2005-01-14 - 11:28 a.m.
I have a friend. Well, I am in the process of making her a friend. Her name is Nevada. Her dad is from Nevada and met her mom while serving his mission here. Then he came back to Scotland and married her. I think everyone in Provo would like Nevada a lot.
I met her for dinner last night. It might seem silly, but I was very proud of myself for making it to the city centre by bus without any help. I just sort of used intuition, and it worked (so far, my direction-intuitions have been really off, so maybe it is quite the accomplishment). Nerdy Belle and Sebastian fan that I am, I kept thinking of all the mention of buses that they have in their songs. They are talking about Glasgow's buses, and I thought about while I was riding (even though I was listening to the new Bright Eyes albums--so so so good, guys).
I try to pay attention to the little details of the surrounding area. The bridge I cross to get to the university has statues on the sides. The only person I recognize (and this I am not totally sure on) is Lord Kelvin, who is the hero of the part of town I am in--I live on Kelvinhaugh Street, near Kelvin park, etc. etc. His statue has a skull on the bottom--I guess because he was a scientist? They have notices around the park that have the headline 'DOG FOULING.' Hopefully, I will start remembering to use my camera so I can take some pictures.
I like that when I want to buy a phone card, I can just walk into the shop and say what country I am calling and the shop owner will pick out the best deal for me. And I liked that yesterday on the bus, I saw a girl give up her seat for an old lady and a young man give up his seat to a dad with his baby. And that everyone in the bus started smiling more when the baby got on. I love babies and it made me happy that everyone else seemed to, too.
Yesterday I had a tutorial, and I had to go up a tower! The room was on the eighth floor so up up up up up up up I went. Actually, I first went up the wrong tower, and it kept getting narrower and narrower until the final flight of stairs was just an iron spiral staircase that led up to only one door!
My goal of the near future is to start meditating. I'm not planning on doing it any particular way...but I do want to do it.
In my dreams lately, I have been bitterly fighting with my mom and reconciling with Laura. Neither is the least bit true, nor likely to happen.
Even viewing this study abroad as a sentence I have to fulfill (which is how I sometimes do see it) doesn't make me unhappy or against it.
I think in the past I've lived a lot on the exterior of myself. One thing I mean by this is that I was probably more likely to talk about deep, inside stuff than I was to just think about it to myself. Now I am living almost completely on in the interior, where even the stupid, insignificant things are thoughts for myself, and myself alone.
