this one's for you Kaeli Goodnature

It has been brought to my attention that I have been seriously neglecting my blogging duties so I will attempt to rectify this situation. Two days ago I finished my final essay of my second semester of my Masters program!! woohoo!! It was quite possibly the worst essay I have ever written in my entire life about a subject that nobody really wants to hear about...aka the European Union's coherence in humanitarian assistance affairs... see told ya you don't really want to hear about it. I gave myself the rest of the week off to recharge and gear up for my dissertation writing which I will try to start next week. Everyone cross your fingers and toes for that one.

My flights back to America have also been officially booked! (this is the part where you scream and jump up and down with uncontainable excitement haha) I will be back in Minnesota from May 29th until June 12th. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and be more pleasant than the last week has been here. If you go to weather.com and look up Edinburgh, Scotland you will see a ten day forecast that consists of rain, rain, and yes you guessed it... more rain!

So far my post-Masters plan consists of staying in Scotland and getting a job so that they will not kick me out of the country :) I absolutely love it here and hope to spend quite a few years here amongst the Scots.

I will leave you one little story from my adventures because I'm sure that by now the episode of Numbers that I have been trying to watch has stopped buffering...
A couple of weeks ago I was leaving for the airport and had called a taxi to take me (because I was far too lazy to walk to the bus). My cell phone rang indicating that the taxi was waiting outside so I made my way down the stairs and out the door. Waiting for me at the curb was a man in what I'm guessing was his early 50's. He took my bag from me and put it in the trunk as I climbed into the back seat. The second he sat down in the drivers seat the questions started... Where was I going? What was I doing there? How long was I staying? If I had been playing a drinking game where I had to take a shot every time he asked a question I would have been dead from alcohol poisoning before I hit the end of the block. I was just starting to gear up to be extremely annoyed for the entire trip to the airport when the driver realized that I was from America. I don't think that there is a single American who loves the States as much as this Scotsman.....
The things I know about my taxi driver:
1. He has a time share in Disney World
2. He and his wife love Disney
3. They have been married for 38 years.
4, They have 5 grandchildren that they take care of on the weekends.
5. The youngest one makes my taxi driver drive him to McDonalds in the taxi.
6. The little boy orders a Happy Meal with juice at McDonalds.
7. The little boy and his brother are adorable (he showed me a Disney World key chain with their pictures on it)
8. If he could live anywhere in the States guess where it would be (hint: oranges) and yes that is the hint he gave me
9. He knows the entire history of Disney World (he gave me a brief summary)
10. It is the youngest grandsons turn to go to Disney. They are going in October. His older brother got to go last year.
11. His favorite Disney movies are Pete's Dragon and Herbie (not the LL version) and he also likes the Princess Diaries
12. His brother lives in Texas. He started his own business. It was rough at first but now he loves it there.
13. He thinks I'm a sweet girl :)
14. He knows all of the words to God Bless America (I know this because he sang it to me)

Things I don't know about my taxi driver... his name.

I'm still alive!!

Hello All!!

I'm sorry that it has been SOOOOOOOOOOOOO long since my last post. There is really no excuse for it.... but if there was it would be that I just plain forgot :( I will not try to remember everything that has happened in the past three months so that I can share it with you, I will simply pick up from two weekends ago.

I am sure that most of you know that Paul got a new job (temporarily) in Paris which he started almost a month ago. Last weekend I was forced (haha yeah right) to go visit him and get him all settled in his new flat. We had a great time and managed to see the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, walk along the Champs Elysee and saw the Invalides from afar. We did manage to do a little bit of shopping on Sunday... for Lucas. I was informed a few days prior to my trip that Lucas Jon Peterson himself requested that I buy him a present while I was in Paris. (of course I hadn't spoken to him in weeks but he didn't bother himself with idle chit chat... he got straight to business) And of course being the best big sister that I am I happily obliged. :) The trip home went very smoothly (THANK GOODNESS!!!!) and if you do not know the story of my previous trip to Paris then you have no idea why I am so happy and I'm not going to tell you here so I guess you're just shit out of luck.

I had an essay due this past Friday which I had been working on the previous week as I knew that I would be out of town for the weekend. I was in the process of writing it and was so close to finished when..... DUN DUN DUN.... I came down with the stomach flu :( the day before my essay was due. So I felt horrible physically and mentally I was slightly freaking out because I have never ever ever in my entire life missed a deadline. So I was frantically emailing everyone that I could think of (while hovering over my garbage can) to get an extension. I was instructed to email my Programme Director as he was the only person who was able to grant the sought after extension. So I did. Then I waited.... and I waited... and I waited... It got to be 3:30 p.m. on Thursday and I still had not heard back from him. I was getting a little frantic. So I sent him another email saying that I was sorry for being so persistent but I was very ill and I had never been through this process before so I was a little nervous and if he could email me back soon I would really appreciate it. A half hour later he responded. And I'm not gonna lie, he was a bit of a sassy pants. But never the less he granted me my extension. YAY!!! So I finished up my essay on Saturday when I was finally feeling better and handed it in an hour ago.

My weekend finished up with a very pleasant Saturday visiting my friend Kelley at work and having a fancy coffee followed by a trip to the pub with Heather to watch Scotland lose at rugby :( but Liverpool draw in football. I have decided that Liverpool is the football team that I am going to support (except for Suarez because he is a racist douche and they should have kicked him out for the rest of the season) except when they play Man U because otherwise Paul would never speak to me again. Not that he is too happy about me liking Liverpool in the first place :S

Well that is all for today. I hope that everyone is having a great new year so far!! Love you all :)

Paul forced me to take pictures by myself... which I hate

not the greatest picture but oh well...