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State side again

Hey all...

I figured I would try and keep up a blog on the Stateside.

The URL: http://statesside.blogspot.com/
I know... creative :)

Not sure how long it will last, but I figured some good old fashion blogging would be fun for my final year at Wellesley

Please follow!!

Lake District

So just got back from the Lake District! 2 words: beautiful and rain. It rained almost the whole time, unless it snowed. Well, except whenever we would want to go for a walk and then it would be beautiful. Strange... haha. It was cold though.

Ambleside: The cutest city ever. This is on the largest lake in England: Lake Windermere. We went on a 3 hour hike through strange farms and through kissing gates and watching sheep. As for the hostel: I am so spoiled rotten. haha. This was like a B&B only bigger. The owner was adorable and kept calling me "Trouble" - guess he caught on quickly. We managed to find stuff to do for 2 days there and the days just flew past.

Keswick: A city in the middle of a valley surrounded by the Alps, only in England. Mirjam (friend from Netherlands) kept having problems remembering she was in England and not Austria or on Winter holiday. The lake Derwentwater was beautiful and surrounded by snow covered mountains. Oh... the day we arrived: whole town COVERED in snow and slush. hahaha. The next day, most snow gone and we went on an "epic" trek to find Castlereg (??) which is one of the oldest standing stone formations ever - 1000 years older than Stonehenge! The local legend is that the rocks are men who were petrified for their sins - cool huh?! This was a little difficult of a hike though because of the amount of water and mud (we only had tennis shoes - except Olenka who had Wellies). All worth it though. Here we stayed at a hostel the first night - only issue was that our personal sized Bailey's we had bought got stolen while chilling... lame. The second night we went to "The cherry trees B&B" and had the best time. We literally ended up spending 2 hours watching TV, acting like idiots, showering in our own shower, and then having personal sized wine! Good times... hahaha

Here are a few pictures for good measure!!!

Ambleside:

Travel companions: Mirjam and Olenka. got to give them credit: they spent 5 days with me and no one died... quite. haha

The view from our walk - spectacular no?

Keswick:

Did I forget to mention that there was a Bond museum with a bunch of cars and memorabilia... it was AMAZING.

Derwentwater: gorgeous no?

and in good measure: chocolate shots at a placed called "Java and Chocolate" LOVE!

To the limited few

To the limited few who actually try to know what I'm doing through this thing, I'm sorry i'm so bad at updating this. Get ready for a big one... its been 2 weeks since an update

• St Patty's Day!

AMAZING. Started out REALLY slow by going to an overcrowded bar that you couldn't even get to the bar at, but then one of my friend's friends texted and said to come to where they were - so of course we follow. We ended up at this Irish pub called Malone's - classic night. There was a live band playing rock music, everything for "Galloway Girl" to "Bohemian Rhapsody." We just hung out and chatted with some brits until we realized we all had class in the morning... haha. Overall - best night in a while. Finally realllyyy felt that I was not at Wellesley.

• Arthur's seat climb

I MADE IT TO THE TOPPPP!!!! I actually climbed all the way to the top - REALLY difficult. Did end up being the most beautiful view of the city I've ever seen... so high up. This is picture out over the craigs back to town... amazing.

• Last week and goodbye dinner

We spent the last week kind of being amazed that classes ended (FINALLY for me...) but we are only half way through our trip. It was kind of bittersweet, but those classes were horrible for me - boring as can be. Suddenly we all realized that we were all leaving though... and wouldn't see each other for a month in many cases. To remedy this problem we went out to a really fancy dinner (for an AWESOME deal which had 2 courses for 8.50 instead of 1 couse for 13.00) all dressed up and looking smart.

This is the dinner... and a pretty picture to end with

On monday i head to the Lake District for 5 days with Olenka and Mirjam. Strange to actually be leaving... haven't actually not slept in my bed yet this semester... now i'm not going to be there much for a good month. Excited though.

Will report back soon!

Retake of the Weekend...

Well I felt sick for friday and saturday, so no Fiona visit :( Instead I'll just go when mom and dad come (6 weeks!!!! SO EXCITED!!!)

Instead I went to my friend's St.Patty's Day party which was really fun, though probably shouldn't have cause that contributed to my illness on Saturday morning.

Saturday I woke up feeling horrendous and had to call off the visit. It wasn't until a good City Restaurant huge breakfast that I felt better... my stomach was not happy before hand - really had heart burn (wtf!?!?!). I was talking to Kat about my plans for the day involving a LOT of TV and she mentioned the England v Scotland Rugby match - THE match and that one of our mutual friends was going to watch it. So I tagged along with one of my flat mates. It was awesome!! We had 3 British guys trying to explain rugby to us - which I only understood since I understand soccer and football... wow. Damn that sport is violent! All the fighting of football with the padding from soccer... ouch. Unfortunately no one won... straight draw so there was no huge riot in the street (which i wanted to watch...)

So i just slept for a LONG time after that with my wonderful heart burn... so it went away!

Woke up Sunday wanting an adventure, so me, Mirjam and Alayna decided that a trip around Edinburgh was called for so we went down to the Royal Botanical Gardens. It was so warm that we could even take off jackets again!! (YESSSS) It was really pretty but we hadthe most fun enjoying the "americanisms" that we have made Mirjam (Dutch...) learn and use... like "Wazzup!" which was epic. hahaha.

Overall... a good makeshift weekend - though all I want to do right now is sleep and cuddle up in my bed...

Loch Lomond

So last Saturday I went to Loch Lomond with the International Students Center. It was a blast (and essentially free except getting there!)

It was a beautiful day... outstandingly so. We even took off our jackets!Well... pictures will show best.

Loch Lomond with these gorgeous mountains in the distance...

These are my friends Jackie (Brown) and Alayna (Puget Sound). I thought the sign was

funny and thought they should go pretend to swim... this is what happened instead...

Castle! again... can't remember the name. Bal something... hahaha Pretty view though.

not the prettiest castle though, and it is all boarded up

yup... we did the jumping picture... i took the picture

from left to right: Alayna, Nic (Brown), Jess (Brown), Jackie, Mirjam (the Netherlands... haha)

One of our better adventures i think... hahaha.

Well... this weekend I'm visiting Fiona in Linlithgow (spelling??). Should be an adventure since I haven't seen her since I was 11....

Actually planning ahead!

So I'm actually planning more than 3 days ahead here! woot!

This Saturday I'm going to Loch Lomond (insert "You take the high road and I'll take the low road and I'll be in Scotland before ye, but me and my true love will never meet again, on the bonnie bonnie banks of loch lomond") ANYWAY: Going there with the International Students center and we're goign to go hiking about for the afternoon! yahh!!

Then next week, it is family visiting time. Fiona (cousin, god knows how many times removed and numbers involved... i think) is goign to let me visit her and her kids in Linlithgow which isn't that far away actually! That is where she spends a lot of time, though she still goes back to her home in Aberdeen. That is where I saw her last time... 10 years ago!!! crazy. But yah, so i'm going to go stay for the night I think which will be AMAZINGLY awesome!

So yah... planned ahead alrady!!!

As for adventures from the last few days. Well my friend in Santiago is okay, that's good. Now for the real adventures:

Yesterday I tried to walk up Arthur's Seat (the mountain nearby), got about a 1/4 of the way up and completely slid down on my ass 2 times. and not in dry mud... no... we're talking wet disgusting mud that makes you just say "EWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!" great times...

Here is a picture of my pants when I got home... my mother loves this one...

So yah... i felt like such a WINNER while walking home, constantly wondering what the hell people thought I did (because of course school and work had JUST gotten out, so EVERYONE was on the street... blah). Ego was more bruised than I was... though I think my pants and shoes are the real losers here...

Well... back to homework (suddenly I actually have a lot! awesommmmeee!)

Laterz! 3 months left... almost to the day!