Birthday Weekend

Hola Everyone!

Again I apologize profusely for not updating my blog sooner, it has been a crazy past couple of weeks. I feel a little like I have been hit by a truck and it did not just hit but reversed and rolled back over me! I mean this feeling could be because I have started exercising again, so my muscles are really sore or it could be because I just finished my finals, but it is most likely both.

Any who, time to catch you up on all that has happened since my last post and boy you are all in for a treat! :P Hhmm, I guess the best place to start is my birthday, November 29. I am now officially 21 and yes I am beginning to feel my years! My birthday was on a Friday this year, which was totally awesome! Meghan and I made plans to go to Denholm, a small town on the border between Scotland and England, where her family friend owns a B&B. I am so glad I picked a small town to visit for my birthday because I feel like everyone enjoyed a break away from the city for a while, especially right before finals. Any way, Thursday before my birthday I had everything planned for the morning, I was going to go my bank and dropped my homework off at the University and then head down to the Bus Station and catch the noon bus to Edinburgh. Alas, my plan like a lot of my plans due flew out the window when I slept through my alarm and did not wake up until almost 11am. Needless to say I was absolutely freaking out! I had no money and I really needed to turn in my homework. So I threw on my clothes, emailed my professor, grabbed some breakfast and then I just used the Sainsbury ATM despite it having an extra charge (Sorry dad). So I was able to get everything done and I caught a cab with Helle and Meghan so life was good and I decided to leave my worries behind me, Hakuna Mahtata and all. There was six of total that went to to Denholm: Maggie, Meghan, Sam, Helle, Sally and me. I loved the group and they were absolutely an amazing group of ladies to celebrate my 21st with.

We took two buses to get to Hawick, which is a slightly bigger town than Denholm but not by much. We then had to take a cab to get to the actual B&B. The B&B was so adorable and Karen the owner was an absolute gem. She was a great hostess and the food was amazing. She is such a likable person. When I got there I felt like we stepped into the past because the place was so tidy but had a great old feel to it. I imagine it is what Belle felt like after the castle got it's splendor back in Beauty and the Beast. Once we got there we all got rooms and Maggie and I were roommates, which really worked out for us later since we were the most tipsy/drunk out of everyone, I think but hey it was my 21st birthday so no judgement right? After we were all settled we sat down in the lounge area near the bar and just hung out and drank some drink. I had hot chocolate because I was waiting until after I had dinner before consuming alcohol. Dinner was superb! I got the lasagna and there are no words to describe how good it was, so thank you Karen for the amazing food. Despite the fact that dinner was so filling everyone got dessert because well on a birthday you have to eat dessert. YOLO right? Which by the way I finally learned what it meant on my birthday: You Only Live Once (I think). I feel so silly that I totally thought it was a name of a guy for the longest time. Maggie insists that I need a tumblir or I need to go on the internet more because I don't know things that everyone should know, but hey I am okay with not knowing because I find enough ways to procrastinate as it is, so adding one more seems unwise. Sorry about the digression. Oh and Karen did the nicest thing and put a candle in my dessert and everyone whispered sang happy birthday, it was perfect.  After dinner we went back out to lounge and this is where Meghan and Helle had the most fun I think because I told them to just pick whatever drinks they wanted me to drink and I just gave them the money. Now at this point I have had two glasses of wine from dinner thanks to Meghan and Helle's tenacity. :D (Love you guys). So the next drink they gave me was a Baileys and Hot Chocolate because they know that I would never not drink a Hot Chocolate. Then they decided that it would be really funny if they ordered like the most disgusting drink they could think of, so they ordered straight up gin. It was absolutely revolting but I finished the glass, however my face is not pretty while I do it. Meghan has some great shots of that and they are posted on Facebook. All my Birthday pictures are on Facebook so please look there to see all my lovely expressions. It actually was oober awkward when I first took a drink of the gin because all five of my friends had their cameras out and pointed at me to get my reaction on film! They are really the greatest friends a girl could have. After that I put a pause on the drinking because I really wanted to fully appreciate the gifts they had bought me and they were just great. Sally got me a gift card for Amazon, so I am one step closer to creating my own personal library (Yes, as you probably are all thinking, like the one from Beauty and the Beast). Sam got me some new gloves and owl hair pins. I also got Anne of Green Gables from Helle and Meghan. Hmmm I feel like I am forgetting something! Dang I am sure it will come to me later. Any way after that the drinking continued and I got a vodka and orange juice as well as a rum and pineapple juice. All the while Maggie is enjoying Cider and Baileys. After a while Karen sat and joined us and told us some stories about her and Julie Anne (Meghan's mom) from their youth and it was absolutely lovely. Once we spent a good deal on drinks we decided to convene in Meghan's room and play Head's Up. It is a pretty fun game where one person held Meghan's phone and then the other people on the team would try to describe the word on the scream while the person holding the phone to their forehead guess. Of course we had to make it more interesting by adding a drinking component to it, so however many we caught wrong was how many drinks of our drink we had to take. Although they doubled it for me since they think my gulps are too small. :P So we drank wine and more Baileys, but then Meghan's phone died so we chatted for a while. Now at this point I am actually feeling the alcohol, but Meghan felt that I was not quite there yet so she told me to chug the rest of the wine and there was like half the bottle left. I told them that I did not think I needed it because everything felt like it was slightly tilted, but they insisted and I thought hey you only get one 21st birthday so why not. So I chugged the wine and even Meghan was impressed that I did not come up to breath once! Now, I was really feeling it and I was trying to describe to Maggie how I was feeling and I compared it to a see-saw and she thought that was the funniest thing ever probably because she was pretty tipsy herself. But her laughing uncontrollably made me laugh uncontrollably so much in fact that it literally hurt my chest to breathe. Now just picture this Maggie and I are literally rolling around on the bed laughing while everyone is staring at us because they have no clue as to what is so funny. Then to top it all of they all take pictures and do a toast to a job well done of getting not only me drunk but Maggie as well. There are some pretty great pictures on Facebook that really would help you solidify that image in your mind. I also said that I wished Chris Hemsworth was at the other end of the See-saw because that would have knocked my night out of the park but oh well it still was quite a great night. Once, we headed to bed I was slightly unsteady on my feet since the world was not where it should have been. Have you ever looked up at the sky and watched the clouds move then all of a sudden you feel almost as if you can feel the world turn. It is slightly disorienting this feeling but that is exactly how I felt after consuming all that alcohol. Another thing that I noticed is that as I drank more and more I kept using bigger and more sophisticated words as if to prove to myself and everyone that I am not actually tipsy! It was quite funny really.

Any way the next morning we got up early so we could get breakfast and lets just say I was not the fastest person up, but to be fair I had only gotten a few hours of sleep a night all week. When I woke my stomach was not happy but I did not throw up so yay! It lasted just until I got some food in my system and then I felt fit as a fiddle. Although, I must have looked worst than I thought because most everyone laughed when they saw me at breakfast. I think the greatest thing about this group of friends is that there was no judgement no matter what because really everyone does something embarrassing at one point another so it was all good.

After breakfast, we got our hiking gear on and headed out. We went through pastures and woods and up a hill that over looked all of Denholm. It was breathtaking! Those pictures are also on Facebook. It was a wonderful day as well because it was actually sunny for a time and it did not rain once while we we were there! I know, hard to believe but please lift your jaw off the floor and continue reading because there is so much to hear. After that we went back to the B&B to warm up a little because despite it not raining it was still pretty chilly. Once we were all warm again we went another hike up to Fat Lip Castle. Unfortunately we were unable to get the key for it because there was a hunting party, so they were not giving it that day. The hike was actually pretty long and kind of tough! It was up on a giant hill and it was muddy and kind of gross. I was in my rain boots which added like another two pounds to each of my legs so that was fun. I did manage to take some pretty amazing photos though and that made it all worth it. Any way once we hiked back we stopped on a bridge and took some more photos and this older couple offered to take one of all of us so that was oober sweet.

Once back at the B&B we all just kind of chilled until dinner. Dinner again was absolutely brilliant, I tried something new and got the chicken curry and it was quite good even though it was kind of spicy. We also all decided to get dessert again because it was just so darn good the first night. And another thing that made it absolutely awesome was the desserts change night to night! How cool is that? It really is the little things that give me such joy! After dinner we all headed to Meghan's room to watch a movie. We decided on V for Vendetta because it is an awesome movie and it set in England. Despite having difficulty with the internet, we were able to watch the whole thing! I had forgotten how good it is, so I am really happy we watched it.

The next morning I had the full Scottish breakfast and I actually tried haggis and black pudding. And let me tell you my definition pudding and their definition of pudding is very different. When I think pudding I think like chocolate pudding cups made by Jell-O. Their pudding is like a cake patty thing. It was really weird and I did not much like it, but the haggis was alright and no I did not ask what was in either because I figured it was best not to know. Any way after that we packed and headed back to the bus station. A few hours later and we were back to Glasgow. Overall it was an amazing weekend with an awesome group of girls and the only thing that would have made it better was if my sister Kay was there to share it with me but oh well she had a better surprise for me later any who. Which I shall explain in my last post tomorrow. For now I am headed to bed since I have to catch a plane in the morning!

Goodnight all!

London Expedition Number 2

November 7, 2013 to November 10, 2013

Okay, everyone I am now prepared to fill you in on my second adventure in London. This time I will have photos to back up all my stories since I took them on my real camera and not my phone!

My second excursion to London was absolutely amazing, not only because I had an amazing travel buddy (Sam Czernik), but also because I did not miss my train and we found a Cinnabon. And as you all probably know Cinnabons are like at the top of my favorite food list along with peanut butter, pancakes and French Toast. Any way, Sam and I hopped on the night train to London and we arrived around 11:30pm. We took a cab to our hostel and I must admit that our hostel was pretty sweet. It was called Safestay and when we arrived, the lobby was full of people in Chef uniforms all speaking in a multitude of different languages. I think that there must have been a convention in town or something but it was pretty sweet. In my own imaginative world all the Chefs cooked for Sam and I and we got to determine who we thought was the greatest of all! But, alas my fantasy did not come true, but they all seemed pretty nice all the same. After we got our room assignment we headed upstairs to crash. Our room was so nice! It was super clean and super purple/pink. We had our own bathroom and shower, although we were suppose to be sharing our room with 6 other people, Sam and I were the only ones there the first night, which was pretty sweet.

Here are some pictures of our Hostel!

There is Sam peaking her head out! Hi Sam!

The following morning we got up relatively early so we could eat the free breakfast, because us college kids never pass up on a free meal! :P The breakfast was not super great but there was hot chocolate so I can not complain too much. Once we were done with breakfast, we grabbed our stuff and prepared to explore the town. We headed to the nearest tube station and took it to the National Gallery of Art since it was only a few blocks away from the Courtauld Institute of Art and that was where my visit day was. The National Gallery was absolutely amazing! I was kind upset since they did not allow pictures inside but I took some of the outside and they will have to do. I was so excited to see some of the paintings because I learned about several of them in my art history classes. There was one in particular that I wanted to see: The Arnolfini Portrait. I did a research paper on it and I always thought it was an amazing painting. I got so excited when I saw it, in fact that I started to lean over the rope thing to point out to Sam all the little details that Van Eyck painted that this woman came running over to tell me to move back! She thought that I was going to touch the painting! I was so mortified, I did not even realize that I was that close to it! Any way, the good news is that they did not kick us out or anything so  insert sigh of relief here! Once we had our fill of art for the day we decided to grab some lunch before heading over to the school for our visit. We found an adorable and delicious Italian place on the way towards the school. I was feeling a little homesick so I got the classic Spaghetti and Meatballs, while Sam was feeling more adventurous and got some sort of Lemon Pasta, which was pretty good. Regrettably, we were too full for dessert, I know that it is hard to believe but it is the truth nonetheless. Believe me if I could have I would have ordered one, they sounded absolutely divine, but some things are not meant to be I guess!

Pictures of the National Gallery

Once we were able to roll out of our chairs we headed to the Institute despite being a bit early. We figured though that we could look around a bit and then find out where we were suppose to meet. The school was absolutely stunning! It is part of a museum and the building's architecture is absolutely breath taking. I also love how into the Holiday Spirit they are here. They had a gigantic ice rink right in the middle of the courtyard of the school! How cool is that? After we were done ogling the school and rink we went to the reception area to see where we were suppose to meet for the tour, only to almost have a heart attack because they said that they did not know anything about a visit day! I was totally freaking out, but it turned out okay because the people who arranged it showed up they just are not part of the school it is like a separate booking company, which I thought was kind of confusing, but it all worked out in the end so no biggie! :D

There was a pretty small group of us, which is good since the program literally only accepts like 5 applicants a year! That is just so nerve racking! Any way they took us on a tour of the workshops and they explained how the three year program worked. The first year is like half lectures and half hands on stuff. They start off by painting replicas of famous paintings in order to learn the proper technique and an eye for color, so they can do touch ups later on. Into your second year, they give you your own personal painting to clean and restore how you see fit! I think that that is so cool and terrifying at the same time. The third year is a lot research and applying that research to improve certain techniques of conservation. Overall, I think it is an absolutely amazing program and definitely one I will have to continue to look into. I think one of the most nerve-wracking things that I learned about the program is that like the top 25 candidates are required to come back for a day where they are not only interviewed but they have to paint in front of people and do some sort of color testing. Now, I have never painted in front of anyone in my life! I am more of what you call a closet painter so people just see the finished product and even then I am usually not completely satisfied, so this sounds quite scary. It also takes place in January, when I will undoubtably be attending class and such so getting back for an interview will be a challenge. I am also happy to report that Sam thought it was quite interesting as well, so I am glad it was not too boring for her since I know her thing is more biology and such! You go girl because you know that I could not do it!

Pictures of the School

Once we were all done with our tour, we decided to walk to Buckingham Palace since I knew how to get there from my lovely adventure earlier in the week! :P It was a lot nicer having a friend with me when we walked next to the park and it was also nice that the lights were actually on! It made the park by far less menacing and it did not feel so much like the forest outside the Beast's castle after he was cursed of course. ;) We stopped and took pictures and it all looked very cool at night. We saw the guards at the Palace and I could not help but feel bad for them for having to stay out in the pouring rain for hours at a time. Plus they had to endure the constant stream of tourists sticking cameras through the bars and trying to distract them or make them smile. Man, their job just seems hard. Sam and I were discussing ways in which we would occupy ourselves while we had to stand there motionless. I said that I would try to make up life stories for all the people that lingered outside the gate! They did not even have to be realistic, it could be fantasy, sci-fi whatever!  Or if that got boring I would think of random characters from books and I would picture what they would do if they some how ended up in the wrong the story! For instance, what if Mr. Darcy and Mr. Rochester switched places? How crazy would that be, I have no clue how that story would end, but that line of thinking could keep me busy for hours. Any way once our shoes were entirely soaked through we decided to head back to the Hostel for an early night since we were getting up early the next day to walk to Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace and the Natural History Museum. However, despite this reasonable plan I did not get to bed until very late because I made the unwise decision to start a book and you all know what happens when I get sucked into a story. It can be hours before I come back to world again! The truly sad part is that I had already read this book and I still could not put it down. The only consolation that I have is that I am not the only one who has that problem! Belle from Beauty and the Beast frequently rereads books and she completely missed the fact that the whole town was singing about how she "was a beauty but a funny girl" :D Sorry in case you could not tell I have recently watched Disney's Beauty and the Beast and I just cannot get it out of my head. Sorry about the really weird tangent back to London now. 

Buckingham Palace Pictures

The following morning we got up even earlier since we had quite a walk to get to the Natural History Museum and all! It was nice that we got up early though because we actually got milk with our cereal which was awesome since the day before they ran out of milk! Once, we were done with breakfast, we gathered all of our stuff and checked out! I think the worst part about Saturday was having to haul my back pack wherever I went but oh well. I still thoroughly enjoyed myself. Sam and I headed towards the Natural History Museum, but we took a route that would lead us past Big Ben and the Westminster Abbey. It was so cool! We definitely picked the best route. We stopped at a gift shop on the way and we got some souvenirs for ourselves and family members! Here are some pictures of the route we took!

Also while we were walking we stumble upon some sort of processional or parade we have no idea what it was for or why it was happening, but there were people in uniforms riding horses, so it had to be something important right? Therefore, I took a bunch pictures and I did the total touristy thing where I kept waving until someone waved back and guess what they did! I was so excited. I was like a 6 year old in the candy shop from the first Willy Wonka movie! Any way here are the pictures. 

I think one of my favorite things that we saw in London was the Natural History Museum and if any of you all reading this are ever going to go to London, it is an absolutely must see sight. The building itself is, of course, designed very beautifully, but the amazing stuff on the inside is even more amazing. Sam and I didn't even get to see a quarter of the museum before we had to leave to head to our musical. We saw a lot of the animal exhibits as well as the creepy crawlies. We also stopped at the gift shop and I bought Christmas gifts for both my parents! (I know, mom and dad, that you are just dying with curiosity but you will just have to wait and see!)

Natural History Museum

After leaving the museum we headed over the Picadilly Theatre where our musical Dirty Dancing was going to perform. I was so excited not only because a block away from the theatre was a Cinnabon but also because Sam had never even seen the movie Dirty Dancing (I know stifle your gasps, it is rude :P) so I knew that she was in for a real treat. I thought they did an excellent job with the musical they kept all the songs from the movie and added a couple of their own. I of course knew all the songs from the movie because yes I am that nerd. And no, do not worry I did not sing out loud any of the songs, so Sam's experience was not ruined by terrible singing. The cast was excellent and I really liked how the actual audience was also part of the show. There were people doing the woot woot whistle and yelling at the appropriate times, it was so great! I believe that Sam really enjoyed it too, so overall it was a very successful day. Although we were not suppose to take pictures in theatre I did not know this until they saw me take one and they let me keep it so here it is!

On our walk to the bus station we walked like through the shopping center of London and it was awesome. The displays in the window were Christmas themed and they were all really creative. One ran along the entire building and it was like the Polar express train and each window was a different car of the train! It was so neat! Any way our bus ride was about 8 and half ours long and we got back around 6:30 am on Sunday. 

My day was not over however, because I had a volleyball game in Aberdeen, which was another three hour bus ride. So once I got back to my flat, I scarfed down some breakfast and changed into my volleyball gear and headed back to the station. On the way though, I stopped at a Starbucks and got a Venti (Large) Pumpkin Spice Steamer. It was so good, but I am sorry to say it was gone by the time I reached the station. Thankfully, I slept most the way there, I needed all the energy I could get for the game. The game was so much fun! I am so happy that I get to play Volleyball while I am here! It is one of my absolute favorite things about being at Glasgow. We did not have our coach at the game because he went with the other team at a different venue, but we still played very well and I felt like we really came together as a team. It was amazing! Although, I did have an unlucky dive where I bruised my hand it was totally worth it. Another great aspect of that day was the other team came up to some of my teammates looking for me while I was getting ice to let me know that they thought that I was a good player! I thought that was absolutely one of the sweetest things ever and I loved it because so often back in the States setters are under-appreciated. After the game we had to catch cab back to the bus station, but none of the cab companies had car near by so they would not send any one. We were getting frantic and I felt like it was London all over again so eventually Margaux being the more outgoing of us asked random people leaving the gym to give us a ride! Eventually, two people did, so I thank you quite profusely! We made it to the bus with like 2 minutes to spare! 

Well, I think that about covers it! I shall update you more in the next few days with many more intriguing stories of my life so hasta luego!