Piccies of Boston! :)

Some famous music hall... It had some nice christmas decorations up...

The skyline.. An interesting assortment of new skyscrapers and beautiful old buildings.

Boston - the city! 

Some nicely painted houses.. :)

The sky was stunning! And the tower looked picturesque.

The lights in Seuss Park, Springfield.

More lights.. There were some really amazing ones.

And more... The event in the park was called Bright Night and is well worth a  visit.

Boston Celtics vs. Toronto Raptors. My first NBA game - really enjoyed it.

A penalty shot or something of that kind.. haha! We had a very good view from the top of the stadium.

The Celtics had a great mascot. He was so funny and had an insane amount of energy. He didn't stop jumping up and down the whole game. He did some really cool shots in the interval where he ran and jumped on that trampoline and scored. :) It was a lot of fun to watch.

Joanna and me at the game.

And the celtics won!! :) 

That's a friend of Joanna's, Charissa and Joanna. We had some hilarity trying to repeat this photo where the train is moving but the people in the picture are standing still.

Ate at a really nice Italian restaurant. Really good pizza. Can't remember the name though. It was a  lot of fun though. Don't think out waiter really like us at the end.

Me and my pal, John Harvard. Bought a Harvard sweater in his honour. 

Joanna and Charissa.

The first library in the states. It has rats!

Imagine studying in a place like that - I would never get anything done. =P

Ended the night in fits of laughter as we once again tried to get a picture of us in front of a moving train.. :)

More Boston...

Soo... more Boston!

Day number 2 in Boston I got up late and we made our way into Boston at lunch time. Stopped at a sushi`/ korean restaurant on the way. First shot at a SUSHI place and it was soooooo good! We got the buffet which was all really tastey. I filled my plate up and demolished it pretty fast. Went up for some fresh fruit and then I was done. Yummmyyyyy... :)

From there, Joanna and I went to the Boston museum of science and to the planetarium there. We learnt about "exo" planets. It was very fascintating. There is soooo much out there. Parts of it really scared me - just the incredible universe we live in. There is so much of earth that I now take for granted but a place like Jupiter - like HOW could God create that. He is just SUCH an incredible creator. So creative! SO breath-taking. Jupiter scared me a little. The video took you below the clouds and the storms and gas and freezing winds really got me scared. And then we saw some other solar systems and other milky ways. They've discovered a couple of planets that rotate around other suns. How cool is that!? I just don't think about what is beyond our earth, but at least I know about the other planets. Imagine what is beyond there! It's amazing!

Went to the exhibition after that which was really cool. Loads of fun experiments. Optical illusions and fun facts! The museum closed at 5 so we ran in for some post cards at the shop and then drove over to TD Gardens. We were going to a Celtics Basketball game. Sooooo much fun!  We got pretty good seats, right up at the top. SO we could see all the activity below. It was a pre-season game so wasn't packed. And they were playing the Toronto Rapports(or something like that!).  I took loads of pictures which I will post up some of soon. We won! :) And I am now a Celtics fan. Their mascot is a leprechaun who was HILARIOUS! Joanna thought he had ADD becuase he was running all over the place, jumping over everything, high-fiving everyone and just having a whale of a time. He had an incredible amount of energy.

Home after.

Next day, woke up late, computer... a slow, restful start.. Talked to the fam on the phone which was great. Made it round everyone which is always nice. Heard about Rory's social and after social and Sheona's social and Katie's life and all else. It's always fun to hear all their news. After a lunch of curry we headed off again. Didn't get into Boston until just before 5 and got the train to Harvard Square. Had a look around, bought a hoody, saw Harvard University, ate some pizza, window shopped, laughed a LOT!, went to the first library(it apparently has rats! but is verrrryyy beautiful), went to an amazing ice cream place (brownie dough ice cream with cookie dough on top.. mmhhhmmmm... so good!) and then headed off home. Boston is a really beautiful city! So many stunning old buildings! For this sesh in Boston, Joanna's friend Carissa joined us. That was a lot of fun! We all had a really good time together, well at least I had a really good time with them both. :)

Home for bed!

And then up the next morning at 6am to head into Boston for my flight at 9am. And onto Harrisburg, PA. :)

Boston -day numero 1

Boston! An amazing city! I would choose Chicago over Boston as a a city but it is still very nice and beautiful!

I got there on Monday night and went straight back to Danny's in Westborough. It's a pretty small town(compared to Boston/HUGE compared to Dingwall). Their house is pretty big and very nicely decorated. I flew in at around 7 and was home by 8ish. We had a late dinner - curry (not had proper curry since 2005). Danny and Mary have two daughters - Joanna and Sarah. We had dinner, worship and chatted until around 11ish. It was really good to talk.

And then to bed. Next morning, I got up around 9 (remember that is 8 in my normal time! aka Very early!). And at 11 we went to a Greek restaurant with Danny's work colleagues. He has two offices - it confused me a little how it worked. But I think one of them is an allergy clinic and the other is a wellness clinic. Both sounded very interesting anyway. And the people he worked with were fun! I am now planning a trip to Greece. The food was really good and Greece sounds like such a cool place. Maybe next year!! (Trying to work out if I can squeeze a trip to Peru in next semester at the moment.)

From Aegean, me and Joanna went into Boston and just drove around. We saw Berklees college of music and Harvard Square and some other really beautiful buildings.
We got back at around 4 and we all got in the car and went to Springfield, to Seuss park. The park had an event called 'Bright Nights' and the whole park was decorated in the most amazing christmas lights. SOOooooo beautiful! We drove through the park and took loads of pictures of all the lights. Stopped off at a snack shop and bought hot chocolate and fried dough. mmmhmmmm... :)

That was a little bit away so we got home around 9ish and watched the Grinch. :) That was fun! We ate left overs from lunch time and laughed over the Grinch. hahaaa!!!

Glenview - part 2

Well, the next day.....
Made my way downstairs at around half 12 in time for lunch of the best salad I've ever had i think. It was really good. Shower.... etc later (4pm) we decided to bake. Went to the stores and bought ingredients. And made amazing food!

You get round pretzels and put them on a tray and then put hershey's hug in the middle of the circle. Then you bake them so that the chocolate melts and then using an m&m you push the chocolate down. They are reallllllyyyyy good! But too many make you feel a bit sick.

Started watching the Shawshank Redemption after that. It is a fab film(anything with Nelson Mandela in it is)! Very heart breaking though! And really intense. There is so much pain in the world and I KNOW that that is only a movie but i represents real people in the world. That hopeless state. I can't imagine a life without hope. The feeling that your best chance is to hang yourself. That is terrible. I wanted to help them all. I wanted to tell them about the hope I have that after you die it doesn't end. There is something worth living for - Jesus. He died for you. He became man so that you could have a better life and so that you can have the hope of an eternity spent in perfection. Nothing on this earth is perfect BUT there is hope that one day we will go to a world that makes sense. That has no pain and no hopelessness...



We stopped watching at dinner time and went to a thai restaurant. REALLY good food! By this point it was 8pm so we had to eat fast since the place closed at half 8. oops! haha! It was definitely an interesting day!

Home(or back to Christy's house!) and her friends came over. Now, that was hilarious. They were a really great group of people. I laughed a lot! We watched Love Actually(really don't like that movie but the company was good so it was fun anyway :) ). They left around 2 and then we finished off the Shawshank redmeption. Such an unexpected ending! You all should really watch it. You can learn some stuff about life. But it is very heart hurting!

Went to bed around 4am, after a very interesting chat about the bible and about God with Christy.

Next morning, I was up by around 11. Actually, I was up a while before then because someone called me. I felt sick to be up. Bed by 4 and someone called me at half 7. Yucks! Went back to sleep though and came down to have grilled cheese and some pretzel things for breakfast. :)

Didn't do much else before Christy's mum, Peggy, came back with the car at half 1 and Christy took me to the plane. Went via the office (they have a family business). It was fun to see. They make the presentation poster things that go behind a display. Don't know how to explain it really... :P It was interesting though...

And that was the end of my time in Glenview, Chicago. I really enjoyed my trip there. Next stop: Boston!

First Stop: Glenview (and excitement before) part 1

Hey all... This is my first post of my exciting travels. I am three days in and already loads has happened. I will start with Saturday morning. I had gotten packed up on Friday so that I could enjoy Friday evening - went out with some British friends who were leaving to say bye and have a fun time.

So, Saturday was Marge time. And it was a lot of fun! I was a litle tired at first becuase of a bit of a late night. She took me to O'Charley's in Champaign and I met her grandson, JJ, and his family. They were all really lovely. I had pasta and shrimp and we chatted for quite some time and then opened presents. JJ and his wife work at Purdue and so had bought me a Purdue t-shirt. I felt bad because I hadn't given them anything. After a lot of asssurance that Marge hadn't got me anything very big, she hadn't over a HUGE bag with a blanket and pillow and a set of christmas tree decorations decorated like the US flag. They were a fun present. I really did enjoy my time with those folks. Good food, good chat and some laughs. :)

On the way back to the house we stopped in at hobby lobby because I kinda wanted some pretty beads. I found some nice wooden ones that I am going to paint.

I got home in time for the tail end of Laura's graduation party. By that time of day my head was splitting so I didn't meet or chat to many people. It was a really nice party though. The house was beautifully decorated and all the people there seemed to be enjoying just being there. I met Dominico(the guy Laura is dating) who chatted with me for a while. Seemed like a really nice guy and offered contacts for wherever I wanted to go in Europe or the states. Always useful! :) He did talk a lot and very fast though. His lips move at quite a pace. (If he ever reads this, it's not necessarily a bad thing it can just be amusing - they do move VERY fast. haha!)

I finished packing and by quarter past 5 was on my way to the bus station. Got there in plenty of time becuase the bus was late.

Bus wasn't very nice but sat next to a guy who was bussing it all the way to Detroit! :O It was going to take him over 12 hours. He seemed like a really nice guy. He didn't like the cold so we could relate. haha!

Mike and Alex from England were on their to O'Hare airport so we ended up getting the same train to O'hare. I do enjoy trains and busses. They put you on the same level as the people there and you can people-watch a lot. At one point on the train a man came into the carriage I was on and started speaking very loudly to us all. He said he was homeless and  very embarrassed to do this but he needed money. His dad had kicked him out and a lot of other stuff had happened. All he asked was that we give him enough money for an $18 bus fare to his cousin's house. It sounded truthful but he looked like he was acting it all out. I am sure some of it may have been true but I just never know. It is so difficult to tell with people like that. Are they faking it to get money for drugs or do they really mean it? Homeless people in America are a lot more obvious than in Scotland. They are a lot more forward here as well.

Anyway, I got to O'hare, said goodbye to Mike and Alex and went to meet Christy, who I was staying with for the weekend. From there we went straight to a party at a parent's friend's house. It was a lot of fun. Christy's dad was in a band and they were realllllly good. That was a lot of fun! Until someone tried to make me dance... uhuh! =P The only song I knew was 'Hotel California' but that was the style of music they played. Ad they were really great. I would have bought their cd. But what made it really nice was that it was just for fun. They weren't making money from it. It was an absolutely STUNNING house. Huge and very luxurious(hot tub and rain shower and alll...)!! Everyone was very dressed up so I felt a bit out of place in my travel clothes. But no one seemed to notice too much. I may have just been a rebellious teenager. :)

We left there at around half 11 and went back to Christy's house. Another BEAUtiful house. Especially the kitchen. If I ever build my own house.... :)
A friend of Christy's who I had met at school came over and we watched a movie - The Holiday! To get in a christmassy mood. That was fun but lasted until 2 in the morning. After her dad's gig he came home and watched part of it with us which was fun! Chatted a little bit after and then Christy's brother, John, put on a show - Time Warp. That was reallly interesting -they majorly slow down an action and then replay it. That lasted until half 3. We eventually gave up an headed for bed... Knackered! But a fun evening!


Will talk more later.. Got loads more to say since this is my diary so will be keeping it going(hopefully!) In Boston atm though and I am going out to fancy restaurant with Danny and his family.. I don't have any nice clothes! :O Help! Hope you are all doing well. Love, H xxx

Favourite toilet door quotes... :)

You can really tell what the people are like by their toilets. LOL! I have discovered a new hobby - collecting toilet door quotes. Some can be crude but others very giggle-worthy and even some quite profound... Here are a few I've collected in my time here. I may be strange(actually I know I am) but I just couldn't waste the opportunity of posting some wisdom.. Especially with the second one! :) Enjoy!

Burgers with Marge.

It's been such a long time since I wrote this blog. I think I need to start writing it more frequently. My excuse is that I write my diary but actually, I don't do that either..

So I met up with Marge this afternoon. It was a learning experience, to say the least. Before i go on I should say that she is a delightful lady. She's been so friendly, maybe a little too friendly. I met this 70-something woman in the international office. She asked me where I was from and when I said Scotland, got very excited. She is in an organisation that learn about a country each year and this year it happens to be Scotland. So, to cut a looooooooong story short, she has now got me to speak at a ladies' 'luncheon' the week after Thanksgiving. I have a half hour slot. You may here me screamin 'WHAT?' as you read this. I can't even speak for five minutes in front of a crowd and I told her I would appear but would definitely not be speaking. Well, it's in the programme. Prayers and any assistance welcomed from anyone who reads this.

Anyway, off on a tangent! I met with her this afternoon. We were to meet at a little 'charity' shop at Lincoln X Mall. Within seconds of my being in the door she had me trying on this skirt coz it was cute and she wanted to buy it for me. Then, she picked up this really old-fashioned book called 'Me and Dad'. One of those books where you journal every word spoken between you and your father. My very polite 'no's were not listened to and after about 5 minutes of my making my excuses that I didn't really want it she bought that for me also. She then phoned her granddaughter to say she had bought her great grandson some boots. The granddaughter didn't sound too excited by the prospect.
We then drove to the restaurant and ordered. Burgers. Really good! But the light wasn't strong enough, the burger was too big, the waiter wouldn't come when she asked, it got too noisy... etc..
Then.... she brought out a parcel and handed it over to me. She'd bought it for me last week. It was a teddy bear (a stuffed animal) with 'I love my mummy' written on its t-shirt. I really do appreciate it. She is so kind and GREAT! But I have a feeling that by the end of the year I am going to have soooooooo much stuff that I won't be able to fit it all into my suitcase. Ah well, it was a fun afternoon..


On a sadder not, I have a cold! A really bad one. And the wierdest this is that I was feeling a little bad yesterday but I wasn't sick or anything. This morning I woke up and my whole body ached. My nose was blocked and my throat hurt. I am hoping it doesn't stay very long.

Cliched love!?

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no records of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.
-- 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

So, what do you think when you hear these verses? I think - annoying lovey passage that you get at weddings and whenever the minister feels like everyone needs a lesson in loving the person next to you. But it means nothing to me. Love. Well, I can love alright. That's easy enough. But the love that Paul talks of here is impossible. How can love be all that? I feel love but not love that is patient and love that doesn't ency and love that always perseveres and that never fails. That is just a bit too much.

And then today it made sense. It was actually written on the back of the toilet door. This verse. And then below it was written 'Now, put your name wherever it says love or it.' Are you all that? Could you ever be? Maybe not. But it is a much easier way of putting it and striving to be it all. And then as a person who always protects and always trusts and rejoices with the truth, you can let all that is within you flow out.

I will never be all that those verses say because I am human and only Jesus Christ is all those things, and more. But to be all of those things is something to aim towards. Any thoughts?

In America - a few pictures.

So.. I am here! And this is probably the first time you will have seen my whole blog. Just thought I would send you all some pictures of this and that. I haven't been too great at keep a photo diary of stuff but here is some. :)

New York, from the Airport(which is actually in New Jersey!)

My basement, from the door of my room. The cat litter try is to the right of the waching machine, behind the fridge. This floor is more commonly used however. Toilet is that door on the left. :)

My basement, with my room in that door at the end.

My room. Before it was lived in much. The bed is double. That is my desk on the far right.

My beautiful bike. :)

More of my bike. My backside is not doing too well on it. But it is such a nice bike. :)

My desk and decorations. Thanks for all the cards people. :)

More of my room. That is the laft part. The window looks onto a wall about two feet from it. Btw it does look tidier atm than it does there.

The Quad before people arrived.

When I went bowling with a big group of people from a church called Covenant Fellowship. Mainly Asians. Girl at the front left is in my Badminton class. She invited me.

The Quad - it is acutally around 3 big squares put together. Gets sooo busy between classes. I decided I would sit in the sun and do homework. I didn't last very long.

Me in my room, when it was a bit more made up and MESSY! :) Note the illinois t-shirt and Aberdeen shorts.

So yeah, that is all the decent pictures I have at the moment. Hope that it some help to give you all an idea of where I am. Looking forward to showing it to mum properly. I will try and get more pictures.  Love to all H xx

The Liminal Phase

In first term of first year at the University of Aberdeen, I took a course in Anthropology. It was my worst subject and I couldn't wait until the next term to change it to ANYTHING else. Looking back though it was very interesting. My essay topic was probably the most interesting of that year. I did pretty good in it too! I don't think I can remember the whole question but it was on the liminal phase - that period of transition where you are not yet on that side but are not on this side any more. A very strange concept. But very interesting!

Well, friends who have not yet read this, that is the stage I am at now and it does indeed feel very strange. I have six days left in Dingwall, at home, with the family. I've been up and down and back up again. Why am I doing this to myself? Why would I, voluntarily, ask to be sent to the other side of the world from my family and friends, for a whole year? Well, actually only eight months but we don't need to go into details here. But why, honestly, would I want to do that? And I can't work it out.

Is it to be away from friends and family? I don't think so. I may have wanted that in the past but now, I really wouldn't want to be away from them. I do want to settle sometime.
Am I bored of Aberdeen already, after only one year? This could be some of it maybe. I have a very short attention span and feel that I have been running since I was eight, or maybe since I was born.
Is it for the sake of adventure? Well, I guess that may be partly the reason also. I do love the excitement. :-)

Whatever the reason, I do feel that God has given me his blessing. Everything has gone so smoothly. The visa, the flights, my results, accomodation provided and all the other little bits and pieces. I do pray that this exciting adventure is the will of God and that I put this opportunity to good use.

All that is left to do now is pack! Ooh the joys! I hope God will give me the patience to handle that. And let the next six days not go toooo fast... Please!

My Almighty God! and welcome to my blog...

Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no-one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
 - Isaish 40: 28-31


Hi all. So this blog is really for myself - a way of keeping track of things in my life and thoughts I've had about myself and also about my saviour, Jesus Christ. You are very welcome to read up on it though. And maybe when I begin my exciting travels it will become more of a travel blog for my nearest and dearest.. :)
Anyway, welcome to my blog. Hope you enjoy my wee items of thought and exciting times.
xxxx