The last night before I left St Andrews, Erica and I went to Edinburgh to do some Christmas shopping. The yellowish bit in the middle of the picture is the castle, all lit up. In the gardens below the castle, Princes St Gardens, there was a carnival with a ferris wheel and all kinds of rides. This picture didn't come out very well, but oh well!
While I was at home, I went to San Francisco with Christine and Adrien. We went to Union Square and saw the Christmas tree and all the decorations. It was so unbelievably warm when we were there. On the drive up, I had lamented the fact that I didn't bring a jacket, but it turned out that I didn't even need one! Let's hear it for "winter" in California!
Anyway, I have made my triumphant return to Scotland. My experience at various train stations and airports around the world was hellish while I was trying to get home, but coming back here was much better (thanks to a completely different airline). Travelling in itself is sucky though, it took me 28 1/2 hours to get from my house to my dorm room. Needless to say I went to sleep as soon as I got back.
The weather was pretty nice the first day, sunny with only a little rain, but the past two days have been awful. So windy and rainy and dark and grey. What's even worse is that we're all having exams right now. I have one on Saturday morning at 9am and then another on Tuesday at 2pm. Yeah, that's right, exams are scheduled on Saturday here. Crazy Brits.
However, the good news is that after my exam on Tuesday, I am beginning the first of my treks. On the morning of Wed Jan 17 I am flying to Dublin for 3 days, then Amsterdam for 4 days, then taking the train to Paris for 6 days where I will see a friend of mine who also worked in the Film Dept Office at UCI (and spend my birthday!). Then, on Jan 30, I am flying to Malta for 4 days, as a little birthday trip with Erica, Lauren, Lauren's friend Caleb, and possibly Laurie. Finally, I will return to Scotland on Feb 4 and start classes the next day.
Malta is going to be a really interesting trip, especially since we're going in February. The weather will be about the same as San Francisco, which will be a vast improvement on the weather here in St Andrews. We had considered going to the Canary Islands or Ibiza, but Malta was the easiest to get to. Plus, it's so ridiculously interesting. It's a tiny little island off the coast of Sicily, with its own language and currency. It's part of the EU, but it's actually pretty close to Africa. Maltese is an Arabic-based language, but since Malta was a British colony, English is an official language and everyone speaks it. I'm looking forward to it, though I'm getting really excited about Paris!!! Especially since my Eurostar train ticket came in the mail today!
The weather was pretty nice the first day, sunny with only a little rain, but the past two days have been awful. So windy and rainy and dark and grey. What's even worse is that we're all having exams right now. I have one on Saturday morning at 9am and then another on Tuesday at 2pm. Yeah, that's right, exams are scheduled on Saturday here. Crazy Brits.
However, the good news is that after my exam on Tuesday, I am beginning the first of my treks. On the morning of Wed Jan 17 I am flying to Dublin for 3 days, then Amsterdam for 4 days, then taking the train to Paris for 6 days where I will see a friend of mine who also worked in the Film Dept Office at UCI (and spend my birthday!). Then, on Jan 30, I am flying to Malta for 4 days, as a little birthday trip with Erica, Lauren, Lauren's friend Caleb, and possibly Laurie. Finally, I will return to Scotland on Feb 4 and start classes the next day.
Malta is going to be a really interesting trip, especially since we're going in February. The weather will be about the same as San Francisco, which will be a vast improvement on the weather here in St Andrews. We had considered going to the Canary Islands or Ibiza, but Malta was the easiest to get to. Plus, it's so ridiculously interesting. It's a tiny little island off the coast of Sicily, with its own language and currency. It's part of the EU, but it's actually pretty close to Africa. Maltese is an Arabic-based language, but since Malta was a British colony, English is an official language and everyone speaks it. I'm looking forward to it, though I'm getting really excited about Paris!!! Especially since my Eurostar train ticket came in the mail today!
I've gotta study for my exams first though! Don't expect another update to the old blog-eroo until way after Feb 5. Unless of course, I need to procrastinate some more and finally put up those raisin weekend pictures.
