Rest-

Happy Thursday to you from a finally sunny Aberdeen. The past five days have been bleak and dark, so the sun comes today as a very welcomed friend. Unfortunately, of course, it's arrived on a day where I have no time to explore my surroundings and must spend my time indoors reading an entire novel for tomorrow morning's seminar. I hope that the light defies this weekend's weather forecast so that my time can be well spent out of doors.

Yesterday morning, Erik, Andrew, Matt, and I took a trail from Hillhead down to the North Sea for the first time. It was approximately a thirty-minute walk along cobblestone streets, the River Don, and one small golf course. The North Sea looks like any other large body of water, but, for some reason, standing on that coast makes one seem quite a bit smaller and much farther from home. To say out loud that I was standing on the water's edge, staring out at the North Sea--well, it makes this Scotland experience seem a little more real.

After that excursion, I headed over to the University to check out some societies at the Societies Fayre. I signed up for InterSoc (International Students Society) and received information on some others, such as Childreach International, Highland Frontier, Canoe Club, and the Christian Union. InterSoc, Canoe Club, and Highland Frontier do a lot of trips and expeditions around Scotland; Childreach International is a fundraising group that raises money through trips to China, India, Mount Everest, and a few others places; and the Christian Union is a group of students who meet for different activities and bible studies on campus. All of them sound interesting, and I'm going to check out the meetings to see what I can fit into my schedule and which ones I want to join for certain.

After that, I returned to Hillhead to organize materials for my classes and to attempt to schedule some trips for the coming weekends and break. I cooked dinner with my flatmates and had a good conversation with a few of them for quite some time (and even learned a little French!), and then Matt and Andrew came by to go to a philosophy discussion at an area pub. We made the trek down to the city to a place called the Blue Lamp, which was an interesting and dark bar that was lit by candles on top of Jack Daniel's bottles. We discussed the topic of "determinism versus free will," though I mostly listened, as I don't formally study philosophy. Many of the members were PhD students, and they were very friendly and sociable. I enjoyed a good discussion afterward with a couple of guys, one who received his bachelor's at Oxford and another who is receiving his master's in philosophy at Aberdeen. We left around ten forty-five and made our way back to Hillhead, where I Skyped for a while and went to bed.

I didn't set an alarm this morning, as I have been extremely tired the past few days. I have been taking it slow this morning and working on my readings for class in my flat. I am a little bit bummed that I have to do my homework on the one and only day that it is sunny, but I hope and pray that more sunny days in Britain are to come (cross your fingers for me).

Psalm 8--O Lord, that you are mindful of me.