The Homeland

Sunday 11th
Bright and Early this morning I hopped on a bus to Narin. It was a three and a half hour bus to Inverness then a forty five minute bus to Nairn. When got there I somehow found the B and B... although it didnt take long, the town is not all that big (and by that i mean it is tiny!) Then I walked around the town and went to the beach. My first mistake was going to a very small town on a sunday. The next one was going to a tourist town that closes down in the beginning of November.... but it was still fun. The beach was beautiful! I went to the classroom for dinner, and got a goat cheese and tomato tart and roast beef... soo yummy! The food was incredible, but the highlight of my dinner was when a super drunk girl (yes it was 6:30 at night) said to her friend (very loudly) "who is that girl who is our age, and why is she eating alone, she must be a lowlife with no friends". My waiter, who was my age, and everyone else in the bar/restaurant    heard and he came over and asked if he wanted me to tell her that i was visiting a place where my family was from. And I told him no, and he politely replied, yeah that is probably for the better, she is drunk in here often and probably actually is not going anywhere... It was great!
In the morning I woke up to a full Scottish Breakfast with black pudding and everything! Then I embarked on what I thought would be a short walk, but after forty five minutes I stopped in a farmstand to ask if I was on the right track, and they looked at me with a look i have learned to just accept, and asked if i knew how far it was... I said yeah its just down the road, and then the quickly added, yeah six miles down the road. So i turned around very very quickly. So i just wondered around the town until my bus came and started on my journey home.

Paintball

Wed 7th

Today the shinty team and some of my american friends went PAINTBALLING. It was EPIC!! I got my butt kicked... and trust me the paintballs HURT! After playing eight rounds (three hours) of various paintball games we we pooped! Then went to fish and chips and took a killer nap. Then off to my weekly Dropkicks with the shinty team.

The Ultimate crew. The five on the right are my team, and
the four on the left are the ones the beat me up!

Back upppp....

Sunday the 4th
First snow day! Rosie Maz and I celebrated by heading to St. Andrews! We had lunch at the famous Fish and Chips place. Then we hit the beach which was absolutely beautiful! We met two of Rosies friends and got some hot chocolate at a little pub. Sadly i left my phone on the bus on the way to St. Andrews so on monday Rosie and I went to Glenroth, which is in the MIDDLE of nowhere!

Saturday the 3rd
Tonight was Shinty's Christmas night out... it was UNREAL! I went to Rosie and Maz's house to get ready and then we went to a lovely BYOB curry place. We were in a back room and it was so incredible full of shinty crazyness! I was awarded Man of the Semester, which was rather exciting! Then we went out to the big cheese night at potter row (that is the student bar) it was an unreal amount of fun!

Tuesday the 29th
Tonight Leah and I went to the Nutcracker, with a pre theater meal at the lovely KFC. We needed a little american lovin' after our strictly Scottish weekend. The ballet was incredible, the story line was different, it was Matthew Bourne's rendition of the nutcracker. But it was exciting, and we felt so mature having our theater night.

Ceilidh at the Irvines

This weekend I was lucky enough to head back up to the Highlands with a friend of mine. Leah and I spent the weekend at Angus' house (he is a boy we have met in our wonderful time here). It was a great weekend of Scottishness! We had mince meat pie, took some hikes and had a grand old time! The most memorable part was the Ceilidh though. It was someone's 21st birthday, and they had a big scottish dance. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trWUo_mVm6k This is a video of my favorite dance step. Pretty much someone stands up and shouts dance steps and everyone that is dancing does them. THANK GOODNESS I had a scottish partner that just dragged me around, i didn't know ANY of them!
On sunday, we played legos all morning, really taking it back to the good old days! Then we went to their local bar and did a more civilized form of Scottish dance. They were preparing for the annual Aberfeldi ball. So we got to learn the classier and fancier moves of the scottish dance. Then we took the train ride home to eat a bunch of leftover thanksgiving food.

Dear Shinty, Meet Thanksgiving!

Little Baby Turkey

Although there is not thanksgiving here, i couldn't bear the though of going a year without stuffing my face with turkey and stuffing and all the fixings, so I decided it was about time that the Edinburgh University Shinty Team got to feel a little bit of the American Love. So after my class on thursday morning i rolled up my sleeves and started de-gutting the turkeyS I got. I had to cook them separately because our oven is not big enough, but that left me time to clean our lovely flat. We borrowed a table from the downstairs boys just in time for our first arrivals. It was a WILD night! Such a blast, everyone brought food that ranged from a scottish mince to a sweet potato with marshmallow and chocolate casserole. 

Our Classy Dinner Table

Please let me mary a man from Norway!

They had trolls everywhere
at the ski museum

Where to begin, how about four hours before we thought the plane left, only to look at our boarding passes to realize our flight was leaving in two hours. We broke Joan's one cardinal rule, "always leave at least two hours at the airport" Sorry mom! Well we made it, and made it to Oslo, only to discover that the airport hotel we booked  was at the other Oslo airport, so we took a three hour train to get there, but we made it in good spirits and went straight to bed.
FRIDAY

This is as much of the jump I could
get in one shot!

There is nothing better then a free hotel breakfast! Legit, soo good, eggs Benedict with bacon instead of ham (i mean what could be better?) We rolled out of the hotel and took the train to Oslo, then hopped on the metro to the SKI MUSEUM! (you guys can thank me later for keeping this part relatively short, it was the coolest thing i have ever seen!) The museum was incredible, so after soaking up every bit of ski knowledge my brain could handle we went to the top of the ski jump. They were doing some construction on it because they are hosting the international ski jumping championships this winter, but it was huge and awesome! From there we went to the sea-side to check out the city hall and the shipping port. It was so pretty! Then we walked around in search of a thrift store to grab ourselves some Norwegian sweaters. There were honestly so many cool ones, everyone I know was going to get a cool sweater, but then i remembered i didn't have a billion dollars... so sorry guys! Armed with a cool sweater we were completely ready to live the Norway dream, so we literally hopped on a tram to the city center to a market place and then to check out the Cathedral. On friday and saturday nights it is open from 4-midnight and has music and all of these cool candles so it was pretty spectacular to say the least. Then we began our trip back to the hotel.

A typical house in the olden days

SATURDAY

Viking Ship

Breakfast! woohooo! Then we went to the Norwegian Folk Museum which like the one in Stockholm was a lot like Sturbridge village. There were a ton of cool typical Norwegian houses we could go in and see, and a working farm. Then we went to the viking museum where they had three original Viking ships and a ton of artifacts that have been found through the ages. Then to the Kon-Tiki museum (a norwegian man who sailed across the pacific ocean in just a reed boat. Then we went to the Fram Museum, which was the actual boat that went to both the north and south pole. This museum was sick because the entire boat was in the building, and then on the side they had an "experience the Arctic" which was a maze that had a rocking ship deck, and ice caps ect. It was so much fun! Then we went to the Maritime Museum where we watched a video about Norway's connection to the sea, it was pretty cool, and that is when i decided that Norway was the prettiest place i have ever seen! Then exhausted we made our trek right into our cozy beds!

Chels on the ship that went to both
the poles!

SUNDAY
Yup, breakfast was still worth mentioning, especially because this time it included Nutella waffles! Then we started our extended journey to Oslo and then to the other airport. The train ride was really cool because unlike last time when it was dark (and yes it was only 4:00) we were able to see all of the different landscapes of Norway.  Then hopped on our plane home to Edinburgh.
And incase you were wondering, everyone in Norway is the most beautiful person i have ever seen! Blond blue eyes, straight out of a runway show!

No news is good news!

This week has been a relatively calm week, after a crazy halloween it was well appreciated. On wednesday I was dragged back in to the real world of Bucknell and had the daunting task of picking classes (and realizing that i would not be able to live the Scottish dream for the rest of my "uni" experience!) On saturday AND today the girls shinty matches got canceled which was SUCH a big fat bummer! but i have had a great time in training for the last few weeks, monday fitness literally kicks my bum! But we watched the boys match today, and man do i wish i had brought my camera, the guts and gore of the match was incredible! mom, if you had seen this one, you  probably would make me quit! we were playing the roughest team of the conference, and well our boys got beat up! Lee (the guy that runs monday fitness) came to the after match tea with blood running down his shirt and thought nothing of it, those bloody Strathclyd​e men! haha Anyways, off to oslo tomorrow, look out for updates!

DUB-DADDY

Clogged Artery?

Oh where to start? I had my first test today in Greek and Roman art, it went well (for all those who don'e believe that i AM actually learning here!)

Can you say YUM!

But then the more exciting stuff, we flew out of Edinburgh pretty late, and arrived in dublin with no issues. Our hostel was surprisingly nice. And we ventured for dinner, and of course ended up in this little fish and chips shop. The first thing I saw on the menu was a "jumbo beer battered burger" (it wasn't the first thing but it was defiantly the best thing) so I got that, and let me tell you i am sooo glade i did! It was everything i hoped it would be and more! Then walking along the street I saw none other then miss caroline Dittrich! WOOHOO but she was headed to bed, dont worry, we made plans for later! Then we went to The Temple Bar (to avoid confusion the place people go out is called temple bar, but this was a bar called temple bar in the temple bar area, those crazy Irish!) where there was some great live music! So we hung out there for a bit and then headed back to the hostel for a good night sleep.
FRIDAY

Caroline just cant stay away
From those jersey boys!

We took a walking tour today that was really good! He talked all about the history of Ireland and walked us pretty much all over dublin (it was 3.5 hours). Then we did our own little adventuring and found this incredible ice cream place. P.S. this blog is just a really great way of slowly explaining to you guys that you are going to have to roll me anywhere from now on, legit just wait! Then we went to the hostel and took a nice naperino to prepare our selfs for the infamous dublin night life. Then i meet up with caroline and her mom for dinner at a cute little restaurant. I had spiced beef with a dijon mustard as an appetizer, then a gaelic boxty (for those who dont know a boxty is a potato crepe like food that they fill, with in my case peppered beef and mushrooms) then for desert i had Baileys cheese cake.. yum! Dinner was nothing short of eventful! We had irish men knocking on the window yelling at us through it, there were men in the girls bathroom that bought us a bottle of wine, it was just crazy! Then Caro and I walked her mom home and headed out! It was a blast and a half! imagine the amount of fun we have on a regular basis and then add in the fact that we haven't seen each other in a long time and that we are in ireland.... WOOHOOO
SATURDAY
Today we took a bus to Galway to wander there for a bit. When we got there we were starving so we got a nice bite to eat, leah and i split a burger and a smokes salmon cream pasta dish. the burger (that we ordered medium closer to rare) came out deader then road kill, it was well done haha but still good, and the guy next to us told us they have to cook everything all the way through now. And the salmon dish was just out of this world! Then we wandered around the main town for a long time. Tonight we dressed up for Halloween, it was a hoot! the people got so into it! like everyone was in full makeup and costumes. Needless to say in my handmade candycane costume i looked a bit well, feeble.
SUNDAY
Of course when in dublin, visit the Guinness factory! so that is just what we did, it was such a good museum type thing. Then we had our pint on top of the factory. Then headed to the oldest pub in ireland, where i ate a nice beef and guinness stew, it was everything i hoped it would be! Then we went back to the hostel, had a few ciders and stayed out until we went to the airport at 1:45 in the morning to sleep there until our early flight.  Wow the Irish are fun!

Oct 23rd

they had an EPIC armory! 

Wow, some might ask how I can be so late on a blog.... and i would probably say something sassy back. but for now I am just going to apologies, as you will soon see it has been a busy week!

No big deal, just the fence in my humble abode 

After the wonderful boarders trip I went on a tour with Thea (the girl I met During Oktoberfest) to Northern England. First we went to Bamburgh Castle where they filmed Macbeth. However, it was beautiful and well preserved. They had a great museum through the entire castle which was a hoot! Then we hopped back on the bus and went to the Alnwick Castle, this castle is still "running." And my favorite was in the very beginning when walking through the gate there is a sign that says "welcome to our family home". Yeah, if only i had a family home that looked like that. Legit HUGE! Also this is the castle they filmed lots of harry potter in it. Imagine the broom lessons in the first harry potter, yup that was here! So of course Thea and I ran around on our imaginary brooms (good thing it was sunday and pretty rainy and empty cause we looked a bit gooofy!)

Big man wallace!

We also wondered around the town of Alnwick which was a pretty cool town (but since it was sunday not many places were open). But I did find some shortbread tarts, but instead of being filled with lame fruit it was filled with caramel and chocolate, needless i got a pack of six and ate them all at once and had a stomach ache for the rest of the trip, but totally worth it, i would do it again!

From there we when to a trail head that lead to the wallace monument. William Wallace was this crazy fighter guy that fought famously against the British in hopes of regaining the Scottish pride. The statue was gigantic! i mean i don't think i would have even come up to the top of his boot!
For our last stop we went to the Scotts View, which if you were paying attention in my last blog you would already know about it, so i little test for all you guys!
Stay posted for DUBLIN!

Boarders Trip

House with its gate

Priest Hidden Stair Case 

Today I went on another Arcadia Sponsored trip, to the scottish boarders. We started the trek nice and early with the Tranquair house, this is to date the oldest inhabited house in Scotland. This was a cool house, but quite honestly it reminded me of the "stars hallow history museum" in Gilmore Girls for the other fans out there. In other words it was very "we think this might be a letter written from the dukes cousin to his farming brother about the estate" and did really have all that much significant things. Although it did have a hidden stair case for the priest to run down if anyone anti-catholic invaded the house.

TOTALLY TUBULAR MELROSE ABBY

Then we went to the Melrose Abby, this was sick! I wish I could upload all of the pictures i have of it, but you would kill me! but for those of you lucky enough to see my pictures when i get home you can kill me then! Not going to lie that has probably been my favorite stop to date. It was soo cool! ahhh But all good things must come to an end, and we crammed into the bus and were shipped of to Smailholm tower. There we wondered INSIDE a cow grazing area (and yes for the record they are afraid of people) and made the climb up the tower. The defensive walls in this tower were 7 feet thick! (dad you have a lot of work to do on our stone walls if you want them to even look cool next to this bad boy!)

The walls from the top of the tower looking down

Dryburgh Abby

Then we went to Dryburgh Abby. This last abby reminded me a lot about the cathedral that the master builder was making in Pillars of the Earth. Finally we went to the Scotts view which is a BEAUTIFUL view of the lowlands of scotland. Then we hit the dusty trail and made the journey back to good ol' Edinburgh. To prepare for an EPIC night out, we went to the students center (potter row) and they have this event every saturday that is called the big Cheese, where they play all sorts of my generation oldies. Think spice girls, backstreet boys, s-club 7 ect. you get the drift. What a blast, if you randomly show up to Edinburgh on a saturday night, you now know where to find me!!

Scotts View

Look out I am about to BLOG ROCK YOUUUUUU! (aka lots coming soon)

SHEEPS HEID INNNN

This ones for you ZMBF!

Ca$h Money$

Thank you to the lovely Benowitz-Fredricks for recommending a trip to the oldest pub in Edinburgh! We started the TRECK at about 11:30 around the hollyrood park to the little town that the Sheeps Heid resides. When we walked in, ready for a meal of mac'an cheese, only to find out they were renovating the entire in starting the next day. So we grabbed a pint (on an empty stomach mind you) and sat at one of the cute little tables. Then I saw in the corner of my eye, MONOPOLY (edinburgh edition!) so obviously we played that for a few hours. (CHAMPION!!!) woohoooo Great little gem, can wait until it is renovated and go back and play again!

Look forward to muchoo more about this weekend, it was a doozy (in a great way)!

Stockholm

Let me first tell you that if you would like to see a city, you should bring a friend that gets her bag stolen, then you are forced to hoof it all around the city. Although if you want to have any fun, i would pick a different method to tour!

YUMMMMM

NASTY

FRIDAY
So getting to stockholm was completely uneventful, and we got to the tourist center with out any hiccups, then when we got there we had a massive one. One of the girls i was with had a sore back (poor girl) and put her backpack down, and then some lucky guy took it off her hands. Of course just losing the backpack wasn't enough, it also had her passport in it. so after a freak-out like stockholm has never seen before we calmed her down enough to walk 45 minutes to the US embassy, only to find out that it was closed all weekend and on monday (thank you columbus for finding america) so freak-out #2 she was going to have to stay another day. Also, she lost her visa (also in the passport) so we had to go to the british embassy. Then we walked back to the lovely tourist place and continued an additional 30 minutes to go to the police station to file a report. But we made it to our hotel in time to check in, and realized it was a 4 start hotel... DOPE! And the police called saying they recovered the bag (minus iphone and rain jacket), and we quickly slept off the memory of a great day!
SATURDAY
The good thing about a 4 star hotel is the rockin' buffet! Full of food we headed out to the Globe which is the worlds biggest spherical building, and we went up on the sky-view and checked out the Swedish landscape. Then we stopped at a candy store to try out some delicious swedish candy, only to find out quickly that there chocolate is great but their infamous salted candies are TERRIBLE (Hayssen family don't worry i bought some so you can experience the treat!)

Fresh blue cheese with homemade bread and jam!

From there we went on the tunnelbanna (the only swedish word i can actually pronounce correctly ton-oh-ban-ah) to the island of Djurgarden (with a circle on top of the a) to the Nordiska Musett (the swedish culture museum). Then we went to Rosendals garden and had lunch at the cafe there. That was cool cause everything and i mean EVERYTHING we ate was grown cooked, molded (cheese) on the farm (how earth crunchy of them). Then we went to Skansen which is equivalent of the swedish Sturbridge village, we saw a pharmacy where they hand concocted pills until surprisingly recently. Then we made a quick stop at the Aquaria (aquarium) where we took a stroll through the rainforest and the nordic sea. Then we went to my favorite museum, Vasa Musett. This was an old Swedish military ship that sunk in the harbor. Then they dragged it out and preserved it, then built the museum around it. It is the world's largest preservation project to date. After an extremely busy day we wanted to have a nice drink, only to realize that Stockholm's government regulates all alcohol sales, and you can only buy it in one store (unless you want something less then 3.5%) Not to mention the store is only open for about four hours a day. So we went out for a little bit but were too tired to even stay awake on the train ride!

The vasa

SUNDAY

Changing of the guards

Up and at 'em and off to the city yet again. We went to the Royal Palace and walked around the really small and not very decorated guest chambers (sarcastic on a blog is a hard thing to achieve.) They were INCREDIBLE. Then we got to watch the changing of the guards, this is something that happens every Tuesday Saturday and Sunday (i think) and it is when one group of Swedish Military gives over the task of guarding the palace to another branch of the Military. And man was it elaborate! They had a marching band and drum line and flag waving. It was so cool! Then we went to the treasury and saw some of the crowns and jewels of the swedish government. (i bet Obama is pretty bummed our tax dollars are going to funding his trips and not sick crowns). Then we made the treck to a new hotel (the new world hotel), we found it and found out that we were staying in china (legit had lomein for breakfast) in stockholm, how cultural of us! Then we sauna-ed and took an epic nap. We then headed out or an epic night on the town. We went to a famous live music bar, but the band ended early, so we decided to get a drink, but little did we know they price drinks by the cl, and there are 3.7 cls in the average drink. So we asked the bar tender how much their "well vodka" (worst vodka) was, and we were stunned to hear that it was 7 pounds. So we savored that drink and wondered around the town for a bit then headed back to the new world.
MONDAY
All of the museums and attractions are closed on monday so we just wondered around town more, we went into the Stockholm art college and looked at some of the student work until hoping on the bus to the airport and back to Edinburgh.. WHAT A WEEKEND

Hi-Lands

18 years in these to make the finest drank EVER

The demonstration

Sheering the sheep

Another weekend of epic proportions, I went on the Arcadia’s (my host program) trip to the highlands. We started in Edinburg where I found out that the field I play shinty on was a mass burial grave for all of the people who died from the plague. So that is creepy. When we crossed into the highlands there was an almost immediate change of agriculture. The soil in the highlands is very acidic so there are all pine trees or just short grasses and shrubs. We stopped first at Pitlochry which is a town known for its healing waters and flowers. Our next stop was the Dalwhinnie Distillery. It was so cool, but I wasn’t able to get any pictures in it because you have to turn off all electronics because the air had too much alcohol in it and there was a risk of cameras and phones producing an electrical spark and blowing up the whole distillery (WICKED). We had lunch in another small town (Kingussie) and then went to watch a sheep demonstration. And I got to sheer a sheep! Then we went to the Culloden Battlefield where the last Jacobite Rebellion was held. And this quelled the anti British sentiment in the highlands (for the most part). Then we went to Inverness to our hostel.

The Castle

                   This morning we started with a short cruse in Loch Ness to the Urqyhart Castle. I didn’t spot nessie but I had high hopes. We found out that the loch ness is not only the largest and deepest lake in Scotland, but it is also peat lake so it is very opaque (so if there was one lake to make up creature spottings this was well chosen St. Columbos!) Then we toured around the castle for a bit. We then saw the fort Augustus locks. We weren’t luck enough to see a boat go through them, but it was still cool. We then headed off to the commando memorials and fort William for lunch. I had the BEST lunch ever, a bowl of mac and cheese made from a mixture of brie and cheddar and a cream and jelly filled scone. Then we hopped on the bus and headed for our last stop, Glenco. It was BEAUTIFUL! 

Glenco

Cream and Jelly Scone, YES PLEASE

Oktoberfest... 'nuff said

Wow what a weekend... Slept in the airport twice, (sorry i get scared i am going to miss my flight!) had a few steins of beer and throughly enjoyed life as a german! After arriving in the wrong airport i took a two hour bus to munich and luckily found my hotel and friends!!!
 The first morning we were there we were up with the sun to get a good spot in the tent (no joke 6:30) waited in line until 9:15 ish found ourselves a nice seat and had a 2 LITER stein in hand by 9:37! Wow!

 And that continued until 3:00 when the table was reserved for another party… and the wondering around the fest and Munich began… followed shortly by nap time! After that the strong few (just caroline and I) went back for more! Where we found a great bar where we were just going to sit and chat... that is until we found out that there was a bachelor party there and we, well we had a blast! We were pretty much the only ladies in the bar with a ton of absolutely hilarious European men! 

Sadly at 3:30 in the morning we had to start heading to the airport... so we dragged ourselves out of the bar and went to wake up the rest of the crew. We got to the airport seamlessly (in fact too seamlessly) and i had to sit (sleep) in the airport for 4 hours before my flight...

so to sum it up... all in all an EPIC trip

Updates.....

SAT:

Maura and I went to the Chocolate society, which was epic. It was legit just two tables full of chocolate that you tried. I think I am going to like having joined this society! Then we had dinner at my house and went to biddy mulligans, which is a pretty popular and famous bar in Scotland. When we were there we met up with a bunch of other people from arcadia. It was so much fun, they were playing a bunch of American oldies. Then we went to the bar next door and met a bunch of Angus’ (a new Scottish friend) friends. They were sooo funny! They were just visiting for the weekend. So we hung out with them and went to siglo.

SUN:

Today was a pretty low key day for me. I cleaned my room and got ready for classes to start!! Then I went to Leah’s flat for a BBQ, where I met up with Marua and then went to dinner with a friend of a friends from home. I had this incredible desert that was like a milk/crème yougurt jello thing. It was so good. Then we went to student’s mass. After that I fell quickly and deep asleep .

MON:

I didn’t have class today until late. So I had lunch with the girls at my flat, and welcomed Devlin back from Oktoberfest. Then I went to the gym and then to class. I met this really sweet girl from Oslo named Silja (Celia). I got my first text book (for history of art) and met the girls for a nice flaffle. Then we went to the wine tasting society. Where we sampled 9 different types of wine.

TUES:

Went to my 10:00 class only to find that my professor (lecturer they we called here) didn’t show. So I hit the gym, made lunch and went and had a toasty (grilled cheese) at a friends flat. Then we went to our modern Scottish history class. After today I was pooped (who knows why..) but I went to bed early.

Today we went to the Scottish National Museum, which is HUGE. We only covered one of the eight sections and we were there for a LONG time. We did natural history and animals. It was absolutely amazing, I will go back and get pictures for you guys! Then I went to the gym again, but I have been having the hardest time because the weights are not always numbered, they are colored and i guess everyone just knows the weights. So i asked someone and they showed me "5", but little did I know they were in KG (i probably should have know) and now i am beyond sore! Then we had dinner at my flat and some of the boys from down stairs came up to hang with us. The boy we met at the grocery store invited us out to "the it club in edinburgh on fridays" and it was huge there were three floors and different dance floors on each room playing different kinds of music. That being said, anyone who says american girls dress provocatively they have GOT to take a trip to europe.... yikes!

Learned to insert pictures in the posts...Look out!

Wednesday we did a campus tour and signed up for clubs and sports teams. I think i am going to join the ski club (on saturday we have this sick dry slope event that i am hopefully going to check out) Then we had dinner at Leah's and went to this late night club which was interesting to say the least (and i hopefully will never be back).

Thursday we met at the cows butt (left), and went to the bar across the street and had a nice cider. Then we hoofed up to the castle. On our way we saw a ton of cute out door market venders and some crazy fortune tellers (right). And the castle was so cool, i had no idea how much stuff there was to do there, so i will defiantly be back again another day. Tonight we met up with some other girls in our program to go to a Middle Eastern dinner. Then quickly stopped in at the grocery store. When we were there I met a boy from Boston who is studying at "uni" for all four years, so he offered to take us out for the night. The bar we went to was so much fun, and finally we met some scotish folk who are over the age of 18! we are making progress!!

T'was a nice sunny day!

I woke up nice and early (proving to be difficult after last night) to walk 2.4 miles to my biology meeting. Where i learned how to open an email attachment and start a powerpoint (i kid you not that was what they were teaching us) But i got to meet with my DOS (director of studies) and pick out my classes! I am in the history of art, modern scottish history and greek and roman art through the ages. Then I walked to Black Medicine where apparently was the actual coordinates that JK wrote HP (but to be honest every store here says they have some affiliation with her so who really knows!) I finally decorated my bulletin board, but only with pamphlets and maps that i got for free so its not that exciting (if you want to send me picture it would be welcome!) Then we went to dinner at Maddies flat and then to a flat party. The party should have been called an american party because there were only like two scottish people and all the rest where people from Dartmouth and Hamilton who are here for the semester.  But it was fun none the less!

I know you have all been on the edge of your seats....

On Friday we moved into our flats, i must admt i am living large! sick room and NICE common area. then we went to my flat to make dinner, but my stove doesnt work, so we went out for some famous fish and chips. We quickly discovered that Scots eat a lot and a lot of fried food. Ranging from fried Haggis to fried candy bars.
On Saturday a bunch of the arcadian americans (the program i am going through) went to hike king arthors seat, it rained on and off the entire time (and has been EVERY day since we got here). My flat mates moved in today, I have an 18 year old Ukranian girl, a 19 year old American who lives in london, an actual British girl, and a girl who also lives in vermont! So it should be interesting! My american friends and I then proceeded to cook our entire meal (chicken included) in the microwave. Only to realize after that the stove does actually work, you just have to turn the switch on in the hallway (weird i know)! Then we met five of the boys that live below me and they showed us around the town.
On Sunday I went to church with two of my friends (Maura and Devlin), the priest was very very scottish and hard to understand, the congregation as well. But other then that it was pretty much the same. Devlin and I then went out to breakfast and tried haggis! It wasn't bad but it was really really mushy. Pretty much right after that we went out to lunch at a really cute cafe right near my flat (im sounding scottish already!) And tried a deep fried and breaded haggis burger which was MUCH better! Devlins flat had a pub crawl so we joined her on that and met some other people from all over, the weird thing is i have met more non-scottish people then actual scots.
Monday we had a very low key day and pretty much spent the entire day doing errands and visiting random cafes. There was a hurricane that was coming through the UK so it was wicked windy and rainy and NASTY. Then we cooked dinner at Devlin's flat and prepared for a night out, which was equally as exciting as the last time we went out!
UPDATES: I booked my flights to Munich for Oktoberfest! And a flight to Dublin on Halloween! and I promises that i will be better at updating!

Heads up Edinburgh

Started my travels today (And I say today only because I have yet to go to bed) and had an uneventful yet stressful trip to the airport. Flew to London next to a couple who was flying out 25 of their friends and relatives for their fiftieth wedding anniversary (I wanted in). At customs after dropping my passport in line (woops!) I met a girl from bucknell and we traveled the uneventful rest of the way there. We have been orienting and wondering ever since. Now, I am about to go out now to sample some of Edinburgh’s finest drafts!

Day -1

Thank you mother nature for starting my epic trip to Scotland just a day early. Because Irene wasn’t enough you sent a wonderful Katia to potentially close all of the roads in Vermont. So we headed out in anticipation, right into, well Katia and it has been raining ever since. But we will be up early tomorrow to head to Boston to catch my flight, hopefully Katia will not be hitting Boston.