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Published: July 26th 2015
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Hello, lovely people! I hope everyone has enjoyed their weekend thus far. I have to start by saying happy birthday to one of my favorite little men in the whole world. My wee nephew Cooper turns three tomorrow, and while I'm so so sad to be missing his mickey mouse themed birthday party today, Skype is a wonderful tool and I was able to see all of the party shenanigans. Rylynn always likes to take the phone and sit and talk with me about various things, and we always have interesting conversations. You learn a lot from a 5 year old. This week was another somewhat quiet week. My class this week was cancelled, and since I only have one class that means that I had no class at all for the entire week. It's a rough life, I know. I've been taking advantage of the times when it's not raining (spoiler alert: it's always raining) and walking back and forth to town. It's about a 45 minute walk each way, and it's always nice to get out and get fresh air when I can. I've begun to appreciate Stirling more and I have included pictures from what has become my
home these last 6 weeks. A friend and I walked to Bridge of Allan which has a lovely fish and chip shop. Along with the fish and chips, we also had deep fried haggis. I tried haggis a couple of weeks ago but it was not fried. I will admit that the taste is actually quite nice. It basically tastes like sausage. It's definitely not something I could eat every day, but it's interesting to have once in a while. To lose the 10 pounds I gained from eating the fried haggis, I hiked Dumyat hill for the third time since I've been here (not in the same day, I probably would have died). Just in case any of you have forgotten, Dumyat is a 10 mile round trip hike that is around 1,300 feet in elevation at the top. Each time I go up I take pictures and I'm sure that I have three sets of identical pictures on my phone by now, but the view is always too beautiful not to take pictures. Hiking Dumyat always seems like a good idea at the bottom, the worst possible idea halfway up, and then the best idea at the top.
I will say that it has gotten much much easier for me and I'm not nearly as tired and dying on the way up. My legs no longer feel like they will fall off if I take another step at the top, so I'm gonna count that as a win for me. On Thursday a couple of friends and I went back to St Andrews with ISS for a day trip. I forgot how much I love St Andrews simply for its beauty and quaint feel. It was a much nicer day on this trip than it was the first time we went, except there were bouts of rain here and there. However the sun was out most of the day, which has been a rarity all summer so we took advantage and spent most of the day on the beach. It was quite windy and I had a lot of sand in my hair by the time we get back, which is unfortunate because my hair is so thick and absorbs anything and everything like a sponge. I'm pretty sure I've lost pencils in my hair at some point in my life. We also found a lovely ice cream
shop that was quite yummy even though I'm not normally a fan much of ice cream. While at the shop, there was a small film crew filming a family outside eating ice cream. It looked like some sort of reality show, so when we got back we looked it up and found out that it is basically the Scottish version of 19 kids and counting, except they only have 12 kids I think. Apparently they need to step up their game. It was interesting to see and we are now basically famous for just being there during the process. After getting ice cream we went back to the beach to enjoy it, and I had a small run in with a seagull. We named him Scuttle, from the Little Mermaid, and he tried to challenge me for my ice cream and kept following me up the rocks. Needless to say I ate it as fast as I could and without being attacked, but Scuttle put up a fair fight. The best part of the trip for me was going onto the Old Course, which is one of the oldest (maybe the oldest?) golf courses in the world and the reason
that St Andrews is considered the home of golf. The British Open just finished up last week, which I'm sad that I missed. Last time we were in St Andrews I didn't want to go onto the course because they were busy setting up for The Open and there were lots of people on the course playing. This time I definitely seized the opportunity and actually stepped onto the fairway, and it was like setting foot onto holy ground. There were people playing given that it was a nice day and I feared several times that I would be knocked unconscious by a ball, but I left with lots of pictures and no concussion so I'll count that as another win. My brother in law is an avid golfer and I told my sister that I got to go onto the course and she said that he was extremely jealous, which made it even more fun for me. We also got to walk around St Andrews University which is the oldest university in Scotland (lots of old things in St Andrews) and it's quite lovely to see. All throughout town there are various buildings that are part of the university
and there is one central part with a small courtyard. Last visit there were tons of people graduating and all around the university so we didn't get a chance to go in, however there was nothing going on during this trip so it was nice to be able to freely walk around the inside. Overall, St Andrews is a lovely place and if I ever get a million pounds then I'll be back to buy my dream house. On Friday, a couple of friends and I went to a tea room in Stirling to have afternoon tea. It was probably the most British thing I've done since I've been here and it was wonderful. It was a wee tea room that sat maybe 30 people, and they had a selection of many different teas, sandwiches, scones and other desserts. I had mixed berry tea and an egg mayonnaise sandwich (basically egg salad). The tea was so yummy and a very pretty red color. The thing that I love about ordering tea at cafes or restaurants is that they always bring you your own pot of tea. I love tea, so I love having my own pot. Everything about the tea
room was adorable and I felt like a little kid having a very fancy tea party. This week has been a relaxing week for me, as starting tomorrow things could become a bit crazy. Since my class last week was cancelled, we have to have a class to make up for it, meaning that tomorrow and Tuesday I will have a 3 hour class. For those of you who haven't had to sit through a 3 hour lecture, I don't recommend it. On Wednesday I am hoping to make it to the Wallace Monument, which is basically in my back yard and it's a shame that I haven't made it there yet given that I can see it from my flat. Thursday I am hoping to go do something extremely fun and adventurous, so stay tuned for that! Friday I have an excursion to Belfast and after returning from Belfast, I am leaving with a friend that night to Liverpool for the night. Finally on Sunday I am hoping to make it to some highland games in the town right next to campus. The next week is sadly our last week here, and I am so so sad to be
leaving. However, I believe that I have enough going on these last two weeks to keep me pretty occupied. Hopefully all of you have enjoyed my stories thus far and if you haven't, I still have two more weeks of blogging to do so you can't get rid of me that easily! I hope that everyone has a lovely Sunday afternoon (even though it is now after midnight and into Monday here) and a lovely week ahead! Cheers!
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