This visa thing is frustrating. I know this is like the hundredth post I have up here regarding that, but seriously. I've already missed a week of my course. Tomorrow will start the next week I'm going to be absent for. I'm just so worried about how I'm going to catch up, even though I know the professors will help and all.
This girl I've met via facebook that's on the architecture course, Emily, added me to a group dedicated to the first year architects. I had a look at some of the discussions - they're already talking about presentations! As in, they've done them. And lord, I have monster stage fright. I've been onstage before - school plays, master of ceremonies for a couple of occasions, and so on. My knees literally shake; I always make sure to wear a dress or skirt of something, to cover it up. Looking at my face, I'm told, you can't tell I'm about to pass out. But I really am.
As it goes on, and I know that the audience is not about to burst out laughing (unless I've just thrown in a joke or something), it gets better. The knees don't, but the suffocated feeling in my chest does alleviate a little. I suppose as I do more presentations in class, I'll get over it. And I'll be friends with them, so I guess it won't be as daunting as a stage audience. But still.
The point is I have to catch up, and do presentations on the caught up work. And I don't have any casual skirts. I've only ever worn formal dresses to the times I needed to be MC, or my school uniform (long skirt on the days of speeches and presentations and such). HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO HIDE MY KNEES?
Right, first thing in the morning, I'm going out and buying skirts. Whatever. I can do this.
Emily has been great. She's offered to help me catch up once I get there, which is a huge load off. Teachers are good, but I've always found studying with classmates much more effective. I'm not sure if this is a universal thing or just me, but there you go. I studied for my A-Levels by forcing my brother study in my room at the same time - he'd quiz me when I asked, which was actually a massive help for physics. He has a knack for asking questions that miraculously appear on the paper. And saying the answers out loud to him helped make it stick.
On a different note, I really, truly cannot wait to meet my new flatmates. They've done just the sweetest thing. I received an invite on fb to an event, so I checked it out. Guess what it's called?
"Party for Shimali."
Since I missed out on freshers', they've decided to throw a little thing in my honour, and I am completely, utterly touched. Tears of joy, I swear to God, were there. (Side note: I'm an annoyingly emotional person. I cried, full on sobs, for Spiderman 3, when [SPOILER ALERT] Harry died. Even though the entire theatre was laughing at Tobey Maguire's scrunched-up crybaby face.) It's so very sweet of them. I know I'm going to absolutely love my new family.
It's happening this Friday. I really hope I'm in Dundee by then. Like, seriously. Every time I check the application status of the visa, I get a little pang of sadness when I see it still isn't through.
If I haven't gotten it by tomorrow, I'll have to find the number for the residences and explain why I haven't collected the keys yet, and when I probably will. I hope they accept that I don't know. And then explain to the flatmates that I may not be there in time for the party. Which would be AWFUL, seeing as they've gone to all the trouble.
*Sigh* Anyway. I'm going to sleep. Maybe things will look better in the morning.
Ja.
Showing posts with label flatmates. Show all posts
Showing posts with label flatmates. Show all posts
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Cakes Rolling Downhill
Right, so I decided that, since I'm moving to the university in around two weeks, I'd best start preparing.
Well, yes, I've been preparing for months now. But I mean preparing, proper.
Last night, at around three in the morning, it hit me that I'm not quite ready. I've got most of the clothes now - I think I still need to buy a couple of jackets. Apparently, 18 degrees Celsius is considered warm there. In Dubai, we're surviving at temperatures of over 50 degrees. Warm, here, is like 35 degrees, I guess? I don't know, I just know that we complain it's hot when the weather escalates past 45 degrees. One thing I do know, however, is that 18 degrees is not warm. It's freaking cold.
Yeah, I need more jackets.
Anyway, as I was saying, I'm not ready. I still needed to buy knick-knacks such as earplugs and all. So, I pulled out a sheet of paper and wrote down a to-do list.
I also had a random craving for Cinnabon. Realizing that this was the perfect opportunity to try and learn to cook, I looked up the recipe for Cinnabon cinnamon rolls, and added the ingredients of that to the to-do list for the next day.
When I woke up at my usual hour of 3 in the afternoon, I got dressed and drove to Yolany's place. My brother was playing video games there, so I picked him up and headed to Geant, which is like a massive Tesco or Walmart or whatever at the local mall.
We picked up the ingredients, picked up some other stuff (thumb tacks, a note pad, couple of toiletries), picked up my brother's friends (they wanted to play basketball at the court near our house), and headed home.
Now, I wanted to make cinnamon rolls. That was the plan. I made the frosting first, and stuck that in the fridge. It tasted pretty good - the same as the Cinnabon rolls', I should think. Then I started on the actual rolls.
Complete chaos.
I tried to get organized, I really did. But before long, there was flour all over the table, sugar sprinkled among that, and the dough stuck to my fingers and would not come off. I do not know how people are supposed to bake that stuff, when half of it goes down the drain in an attempt to have reasonably dough-free hands.
Dad came in right as I was trying to knead the stupid dough, and had this weird smirk on his face that kind of said, my daughter is a really lousy cook. And it's funny.
I told him it was tougher than it looked, and he nodded sympathetically, but really, I know he was laughing on the inside.
Anyway, halfway through I realized that I wouldn't be able to roll the dough up like the recipe called for. I added half a cup more flour than asked even, because it wasn't solid enough to roll up. It was too squishy, and stuck to my fingers way too much.
So I decided that, instead of making cinnamon rolls, I was baking a cinnamon cake.
I altered the rest of the recipe, according to how I thought the cake should turn out. I poured half of the batter/dough thing into a cake pan, melted some butter and spread it over that, added the cinnamon and brown sugar, and then poured the rest of the batter over that. I figured that that ought to work.
It did. *epic grin here*
So even though I couldn't make proper cinnamon rolls, the cinnamon cake turn out delicious. Tasted exactly like a Cinnabon roll, but cake form. I'd even added less cinnamon than was listed, since Dad mentioned at the table that he didn't like Cinnabon that much.
The cake:
I'm in my PJ's in the picture, because the cake finished baking at like 10 pm.
Mum and I were tempted to eat more than the piece we cut, but we decided to let the cake cool a bit and share it around in the morning. I figure I'll take some of it to Yolany's. Yomal, her younger brother, looked super eager when I mentioned my Cinnabon plans to him earlier today.
So it looks like I can bake when I get to uni. I'm not sure if I'm going to - baking this cake was a MAJOR hassle. Well, alright, not really. I just really didn't like the stupid, sticky dough. Or batter. Isn't it called batter, for cakes? Can you call it dough? The recipe called it dough, but that was meant for rolls. Maybe the term changes depending on what you're baking, even though it's the same ingredients.
Whatever.
In other news, my flatmates have met each other and are enjoying Freshers'. It sounds loads fun. I've seen pictures and all that they've put up, and the flat looks pretty nice. I'll put my own pictures up here once I get there.
For now, though:
Ja ne.
Well, yes, I've been preparing for months now. But I mean preparing, proper.
Last night, at around three in the morning, it hit me that I'm not quite ready. I've got most of the clothes now - I think I still need to buy a couple of jackets. Apparently, 18 degrees Celsius is considered warm there. In Dubai, we're surviving at temperatures of over 50 degrees. Warm, here, is like 35 degrees, I guess? I don't know, I just know that we complain it's hot when the weather escalates past 45 degrees. One thing I do know, however, is that 18 degrees is not warm. It's freaking cold.
Yeah, I need more jackets.
Anyway, as I was saying, I'm not ready. I still needed to buy knick-knacks such as earplugs and all. So, I pulled out a sheet of paper and wrote down a to-do list.
I also had a random craving for Cinnabon. Realizing that this was the perfect opportunity to try and learn to cook, I looked up the recipe for Cinnabon cinnamon rolls, and added the ingredients of that to the to-do list for the next day.
When I woke up at my usual hour of 3 in the afternoon, I got dressed and drove to Yolany's place. My brother was playing video games there, so I picked him up and headed to Geant, which is like a massive Tesco or Walmart or whatever at the local mall.
We picked up the ingredients, picked up some other stuff (thumb tacks, a note pad, couple of toiletries), picked up my brother's friends (they wanted to play basketball at the court near our house), and headed home.
Now, I wanted to make cinnamon rolls. That was the plan. I made the frosting first, and stuck that in the fridge. It tasted pretty good - the same as the Cinnabon rolls', I should think. Then I started on the actual rolls.
Complete chaos.
I tried to get organized, I really did. But before long, there was flour all over the table, sugar sprinkled among that, and the dough stuck to my fingers and would not come off. I do not know how people are supposed to bake that stuff, when half of it goes down the drain in an attempt to have reasonably dough-free hands.
Dad came in right as I was trying to knead the stupid dough, and had this weird smirk on his face that kind of said, my daughter is a really lousy cook. And it's funny.
I told him it was tougher than it looked, and he nodded sympathetically, but really, I know he was laughing on the inside.
Anyway, halfway through I realized that I wouldn't be able to roll the dough up like the recipe called for. I added half a cup more flour than asked even, because it wasn't solid enough to roll up. It was too squishy, and stuck to my fingers way too much.
So I decided that, instead of making cinnamon rolls, I was baking a cinnamon cake.
I altered the rest of the recipe, according to how I thought the cake should turn out. I poured half of the batter/dough thing into a cake pan, melted some butter and spread it over that, added the cinnamon and brown sugar, and then poured the rest of the batter over that. I figured that that ought to work.
It did. *epic grin here*
So even though I couldn't make proper cinnamon rolls, the cinnamon cake turn out delicious. Tasted exactly like a Cinnabon roll, but cake form. I'd even added less cinnamon than was listed, since Dad mentioned at the table that he didn't like Cinnabon that much.
The cake:
 |
| Cinnamon Cake! |
 |
| The Cinnamon Cake and its Awesome Patissiere. |
I'm in my PJ's in the picture, because the cake finished baking at like 10 pm.
Mum and I were tempted to eat more than the piece we cut, but we decided to let the cake cool a bit and share it around in the morning. I figure I'll take some of it to Yolany's. Yomal, her younger brother, looked super eager when I mentioned my Cinnabon plans to him earlier today.
So it looks like I can bake when I get to uni. I'm not sure if I'm going to - baking this cake was a MAJOR hassle. Well, alright, not really. I just really didn't like the stupid, sticky dough. Or batter. Isn't it called batter, for cakes? Can you call it dough? The recipe called it dough, but that was meant for rolls. Maybe the term changes depending on what you're baking, even though it's the same ingredients.
Whatever.
In other news, my flatmates have met each other and are enjoying Freshers'. It sounds loads fun. I've seen pictures and all that they've put up, and the flat looks pretty nice. I'll put my own pictures up here once I get there.
For now, though:
Ja ne.
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