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.