And I promise I wasn’t just interested in the food, I really liked talking to you.

And afterwards we cleaned up the grills, and I really wanted to take a photo with you.

And then we started going to all the balls together as friends…

Then almost a year after the BBQ we started going out…

And two years later, we’re engaged…

We still go to balls together…

And you are still my bestfriend in the whole world.

Happy two years NYBoy, I ♥ you.

… and it is SUNNY!

I woke up at 1 in the afternoon, the sun is shining, and surprisingly even though it’s the first day of the break – I’m really geared up to start working on the three essays I have to finish; starting with the essay for my Key Religious Texts (Arabic) module.

They say it’s key religious texts, but really all we’re doing is analyzing Sufism and Islamic Mysticism from the viewpoint of old-school authors like al-Ghazali and al-Makki.

I don’t mind, it means I don’t have to practice actually speaking Arabic anymore, which I am terrible at.

Not that I know anything about Sufism either, but at least most of our assignments (minus the translation part) is in English i.e. commentaries in English, essays in English. I really like the Sufi concept, I think they’re a very interesting group of people.

Fingers crossed after our May exam diet, I’ll be able to afford to go to Turkey for a few days and meet a Sufi in person!

****

I really need to order more bridal magazines, we were hoping to go back to New York this break so I could pick some up (and Secret Scent Sensations gel deodorant – why do they not have that stuff here?! It smells so yummy!), it feels like the wedding planning is trailing off a little because I don’t have pictures on glossy pages to pore over.

We’re starting to get some positive RSVPs for our wedding, from the foreign attendees though, which is super exciting! I’m having to advise people on visa processes, recommend hotels, airlines etc., and we’re even thinking of getting in tough with a tour agency in Brunei to organize a jungle day trip for those who are into canopy walks and real untamed nature.

Only in Brunei will they bring you on a tour to the middle of the rainforest, and tell you to get in the river to swim… but keep a look out for crocodiles.

I can’t wait to see how my friends are going to react to being in the country I grew up in.

Today’s February 15th, it always feels so normal compared to the day before it.

I had the best Valentine’s day ever this year, and most of it was spent at home!

We have a wedding to save up for, so we decided to skip going out for dinner this year – because on top of the cost of food, going out involves getting a new dress, cab fares, tip etc etc. We chilled out at home instead.

In the morning I woke up and reached out for my laptop to check my emails (as I always do) except this time there was a post-it note on my keyboard.

I spent the next hour running around the house following post-it clues to presents under the bed, in the broom closet, in the dryer, oven etc. It was really fun!!!

I gave him a box of bite-sized brownie pieces – it took me much longer to put that together than you would think.

We went out for lunch with friends, and came home to prep dinner. The best part about cooking dinner at home over Valentine’s day is we get to hang out together the whole time.

ON THE MENU:

Spicy oven fried chicken
Potato salad
Buttermilk biscuits
Italian salad
White Chocolate Pecan Pie
Homemade raspberry lemonade

We got dressed down for our dinner date (that’s a first on Valentine’s day!!!!) and lit candles all around the room, it was actually more romantic than the Old Course Hotel restaurant we went to last year.

We ate dinner and watched NCIS (his favorite TV show) on his laptop, then went back down to have dessert with our housemates and friends who had come over for dinner.

I was so stuffed at the end of the night.

Life has been so busy! In good and bad ways, since coming back from Manchester I’ve had a packed schedule of work & friends visiting.

A bunch of friends came up from Manchester to come to our engagement party, thrown by one of Andrew’s groomsmen – our bestfriend and housemate M!

Our other housemate, the very talented photog Mr. FC took photos all night and my favorite of all of them is this one:

I will upload the rest soon, but for now I have an Arabic presentation, assignment, management essay, a Management Society event AND Thanksgiving dinner prep to worry about!!

On the 28th of October 2010, on the day that marked our 19 months as a couple, Andrew asked me to dinner – because we had celebrated the past few monthsaries in pretty low-key ways! Fajitas and a movie at home, or takeout, and it’s always fun to get dressed up and go out on a real date once in a while!

We went to Esperante at the Fairmont St Andrews for an eight-course meal.

Yes, EIGHT COURSES.

We had a little bit of everything on the menu! Crab, caviar, venison, pigeon, lobster, several desserts… everything!

Andrew looked so handsome in his smart-going-out-clothes.

Our dessert was all kinds of strange – we had chocolate torte with meringue (fine), green tea and lime panna cotta (?) and jelly with real flowers in it served with lavender ice cream (??).

It took us four hours to eat eight courses, it was about 11pm when they brought out our final course – a second dessert.

It was on a little plate with a silver dome on top, and when the waitress lifted the top off, there was a ring on top of the chocolate truffle.

In true Hannah-style, I thought it might have been a very elaborate cake topper, so I turn and ask the waitress:

“Am I supposed to EAT this?”

Then Andrew took the ring (which is a classic Tiffany’s ring, I LOVE it), got down on one knee and proposed!

And now I’m the happiest girl in the world, which I say a lot, but this time I really mean it.

We went home and all our closest friends here were hiding out in the living room waiting to surprise us, I love my friends so much. They waited 3 hours because they didn’t expect dinner to take so long.

They had laptops lined up on one side of the room so my bestfriends in Manchester, Andrew’s mom and my sister could be at the surprise party as well!

It was the most perfect proposal ever from the most perfect now-fiance ever – and now I have a wedding to plan! EXCITING!!!

Goodbye New York…

HELLO SCOTLAND!!!!

I get to miss work today because there were severe train delays to Milan. Unfortunately, it also means I miss the Men’s runway show

Being in Italy and having this huge opportunity has really made me think about how far I’ve come to get to this point. Just over three years ago I HATED where I was, not just the physical location but everything about my situation. I think that was probably the lowest point of my life so far, and I’m only 22 but trust me, I’ve been through more than most 22 year old’s!

Then I figured if I wanted out, it was up to me to get out. So I sent emails to universities asking if they’d take me, despite it being way past the UCAS deadline date. And I got acceptances from both the universities I wanted. And I left.

I will never regret leaving Singapore. I left a lot of very good friends behind, but I also got to start over, and it’s very rarely in life that you get to start over completely.

I love St. Andrew’s. It’s where I feel I’ve matured, I’ve become a much better person, and I met NYBoy – who is the most positive influence in my life (and who pushed me to go to Italy for this internship despite it being much more than I could ever afford!).

I realized a few days ago that it’s been over a year since I’ve been phased off anti-depressants and all the rest, and it’s because I got to start over – but it wasn’t until this year that I noticed how much things have moved on.

I’m ready to start letting go of my past, and it feels really good.

I know I don’t usually ever write about my feelings (or my past) but I heard this song today, and it is the song I listened to when I found out I was leaving Singapore for good, and the song I listened to on my flight over to the UK.

It reminds me of the long journey I’ve been on to get here, and how happy I am to have finally arrived.

Today I tried out the Sprinkles strawberry cupcake recipe! [click for recipe]

They were so fluffy, and a very light pink shade, very cute! I had to use Crisco in place of butter, because I didn’t have any in the fridge and I’m trying to save up for Italy, so this means cutting back on spending wherever possible!

Thankfully, I had a giant tub of Crisco in my cupboard from Thanksgiving when I had a couple of orders for pumpkin pie and apple pie… You can’t sell a pie and not make the crust yourself, it’s cheating!

I doubled the cake recipe, but used regular quantities for the frosting because I always find I have way too much frosting left over from baking? Hence the tiny swirl of frosting as opposed to my usual crazy mound of sugary cream.

The cake itself only had a VERY slight strawberry taste, but the frosting tasted like strawberry yoghurt with extra sugar! VERY yummy. Invited a few friends over for chicken & seafood fajita’s and nacho’s, and to test run the cupcakes, they were a hit. We even had a little drama at the end with people fighting over who got to take them home, always a good sign!

My exams are now over.

My final Arabic exam for this year went much better than I expected, it was my first three hour exam and I didn’t know what to expect! All my other exams so far at university have been two hours at most, because two hours is enough to write two essays. Our three hour Arabic exam involved an essay and 5 translation pieces with 5 short compositions to be written in Arabic.

I have the tiniest handwriting, so even though we were told 30-40 words in Arabic would be sufficient, when I had done that much it was only about three lines… which looked a bit pathetic. So I ended up writing double for each composition, just to make it look nice… and by the time I got to my essay, my hand was aching and my handwriting was barely legible.

But at least my exams are over! Now while NYBoy studies for his final exam on irregular warfare (what is that?!), I bake cake and quietly catalog his boxes of stamps according to their values.

Italy in about a week! YAY!