Happy Christmas Eve!

This is the first time I'm having a white Christmas. I'm excited! Santa Claus and his reindeers would land on a snowy roof. :]

But I wish my family and friends are here. =/ It's so weird not spending Christmas with them. I know, I know. I booked my flight so I would go home after the holidays so I should have known what I was getting into. I just didn't expect how tired out I would be after a few days of traveling, and I didn't realize how homesick I would be. And how much I miss food. Ahhhh, I miss my mommy. All I want for Christmas is my family, friends, and pho.

I'm super happy to have plans for Christmas though. Tomorrow my flatmate, his friend, and I are going to a friend's flat for a Christmas lunch. My flatmate and I are making chicken wings and shepherd's pie. O.O It's a lot of work, and I already messed up marinating the chicken wings. >< Gosh, I hope it turns out well.

And, I'm really looking forward to spending Christmas with friends. It's kinda silly but going over to a friend's place for Christmas kinda makes me feel all grown up. because spending Christmas day with friends instead of family is something new for me, and what a better time to try new things while abroad. Right? ...

Happy Christmas, everyone! :)

Beauty and the Beast @ Citizen's Theater

EAP UK and Ireland hosted one last event for the year - dinner at TigerTiger and watching Beauty and the Beast. The food was yummy. The play wasn't that great...

Pretty poster. Oddly enough Beauty from the play was not the girl on the poster. False advertisement...


The acting was way dramatized. Every time Beauty screamed aloud from having a nightmare, it left my ears ringing. Every time Beast roared "NEVER!" or growled/gruffed/roared, my heart jumped. By the end of the play, I was very agitated and annoyed. It was nothing like Disney's version of Beauty and the Beast. So no Mrs. Potts, no Chip, no Lumier... I think it's because of a copyright issue? Anyways, the plot was interesting.

But the ending horrified me! The Beast did not turn back to a human. But it's still a happy ending because Beauty still loves Beast and they supposedly live happily ever after. Ahem... but can you see the problem with this relationship? -_____- I guess the moral of the story is that you should love the person for who they are inside. Sure, this would make sense and the end would be satisfying if you were eight. But what about the older audience?! When the rest of us were exiting the theater, I overheard their discussion about the ending. Yups, we all were a bit disgusted...

FIRST SNOW IN GLASGOW!

My flat mate and I were uber excited about the snowfall. The weather report said there would be a heavy snowfall at midnight. The ground and roofs were quickly blanketed with snow. We scrambled outside to play. Silly me, I just wore sweats and sandals. Big mistake. My toes were frozen in a second.

We stood outside for a bit, amazed. I went back up to my room to change into warmer clothes and wore boots. Once I was bundled up, I was ready to face the icy cold.

I was surprised my flat mate never seen snow. I told him we had to make a snowman and a snow angel. It was so much fun. I made a mini one, and it's adorable. :)



Puahahaha and his is cute too... sorta... :P




Then we made a bigger one! This beloved snowman protected the people who lived in this building. We took this moments before his untimely death. :[



I loooove the snow. All the soft white snow look like powder sugar. It would be awesome if the snow was actually sugar. We could make lots and lots of cakes. Then everyone would be happy. :)

This is a view from my room window. I love sitting by the window with a hot cup of hot chocolate and watch the snow float down.




I went to my friend's flat and saw this amazing snowman. A carrot nose, a hat, and a scarf...He was legit!



Botanical Garden became a Winter Wonderland. :) It was fun to see all the little kiddies play in the snow. There were quite a few snowmen. I'll update with more. OH! I'm a bit jealous that they have a sled. I need to find one pronto. :D





I'm so excited! It's going to be a white Christmas!

Harry Potter 7 @ Cineworld

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 was amazing! The icing on the cake was that we watched it at Cineworld Glasgow Renfrew Street, the world's tallest cinema in the world!!

I can't wait until Part 2. And then for all of the DVDs to come out. That way we could have a Harry Potter marathon and watch all the movies in one day. O.O

Homemade Burgers & Fries with a Side of Naughty Fun

It was my turn to host a lunch date with my friends. I was so afraid of disappointing them. >< I made hamburgers with sauteed mushrooms and onions, tomatoes, and lettuce. And homemade french fries and sweet potato fries! Super yummy. Luckily it was a success. They were super sweet and brought dessert. Yums in my tums!

Check out this massive burger! :) Jealous, aren't you. Puahahahaha


It was so much fun to just sit around and talk. We talked about being homesick, but it helped talking about it with people from the same state.

Later that day...

There was a Glee episode featuring the Richard O'Brien's The Rocky Horror Show, and it made me curious about watching this show. Plus it's a musical. Everything is better in songs, right? hahaha Anyways, my flatmate got this awesome deal for discounted tickets and a group of us decided to go. I just wished I did some kind of research before going into the theatre. But at the time I figured the musical was true to its name so it would have lots of scary monsters and what not. Yeah, I wasn't prepared. O.O



There were moments where I couldn't help but cover my eyes. The show was hilarious and sooo risque. I saw a kid in the audience! Man, he must've been super confused with the plot and certain scenes.

Apparently, according to my flatmate, I had the most surprised expression when Frank N Furter took off his cape. You HAVE to see this show. I was definitely speechless during the show. Lots of hiding behind my hands. There are times I couldn't believe what I'm seeing. And things don't make sense, but my flat mates says it's not supposed to. But that's okay, I was willing to swept away by the dancing and the songs.

Brad [Richard Meek] and Frank N Furter [David Bedella] were amazing. I love the songs they sing. And Brad is so sweet and cute. :) Lol.

We went to the earlier showing and we saw some people dress up as the characters from the show. When I was people-watching as people grabbed their seats, a flag was raised when I saw some people dressed in fishnets and wigs. I even saw a guy who dressed up as Brad. And that takes balls.

Now I'm a Rocky Virgin no more. I am definitely going to look out for the American tour. :)

Not Too Old to Say that I Miss My Mommy

I don't know why I suddenly feel this way, but I really miss my mom. I think it's the gloomy weather and the constant rain showers. Back in San Diego, I know that I can always drive home whenever I feel that need to see my family. Now that I'm in Glasgow, it would be pretty impractical to fly home every time I get homesick. Calling/skyping doesn't feel the same.

When EAP told the students that most of us would be homesick, I didn't really believe that I would fall in that percentage. I miss my family, my friends, and the food.

I know Christmas is never a big event in my family, but the idea of being here alone for Christmas is depressing. When I booked my flight, I didn't really care. Darn, I'm foolish. I clearly don't know myself well enough. -_____- Dang it, I need my mom. I would love to be annoyed to death by my younger brother or even let my mom nag on me about not wearing enough clothes or eating enough food.

Thank goodness I have about 2 months left. I can't wait until I go home. The first thing I'm going to do is hug my mom and never let go. Then I'm driving down to Irvine to see my bf and hug her to death, maybe grab some munchies before going to San Diego. I don't care how late it is, I'm grabbing Bella to go to the nearest place to eat pho. :) Then I'll be a happy camper.

Ughh, the wind is howling! Poor trees. The thin trunks looks like it's gonna snap in half soon. It kinda reminds me of awkward yoga positions. This place keeps raining and raining. Don't get me wrong. I love the rain! But this is waaay too much. I need sunshine and California. I need my mom's cooking. Omgosh, I need my grammy's cooking.

To make it worse, I realized I didn't bring any family photographs. -___- I depended on Facebook for pictures, but I don't post family albums. Sigh. The only thing I have is from my sister's Facebook picture of her graduation. Hahaha.

I guess for now, this will do. I love how we are all together, which is rare... :)



I can't wait until I am on that flight home and be with family in sunny California.

Bonfire Night, but without a Bonfire

Guy Fawkes Night!!

Some friends and I went out to Tennents to grab dinner before heading to the show. Gots to love pub food. I don't think I'll ever get sick of fish and chips. Hahaha.

Here's a group picture of us just outside the subway stop. You probably can't tell, but we were freezinggg!



I was really excited about this fireworks show because the show is set to songs from Mama Mia! Except, we totally underestimated how cold it was going to be. Everything was muddy. >< But we got some yummy sweets to cheer us up. I got an 99 Flake [an ice cream cone with a Cadbury Flake inserted in it] and cotton candy. Teehee :)

But seriously, it was freezing. At one point during the night, I couldn't feel my toes. My poor Vans. I don't think my shoes are going to make it back home with me. I'm going to have to chuck at least 2 pairs of shoes. :(

Anyways, the fireworks show was amazing! All of us sang along to the songs and danced around [in attempt to get warm]. Some songs were sad and it was weird to have those songs in the show. =/ Didn't seem to match up. But my gosh, these fireworks were HUGE and waaaaaaay better than Disneyland's firework show. =X



It was absolutely nuts trying to leave the park. There were about 60,000 people who came to see the fireworks show. Now imagine that 60,000 people trying to leave all at the same time. O.O My friends and I formed a chain so we wouldn't get lost in the crowd. I wouldn't want to end up like Simba's dad during a stampede.

All in all, it was great to get out of my flat even though it was kinda weird going out at 6 and it's already pitched dark. Another thing, I wasn't sure if people are celebrating this day because Guy Fawkes failed to burn the House of Lords or because he got caught. I'll look into that. Lol.