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!
