After several miserable weeks of hunching over my computer (ok it wasn't that bad) I am finally done (almost!) with my first semester of graduate school. Just one more paper to officially turn in and I am off for almost a month! Now that Ryan is working just about full time, I am now looking for something to occupy my time. For starters, I made a dash down to London to attend a party hosted by the CEO of Gucci for U of O alums. Most of the attendees were Brits who had done study abroads in Eugene, though there were quite a few Americans present, including the familiar faces of several U of O boosters as well President Frohnmayer and a few administrators I got to knew fairly well during my time at Oregon. Though the event was clearly aimed at getting financial support for the university, it was overall rather cordial, with lots of drinks and hors d'oeuvres to go around. The evening ended with a special shopping trip to Gucci's London boutique, which was opened specially for us and included a ten percent off discount. Unfortunately, even with the discount it was all WAY past my budget! Still, we had a fun time sitting aroung and gawking for all it was worth.
Upon returning from London I have been woefully struck down by a miserable case of the flu, probably worst I've had in years, since I was living in France, actually. I've already had two colds in the three months I've been here too! Oh well, this sort of thing is normal when you move to a new country. All the germs are new, and it can't really be avoided no matter how hard you try. I have noticed however, that likely due to my running, my asthma has not flared up at all with either of these last two infections, which is a REAL improvement. There is nothing worse than having a secondary problem like that interfering with your recovery. Just to think, all I needed all these years was some proper, regular exercise!!
Through Ryan's job we have finally had the opportunity to meet some real Scottish People lately. ( I know it sounds weird, but up till now we had not managed to make any Scottish friends, because most everybody at the University is from somewhere else!). The benefit of this is that we now know people living in Glasgow, and so if we can, we hope to make a trip this next weekend to visit and see the city. Now that I have some real quality interactions to judge from, I must say that Scots are truly very very nice and genuine people. Sure they can get surly when they're drunk, but their hearts are always warm. I must say that having gone back and forth a bit from the south to up here in the north, I am pretty much partial to Scotland, and I definitely felt like I was on my way home when on the train from London I heard a lovely chorus of soft Scottish accents after several days straight of clipped London style. As much as I love Oregon, I can already tell Scotland is working its way into my heart.
Alright then, I hope everyone is having a wonderful December.
Cheers
Alletta
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