Glasgow, flatmates, and a cat

About two weeks ago, I spent a weekend in Glasgow with my friend Becki! It was very nice of her to let me stay at her flat and show me around Glasgow, since I've never been there before.

On Saturday we went shopping in the city, and Sunday we took a train to a place called Balloch to see Loch Lomond and a castle. It was lovely to see two such different parts of Scotland even during such a short visit!

It was a scorching hot day, which surprised me a bit since we were in Scotland after all!

As we're approaching the end of our accommodation contract (which is July 12th), I've already had to say goodbye to three of my flatmates: Bella, Sharon, and Mathilde. It's only three of us left now until tomorrow when Rike leaves - and then I leave the day after!

Mathilde, Purfi, Sharon, Sharon's friend, Sharon's aunt and me were all needed to get Sharon's things in her aunt's car.

And here's Mathilde just before going in the taxi. She had two very heavy bags, and I helped her carry one of them, even if it wasn't very far. I wanted to see her off properly!

On Sunday I was having dinner at Sherry's place and someone had brought a cat! I was on top of the world! So much so that the only pictures I took that evening are of the cat.

Peak District

(Wow, I can't believe it's July already! I'm leaving Sheffield on Friday, but I'm not flying home until the 13th - I'll be in Oxford and London for a week first.)

 Sheffield is very close to a big national park called the Peak District. I didn't visit it once during the autumn semester, but fortunately I've been able to go there a few times recently. Depending on where you go, the bus journey only takes about 20 minutes from Sheffield, which is really amazing.

The first time I went there with my flatmate Mathilde and her friend from home, Alexia. I was very excited as I love beautiful landscape and views.

I also managed to visit the Peaks with Charlie when he was last here! We got off the bus at the same stop as with Mathilde, but we walked in a different direction so I wouldn't make the same walk twice. And it was really like a new place! The weather was the best we could have hoped for.

I made my third visit on my own (to a different place), but I'll post those pictures in the next post!

some summer moments (part 2)

I started saying (good)byes to the people I've met here a couple of weeks ago. First, I had lunch with Jasmine (she's looking into doing a work experience period in Finland in December so perhaps we'll meet each other again soon!) but I didn't take any pictures unfortunately. It was lovely, though, and she gave me a little gift which was very sweet!

After that, I met Amber for bubble tea. It was my first time trying it, and although I wasn't entirely convinced, it may not have been my last time.

This was one of the warm summer days we've had a few recently, but not quite as many as I hoped!

A few days later, Ollie and I (and Sherry for a little bit) attended the last party at the university called the Summer Social: By the Seaside. The Students' Union was filled with "seaside attractions" like a candyfloss machine, bungee trampolines, a caricature artist and a fortune teller, minigolf (or "crazy golf") and later in the evening there was a silent disco (which was a lot of fun!) and other club nights. It definitely exceeded my expectations!

Two days after this, Charlie came up North and we went to Driffield to stay with his grandparents for one night. That was really lovely and relaxing, and we even visited the real seaside in Bridlington.

some summer moments (part 1)

Since Mum's visit and since I finished my academic year here in Sheffield (!) I've been doing some fun things and met up with different people before everyone leaves! I thought I'd post a selection of photos from the past few weeks.

Cocoa

A few weeks ago after my last deadline, my two friends and I went to this great cafe called Cocoa that's not too far from where I live. I had never been there before, but one of them, Mirjam, knew about it and wanted to show it to me and Jasmine. (Mirjam was in my Shakespeare class and Jasmine I know from the nail art society!) It was so beautiful and I'll definitely try to visit it again before I go.

Charlie's visit and Manchester

I also made cinnamon rolls for when Charlie visited at the end of May! I was worried the dough wouldn't rise (because last time it didn't) but I put the bowl in hot water and it rose beautifully! The buns turned out pretty tasty as well.

We went to Manchester to see the musical Avenue Q and afterwards we had great Italian food at a restaurant and the best cheesecake I've ever had!

 Japanese dinner

My friend Ollie cooked Japanese dinner for about 15 people one night and it was really good. I've never really had proper Japanese food before. There were fried vegetables and seafood, cold noodles to dip in some soup-type sauce, and my favourite: some sort of fried sweetcorn things. (I imagine that's not their proper name.)

Shakespeare in the Park

SUTCo (Sheffield University Theatre Company) put on a Shakespeare in the Park show, which happened to be A Midsummer Night's Dream! I was very excited to see that and got one of my flatmates and her friend to join me. For most of the show, the weather was great and it didn't rain until the last ten minutes of the play.

Charlie thought that Hermia, the girl in green, was me at first! I guess she kind of looks like me from the back!

Since I don't want this post to be too long, I'll continue in the next one!