GOOD MORNING!

Things I've Done Today (6 am, May 1)

-pulled an all-nighter to write a 10-page paper
-swam in the North Sea (with the most of St. Andrews)
-swigged a bit of Tobermory whiskey (Mom can appreciate that one :D)
-watched the sun rise over Castle Sands
-walked on the Old Course green/stood on the bridge

Conclusion: I ADORE ST. ANDREWS.

another rainy day in Scotland...

Actually, it's surprising how infrequently I've encountered rain this semester. I think we've had maybe 4 legitimately "rainy" days (and a quite few when it's hovered indecisively between cloudy & sunny with half-hearted attempts at rain). But today is not one of them. It's been pretty consistently gross outside, which suits me, 'cause this cold is taking me out at the knees!

Anyhow, I was just reflecting today (instead of writing my essay....again) on how very much I feel at home here. I'm definitely through the "OH MY GOODNESS, LOOK HOW DIFFERENT!" phase. I mean, occasionally I'm amused by particularly Scottish and/or British things that just catch me off guard, but on the whole....it's just normal. My room really feels like MINE ('cause it's a freaking pigstye). I don't get lost around town, and going to Tesco to buy something is not a terrifying prospect, because using the coinage is actually second-nature now (also, I know what things are called and where to find them). Also, I'm really good at looking to the right because cars approach on the left of the street :) And it always feels wonderfully restful to spend a whole day just hanging out in hall (as opposed to feeling weirdly out of place). It's funny how things that were initially so immense and scary just become commonplace after a while.

Of course, this feeling has to come when I have only a month left here.

I really need to get the hang of the balance between savouring my time here and wanting time to speed up to the things I'm looking forward to, like May Ball, Quint coming (18 days!), finals being over (aka party time!), my birthday/joint b-day party with friends, being at home with my family...

....Eeek, I don't want to think about goodbyes! Instead, I think I'll go ponder whether or not dinner will be edible tonight. Here's hoping it's not haggis again!

John Mayer says it better than I can

today i finally overcame
trying to fit the world inside a picture frame
maybe i will tell you all about it
when i'm in the mood to lose my way...
-John Mayer, 3x5


...Can I use song lyrics as an excuse for being lame?

Right, well, let's assume that was a "yes," and we'll move on.

We got back from spring break (which was 10 million kinds of awesome, by the way) and hit the ground running-- an essay, an exam, 2 presentations...And now (twitch) 3,000 words due next Friday. Shoot meeeeee.....Anyway, I was little too preoccupied with just doing the everyday living / schoolwork thing to keep you all up to date! (If it's any consolation, I just realised that it's been a solid month since I've written in my journal. Seriously. What's my problem? :P)

Now for photo-highlights (in chronological order! partaaay)


This is one of the millions of random alleys in Basel, Switzerland (about an hour's train ride from Kilchberg). The town was absolutely adorable...but really strange.

Exhibit A:

...And that's not even going into the weird things we saw at the museum (who knew that a sink made in 2001 belonged in the city's history museum next to the 14th century buckets?) Still, wandering the city aimlessly (well, I suppose we were vaguely aiming at a river, but kept getting lost) made for some really cool sights:

I won't even attempt to spell what this is. All I know is that there's a flag for each of the cantons in Switzerland. And that the market was really cute-looking.










Window displays in Switzerland are possibly the most mouth-watering things I've ever seen. That's CHOCOLATE stacked up in front of us. Oh! FUN FACT: Aubrey lives about a 15 min walk from the Lindt factory. The smell was amazing, and the taste was even better ;)







Moving on from The Basel Adventure....This is probably one of my favourites from the day. I took it the way up to Neuswanstein. The snow LOOKS really pretty...but in fact just made everything soggy and uncomfortable. Errr, I mean, happy and MAGICAL!








...And that fog makes it MYSTERIOUS....And therefore more beautiful, right? Right? Okay, but in all seriousness, even in my snow-soaked jeans, I had to admit that this was freakin' cool.


See?!? So amazing. Apparently Disney modeled Sleeping Beauty's castle in Disneyland after this one...but we thought "Beauty & the Beast" was more accurate in this weather :)

Onward in the picture-adventure! (Details you missed in photography is the fact that we accidentally managed to incur a 120 euro ticket for driving in Austria without a sticker. And that we accidentally traveled through Liechtenstein on the way back to Switzerland. I feel like Liechtenstein is the only country you could accidentally drive into and out of before realising it).

I took a million and a half photos in Zurich, and a good portion of them happened in this crypt. The lighting was SO COOL and even after having seen about 20 billion cathedrals (okay maybe just 4) that weekend, it STILL caught my attention, so props to Mr. Cathedral Architect (I'm sure I read some plaque with his name) for that :P












Zurich at night! We wandered for like an hour looking for this one really cool bar before we caught a movie. We did not succeed (that night, at least!), but we got a really great view of the city...And then we saw The Reader, which is an amazing film. I was perplexed because they have intermissions exactly halfway through the movie. Weird, but cool :)

















Oh yeah, and I was on this trip, too :P Psshhh details.


And finally, a beautiful (last) day in Zurich...This was at Burkliplatz--sort of the town center. Ish? For as much as I got to know the city via our wanderings, I'm still not certain about its geography... ;)

And that was only the first week of spring break!! So amazing...

Okay, I love this photo SO MUCH. The lovely brown-haired one is MY MOMMY! We met in Edinburgh and stayed with Cath (the gray-haired one) for the weekend. We got to hear amazing life-stories about her travels and her sisters and her family's generations & generations of life in Collinton. Plus, she showed us around the city the first day, which was sweet! This is at the castle, looking out through the holes for the cannons (and someone with better knowledge of medieval structures can yell at me later about what the technical name is :P)








It was a spectacular day....



















....Which we ended with a drink at the coolest bank-turned-bar/restaurant EVER.

...it was aptly named "The Dome."

And now (drumroll)....
Miscellaneous Cool Things from Edinburgh and the Surrounding Areas!

Look! Thatched roof!

Stained glass! (Roslin Chapel...aka "Thanks to Dan Brown, We're Finally A Tourist Destination!")

A cool statue! (still Roslin Chapel)

The beautiful walk to Cath's church (which, by the way, has been in continuous use since the 13th century--wow.)

Oh yeah. And mom learned to drive on the other side of the road.
We didn't even hit anything the first day! ;)

After Edinburgh, we packed up to head west for Oban....But both of us were pretty content to wander, so we took a few detours! This one was my personal favourite...(oh gosh, if only I could remember the name!)

If that's not good enough evidence for the merits of wandering, then I don't know what is :)















So, after a while, we got to Oban, where we met up with my friend Tam, who'd been hiking the West Highland Way all week...And then we proceeded to find a castle on the edge of town & climb around in it! 'Cause apart from cooking, that's climbing around random rocks is what Tam & I do best :P

There are way cooler photos on Mom's camera. But you'll just have to take my word for it. The castle was awesome. And sitting in the upper window looking out at the sea? Even more awesome :)




















Stayed in a wonderful B&B with mommy...Got up the next day & took a ferry to Mull--see below!

Drove across Mull (again, mom's camera has the better pictures. Annoying.) Fun fact! There is only one 1-lane road on the Isle of Mull. And all the cars drive really quickly. I pretty much admire mom SO MUCH for figuring out how to use the passing places correctly so that we didn't get mowed down :)

We were GOING to catch a ferry to Iona (the first Christian settlement in Scotland) once we reached the end of Mull...but the winds were too high to run the ferry. Instead, there was this fisherman who was offering to take some tourists over for about 3 hours. Naturally, we hopped on board....

.....this. WAY cooler than a tourist ferry.


(this was not the boat. Just a pretty picture)

And now...the nunnery!

(This one & the one below are actually the cemetery & not the nunnery. But still really cool.)

These from the church on Iona...It actually still runs today. Can't even tell you how cool it is to be in such an ancient place that's still useful today.

So...(wow, this is getting WAY longer than I ever intended)...
After we returned to the Isle of Mull from the Isle of Iona, we drove back to Tobermory, where we spent the night in the most awesome B&B ever...as in, we got an amazing view of the town and comfy, clean beds and the most delicious breakfast ever for less than the going hostel rate. How did that happen? No idea.

See the black building? In it is this AWESOME little pub called the Mishnish, where we grabbed dinner and sat by the fire (well, after the locals left comfy chairs :P) and drank ale & Tobermory whiskey (well, Mom & Tam did. It was my first real whiskey & I could only handle a few sips :P) and had some excellent banter while it rained outside. Not bad at all.

And, sadly, that's where my camera died, so I'll just have to highlight the rest of the week with writing :)

-left Tam in Oban, and headed back east--we were going to try to get all the way to St. Andrews after we failed at finding a place to sleep that wasn't creepily tiny...but instead got halfway down Loch Lomond (which is BEAUTIFUL) before we caved & found an EXCELLENT hotel, for which we were profusely thankful.

-Got to St. Andrews. Stayed in cute B&B's, ate really delicious food, saw the cathedral and the castle, dragged mom to the library 'cause I had a paper due on Monday, had Easter at the Vineyard (the amazing church I attend), walked the Fife costal trail ('cause it was beautiful & sunny!), and then had to bid adeiu to my mommy on Monday morning.

Since then...it's been workworkwork. Well, except for a FEW fun things...

(Polo match on West Sands)

(Uni Hall Bad Taste Party)

(random train ride to sight-see in Edinburgh with Amanda & Fred)

PHEW. Okay. I think you're pretty well up-to-date on my life now.
Oh, and I'm dying of some kind of cold thingy, which mostly disappoints me because Friday is the May Dip and I want to jump in the North Sea with the rest of my peers....but I also don't want to give myself pneumonia :P