Burns Day/Birthday Weekend Extravaganza!

Lots of fun things happened this weekend, for not only was it my birthday weekend, but Sunday was also Burn's Night. This is a special night in Scotland, where people gather around a haggis, replete with neeps and tatties (mashed turnips and mashed potatoes for those not fluent in Scots), and recite the poetry of The Bard. No, not Shakespeare, but Robert Burns, or Rabbie as he is more affectionately known. He is the national Scottish poet, born in 1759. This year is his 250th b-day, and the Scottish government has organised a whole year of events around this. If you haven't heard, this year, 2009, is The Homecoming year. If you have Scottish roots, you are supposed to come 'home' to Scotland this year and walk in the fields your great-great-grandparents ploughed. Seriously.

ANYWAY, one of my coursemates, the lovely Joanna, held a Burns Night Supper for us at her house in Glasgow's East End this past Saturday night. I dragged Paul out there and as it turned out nearly the whole class was there! It was much fun and I really did eat haggis. Now, if you don't know what haggis is, I'd highly recommend that you not find out. Unless of course you never plan on eating it. The Burns Supper is all about tradition, Rabbie Burns poetry and haggises. Joanna read out the Selkirk Grace, Alex put on his best Ayrshire accent and read out the Address to a Haggis (the "great chieftain o' the puddin' race"). Then we did eat and, of course, drink a lot of whisky. Here are some photos (stolen from Alex, I hope he doesn't mind!)








And here's me and Paul, he looks great but my hair is CRAZY - why did no one tell me??


The best part of the night, for me personally, was when Joanna brought out a Birthday Cake for me and everyone sang!! So sweet!! And the cake was delicious, it had cream and jam in the middle, so good!




As if that weren't awesome enough, Paul gave me my birthday present ... a stuffed pug! I love it! I named him Ringo (because I decided that it was a hilarious name for a funny-looking dog) and he has a bendable tail so I can make him a Winnie-Pug or a Buddy-Pug!

And here he is with his new BFF, Huggles.


All in all, best Birthday Weekend Extravaganza ever!

Horror of Horrors ... Snow in Glasgow

It's SNOWING. I mean, RIGHT NOW it is snowing. Outside my window. Without my permission.

See, I woke up this morning (early, still jetlagged) and it appeared to be pouring rain so I put on my rain gear, but then when I got outside it had stopped raining. In fact, it didn't rain all day and when I walked home at ten after 3 this afternoon, the sky was fairly blue and the sun was out. About 20 minutes after I got home though, it started raining and then hailing. That was bad enough, when to my absolute horror, IT STARTED SNOWING. Hard. And continued to do so for at least an hour. I think it's mostly done now, but I did manage to get it in action:

Here is some video I shot of this frightening occurence

(Yes, I shot that through the window and you can see my computer screen. Sorry!)

I know that some people love snow (crazy people!) but as a native SF Bay Arean, I have an inherent fear of anything beside smallish drops of water falling from the sky. I am just thankful that none of this 'weather' malarky happened till after I got home from class!

On a very bright sidenote, now that the clouds have slightly parted, I can see that it isn't completely dark yet and it's nearly 5pm. I wish you could only know what a victory this is! Summer is COMING!

Back in Glasgow for "Spring" semester

After three warm and wonderful weeks at home in California, I have grudgingly returned to raining, freezing, windy Glasgow for the alleged 'spring' semester. It's not all bad though, I've started my classes and everything looks really exciting and interesting so far. However, I am MAJORLY jetlagged. Like, can't keep my eyes open after 5pm/waking up at 4am jetlagged. SO LAME. (That's why I'm up, before dawn, writing on my blog. Of course, by before dawn I mean it's already 8am.)

The one bright spot, quite literally, is the massive rainbow I saw on Tuesday! You'd think I'd get to see rainbows all the time, since it's always raining here but that is exactly the problem: it's always raining. You only get to see a rainbow if the sun comes out afterwards!

Here is the Best. Rainbow. Ever.


Close up (digital zoom, hell yeah!)


I seriously screamed "Wow!" when I saw it in the kitchen! So cool.

I captured another quite unusual sight, blue sky over Winton Drive.


Hopefully there will be some sort of spring happening at some point. At the minute though, in spite of what these pictures say, it's been mostly cold and dreary.

I'm off to St Andrews for the weekend, yet again, and hopefully there will be lots of fun there and it won't be completely iced over like it was last time I was there. Have you gotten that I hate winter??

The Beach in Winter ...

We headed down to Santa Cruz to check out my brother's new digs, then strolled down to Lighthouse Field Beach.











UC Santa Cruz is so much nicer than Irvine ...

Emily's last week in SF

Emily is off to Spain for the spring semester, many good times are ahead! I am planning to visit her in Madrid for a weekend, and then she is coming to Edinburgh before we head to Italy for the Grand Tour!

Before she left, I visited her in the Mission, where we had delicious burgers and perused weird antique shops.

Here is Emily, striking a pose at what is quickly becoming our usual burger joint, Big Mouth Burgers on 24th and Valencia


Hanging out in Mission District




We've been friends since 1997, if you can believe it!


Waiting for the BART, on the way home


Emily has started her very own blog, which I highly recommend! I'm so excited for her and also very excited that someone from California is finally coming to visit me in Scotland, yay!