Winding Down

Internship:

My Internship!

 My internship experience was pretty awesome. I loved being in a place where everyone got along with everyone. There was always something going on and even though we were busy all the time there was always something funny or amusing going on in the office to lighten everyone's mood. I learned a lot about office dynamic, even the little things make people happy, and lots more. I had a lot of fun working with the Partners on their projects, I also enjoyed working with the client contacts and writing letters to creditors and debtors. There is a lot to do and learn in an insolvency agency and I'm so glad that I could have this opportunity to intern here!

Classes:

Craiglockhart Campus

I took my last and only exam/test on Monday, the day that the buses started running regularly so that we could actually get to campus on time for the exam. I took two classes at Edinburgh Napier University, Brand Management and Modern Scottish History (1707 - 1914). Both classes only had two assignments, a paper and a test. I kept asking myself when they would stop pulling my leg and actually give me homework and papers and assignments. It never happened. There was so many times the bus made me late to class, but the main transportation around here is bus, so the professors don't bat an eye when a student walks in 25 minutes late. My classes were a nice break from my internship but didn't take up much of my time because the readings and the two assignments only took up a max of an hour a week. It was a nice reprieve from Albion classes which I will be going back to the third week of Albion!

Living on my own:

My Flat door

My flat is a ten to fifteen minute walk from Princes Street and from there its a short walk to the Royal Mile. I love our location because we have a bar right downstairs, a restaurant on the other side, and a grocer right across the street. Its very convenient and accessible to get things here, once you figure out where you can find them. In backwards land, pretzels are in the polish section of a supermarket and chocolate chips and food coloring are very difficult to find. There are many things that we cannot find here and this is because we are in the UK and they don't have all the amenities that we are used to in the USA because its expensive to ship things here. Pasta, chicken, hamburgers, frozen veggies, chicken casserole, and copious amounts of garlic powder got me through this semester abroad. Now back to the treadmill!



I hope you have had a swell time reading my blog about my semester abroad. I have had a great time experiencing all that I can in the wonderful capital of Scotland. I will definitely miss seeing the Edinburgh Castle every day. It has become a regular occurrence and I will definitely miss all of the history that I learned about in my class. The things I have valued most about being over here are; learning the history of the city I live in, my internship experience, and being able to live on my own in a strange city. I'm excited to come back to America and see my friends and reconnect. I'm nervous that everyone has changed over the semester and I will come back and nothing will be the same. I am also nervous that I won't know anyone on campus and will look like a first year. I hope I'm not mistaken for one of those! I leave early Monday morning for home (fingers crossed) and hopefully I will be on American soil around 5pm on Monday! Can't wait to see you all and adjust back to Eastern Standard Time.

Sunday Church Exploration #9

The church on Cannongate called Cannongate Kirk is where her Royal Majesty attends when she is Edinburgh. This interested Em and I so we decided to go a couple weeks ago. It was considerably the shortest service we ever attended. There were a lot of plaques on the wall commemorating where Kings or Queens had sat in the past. We sat in King James IV's row, I felt really important! We went to the family service so that we could go to lunch afterward and still have some afternoon left to do our own thing. So going to the family service was a no brainier because it was earlier in the day. What we didn't know was the service was only 30 minutes long with a short and to the point sermon. It was pretty awesome!

Sunday Church Exploration #8

St John's Episcopalian Church

I should probably go back and take a picture of the inside because do you see all of those windows? There are even more on the sides and the back but all of those windows are stained glass. Intricate detail on all of the stained glass, it was absolutely gorgeous inside. I have already been in an Episcopalian church but this one was different because they lite the Advent candle! I love Christmas time and I'm glad that I can go to church to see the Advent Candles and the atmosphere of Christmas. My brother gets here tomorrow so I'm going to try and stay warm! Can't wait to show him around :)

CLOSED

A snow storm has closed down the entire city of Edinburgh for the past couple of days. It started snowing on Saturday night and by Sunday Edinburgh Council didn't know what to do. But instead of staff getting in gritting lorries and salting the roads for safe driving come Monday morning, Edinburgh Council decided it didn't want to pay its drivers overtime so they waited for Monday morning. Not a good idea. By Monday morning it had been snowing for a solid 36 hours. There was at least 4 inches of snow on the ground and everyone was pretty much going crazy. Scotland, if there is one thing you need to do better on is handle snow. Edinburgh Airport has been closed from Monday to Thursday so they can have proper time to deice the runway (take a lesson from Detroit, deice the runway in three hours, not three days). Emily was in Rome this weekend and her flight was Monday, she eventually found her way back via Dublin and Glasgow and a train.

I get to work on Monday morning and listen as the stories start flying from the office ladies. Three double decker buses on Fredrick (my street) were seen going sideways up the road because of the snow. All the schools are closed which does not make PG a happy camper, "its only going to get worse, my kids need their education." No one in the office except for me have proper shoe attire to walk in the snow, so I am the gopher made to go get the milk and coffee because we are out, down at the local co-op. Walking there takes ages even in my wellies, not on account of me walking slow but on account of everyone else not knowing how to walk at all. The sidewalks aren't shoveled so the strip right next to the buildings where it emanates heat is the only place everyone and their mums can walk on. Which you would think would leave the rest of the sidewalk free, well you are wrong, there must be dozens of people lined up along the roads waiting for non existent buses.

Looking on the website when I get back to the office, most of the buses are not running today, if they are running they are running partial routes, and no trains out of Edinburgh (but Glasgow trains are coming in). Some of my office mates are stuck in little towns right outside of Edinburgh because of the train/bus situation. During lunch half the office left to go try and find wellies so they can survive in the wilds of Edinburgh. They come back 2 hours later spouting off stories about having to walk the whole of Princes(s) street looking for wellies and only have 45 minutes of walking against the crowd do they discover Office where they have wellies. Everyone comes back with a pair of them but only after waiting in the queue for over 30 minutes to pay.

A look at Old Town from Princes St

The way these guys are bundled up makes me think of The Christmas Story because my office mates have literally never seen this much snow. There must be 6 or 7 inches of snow and the town has literally gone crazy. One of the office ladies who I walk home with sometimes because she lives a couple rows down says she has the perfect way to get back today instead of walking we will sledge down the hill taking turn on the sledge. I laughed because I knew if going uphill in snow was difficult, going down hill (and not slipping) would be even more difficult. I enjoyed her idea because we would then have an excuse to be snowy instead of having to tell the embarrassing story of our fall. Even though the snow has caused problems there is always a bright side, like how beautiful the snow looks on the castle. It brightens my day, every time I walk to work and see the pristine Castle just sitting there.

One last thing before I drift off. Another thing that Scotland needs to be better on in the snow is the Royal Mail. The office and the flat only just today received their first mail all week (office mail was piled high) and only just yesterday did the Royal Mail pick up the mail across the street and at the office. It astounds me that some days you just don't get your mail in the UK, compared to America posties here are wimps. Snow is not horrible its pretty much the best thing, winter is my favourite season because of hot chocolate, Christmas, Thanksgiving, snow, gathering around a warm fire, sledding and many more! I can't wait for Sean to be here so we can revel in the awkwardness of how Scotland handles snow and see all the cool places!

Sunday Church Exploration #7

Looking through the cemetery at St Cuthberts.

I went to sleep Saturday night wondering which church I would end up at. Sunday morning and I discovered myself here at St Cuthberts Parish Church at the end of Princes St. Snow covered everything and while walking to church I discovered many hidden slush puddles, however I did make it to church just in time to hear the bells ring. It was an awesome sound to hear while walking up to this massive church. The thing that drew me to this church is probably the fact that is situated right below the castle in a cemetery. There are many old gravestones and I could have probably looked around more if it wasn't for church starting! It was the first advent Sunday, to commemorate we sang songs that remind me of Christmas like "Come O Come Emmanuel". 

The inside of this church had an intimate feeling yet was rather large and had a balcony for more seating. I really enjoyed the sermon and feel of the church. If I had more Sundays to explore churches in Scotland I definitely would go back to St Cuthbert's again. The history surrounding the church was impressive, there was a sign by the church that told some of the history, saying that there had been a church on this location since the early 1100s. Seeing as the church rests right below Edinburgh Castle there has been considerable damage done to the church every time there was a fight fought at the Castle. The thing that impressed me the most though was that every time the church was knocked down, they would always rebuild, always. The sermon was delivered by the outgoing student and was quite fun to listen to. He used different voices to grab your attention and once he had it he didn't let go. There is a lot I took to heart during his sermon. Needless to say I will always appreciate St Cuthberts as an awesome church even with half the congregation snowed in!

Sunday Church Exploration #6

Woah. Talk about lucky. I went to church here, at La Sagrada Familia. The entire service was in Catilian and it would have probably helped if we had grabbed the pamphlet that explained some things that were going on in English. But we didn't see the English Pamphlet until after the service was over. Because I didn't actually know what was going on in the service I basically just reveled in the architecture and the blatant tourists that took pictures during the service! The spires were so huge and gorgeous. The sight was just jaw dropping. It was quiet surreal to be in the church at the service and to actually accept communion at La Sagrada Familia. Woah is right.

Barcelona*

Barcelona* was an awesome trip filled with culture and history. We arrived Friday night and after getting to the city centre we wandered around a street called La Rambla til we decided that we should find our hostel so we don't get pick pocketed. After finding our hostel (which was a cute little place a few blocks from La Rambla) we put our stuff in our lockers and headed out into the night to enjoy the sights and sounds of the busy Catalonian city. We passed quite a few restaurants that were hopping at 2300 which was strange to us. There was awesome music coming from one of the dance clubs we passed, playing Latin dance music.

The way was so narrow that I could almost touch!

After getting a good nights sleep (as good as you can get in a busy hostel room) we planned out our day over breakfast. There was a free walking tour around the Gothic quarter of Barcelona* that we had planned and then...we would see where the wind took us. While packing for the weekend we looked at the weather and were really excited to see weather above 10 degrees C but Saturday was a very rainy day and the walking tour plans did not include staying indoors. Either way the tour through the Gothic Barrio was very interesting and our guide (who was apparently Swedish) did well to inform us of our surroundings and what historic happenings went on here. At the end of the tour we ended at a bar where we could get 1euro sangria's. Needless to say we could not pass that opportunity up to have a cultural drink!

The market we found

On our tour we met a couple in their 60s from the States, but had been living in Germany for the past couple of years. We bonded with them and so after the tour we decided to get lunch together! The restaurant we decided to go to was nice inside and it served tapas. Our guide told us a trick with tapas bars (go in order the patatas bravas and if they are good order more, if not move on) so this is what we did as well. The patatas bravas were delicious but instead of ordering more we decided to get the check and head over to the hopping pizza place right around the corner. Food in Barcelona* is all good and I wish I could go back to just eat more food! Once lunch was done we decided to walk around the little shops and a market we found off of La Rambla that had some cool nick-knacks and food before we had to be back to the bar for our cooking class!

Our cooking instructor

Our cooking class was so much fun we had a delicious range of tapas and then the cook of the bar came out and showed us how to make seafood paella. Our teacher was from Argentina and spoke really fast so what I did was just watch what he was doing, I got a lot more out of it then listening to what he said. While the paella was simmering and the rice was finishing cooking we got another lesson. We learned how to make Sangria's (a little bit of this, a little bit of that) which consisted of brandy, red wine, half a cup of sugar, fresh cut fruit, Fanta Lemon, and some orange juice. It was delicious.

 

View of Barcelona* from Park Guell

Sunday after checking out of our hostel we got a day pass on the metro and went to lots of different places including Sagrada Familia, Park Guell, and the Mediterranean Sea! Even though it was cold and windy and people on the beach were bundled up in coats and scarfs Em and I still went in to the sea just so we could say we had been! Park Guell was designed by the architect that also designed Sagrada Familia. There was a great view from the top of the park and delightful walking trails. All in all a wonderful weekend away from the windy, cold city of Edinburgh.
*Please add an exaggerated 'kissing hand explosion" hand gesture.

London

Trafalgar Square, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Houses of Parliament, Beatles Walking Tour, Ghost Tour, RAIN, our lovely hostel (NOT). Tony our tour guide on our walking tours. Walking through Hyde Park, finding the Marble Arch, Peter Pan Statue! Hamley's (full stop, the best place ever on Regent St, because it definitely reminded me of Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium, which is a great movie). We took the Hop On Hop Off Bus all around, but because of the traffic, all around didn't take us very far. We saw the Changing of the Guards at the Palace (after running 1.5 miles through Hyde Park in 20 minutes so we could get there in time!). There are so many things that I did in London, it was an awesome experience and I can't wait to take my brother there! Ellen and I took the night bus to London and the afternoon bus back to Edinburgh. Its such a long bus, nine hours is a long time on an uncomfortable bus. But still it was LONDON! Enjoy Life America!

Empty Thoughts

My business major requires me to have two internships before I graduate. I am fulfilling course requirements being here. On the weekends once I have finished all my internship hours and class hours if I have time I explore Europe. Because this is probably the only time I will be in Europe so close to all this history and crazy sights. I have been to Oktoberfest, Dublin, upper Scotland (fantastic scenery), and London so far. This weekend I will be Barcelona in warm weather! Not this cold, rainy, and windy Edinburgh weather. All this traveling has made me appreciate the city I live in so much more. Every time I come back I am just so happy to see the streets of Edinburgh, and the castle in all its glory. I am really grateful for this experience and love being here exploring everything. My internship has been frustrating at times because there are times when I feel like its a good experience and that I am learning a lot. Other times I just feel like they are using me for my 'cheap' labour. The office assistant at work is a young girl that makes my internship so worth going in when I just don't feel like going into work. She is always cheerful and can make me smile when filing gets to much for me to handle. Tfish told me the other day that I needed to come back to America immediately because I am now adding 'u' where that letter just doesn't belong. For example, 'neighbour', 'flavour', 'colour'. I also use words such as "skive", "mingen", "cupa" and sometimes take my tea "white with a fussy half. I also use the phrase "half six" for time meaning six thirty. I know that some phrases coming back to the States won't be transferrable and I will have to remember people don't 'speak my language' for a little bit while I adjust back to "Amurika". Keeping up with the news back home is hard to do but I try to open the newspaper website from home and check at least once every couple of days. I can't wait for Sean to call me sometime this week so that we can plan out what we will do when he gets here in 28 days!!!!

Stay Classy, America!

Mallaig

Last weekend I rode the Harry Potter Express (the Scenic Route) over the bridge that is always featured in the movie! The train ride to Mallaig was quite long and half way through it went dark outside so reading a book was the only thing to keep me sane! Arriving in Mallaig around 5:30pm was disconcerting because no one was around and the shops were all closed not even the bars were open yet! Emily and I go off in search of our hostel and discover it on the second floor of the cute little cafe. We are shown to our room and because it is off season we get the room to ourselves which is a really nice change of pace for us.

Mallaig is a little fishing village on the northwest of Scotland. Its the cutest little port town I have seen. Once Emily and I settle into our surroundings we go see what the town has to offer us. Once we step outside the hostel we realize that nothing is open still. We walk up and down the one road town and wait for 6 to come around so that restaurants/bars open so we can eat some fish! Fish n Chips in a fishing port is the way to go. That was one of the best tea's (dinner) I have eaten in Scotland! After dinner we decide to see where everyone else in the town hang out. We quickly discover that there is only 20 people out all over little town. Ridiculous? I think so. We decided to stop in at a bar that looked like there were more then 3 people in it including the bar tender. When we step into the bar everyone stops talking and just gawk at us. then one of the fishermen shouts "Hey your not from around here!" (No poop Sherlock) But we stay and chat with the fishermen and watch a game of pool.

At one point the subject of why we are here comes up and we say we were hoping to go to the Islands of Skye but because of the Ferry and the weather we are not able to complete our goal. One of the fishermen say "Well why not just join us! We are heading to Skye to drop off some fish and then coming back tomorrow. You are more than welcome to join us." Unfortunately we had to turn them down because they couldn't be sure if they would get back the next day before the train would leave. Even so we were flabbergasted that this fishermen actually offered to take us over and let us stay in the spare cabin (with a lock on the door) and have a free meal or too prepared by the cook on the ship.

The next day after getting a lovely breakfast we decide to take a walk. Unbeknown to us, the walk consists of walking through wonderful scenery, mountains (which we climb), and wading through a swamp to get to a beautiful loch. The markers to help us find our way to the loch was "sparsely" placed. Once you found a marker you saw the next marker on the skyline in the far distance. Good eyesight was a must on this crazy walk. We saw sheep! The walk took us through people's personal property but because of the glorious laws of Scotland there is no such thing as trespassing. You can definitely go explore all over the place in Scotland, just leave the gate how you found it so the animals don't get out! The picture below is the end result of the walk!

Sunday Church Exploration #5

A Full submersion baptism. Not like the one we saw.

I actually went to this church twice and both times I forgot to take a picture. The church is called Charlotte Chapel and is located on the far West End of Rose Street. Its a baptist church and the inside is basically an auditorium. The first Sunday Emily and I went there the message was on Titus. They were doing a whole 5 week in depth look at the Book of Titus. The second Sunday Em and I went we were amazed with all the goings on during the service. Three people were baptized by full submersion, two couples were said goodbye to as they headed off to their respected missionary areas, and the message was still on Titus! That Book is only three pages long and five weeks is a long time to spend on a three page Book. After the service there was tea and coffee served. We stayed after and lunch and a bible session was held for the young adults. It was awesome to meet other people our age and to read and interpret what the Bible was saying to each and every one of their hearts. The sad thing about the lunch was when we had to leave, we had a paper to write for our History class and so we had to leave to finish them. I love Sunday's and wish that they could be this awesome all the time. Hope everyone is well. I am trying to get caught up on blog updates but its rather hard when I do so much!

Update of the Century

First paper was turned in Monday, First test is the second week of November. Things are moving along at a gallop! There is so much to do and so little time to fit everything in. I still have trips planned but basically every weekend I will be somewhere besides Edinburgh. I love this city, with all of its vibrant life. There is just so much to do and see that I never get tired of exploring more and more. This past week has been a busy week full of working and actually going to all of my classes. I applied and was voted in as President of Union Board for the next year at my home college, Albion College. I also pre-registered for classes for next semester (now if only I could figure out my time to actually register I would be golden).

On Friday my flat mate Emily and I went to Glasgow for round two of seeing the amazing city. It took us an hour by bus to get from one side of the country to the other, which amazes me. Glasgow Round 2 was so awesome, I kept pointing out places to Emily of where my Mom and I had explored. We went to George Square and walked around and were amazed to see the Holiday lights were already put up! Glasgow City Hall offers tours of the building and when my Mom and I were in Glasgow we were not able to go. So this time I made sure that Emily and I were available to go on the tour. This was one of the best decisions ever! That building is amazing inside, with mostly marble everywhere. There was just so much to see and so much history that I could never remember it all. The most amazing part of the building, in my opinion, was the Banquet Hall. This was no joke, a spitting image of where Beauty and the Beast danced in the Ballroom. We didn't go to Glasgow just to see the sights, we also went to shop at a big department store called Primark. Everything was so cheap here that there was no stopping Emily as we worked our way through the store, only passing over the tiger suit as we shopped for almost 2 hours in 3 levels of department store. After shopping we were tuckered out and decided to go back to Edinburgh and chill for the night instead of spending money on dinner in Glasgow.

On Saturday, I climbed the Scott Monument for the second time, all 289 steps up and back down. I plan on taking my brother on this adventure when he gets here in 40 days just to see if he will fit through the little space they have for the stairs. It will be very interesting! We also decided to go to a village called Duddingston. This quaint little village is at the bottom of Hollyrood Park and is only a square block. The Sheep Heid Inn is one of the oldest pubs in Scotland, founded in the 14th Century its very cute and has a lot of character in the knick knacks that they have sitting about. Emily and I also explored Dr. Kneal's Secret Garden. Good thing Karen called right when we were looking for it because if not we would have never found it. This secret garden is behind the Kirk and Church graveyard, the only way to get to it is through a door in a wall. But to get to this wall you must walk through what looks like someone's private property. But inside the door is the most beautiful garden I ever did set my eyes on! It was a magnificent sight to see, my pictures just don't do it justice. For the Halloween Party at one of the University of Edinburgh Dorm halls we were given the theme of Famous Killers...with about 2 hours to come up with costumes. Needless to say we were pretty creative. Emily cut zodiac signs out and taped them to herself to become the Zodiac Killer. I on the other hand was Mrs. Weasley from Harry Potter (she killed people!) but sorry, I have no pictures from that night.

I hope you enjoyed this epic update and will come back next time to read more of my blog!

Hard Times Ahead

Don't get me wrong, I have been going to classes and my internship whenever they come up. But classes here are less demanding than at Albion. I have two classes, one in business and one in history. I have reading for both weekly but other than that I only have a paper and a test for each classes. My first paper is coming up and it is becoming hard for me to get into the groove of writing it because I have not done "work" since my summer classes. Although this paper only needs to be 1200-1500 words it needs to be good because its my only assignment of the class. This is probably why I have been procrastinating, the pressure of making this one of the best papers I have ever written so that it gets good marks is pushing down on me. I hope I can focus soon because I need to turn it in Monday afternoon. Wish me luck!

Stay Classy America!

Homesick Yet?

Food shortages, dirty dishes, dirty counter tops, British TV, Friends re-runs, Scrubs re-runs, pedestrians that just stop in the middle of the walk way, electric tea pots, accents, kilts, old buildings, dirty buildings, hills, castles, stairs, heels, washing machines but no drying machine, drying racks, Facebook, two hour skype dates <3, missing people, missing things, peanut butter, mac and cheese, receiving letters, sleeping the week away, finding things to do to pass the time, finding time to write this, wanting to see the sun, wanting to be done traveling, spending money I don't have, riding the bus, missing Lady Silvia and Master Bruce, waiting patiently for KB to be done with CS so she can update me on her life, wanting to actually be in CS, waiting anxiously for letters that don't come, Scotland, my passport, missing out on awesome UB activities, imaginary games with Cat, trying on random dresses in the oldest department store in Edinburgh just because we can, wishing Kris was here to experience this ridiculousness, loud school children on the bus to class, skiving, working at the internship, writing a 45p report complete with 28 tables just because the computer crashed and the work could not be retrieved for a couple days, filing, filing, filing, making food every night, figuring out whats for supper, figuring out whats for lunch, whats for breakfast, savoring the last piece of cheesecake, not being able to bake, being given meaningless tasks to complete, which take less then 10 minutes, window shopping, watching sports, missing all of the Michigan games, Pandora is blocked, Bones is blocked, having to go through back alleys to find episodes of Bones, not being able to watch sports while doing homework, (can't believe I'm saying this) needing some ESPN in my life, missing my PIC, movie time, Albion time, Gilmore Girl marathons, OC marathons, Jeffery and Halie time, Black Sheep family time, Jules family time, PSA girls, these are a few of my favorite things, I miss you, I love you.

Sunday Church Exploration #4

Buccleuch and Greyfriars Free Church of Scotland.
This was one of our advisers of the EPA programmers church and we were excited to see how the service was conducted. Because we had heard that it was unlike the other churches that we had been to thus far. This is from the pamphlet we received when we got there "We sing from the Psalms of David. The blue psalm book contains both the modern Sing Psalms and the older Scottish Metrical Version. We stand to sing all of the psalms and we also stand for the first prayer and the benediction, but sit for the second prayer. Offerings may be placed in the collection plate situated in the hall on the way to service." This church service was interesting and new. There was no piano, organ, or musical instruments of any kind. Just a music director that would start the songs off and then the congregation would take over the song. Prayers were long and "by the end you forgot what you started praying for and just started praying again" which was not an ideal thing to do. I liked the service and how the scripture that was chosen for the sermon was delved into. How each word was picked apart and explained in hand so that we could better understand what the Bible was saying. However, I had not slept all night and was very very tired, so the long prayers and the in-depth sermon did not help my tired eyes stay open. Hopefully, I can go back and experience it again after a good night's sleep, because after the sermon all the people we meet while having coffee (to keep us awake on our walk home) were very nice. Some were even from America and wanted to hang out and see how things were going for us in Edinburgh. I liked this church experience and hope to attend again before my time is up here.

Dublin Weekend 7/10 - 10/10

Thursday night we got on a bus around 19:30 to go to the airport. Everything was looking great for our weekend in Dublin. The plane however was late to leave the airport (the flight was only 45 minutes long) meaning we got into Dublin around midnight. We caught the bus into Dublin and had an adventure trying to find our hostel. Great place by the way, I could tell the second we got there it was going to be an interesting stay because you had to be buzzed into the building. Keys never left the building, you were given them at the front desk, and there was also a buzzer to be let into the stairs to walk to the room. This place was a maze of corridors and doors with doors behind them. It was a hopping place at 1:30 in the morning. We finally found our room and decided to just make our beds and go to sleep. The 20-bed mixed room was an interesting experience that I would not wish on my worst enemy. People coming in at all hours of the night, snoring, lights, constant chatter, and to top it off only one toilet and one shower. Spectacular (the second I got back to my Edinburgh flat I showered off all the disease that I could have received there).

            Friday, our first day in the city, found us slightly groggy from the awkward beds and little rest that we had. Breakfast at the hostel got us awake for the most part and after breakfast Emily and I decided we were going to go find a Hop On Hop Off bus and see the city! There were 20 spots to see and with a 2-day pass we decided we could go to every single stop. First stop, Guinness Storehouse to see the process of making draught. Guinness makes lots and lots of pints a day, and Arthur Guinness signed a 9000 year lease for his business so Guinness will be around for a while. Four ingredients of Guinness are barley, hops, water, and yeast and you can smell the roasting process from miles around the storehouse. Here we discovered that there was a big futbol game happening that night in Dublin. The world qualifiers for the Euro 2012 Cup of which Ireland –v- Russia were playing. Souvenir shopping, hitting up more of the stops on the bus, and getting off at all the stops that look awesome was the majority of Friday.

            Night life in Dublin is pretty laid back; we stopped at a pub where they had the game promised to play the qualifying game. Emily and I people watched until the game started. This included observing a blonde haired guy with a 1984 high school varsity jacket, seeing that was priceless. We met a bunch of guys from Denmark who were making a huge ruckus instead of actually watching the game, which was very annoying. The game was intense but Ireland lost 2-3 to Russia. Going back to the hostel was not okay with me; I disliked that hostel a lot.

            Saturday, back on the Hop on Hop off bus, Emily and I went to the galleries around the city. We also went to Kilmainham Gaol Museum, this €2 tour took over an hour and a half and was really interesting. Our guide had lots and lots of stories to tell about the people that were imprisoned in the jail. There was a man that was in charge of the jail that pretended to be a doctor so that he could find war secrets and sell them to the government. All the stories included war because the jail had 7 wars during its history. The jail was one of our favorite stops in Dublin. We also went to the National Gallery of Ireland which was a maze of long hallways and corridors filled with paintings with artists I have never heard of. Even thought the gallery of Scotland was smaller there were cooler paintings there then in Ireland’s gallery.

The fact that we had 12 hours to kill before our flight (which was at 6 in the morning but we had to catch the bus around 415 am) was killer. We walked around the shopping areas, window and tourist shopped. Staying up all night was slightly a bad idea but it happened. We hung out at pubs in the Temple Bar area until approximately 130 am and then we couldn’t stand watching sports anymore so we decided to just head back to the hostel. Having 2 hours to kill in the middle of the night was absolutely boring. We found a television in the hostel that was working and I watched Bear Grylls and Comedy Central for the duration of the time before we had to leave to go catch the bus.

            Bus etiquette 101: Snappy McSnapperson her and I would like to let you in on a couple little tiny not so small secrets about bus etiquette. 1) Whoever gets to the stop first gets on first. 2) If there is a group of 14 people do not push your way to the front so that you can make sure your whole group gets on. 3) Singing loudly because you are drunk is annoying to everyone else on the bus. 4) PDA makes everyone else uncomfortable. 5) When getting off the bus let the people in front of you get off first. 6) When getting off the bus don’t stop the second you get off to take in your surroundings, move away from the opening so others can get off too.

            Ireland is officially dubbed weird because of their Customs regulations. When arriving in Dublin we had to go through Customs and get our passports stamped. But when leaving Dublin, I don’t know if it was because it was so early in the morning, but we didn’t have to go through Customs at all. However, the lines for security were redonkulous and a warning to all of you; I don’t ever want to be that close to a stranger that early in the morning, ever again. When arriving in Edinburgh, we didn’t have to go through Customs either, this was weird too, because we always have to go through Customs in Edinburgh when arriving from a different country.

All in all, this trip was an experience, of a lifetime. I’m so thankful to be able to be over here, exploring Europe and the UK, but I also can’t wait to be home for Christmas. I have come to realize that family means more to me then pretty much everything. If I can’t have my family close to me what is there to look forward to. Bugging my brother, having chats with my parents, driving my Grandma around, and listening to my cousins stories are priceless moments that I won’t take for granted. So, this is me from across the pond, giving you a huge hug and saying I miss all of you and can’t wait to see you again.

Birthday Weekend at Oktoberfest

Germany Weekend October 1 through October 3, 2010       

            Getting up at 640 in the morning is not the best thing to do the day before your birthday. But if the end result of the day gets you to Germany for Oktoberfest I feel like it might be a win. Emily and I decided on the way to the Express bus to the airport that this trip would be divided into phases. Therefore I will explain this blog in phases.

            Phase 1: Get to the bus, arrive at the airport. This was completed successfully, giving us an air of awesomeness that the first part of the trip was going good. The airport was a breeze and we got to the gate with plenty of time to spare.

            Phase 2: Get to Memmingen. So this really isn’t something we can control perse but we decided it was legitimate. Getting through customs was almost another phase because of the fact that there was no line and just a mass of people. Getting out first stamp in our passport for this semester (besides our immigration into Scotland) was the end of Phase 2.

            Phase 3: Get to Munich. This was also pretty easy because we had bought tickets for the Express bus that would take us to the center of Munich. Well, to the train station, this is close to the center of the city. Then we had to find Ellen, who was already in Munich and had been for a couple days. Finding Ellen included getting on the S-bahn (subway) and riding it to the other main station. Here we found Ellen and her new friends, but parted ways when she needed to get her stuff to put in the hotel room and we needed to go find the hotel.

            Phase 4: Find our hotel. Turns out the 55 bus only takes you so far, and getting a ticket was useless, no one ever asked to see it. There are two 55 buses on the same route that take you to different locations. Confusing? Precisely the point. The bus driver kicked us off the bus at the end and we found the next 55 bus stop a couple of blocks over. We then took this for a while, into Putzbrunn, where we waited for a bus to take us to Grassbrun where our hotel was. We got off at the wrong stop intead of Hopenhoffen Weg we got off at Hopenhoffen St. Not the same at all, about 3 km from where we wanted to be. Emily and I wondered around the streets til we found someone who could speak English and we explained where we wanted to go, she was nice enough to just take us there because either she didn’t want to explain it to us or she felt sorry for us. Either way we found the hotel around 6 pm after landing at 2.

            Phase 5: Go to Oktoberfest. This requires walking a mile into this really small town to wait for the bus, which doesn’t come but only every 1.5 hour. This makes us search for someone in this small town that knows English and can call us a taxi. Taxi gets there 20 minutes later and we get to see our first signs of civilization and of the festival about 25 minutes later. Walking around Oktoberfest was awesome, it’s basically a big fair celebrating Baravian things. Basically, beer drinking, chanting by the drunken people, and rides galore.

            Phase 6: Get back to the hotel, by taxi, then go back to Oktoberfest in the morning. This is easy enough. But I know have a new found respect for my mother and her nerves. I woke up around 730 or 8 in the morning and had a panic attack. Thinking of all the things that could go wrong, thinking of all the things that we need to do to find ourselves back at the correct airport tomorrow before noon, and not being able to do anything about it. It was scary. My mind wouldn’t stop. I don’t like this being a different country, not being able to speak English, and not knowing how to get around. I am appreciating Scotland, especially Edinburgh more and more.

            Phase 7: Drink. Meet people. Eat bratwurst. Ride the ferris wheel, and the swings. Drink more. Get food. Be done with Oktoberfest. Get back to the hotel.

Phase 8: Get to the train station in the morning so we can catch the early bus back to the airport 100 km away. Go through customs, get a stamp, wait three hours for the flight to get to the airport. Fly ‘home’, land, go through customs, and then actually get the bus back to the flat. This is just an amazing phase because of the fact that we are back in our own flat and we can calmly go through the week. I’m glad to be back and now I’m looking forward to my next trip this next weekend to Dublin!