It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

I officially put pen to paper on my Masters thesis today!  Aaahhhh!!!  My meeting with Ailsa yesterday was good.  Apparently I'm well ahead of the game, by virtue of having all my data collected already.  The fact that not all of it has been transcribed yet is apparently immaterial - I can go ahead and get started analyzing the interviews that are done, and finish the others as I go.

However, my Masters thesis is pretty much the only thing that is going well in my life right now.  I viewed two flats on Monday and absolutely fell in love with the second one.  In fact, I made an offer on the spot.  The girl showing it to me said she'd talk to her flatmates and get back to me yesterday.  Still haven't heard anything, so I'm assuming at this point that the answer is no.  And the first place I saw was a shoebox, so I turned that one down.  I've got another viewing scheduled for Friday evening, so we'll see how that goes.  I want to get out of this place soon, because I am at my wit's end.  There are simply too many people living here.  And then last night, I did some fiddling with my itunes in an effort to restore some songs that "could not be found."  The good news is I did get them restored.  The bad news is that I lost all my playlists and play counts.  Basically, my entire listening history all the way back to 2006, and some playlists that I've spent a lot of time and thought on, and that I'm not sure I can re-create from memory.  This is probably irrational, but I'm very attached to my music and this upset me a lot.  And finally, I'm still feeling rather lonely and alone.  I saw my classmates Kelley and Susan on the way home from the library today, which lifted my spirits considerably, but aside from Ailsa, they were the first friendly and familiar faces I'd seen since arriving last Friday (I do not include my flatmates).

I've been reflecting that last Friday was the first time I had ever arrived in Scotland without a backpacker trip booked in the immediate future, and I'm wondering if that might have something to do with what I've been feeling.  No prospects of seeing lovely scenery, making some new friends, and being driven around for several days to look forward to.  Just sifting through housing ads on gumtree and chipping away at this Masters project, with no foreseeable end in sight.  God, I need to get out of Edinburgh for a few days.  Last night I booked train tickets up to Stromeferry for a couple of days next weekend.  Ewan has reserved me a bed in exchange for a case of his favorite beer.  I just hope I don't go stir-crazy before then.

Cheers, y'all.