Hello old friends! I know its been a super long time but I've had a really good excuse.. Firstly, I went on an almost week long field trip that was super ace. Then soon after I went home for easter break.. only like a week and a day but it was good even though I was ill throughout the entire time.. awesome.. oh well anyway then I got stuck in the airport from the Volcano blowing up in Iceland. That was not so cool. But I have news on PhD's and Wageningen and finally I have had a lot of work to catch up on.. which is what I should be doing right now but I couldn't put this off any longer either. so I will tell about all in turn. I think that would be the easiest and best thing to do and it will keep my brain on track a little.. ha.

Field Trip:

The Field trip was awesome.. I wish we had one like this at the beginning of the year to help us all bond.. I think it helped us bond even more than we already have though. We went for almost a week to Ballater in Royal Deeside to learn about management of estates and what not.. it was basically a rangeland ecology field trip but in scotland and we had snow up to our asses.. well not that much but it was a good 2 feet at least!! and we hiked all over everywhere.. It was very educational and fun! We got to stay in Chalets which was cool and cold and sucky all at the same time.. Cool because it was like our own little houses, I lived with Laura, Olu and Susie.. oh and of course the dinosaurs. And our house was the keeper of the cupcakes. Cold because it snowed and sucky because our electricity was metered by pound coins.. so I think our chalet was eating our money and our shower sucked big time.. but it was lots of fun. Every day we hiked for a couple hours in the snow and all over hell and back. but we learned a lot about different management practices.. like how Glen Tanar hates the deer and wants to keep them out but the neighboring estate of Glen Muick feeds the deer for sport and stuff. but we also had some fun time.. One day it snowed so much that we were suposed to Glen Muick but the road was closed.. So Graeme and Zac took us Sledding instead!! and because of the awesome "right to roam" thingie in Scotland we found ourself a really nice hill at a farm and went sledding. Thanks to Susie and Aoife for making the first butt grooves in the snow, it went swimmingly! And we ended up getting to go really fast! It was super cool even Ahmed came with me, Susie, Olu, Aoife and HonMan sledding.. Ahmed made a cool snowman. The only down part about it was that Zac and Graeme stayed in the van.. pah! whatever! we had huge amounts of fun! and lots of quotes were made too! I also got to use my first hot water bottle ever! which I called a water bladder. those things are my new best friends, of inanimate objects. At first everyone was laughing about my enromous bag I took along with us for the trip but it had extra clothes, extra food, an extra blanket (thank god) and things in there that people ended up needing.. they weren't laughing after they saw I was kinda playing mom and was making sure everyone was comfortable, warm and fed just incase they ran out of stuff or was extra hungry :) . I also made cupcakes to share on the middle day to kinda perk people up.. we were all extremely tired and yet still found the energy to go out to the pub! ha! of course! where I did shots for the first and last time ever. Thank you Alex, that was yucky.. tasted like caugh syrup! hahah! But it had to come to an end and when we all got back a bunch of us went to the gardens and spread out on our survival bags that we had used as sleds. and basked in the sun while eating lunch. it was great to see the sun! it didn't matter that it was slightly chilly out.. we all were out there for a while. it was a good ending! and a good start to easter break. I wish we could do it again :)

Home:

the flight home was good. I was really excited to see my family even though before I left I had this bad feeling of things happening that weren't optimal. On the flight over I ended up with some blood clotty bruise thingie which NHS decided that it was a blood clot that fixed its self because I displayed no other symptoms other than a headache and I wasn't dead. They think it happened because I was dehydrated. oh well. Lynnie came and picked me up at the airport even though we had a mixup of where she was picking me up. it was interesting. we both were in the right place but on two different levels. ha! I also got to meet Diva Dog and got to see Brady! I didn't feel tired for the longest time and we were suposed to go out for dinner that night but I fell asleep halfway through the reading of the topics in double jeopardy. and dont remember a thing after that! it was quite funny actually! I also got to see my grandparents that were adament that they take me to the hospital because I was having a hard time breathing.. I blame the mold and pollen in Oregon.. thats my story and I'm sticking to it! I really missed my grandparents and I still do. It was good to see them and I stayed at their house for two nights which i think I really needed more. My grandfather is the funiest guy I know and he is absolutely amazing. My gramma kept trying to feed me everything in the world which is what grandmothers do I am convinced. :) I also got to spend some Koality (haha) time with my mom we went to the beach and to the casino which was legend.. of course it was raining on the beach.. so that wasn't much fun..I also got to go to her class which was fun :) Seeing my cat was super good and had a super good dinner organised by Anna! WOOP! El Sol omg mexican foood! the SLD gang and Hilary were there and that was amazingness. I super miss hilary and I regret that I didn't get to spend more time with her but next time I am home I am hoping to be there for a couple weeks.. so maybe I could spend a whole week with her :) all in all it was a good trip home and I got some ace new clothes! too bad I didn't pack any in my carry on for when I got to live at the airport. damnit..

Airport:

The dredded airport.. story and bullet point style! part of this from my journal that I started while I was there.. I don't have time to translate it all so this is what you're getting. deal with it hahah

Like in any bad situation involving masses of people; rumors, anger and confusion have insued. This all started on wednesday April 14th 2010. A volcano in Iceland had errupted sending ash plums of silicate, silt, glass and rocks into the atmosphere. I was on a plane going direct from Portland to Amsterdam then connecting to go to Aberdeen. When I first heard of the erruption, I figured of everything would be fine because we flew lower than usual. But this delta flight ended in confusion as we stepped off the plane and headed towards the transfer point "All planes to the UK grounded" The KLM rep told us. They also told us that we had to stay in the Schiphol airport for the time being and be prepared for a couple nights stay as well. I had only been to Schiphol airport for a couple of transfers but never actually had time to look at it. Hours started to pass and so finally they gave us food vouchers and a number to call for rebooking. they told us to call the number and said keep trying if you can't get through. I spent 40 pounds on phone cards to keep trying this number. only to find out that they only have a few english operators at the calling center. In a panic many of us went back to the KLM booking station and thats where life got a bit more interesting. OF course I got an asthma attack in the queue (perfect timing I guess). I was freaked out and very confused about what was happening. This is where I met Janet and Barry Johnson.. my new airport parents. I couldn't find my inhailer and Janet saw me freaking out and turned around in the queue to help me calm down and her husband held my bag for me while I fumbled through it looking for my inhailer. They decided they would take me under their wing when they realised I was traveling alone and according to Janet I was very young.. even though repeatedly I told her I was 24. but that was fine. They decided to be my saving grace and found me a sofa chair by them to sit in and wait things out.. they didn't have to do this but they did it and it just suprised me all to hell. I guess I'm used to people not doing kind things for other people they don't know just because they can. Lunch was interesting as I don't speak dutch and I didn't know half of what I was eating but I didn't mind. I was scared, tired and hungry and coming to the realization that for the first time ever I was going to have to stay the night in the airport. I used my food vouchers on lunch at a cafe and dinner at McD's (eww). but it was not food for cheap and I only had 10euros to spend on food and I had to spend it all because I didn't get any change back.. Everyone that night was upset and confused. The Rode Kruise (red cross of the netherlands) set up cots/camp beds and gave out blankets. they said they put up 2000 beds but it didn't seem to look like it. I got kicked out of my sofa chair in the middle of the night when I went to the check the info boards and use the restroom. Even though I had left my jacket and some of my things on my chairs.. some lazy assed First Aid people threw my things on the floor so they could dump an annoying patient there until morning because she was "no longer" their "problem" and their "shift was over". Janet tried to stick up for me but the first aid people stated that I was also not their problem. awesome huh? This is when I met the netherlands red cross. I think my super sad face convinced them to give me two blankets because I was going to have to sleep on the floor. The majority of the people that night slept anywhere they could. On assistance caddy carts, sofa chairs, the red cross beds but mostly on the floor in hallways. The monitors said that at 6am the next day we would have more information. but when people started to queue up they told us to go back to our places. By friday everyone in the airport had created one giant hunting and gathering somthing.. it was strange..

ok my internet is being stupid I will have to continue another time.. sorry :( to be continued TOMORROW!! :)