Being Thankful

This week has gone by super quickly!! I can't believe that soon it will be December and then the day-which-must-not-be-named :(. But putting all that nonsense aside, I will recap!

Saturday was the Scotland vs. South Africa rugby game. We started it off with a hearty breakfast and a few drinks and headed off into the rain (side note about rain: my friend Caitlin said that it rains so much here that she doesn't even notice it anymore...):

Eggs! Free range eggs!

:))))

It was really fun, even though it took me a bit to realize what was going on. It was nice just watching the players...as Diane says:

"RUGBY MEN ARE REAL MEN!"

From first hand experience, this true. No question. Also, her gloves were trippy. And, we were on live TV for like 4 seconds!! Oh AND Scotland WON!!

21-17!

After the trek back home, I hopped over to the bus station to go to LONDON! It was kind of a spontaneous decision but I figured it would be silly to have never gone to London while I was here. So, I did! I arrived at around 7:30 in the morning and just randomly followed a couple of people. I had absolutely no idea where I was going, which is not my usual game plan, but I figured why not and how else was I going to get anywhere.

Well kids...you should always listen to me because my instincts were right. They led me straight to the Victoria Station with the tube and everything. It was great. I somehow figured stuff out and got off at the London bridge.

Errr..it's so dark!

Then, I met up with Shuff and Katie (+ guy from Morocco..)!!! It was so so so great to see them. Then, Katie graciously and wonderfully took me around to see the sights of London:

THE GLOBE!!! I was surprised at how excited I was.
I guess I really am an English dork.  

Buckingham Palace

Big Ben!

Also, it was really nice to see my friend Regina whose studying at LSE. I can't believe we didn't take any pictures together!! Eventually, Katie and I made it to Oxford Street....which was really pretty and awesomely decorated but I just couldn't handle the massive amounts of people! Plus, we somehow stumbled into a place called "Funland" because we thought it was a mall where we could sit down and maybe eat dinner but it was anything but....it was some strange form of existential hell. I was there but I wasn't but I was?! Anyhow, we fled to Piccadilly and somehow found a haven of a cafe.

Oxford Street......

Ahh I am so excited for the lights to come on in Edinburgh tonight at 5:15pm! We have a winter carnival here and there is nothing I like more than appropriately themed carnivals. I currently have two papers due tomorrow; one is done (ha...) and the other is in incubation (ha..ha...) but I really can't be bothered...as I am also going to Rome tomorrow!! I will leave with this:

An Edinburgh Christmas 

7am Trips to Tesco

Sometimes, you don't have to travel to far and exotic places to gain rewarding experiences. This will definitely sound extra cheesy, but I've definitely been enjoying bonding with Edinburgh. After a weekend of travel, it's an immense relief to pull onto Waverley Bridge and see the now familiar city. I'm super glad that I'm studying abroad in a city. Might I say that my street smart points have gone up a few notches?

The day before Halloween, a couple of friends and I went to Glasgow for a few hours. We went to a museum of modern art and walked around. It was FREEZING! The shops were super cool looking (there were actually queues for Halloween stores!) and one of my favorite sites was George Square. 

It's being prepared for Christmas!

Last Friday, it was Guy Fawkes Night. It was rainy and gross but we went up a hill to see fireworks. It was kind of subpar, but I'm still glad I got to experience that. 

November seems to be the "Ahh work!" month for University of Edinburgh students. Williams has prepared me well, though; I'm not really feeling that much pressure yet. Frankly, Williams=

I've definitely done this before.

+

I think I've had points when my desk actually looked like this...only messier.

University of Edinburgh, for me, is more like=

Yay, reading a book!

I don't mean to burn Edinburgh. I mean, I think I'm taking freshmen level courses and I'm not specializing in anything like the other students. But, it's kind of nice to think that maybe I'm not dumb as crap; maybe Williams is just hard! 

Speaking of Williams, I miss certain things a lot a lot: Sawyer/Schow!!!! (not a fan at all of the one here), Tunnel City, Sushi Thai, running off to Snack Bar mainly to avoid doing work, rolling around/dancing in .5 with the crew, and (of course) people!

On other notes, I've started branching out a little with cooking (well, kind of...I'm starting to think it's fun!), Starbucks is super deelish especially when shared with a friend :), and the sun is shining for the first time in a while! Woooot. 

Living on the Edge

Today, Heather invited me to go out for a "light jog" and we decided to go to Holyrood Park. This previously noted "light jog" turned out to be an epic adventure as we spontaneously decided ditch to the park and instead run up Arthur's Seat (a 350 million year old extinct volcano/a huge Highland-esque hill).

Exhibit A:

We didn't have our cameras with us (remember it was supposed to be a quick jog?) so thank you Google  for this picture of Arthur's Seat. To us at the time, it didn't look quite so..."wild" or very steep. In fact, it kind of looked rather small! 

So, we started to run up. It started getting challenging quite quickly but we kind of managed to run up the first bit and Heather totally dominated the foot-high stairs (me, not so much). We kind of started winding around and had to slow down when we got to the rock climbing part. Thank you one semester of P.E. rock climbing (like, really). I wasn't really sure what I was doing or where I was going but the view was absolutely fantastic.

Exhibit B:

There's the Scottish Parliament (at a lower elevation)

The peak

The peak was extremely windy and super awesome and a little scary at the same time. We touched the monument at the very top (I think it's 823 ft at the highest point) and then started our descent. We were attacked by these absolutely horrible prickly plants and we definitely went down the pro way because all those rocks and mud were not there for simple playtime. 

Exhibit C: 

Imagine this is us at the top!

Not really sure why, but I loved the soft grass on Arthur's Seat...

We finally made it down and made it in record time (14 minutes?) from Pollock to the front door of 4 Kincaid's...AND ran up the stairs. It was an epic adventure and I couldn't have done it without my Coach Heather :)

Alexis Bledel =/= Finn Hudson

AWESOME WEEKEND with my loves Katie, Katy, and Alison at Oxford!!! I am in love with the Williams-Exeter Program in Oxford (WEPO) house, people, and life. It was super nice to see Williams people again! I told Katie and Katy that when they do the information session for the upcoming WEPO students, I'm going to run in and yell out, "It's the best thing ever!!! Even if I didn't do it!"

I did a lot of walking, ran into a crowd of people wearing red trousers, met a guy at the pub who is best buds with a Williams kid we knew, followed the long ago paths of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis (they were good friends), and best of all we all got to catch up. Great times :) I didn't take that many pictures because when you're with the best, pictures don't do justice!

Actually inside Exeter College...special grass you can't walk on...

The College Chapel: it was so beautiful inside!!

Thames River

Port Meadows

Radcliffe Camera (one of the many libraries)

I can't wait for December when Katie (and hopefully Katy!) will visit Edinburgh! 

Home Sweet Homestay

This weekend, I went to Cumbria, England to stay with an English family. Their house was so cozy and charming and the food was absolutely divine. My host dad, Dave, was a therapist with a passion for the outdoors. He and one of his sons have cycled from the bottom of England to the tip of Scotland and he liked "fell running" or "mountain running." He also has done mountain marathons, which kind of sounded like Survivor. Annelise, my host mom, was a dance teacher originally from Denmark who also enjoys the outdoors. Both have traveled all over Europe and the Middle East and their sons (who weren't there) also sounded super cool. They were quite the awesome, athletic family.

The cozy house.

My housemate Abbe and I got there around eight in the evening. We were greeted with a great dinner: pea & mint soup with warm bread and a warm Danish pear and almond pudding for dessert. Yum! The next day, Annelise took us to the Lake District where we walked through a pretty park and saw the lake, Derwent Water. After, we went to Castlerigg aka a set of Neolithic stone circles (like Stonehenge, but much smaller).

Derwent Water

Abbe on Castlerigg's stone circle being scandalous :)

The view was incredible!

After, we went to a "chippy" where I had my first European meal of fish and chips! Then we went to the Puzzling Place, where we got our illusions on. It was mad trippy.

That evening, after a delicious meal of Dave's cottage pie and another Danish pudding (this time with apples and the works), Annelise taught the IFSA-Butler students how to circle dance in this quaint village hall. On our last day, Annelise took us on a two mile walk into the woods to see Lacy's Cave near the River Eden. It was a gorgeous walk, with a great lunch of all these different kinds of cheeses, breads, and Danish salads waiting for us at the end.

More beautiful views

Lacy's Cave

Then we said goodbye :(

Picture of the weekend fam! 

Overall, it was another great weekend! Now, I'm sitting here avoiding my Scottish Lit paper due tomorrow...or shall I say today. No worries, this is what coffee is for! On a much more exciting note, I can't wait to see Katie, Katy, and Alison in Oxford next weekend! I know great times await :)

500 Miles

This past weekend I traveled with other IFSA-Butler students to Inverness in the Highlands! My ipod died after about 2 minutes (typical) so I turned to the music on my phone. Wow, talk about the old days...flashback!

Any sort of mental stimulation was desperately needed; the first day on the bus was absolutely brutal. I had had almost no sleep the night before and seriously debated about the 25 minute walk to Pollock Halls at 7am. But I somehow dragged myself there (the walk involved a stand-off with a huge black cat that appeared out of thin air...good omens, eh?) and made it.

It was worth it! The Highlands = incredibly beautiful; the mountains and fields reminded me of Williams. We first stopped to see The Hermitage in Dunkeld:

Walking to see the falls..my Scottish version of Mountain Day?

The next highlight was arriving in Glenfinnan to watch the Jacobite Express cross the viaduct. Just to clarify, this is the train that takes all the lucky wizards and witches to Hogwarts! I am so sad I'm just a Muggle...

I was consoled by the beautiful scenery of Glenfinnan:

The next day we visited Culloden Battlefield. It was very misty and foggy, which really added drama to the experience:

To cheer us up from the sad battle stories, we next traveled to Kingussie to visit a sheepdog farm! It was really cool to learn that the sheepdog trainer was the guy who trained Babe the pig for the movie Babe! He has 18 adult sheepdogs that each have their own separate set of commands for right, left, stop, sit, lie down, etc. No dog will respond to another dog's whistle. Isn't that amazing?

He literally grabbed a sheep with one hand and flipped it over to shear it. BAMF.

He also had really cute lambs that loved our attention. We got to feed them!

But, what really got everyone squealing and going cray cray were the sheepdog puppies. The trainer brought them out in a bucket and started handing them out like candy. They were absolutely adorable!

They kind of looked like guinea pigs...

An older puppy eating my ear.

We somehow tore ourselves from the puppies and left the farm to visit the Glenlivet Distillery. It was really cool to learn how whisky is made. They have a couple of casks that will eventually be aged 50 years! So crazy (and expensive!). 

Maybe my water to whisky ratio was off but I thought this tasted NASTY. 

The last day of our trip, we visited Loch Ness. I think this was probably my favorite trip. We got on a boat and traveled across the huge lake, while trying to spot Nessie, and arrived at Urquhart Castle. The views were unreal! 

Before we left for Edinburgh, we stopped at Glencoe, which was spectacular. It was really sad to learn that this was where the English betrayed the MacDonald clan and their "Highland Hospitality," which resulted in what is now known as the Massacre of Glencoe.

Overall, the trip was a great way to see new parts of Scotland. I leave you all with this epic song (aka our trip's theme song) by The Proclaimers: 500 Miles.