Grum a lum dum.

HI!:D

Its monday now, obviously. How’ve you been?

I wish I could have posted yesterday, because I ended up a lot more busy today than yesterday, but thats the way of the world I guess :p. At least now I get to tell u about it.

So, basically, all I did yesterday was go to aldi.

AND IT SUCKED.

Its about 15-20 minutes from my house, and given I had a travel bag and have done this before I thought “oh this’ll be an easy trip” YOU KNOW WHAT I DIDNT ACCOUNT FOR? THE ELEVATION :].

I was basically just going up a hill for 15-20 minutes on the way back, which may not have doubled the time it took to get home, but DEFINETELY more than doubled the effort it took, it was genuinely tiring. Afterwards I was over exhausted, my body barely wanted to cooperate, so I just kept this post for today.

This isnt even mentioning the brain scrambling that happened because of the trip too though.

Originally, the plan was to go to a nearby cafe on the way, get a nice cookie (which theyre quite well known for) and a coffee, THEN get to the aldi with some added energy.

The cafe is only ever open 9amto 3pm, and I only ever saw it at 20% capacity, so I didnt think the place would be full or anything.

IT WAS SO FULL IT LOOKED LIKE IT WAS OVERFLOWING D:<.

So NOT ONLY did u break my body, but u ALSO broke my spirit >:(.

(I really wanted that cookie)

Okay, so that failed, I still went to the aldi and got everything I needed to right?

NO.

Okay actually, mostly yea.

I got everything except for ginger, but it was just as bad in terms of crowdedness (I couldnt see half the stuff and had to move along whole ass crowds to get to basic groceries), and made me remember very poignantly why I chose morrisons to shop at for so long.

Dunno if im gonna switch course back though tbh, aldi IS still a good bit cheaper, so ill try squeezing in my weekly shop some other day. For now though, the message is pretty clear.

Dont shop on sundays at aldi :p.

Today was much nicer though. Its the second day officially at uni (still induction week tho so basically free to wander about), this time at the comp sci branch instead of just general greetings for all international students, and I got to play at the union for a while afterwards. I played a lot of celeste, people seemed to like that, then we switched to smash bros and I went and got a sandwich. Came back and saw nobody on smash anymore, asked the group of ppl by the table what was going on (I misread the situation and thought they were all playing a card or board game like an earlier group was, but na most of them were just sitting around and the other table was playing) nobody responded, I left like 5 minutes l8r :].

Aside from the last bit (though in hindsight its kinda funny) it was really nice, especially given the first official day in uni back on friday was just a boring presentation with a ton of a.i art plastered on it (gross) and not much else. Maybe that was just on me for not going back to the union gaming lounge sooner though. Ill keep going, its where I feel most sociable (though who knows maybe the other clubs ill join will change that >:)) and celeste is just a really nice way to stir up conversation, and really fun in general.

Who knows? Mayble itll get really fun for them to watch once I get to the harder stuff >:). Would like to see peoples reaction to beating chapter 9, or 7C, since everyone seems to already think im really good and im still on CHAPTER 4 LIKE HOW :’). I mean yes, I did B sides pretty flawlessly, but this is NOTHING compared to modded players. Still though, im honored.

Or ill just ditch celeste and play some board games. They were playing werewolves today when I was on celeste, and although I already had 2 ppl I was chilling with while playing celeste I did really wanna play werewolves, its been a while since I got to play social deduction and itd be real fun to play.

Anyhoot, I went to the parkinsons building & brotherton library after that and before going home, since I wanted to find some very specific books and get some visa advice, and MY GOD did I find the books I was looking for.

I dont remember when I went honestly, though considering I bought the sandwich at 12 20 it couldnt have been later than 1pm, and I stayed there for 4 HOURS.

IT. WAS. really nice :).

The books I was (and still am) interested in are history books. Specifically, I was looking for book about the history of islam, so that I could better understand its historical roots and to further my understanding of the other books, books on saudi arabia and books on lebanon. Given im a lebanese kid raised in saudi arabia, you can see where im going with this, right?

I dont feel like I know much about the history, culture or ideas surrounding my upbringing as well as I could. How living in saudi arabia likely shifted my family and the way they think and live, the struggles that lebanon has faced and my parent’s ties to their home country, and the islamic values I was taught growing up ALL have obviously had a massive effect on me as a person, so I thought itd be a good idea to do a sort of study of all of these faculties. Practically speaking, I want to break down all of the thoughts and ideas in my head that may have arose specifically because of environmental influence in regards to my lebanese parent’s upbringing, my saudi environment and islamic faith, ditch the stuff I dont want, and keep the stuff I do want, while furthering my understanding of lebanon, my lovely but very distraight home country which I love dearly <3.

Finding the books for this was a bit of a long process (I mean given I was there for 4 hours im sure you picked up on that) but it was also a pretty soothing experience, being away from all the chaos and business of that day (the uni, including the lounge, was PACKED from start to finish).

At first, I was dumbfounded and could barely navigate the place, but after a bit of help by the end id found all the books id needed. That, and I spent a lot of time reading The Cambridge history of islam volume 2B. It sort of was just me reading, taking a nap, reading some more, only then deciding id get the full 2 volumes, after which I went hunting, couldnt find the books, but got some advice on where to find them and got all the books I wanted. Then went home, cut up a chicken, and now im waiting for my chicken stock to be done while I write you this post :3.

Big jump I know, but just thought id share the rest too.

Speaking of the chicken stock though, its finally just about done, so im gonna go make the vegetable soup oive been waiting to make. Here’s a treat for making it this far though https://youtu.be/itO7lvsswqw?si=2Xw70_10LcDUM0eW.

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed the little ramble :).

See you next week.