merry christmas!!

Yo Yo!

I know that I have been seriously neglecting my duties but I have been swamped with finishing up final essays. I am now officially finished with my first semester of graduate school!! I can't quite believe it and now I have 5 1/2 weeks to do with my time what I will.

We had an American Thanksgiving for all of the foreigners at our flat. A total of 20 people showed up!! Our flat was completely packed with Americans, Scots, Irish, Australians, and Chinese. It was like a meeting of the UN!! haha :) We did it pot luck style with everyone bringing a traditional Thanksgiving dish. I was responsible for the squash, which of course is my favorite food :) I baked and mashed 9 large squash which made an enormous dish. Everyone said that they liked it so I guess I didn't mess up to badly. Paul was responsible for the mashed potatoes. He peeled, boiled, and mashed 60 potatoes!! It was insane! It was really nice to have everyone gathered in one spot just eating and chatting (which of course is what Thanksgiving is all about). However, non-Americans do not quite understand the role that eating plays. They couldn't grasp the concept that on Thanksgiving you are supposed to eat until you want to puke and couldn't possibly put one more spoonful in your mouth. So we had TONS of food left over. But all in all it was a great time!! :)

This is the first Christmas that I will be away from home, which is a little strange. However, Paul's parents have been nice enough to invite my friend Lexi and me over to their home on Christmas Day for dinner with their family. Lexi and I also have plans to watch every Christmas movie possible on Christmas Eve and stuff our faces with cookies.

Two weeks ago I went to my first ever pro tennis tournament! It was amazing! I took the train down to London and met up with my friend Jamie who lives there. We had great seats right behind the baseline, half way up the first section in the O2 arena. Unfortunately I did not get to see my future husband Novak but he was not at his best so even thought I was upset at least I didn't miss much. We ended up seeing a really good match between David Ferrer and Tomas Berdych, and the arena was packed. I didn't get to see much else of London as I was only there for one night but I'm sure that I will make it back down at some point to do some proper sight seeing.

My goal for this Christmas break is to hit the gym everyday and read, read, read (but for pleasure not for school). So far I have done well. I made it to the gym this morning and I read half of a book last night. I have a feeling my Kindle is going to fill up pretty quickly.

I hope everyone has a great Christmas and a Happy New Year!! Love you!

Corbyn

So many potatoes!!

probably the closest I will ever get to Novak :(

such awesome seats!

Weekend Up North!!

Hello All!!

I realize that I have been severely neglecting my duties but for the last three weeks I have been an essay writing machine and this weekend has been the first chance that I have had to take a breath. I have three weeks left of class which does not seem possible. This first semester has flown by!! Unfortunately for those of you who were looking forward to seeing my beautiful, smiling face ( :) ) over Christmas break you will be sadly disappointed. I have decided that the cost:benefit ratio is simply too high :( I would however be happy to skype or video chat with any or all who just can't seem to live without me :).

As a reward for completing my essays Paul and I went up north to Oban this past weekend with Paul's friend Euan and his girlfriend Cathy. We drove up Friday after I turned in my essay and Paul took the scenic route through Killin (yep that is the name of the town) so that I could get the full Scottish experience. From the start of our journey I took on the role of "annoying picture taker" and ended up taking around 60 pictures plus a few videos to commemorate the trip. Oban is a pretty small town on the west coast of Scotland between Glasgow and the Isle of Skye. It is about a 2-2 1/2 hour car ride from Falkirk (Paul's home town) but it seems a lot longer due to the crazy, curvy roads. On Saturday the four of us took a ferry over to the Isle of Mull and did a driving tour around the whole island. It was an extremely beautiful day (surprising for fall in Scotland) and there was tons of amazing scenery (AND SHEEP!!!) to look at. The ride was very very very very long though. It would have been nice to cut the driving time in half and have spent more time wandering around the "big" city. That took up most of our day on Saturday and we ended up having a quiet night at our hotel as we were all pretty tired. Sunday was spent driving home the even more scenic route (and making a pit stop at a whiskey shop in Inverary). Paul and I then drove back to Falkirk, going past Loch Lomond which was completely covered in very heavy fog. All in all it was a great weekend and a much needed break after the stressful past three weeks. Now I am back at uni and about to start working on my final essays that are due at the beginning of December (a student's work is never finished).

The weather is starting to turn a bit chillier now though it is still very sunny! The kitchen in our flat is being re-done this week which is very exciting because our appliances are not exactly top of the line. :S
I hope that everything is going well back in the States and that everyone in Minnesota is staying warm!! Love you!

the trusty driver :) probably slightly annoyed that i kept taking his picture

photo stop on our way up to oban

isle of mull

stress!!!!

Essays are now upon us :( I am making good progress with one down and two to go. Hopefully I will be able to finish them up ahead of schedule and not still be writing at 3:59pm on Nov. 4th (my last essay is due at 4pm) Just kidding mom and dad I would never do that :S.....

The weather has officially turned here in Edinburgh and it is rainy and about 40 everyday. Gross. Yet still better than Minnesota :)

I had a great time on my birthday with all of the new friends I have made here. We went out for Mexican (one of my favs) and then came back to our flat for a little while before heading out to the pubs. Somehow I managed to be the least intoxicated person. On my own birthday. Don't really know how that happened. But at least I felt the best the next day :)

There isn't too much to report at the moment because I have been so bogged down with essay writing. Hopefully something exciting will happen soon so that I can tell you all about it!!

Birthday Presents to Myself :)

So my birthday is on Saturday (I'm sure that you all have it marked on your calendars) and so I decided to give myself a couple of early birthday presents. The most exciting one was a ticket to the ATP Tour finals in London at the end of November!!!! Dustin Demmer's friend Jamie made me aware of this tournament last week and I of course jumped on it. Jamie is also a huge tennis fan and when he and Dustin were in Edinburgh we talked about tennis so much at the pub that Kelley pulled a textbook out of her bag and began reading it. Jamie purchased our tickets on Friday night and we will be attending the night match on the final weekend and be sitting right behind one of the players on the deuce side. The other present that I bought myself is more practical though no less exciting (at least to me). I have ordered on Amazon fuzzy Hunter wellie socks and not one but two bottles of Sriracha hot sauce :) I love spicy food and back in the States I put Sriracha on everything, including but not limited to pizza, pasta, eggs, quesdillas, etc. I will now attach a Sriracha based poster that those of you who don't know what it is can attempt to understand how amazing it is.

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/sriracha

This is my last week before really buckling down and getting my first round of essays in order. Wish me luck!!

Epic Jog

Hi Hi!

This week began with an Albert Lea reunion of sorts. Dustin Demmer, who has been traveling around Europe for the past 6 weeks, made a stop in Edinburgh! I, being the expert that I am (after 3 weeks), was designated as the Edinburgh tour guide. Dustin and his friend Jamie arrived on Monday afternoon and I met them down on the Royal Mile. (FYI there are two Parliament Squares so when you are meeting someone there be very specific) We had dinner at a pub off of Princes Street and then walked towards campus while I pointed out all of the important land marks for them to snap pictures of. I am sure that most of you know Dustin or the Demmer family so I won't go into much detail about him besides that fact that he used to cheat off of me in high school Spanish :) His friend Jamie is English so being the good Scot that I am immediately hated him (just kidding). Hopefully I will make it to London in the not too far future and Jamie will be able to return the favor by showing me all that London has to offer. It was great to catch up and I think that they had a great time in the city (even though they were here for less than 24 hrs).

The weather this week has been unreal. It has been 72 and sunny almost every day. I decided to take advantage of this weather and go for a jog through Holyrood Park. For those of you that don't know, Holyrood Park is a large park area at the back of Holyrood Palace. It has a large mountain type hill, known as Arthur's Seat, in the middle as well as a group of crags. There is a road that goes around the middle of the hill which Arthur's Seat is on known as Queens Drive. There is also another road that encircles the base of the hill and goes all the way around the park, venturing into a residential area. I started off my jog on the lower road, because who am I kidding I certainly didn't want to hike halfway up a mountain and then run. I was approximately two miles into my workout and about to enter the residential area when I noticed a map of the park and all of its paths. Thinking myself quite clever I decided to look for a path from the road I was on up to Queens Drive (thinking that I would hit Queens Drive at a lower point). And what do you know there was such a path and it began exactly where I was!! I began making my way through the trees, turned a corner on the path and saw...STAIRS...UP A MOUNTAIN...Needless to say my first thought was !@#$!#$%#$^#$%!#$%@#$^ but I had already committed to taking this path so I kept right on going. There were a cajrillion stairs!! And let us not forget that I had already ran two miles. I finally crawled to the top and as I was taking that last step I looked up expecting to see Nirvana and what did my eyes fall upon...MORE STAIRS! I eventually reached the top, stopped for a minute in order to prevent a hear attack, and then proceeded to run the 3 miles back home. (and by run 3 miles I mean run 1 and then walk the other two) Lesson learned: there are no short cuts up a mountain. Too bad I had to learn that by experience.

I will now try to give a brief description of each of my roommates so that when I refer to them in the future you will know who I am talking about. I live with two other Americans and two Chinese students. Kelley is one of the Americans and is from California. She is 28 and is getting her MSc in Performance Psychology (aka Sports Psych). She is the one who was lucky enough to experience Glasgow for 2.7 seconds with me. She and I are two peas in a pod or as she refers to us PICsquared. (partners in crime and clothing) We literally wore the same outfit two days in a row. She made me change the second time (age before beauty) :). Next comes Heather. She is from Connecticut and is getting her Phd in Art History. I don't think I need to spell out for you what a huge nerd she is. Every time we are at a party or out on the town she somehow manages to let her nerd flag fly. We try to bring her back to Earth as often as possible. Then comes Su Ling. She is from China and is studying to become an English teacher for Chinese students. (I obviously don't know what the technical term for this is) She is hilarious. Apparently Chinese girls think that Thai girls are kind of hoochy and so we make her do impressions of Thai girls all of the time. Sooooo funny! Last but not least is Feiru. I believe that she is doing her MSc in Social Work. She is great as well and is always cooking. She cooks meals every day that necessitate using every single pan that we have in the flat. I am contemplating asking her if I can pay her to cook for me too. (Sorry mom I just really suck at cooking) And these are my roommates in a nut shell.

I want to leave you with one last tidbit of information. We had a pot luck dinner last night between the two girls' flats on our floor. We had pizza, nachos, mac & cheese, baked spaghetti, and chocolate cake. I am lactose intolerant.

Good night!

the first set of stairs from the "top"

the second set of stairs

my reward for not dying :)

Week 2!

Hello All!!

At the suggestion of my lovely cousin Colby I have decided to start a blog about my Scotland adventures instead of a weekly email. I feel a lot less creepy posting one sentence blogs than sending you all one sentence emails at 2am from a train to Glasgow (full story to come). I should probably be on Twitter but I hate it. I will try my hardest to pick up from where I left off on my last email but so much has happened so I apologise in advance if I forget anything. I am also going to use this time to practice my British spelling so if as you are reading this you think that I have spelled words incorrectly you are wrong.

Today was the beginning of week 2 of classes and it is off to a great start! (insert sarcastic tone here) 9am class on Monday= not cool. Especially when the topic is Institutions and Policies of the European Union. The EU has to be one of the most complicated institution/organisation/"state"/whatever other label you want to put on it. Not only does it have a bajzillion different supra-national institutions but they are all structured in the same manner. In other words... the Commission is the "top" institution and it houses the presidency of the EU (fun fact #1: currently held by Poland), however the European Parliament also has a Commission and a President and a Council of Ministers. There is also a Council of Ministers as part of the Commission. If you are confused already be grateful that you are not also taking this course. Even though my core courses are not that exciting (Institutions and Policies of the European Union, International Relations Theory) I am thoroughly enjoying them. My favorite class by far though is The Politics of Post-Soviet Russia. I will write more about my classes in a different post because I'm sure that some of you are falling asleep while reading about my course work. So moving on to the (mis)adventure of this past weekend.

One of my flatmates Kelley and I took the train on Friday up to Stirling. FYI Stirling is where I studied abroad for those of you who have forgotten :). It is also where my Scottish friends Mike and Fraser live. We boarded the train at 2:30pm on Friday afternoon as neither of us has class Thursday or Friday (fist pump). We arrived in Stirling around 3:30 and decided to get some touristy things out of the way before we met up with Mike and Fras for dinner. The Wallace Monument is one of the big tourist attractions in Stirling, not only because it houses William Wallace's (Mel Gibson Braveheart) sword which is 6ft tall but there are also great views from the top. The Wallace Monument is 2 miles from the train station so we decided that we would just walk instead of trying to figure out the bus schedule. Side note: Kelley is wearing black patent leather flats and I am wearing riding boots. We moseyed over to the monument with no problem (thank you Google Maps) and proceeded into the gift shop to buy entrance tickets... only to find out that the monument was closing in 15 minutes. Fail #1. So sadly we had to turn around and begin our journey to Mike and Fras's flat. I type their address into Google Maps and... there flat is 2.7 miles from the Wallace Monument. WOOHOO!! Needless to say we took a beer break halfway there. When we finally arrived at there flat (which is really nice) my heels were bleeding and Kelley had to stretch out her quads. We told the guys all about of trek to Wallace Monument after which Fras informed us that we still could have walked to the top of the hill to see the views even if we couldn't go inside the actual monument. Fail #2. We spent the evening with the guys learning Scottish slang (which I will not repeat here because it was all extremely inappropriate) and soaking up the local Scottish culture aka watching football (not American). Our train back to Edinburgh left at 11:15 that night so we said our good-byes and headed back to the train station. We found our platform, got some M&Ms from the vending machine and waited for our train home to arrive. At 11:14 the train pulled in, we jumped on, and settled in for the hour long trip back to Uni. I will now break into an exact narrative of what occurred next....
Me looking at the screen inside the train which says "Next stop Glasgow Queen Street"
Me looking at Kelley: "Um..... that is making me very nervous"
The train starts to move.
Kelley turning to a woman next to us: "Is this train going to Glasgow?"
Woman next to Kelley: "Yep."
Me to Kelley and Kelley to Me: &!&#*$(!*@#&$*!@(#)$(#!*#@&$&!@#*($)(#*#*&@&#*$(#*@
We had in fact taken the wrong train, going in the wrong direction, and it was an express (no stops!).
Luckily we were able to get the last train from Glasgow back to Stirling where Mike and Fras had blown up and air mattress for us :) We did eventually make it back to Edinburgh on Saturday morning unscathed and just a little bit smarter.

I will end this post here because it is ungodly long and write a shorter one in the next few days profiling each of my flatmates. But here are some pictures of these past two weeks in case you are not on Facebook and have not seen them. Enjoy!

Love you all!

Mike, Jack, Me (obviously), Fraser

view from Arthur's Seat

Me with Kelley