Jamón

After my one day back in Glasgow, I departed for Madrid on March 31. First, I flew to London and then flew from London to Madrid. I arrived in Madrid in the afternoon and met up with my friend David, who is studying in Madrid for the semester, soon after. He showed me around Madrid for a little while and we went to one of his favorite places, El Tigre. This bar is crazy and serves delicious mojitos in ridiculously huge cups. David and I each had our own mojito and enjoyed the tapas that come free with each drink. It was nice to sit and catch up with David after being apart for so long. After we finished our drinks, David walked me back to my hostel and he went back to his homestay for dinner while I showered and napped after an exhausting day.

When David was finished with dinner, he came back to my room while we got ready for a fun night out. Andrea, my roommate, had told me all the places to go in Madrid that she loved while studying there the previous semester. Orange was one of those places that Andrea had told me I needed to visit, so that was the goal of the night. David and I just hung out in the room for a while because the Spanish don't go out until late. When it was time, we decided to start the night out a little closer to my hostel and work our way to Orange. We were walking when we came across a bar called Ghetto. We looked at each other and knew that we needed to visit a place with such a great name. We walked into the bar and it was literally designed like a ghetto. After one drink, we decided it was time to go to the next spot. We walked to Liquid, another bar in the area, and stayed for a few drinks and chatted with some friendly Spaniards who wanted to practice their English. When we were finished at Liquid, we headed to another bar, where we pretty much spent the rest of the night and made friends with the bartenders, who gave us tons of free drinks. Since we were enjoying ourselves so much, we ended up skipping Orange and just going back to my hostel after one last bar in the area. The next day was a terror because my head was pounding and I was just exhausted.

David and our bartender friends

David and me at Liquid

Briana arrived the next day and so David and I went to meet her and her friend, Cara, in Plaza del Sol after a walk by the Mercado, Plaza Mayor, the Royal Palace of Madrid and its beautiful gardens. We found Briana and Cara in the crowded plaza and then decided to go to Retiro Park to try and ride the boats there. It was a gorgeous, sunny day in Madrid, so we wanted to just play outside and spend as much time in the beautiful weather as possible. We sat outside and visited for a long time, deciding not to ride on the boats because the line was absolutely ridiculous. After a while, David and I were hungry so we left Retiro Park in search of food. We looked for almost half an hour for a sushi restaurant to eat in, but were completely unsuccessful. We finally settled for Burger King, where we both enjoyed giant sandwiches. When our meal was over, we parted ways and Cara, Briana and I walked back to our hostel to get ready to go out for the night.

The Gardens at the Royal Palace

El Mercado

Plaza Mayor

Symbol of Madrid in Plaza del Sol

David and me in Retiro Park

Briana and I got ready while watching the only American channel in Madrid and drinking white wine that we bought from an alimentacion by our hostel. Cara came over and we drank our wine and talked until it was time to go out. We started the night in Plaza del Sol and used Cara's connections to get into a few clubs. Since it was Easter weekend, not many people were at the clubs, so we decided to go to Orange, the bar I hadn't made it to earlier in the week. When we got to Orange, there were literally about eight people there, so we decided to leave and meet Liam and his friends at Pacha, another club. When we got to Pacha, we paid the outrageously expensive cover (€16) and went inside. We had finally succeeded in finding a good time, and were ready to dance. Liam and his friends showed up shortly after us, and we spent the night dancing and drinking and having an overall good time. By the end of the night, we were tired and our feet were killing us, so we went back to the hostel to pass out.

The next day, we slept in and then went to the bakery across the street for some chocolate croissants for breakfast. We ate those on the way to the Royal Palace of Madrid, where we waited in line for a long time before getting in to tour the palace. The palace was incredible. The furnishings were lush, full of rich, red velvets and lots and lots of gold. It was just gorgeous. After touring the palace, we went to the Prado Museum. The museum is home to many famous paintings, so we decided to just look at the masterpieces we all learned about in art history. While searching for the real masterpieces, we came across some hilarious pieces of art including breast milk squirting into people's mouths, midgets and extremely fat children. We spent a few hours in the Prado and then got hot chocolates at a cafe nearby. On our walk home, we got caught in an Easter procession and literally could not walk or even move an inch. The crowd eventually pushed us through and we made it back to our hostel, where we changed and headed out for a quick dinner at a sandwich place in the neighborhood.

Briana and me in front of the Royal Palace of Madrid

The Prado Museum

A Nugget from the Prado

We got ready with our cheap white wine and American television again before going to Dubliners, an Irish pub. Briana and I felt like we were back in Glasgow when we walked in and saw the drink specials included Bulmers and Magners ciders. The bar got crowded quickly, so we grabbed a table and hung out there for the night. One of the bartenders/bus boys, Lorenzo, that worked there had a crush on me, so he was talking to us for most of the night. Liam and his friends showed up at Dubliners later, and so we all hung out and drank for a while. At 3 am, the bar closed and Briana and I went home because we had a flight to Barcelona in the morning and also because Lorenzo was asking me to go home with him, which I was absolutely not going to do.

In the morning, Briana and I finished our packing, said our goodbyes to David and Cara and got on the metro to make our way to the airport to get to our next destination.

The Belle of Belfast City

After I left London, I flew to Belfast to visit Alan, Laura's flatmate. The flight was pretty short and very easy, which was nice considering I had to wake up around 4 am to get to the airport on time. I also got to finish the book I was reading, Nicholas Sparks' The Last Song, and ended up just bawling my eyes out on the plane. Luckily the flight was pretty empty, so not many people got to witness the scene I made. When I got off the plane, Alan was waiting for me and, since Laura wasn't going to get there for another hour or so, we drove around and then went for a walk by the sea. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, so it was great to just relax and walk by the water. After our walk, we got back in the car and went looking for somewhere to eat. Unfortunately, it was Sunday so nothing was open before noon, so we just went to Spar to grab some snacks and sat in the car eating them. When Laura called to say that she had finally landed, we went to start the car up to go pick her up, but since we'd been sitting in the car for so long, the battery had died! Thank goodness Alan's mom was in the area and came and picked us up so that we could get Laura from the airport.

After the car fiasco, we took the train into Belfast and walked around the city. We went for a ride in the Wheel of Belfast, which is a lot like the London Eye, but much smaller. We also saw the Belfast City Hall, an absolutely gorgeous building. Then we did a little shopping when we stopped in TopShop, where I bought a few things including some Converse sneakers that I had been wanting for a while. Then we took the train back to meet Alan's dad to get the car started so that we could drive to Islandmagee, where Alan lives. Once we got to Alan's house, we cleaned up a little bit and then went to visit his uncle's house because his uncle's sheep had just had lambs, so we got to see the newborn lambs. After we visited with the animals and Alan's cousins, aunt and uncle, we went to the The Rhinka to get some ice cream. I tried honeycomb ice cream and loved it.

Belfast City Hall

The Wheel of Belfast

A Lamb from Alan's Uncle's Farm

After our ice cream, we went to the beach and got some gorgeous views of Islandmagee. It was an absolutely beautiful day, so we just hung out and played around on the beach, spending as much time outside as possible. When we were done on the beach, we went back to Alan's house to enjoy the traditional Sunday roast his mom had cooked for us. It was incredibly delicious and we were surprised in the middle of dinner when Alan's dad told us that one of the cows was calving, so we dropped our forks and knives and headed outside to the barn to watch a cow being born. It was truly something I never thought I'd witness, but was still very cool to see. When that was over, we just went back to the dinner table and finished eating the homemade pavlova that Alan's mom gave us for dessert. That night, we went out with Alan and his friends. We spent the night at a bar, sitting outside under the heating lamps, drinking cider and getting to know everyone.

The next day, we woke up and began the journey to The Giant's Causeway, which is the UK's fourth greatest natural wonder. The Giant's Causeway is created of a bunch of basalt columns, which are formed when lava cools after a volcanic eruption. The legend behind the area is that an Irish warrior named Finn McCool built the causeway to go fight his rival in Scotland, but when Finn got to Scotland and saw who he was supposed to fight, he got scared and went back home to his wife. When the Scottish warrior went looking for Finn, Finn's wife dressed him as a baby and pretended that Finn was her son. So, when the Scottish warrior arrived, he took one look at the "baby" and thought to himself that if the baby was that large, the father of that child must be an absolute giant. Thus, the Scottish warrior fled the country and tore up the causeway behind him so that Finn could never come and fight him. We hiked in the area for over an hour and took in some extremely amazing views. We also had lunch at the cafe there before we made our way to the Carrick-A-Rede Rope Bridge, which is the smallest bridge in Northern Ireland.

The View from our Hike at Giant's Causeway

Laura, me and Alan at The Giant's Causeway

The Giant's Causeway

When we got to the rope bridge, I was pretty nervous because I have a huge fear of heights. We started the hike to the bridge and then I decided that I was absolutely not going anywhere near it. It had started to rain and everything was getting pretty slick, so it was definitely not an ideal condition for crossing a tiny rope bridge. While Alan and Laura walked to the other side, I relaxed and took in the beautiful sea, which, surprisingly, was clear and blue, just like any water you'd find in a tropical location. It was absolutely gorgeous. When Laura and Alan were done crossing the bridge, we got back in the car for the nearly three hour drive back to Islandmagee.

Laura and Alan crossing the rope bridge

View from the rope bridge

When we got back, we went to The Rhinka to get some more ice cream. Then we headed back to his house to get ready for dinner and another night out with Alan's friends. Alan treated Laura and I to dinner at a restaurant near his house and then we went back and hung out at his house for a while until his friend picked us up and drove us to a bar where Alan's other friend works. Since it was a Monday night, it wasn't very crowded but we enjoyed ourselves. We didn't stay out too late because Laura and I had a flight in the morning, but when we got home we did enjoy the movie PS I Love You and Laura and I obviously wished for our own Gerard Butlers.

In the morning, we got up and flew back to Glasgow, where we'd have one day before the rest of our spring break journeys would begin.

Oh My God. Oh My God, You Guys...

Spring break has officially begun and it has been and is going to be quite a journey.

On the 17, instead of drinking green beer and playing around all day, I got up early for a 6 am flight home back to St. Louis. It was a rough day, waking up at 3 to make it to the airport by 4, but in the end, it was definitely worth it. My dad, sister and brother picked me up from the airport, missing tooth and all. Then we went home where my grandparents and stepmom were waiting for me with an absolutely delicious italian meal. I've never had better lasagna in my life! After feeding myself for over two months and eating mainly garlic bread, eggs, and subway, this meal was a big treat. It was also really nice to see my family after not seeing them for such a long time. It's always a great feeling coming home to my family. When dinner was over, I went to my mom's house for a while and got to see her and play with my dogs, which is definitely one of my favorite things about being back in St. Louis.

The rest of my time home I spent either running errands, at the dentist (getting my tooth repaired!) or in a job interview. It was stressful and nerve wracking to say the least, but I always enjoy being home and being around family. On Monday, I was supposed to go back to Glasgow but, since there were delays on my flight to Chicago, I ended up completely missing my flight from Chicago to Amsterdam and had to reschedule all of my flights for the next day. It was very hectic, but I finally made it back to Glasgow on Tuesday morning just in time to meet my mom and sister.

On Tuesday, my mom, sister and I went shopping on Buchanan street after going to Morton's for a bagel. (So typical.) I got a lot of cute new things from my favorite stores, Top Shop and H&M. Then we walked around Merchant City some until it was time for dinner with the entire BC family at The Red Onion. I had never been to The Red Onion before, but found some excellent reviews on it on numerous Web sites, so I thought it would be a nice place to take everyone. It ended up being the absolute best meal I have had in my entire time in Glasgow. I had a fabulous piece of halibut that practically melted in my mouth with each bite. Then to top it all off, we each had an excellent dessert. Mine was a chocolate brownie that I couldn't help but devour. After dinner, my mom, sister and I were all just exhausted from traveling for the entire day, so we headed home for a good night's sleep.

I had to go to my last entrepreneurship class on Wednesday because it was revision for the final in May. It ended up being totally pointless because they had already told us the questions that we were going to need to consider for the exam but it was nice to go and see the engineering boys because I hadn't seen them in almost a week! While I was in class, mom and Claire went to explore the Kelvingrove Museum on their own. When class was over, the engineering boys and I met mom and Claire at Curlers, the oldest pub in Glasgow. None of us were very hungry, so we just enjoyed a pint and chatted for a while. Once we had finished our drinks, we went downtown again and enjoyed some more shopping. It was a disgusting day outside but we made the best of it. While dodging the rain and running under awning after awning, I ended up peeking into a little store I'd never seen before and noticed some gorgeous dresses that would be perfect for Claire for prom. After a little hesitancy, (there were some dresses with crazy feathers and far too much sequins...) Claire agreed to go in and it was here that we found her the most beautiful prom dress. The dress is a lavender color with intricate beading and multicolored stones on the neckline. It looked absolutely gorgeous on her and I cannot wait to see pictures of her in it!

That night, Jess invited the entire Glasgow family out for dinner to celebrate her 21st birthday at The Big Blue. It was a great meal and so fun to have everyone together one last time before spring break began. After dinner, we went back to Laura C's flat for some funfetti birthday cake, made possible by the 5 boxes of funfetti cake batter my mom sent me from the states. It tasted wonderful, especially after not enjoying the deliciousness of funfetti for many months now. Unfortunately I couldn't go out after to celebrate because I had to finish my final paper for my Scottish Culture class.

The next day, after turning in my paper and getting all packed, I met my mom and sister at S'mug for lunch and then we headed to the airport for our flights to London. The flight was short and completely uneventful. We took the underground to our beautiful hotel, the Mayfair, and got ready to go out to dinner at a French bistro, Cote. It was nice to have a really delicious dinner and just sit there with my mom and sister. The meal was definitely a successful start to a fabulous girls' weekend in London.

On Friday, we woke up early for our Mini Cooper tour around the city. Our tour guide picked us up in a classic red Mini and drove us around all of London providing us with the history of all of the big sites as well as some entertaining stories that you wouldn't normally find in the history books. It was also a really interesting ride because our tour guide and a few of his friends started the company (smallcarBIGCITY) by themselves and now it is in the top 5 things to do on my favorite travel Web site, TripAdvisor.com. After my entrepreneurship class, it was great to see how those concepts could be put into place in real life.

When we had finished with our smallcarBIGCITY tour, we walked around Oxford Street and looked around Selfridges, a huge department store with everything you could ever want. We had lunch at a cute mozzarella bar in Selfridges and then caught the underground to meet up with our next tour guide, who took us on a walking tour of London. We began with the Tower of London and spent a while there, listening to stories about people being beheaded and also getting to see the crown jewels, which were breathtaking. After the Tower of London, we saw Westminster Abbey and other sites around the city. At 5, our tour guide dropped us off at high tea at a gorgeous hotel. We enjoyed some fabulous sandwiches, sweets and cakes as well as some great pomegranate tea.

Mom, Claire and me outside the Tower of London

Monument to remember all of those who were beheaded in the past

Claire and me with a Beefeater at the Tower of London

Although we were almost dead after all the tea and biscuits we had been eating, we eventually left the tea room and made our way to the Savoy Theatre to see Legally Blonde the musical. The musical was great! Claire, mom and I laughed the majority of the time and truly enjoyed ourselves. It was a great night and by the end of the play we were all exhausted, so we headed home and passed out as soon as our heads hit the pillows.

On Saturday, we didn't really have anything planned, which was really nice. We woke up and had a wonderful breakfast at the restaurant in our hotel and then made our way to the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace. After we watched that, we headed to Harrod's. Harrod's, although beautiful and extremely large, turned out to be quite stressful. Since it was a Saturday, the store was incredibly crowded and it was hard to move around everywhere. We ended up finding Claire an adorable shirt to wear to her after prom party, but after that, mom and I were both hungry and crabby, so things weren't as fun as they should have been. In the end, we all just wanted to leave Harrod's as soon as possible and get some food into our stomachs. We ate at an Italian restaurant right across the street from Harrod's and then we started walking around the area. We were getting ready to go back toward Oxford street when a torrential downpour began and we got stuck under an overhang. The rain wasn't subsiding, so we flagged down a cab and took it to the underground station where we needed to go. We got to visit London's Top Shop, but, just like Harrod's, that was overcrowded as well and became more stressful than it was enjoyable.

Claire and me at the changing of the guards

After our stressful shopping, we took a relaxing ride on the London Eye. It was incredible to see all of London from a little pod on the ferris wheel. It was just beautiful and something I would do a million times again.

The London Eye

Claire and me on The London Eye

On Saturday night, our last night in London, we ended the day with a dinner at Bumbles, a cute little restaurant on Buckingham Palace Road. It was an intimate restaurant with a few small rooms and excellent food. I had some potato dumplings with apples and poppy flowers (which are actually edible!) and it was fabulous. I also had an amazing dessert that was a banana flambé that had hot carmel poured over it to melt the chocolate. It was a definitely a big indulgence. We got back to the hotel and were completely drained from such a great weekend. I had to pack everything up because I had a super early flight in the morning to go visit Laura's flatmate, Alan, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, for my second trip of spring break. I'll post about Belfast soon!

If I Ever Leave this World Alive

This past week in a nutshell: saw a football match, took a test, finished a project, jetted off to Ireland, knocked out my front tooth. Eventful, to say the least.

On Wednesday, the BC in Glasgow crew went to the Scotland vs. Czech Republic football game with our coordinator, Kirstin. We had incredible eighth row seats and saw an amazing game. Scotland wasn't expected to win, but surprised us with a victory. The night was frigid and freezing, so after the game we all took a trip to ASDA (like Walmart) to warm up and wait for our cabs. While exploring the supermarket, we came across a few interesting dishes, such as Spotted Dick. Don't ask me what it was, but having the sense of humor of a 15-year-old boy, I found it outrageously funny.

Spotted Dick and Custard. Looks appetizing.

Scotland vs. Czech Republic

Academically, last week was probably the hardest week I've had here yet. I had my second Managerial and Organizational Contexts test, which was the exact same format as the first one: 59 multiple choice, 40 matching, and 32 True/False all in under 45 minutes. It was definitely a race for the clock, but I think it went well. After taking that test, I went straight to an Entrepreneurship group meeting, where we finished the majority of our project. Since the day was stressful and productive, I was more than ready for a fun night on the town. We headed to Bamboo, our regular Thursday night haunt, and spent the entire night there dancing and having a fabulous time.

The next morning was not one of my most beautiful mornings here. I was tired, had a massive headache, and didn't want to move one bit. On a normal Friday, I could have slept and lazed the day away. This Friday, however, was not my average Friday and I had to use every last bit of strength I had to get up, pack my bags, and head to the airport with Sarah to go visit Hannah in Galway, Ireland. It was a rough day, but we made it to Ireland in one piece and extremely excited to see our friends. We were welcomed to Galway with a family dinner made by Hannah and her friends before getting cleaned up and making the trip to The Front Door, Hannah's favorite pub in Galway. It was interesting to see the difference between the nightlife in Galway and in Glasgow. In Galway, most people frequent bars and pubs, and everything is close together. In Glasgow, clubs and cabs are a way of life. It was definitely a nice change of pace and it was great to be able to see what Hannah experiences during her time abroad. The night ended with a stop at Subway, which is somehow more delicious in the UK than it is in the US.

Sarah and my first night in Galway

Hannah's favorite pub in Galway

On Saturday, we slept in and took a leisurely lunch at Riordans before tackling shopping and Salthill in the afternoon. Salthill is an absolutely beautiful area of Galway that overlooks Galway Bay. The walk was gorgeous and reminded me of the romantic Ireland that you always see in movies *cough* PS I Love You *cough.* It was a fairly warm day for Ireland, so we spent a while just walking around Salthill and taking in the scenery. After being tourists, we went back to Hannah's apartment for another family dinner.

Salthill

Galway Bay

Streets of Galway

Once we had devoured our divine pizza bagels, we got ready for our mini pub crawl around Galway. The first stop on the list was Taaffes, a traditional Irish pub full of cute Irishmen. Next up was The Kings Head, where we had a nice relaxing cider and listened to some fabulous music. After The Kings Head, we headed to The Quays (pronounced keys), where we ran into a Hen Party full of crazy drunk twenty-something women who were all dressed in black and pink, playing games with cards called "ladies night." One of them pulled up a chair at our table and wouldn't leave until she had successfully chatted our ears off. When we finally shook the crazy single lady, we moved on to the next pub, Busker Brownes, which I think was my favorite pub of the night. It was insanely crowded and getting through the swarms of people was difficult. I ended up getting stuck between a pillar and this Irish boy, Carl, who started chatting me up. When I asked him how old he was, he confidently answered "23," until I told him I was 21 and he admitted that he was 21 as well. Before going out, Hannah had warned me about the men in Galway and their tendencies to lie about age, name, and relationship status, so I wasn't sure if he was lying again or telling the truth. In order to get the facts straight, I IDed him. He did tell the truth the second time, but after that I just wasn't interested anymore and we headed on to the next pub. Our last pub on the crawl was The Front Door again. It didn't disappoint and was the perfect pub to end on, but by this point in the night my feet were hurting in my heels and I was getting pretty tired, so we decided to call it a night. Kind of. We actually made one more stop on our pub crawl: Subway, for the second time.

Me and Hannah at The Kings Head

When Sunday came, I wasn't ready to leave Hannah or Galway. The city of Galway was so cute, with its cobblestone streets and dozens of pubs and cafes. Hopefully I'll be able to find a weekend in May to return (and maybe see Dublin, too!) It was a wonderful weekend in Galway and I left feeling sad and missing Hannah.

Monday was a big day for me. We finally got to turn in our Entrepreneurship business plan after working on it for the entire semester. It was a huge relief to have finished the plan and to feel confident in it. After turning the plan in, the group and I decided to grab a quick bite to eat, which turned into a few celebratory pints and an extended lunch. As happy as I am to be done with the business plan, I will definitely miss my weekly group meetings with these boys. In the end, I know they will be one of the top things I miss about Glasgow.

Tuesday was also an eventful day: all the BCers found out where we are living senior year! Boston College does a housing lottery, so the group leaders have to wake up at 8am, enter their group members' names and ID numbers, and wait to see if they get a lottery number. If you get a lottery number, then you get a pick time and have to wait to choose which housing you will live in. So, for this big day in our BC careers, Laura and I started off the afternoon with a baking and paper writing party. We made three chocolate cakes and got absolutely nowhere on our papers. Around 6:30, the rest of "the family" came over for family dinner as we all fidgeted anxiously in our seats waiting to see who would get what housing. In the end, we all fared well. No one had to split up their groups of friends and five out of the seven of us got Mods! Unfortunately I wasn't one of the lucky five, but I am just so happy to be living with all of my friends next year that it wasn't too big of a deal. To celebrate our senior year housing, we decided to have a few drinks. With all the excitement of the night, I took a wine glass to the face and ended up losing my front tooth! YIKES. Needless to say, I won't be forgetting the senior year housing lottery for quite some time. Luckily, Alan, Laura's flatmate, was on top of things and looked up a million dentists in the area for me to contact in the morning. Thank God for Alan because otherwise I might still look like a glorified hillbilly.

Adios, front tooth

I woke up incredibly early this morning to call all of the dentists before finding one to give me a new "tooth," which is actually just a bunch of weird looking stuff attached to my tooth. It looks pretty funny, but it does the job for now. When I showed my mom the final result, all she said was "don't worry, we'll get it fixed when you come home!" Yes. It's that bad. If my Mary Kate & Ashley closed-mouth smile returns to pictures, you'll just have to accept it.

The rest of the week should be pretty nice. I have no more projects due and no more tests until finals -- WOOHOO! Tomorrow Sarah's boyfriend, Devon, is visiting from Venice, so the weekend should be fun and exciting. On Friday, we were thinking of doing a mini sub crawl, where you take the underground around and each stop you have to get out and visit a pub in the area. Then on Saturday, we're making our way to the Highlands with a bunch of BC kids who are studying abroad in and around Scotland. Hopefully the weather will be nice and I will come back with lots of pictures! As always, I'll keep you posted...

Snog, Marry, Avoid?

Time seems to be going faster and faster every day that I'm here. Already I've been here for two months and in just about three weeks, we'll start traveling for spring break! It's so hard to believe that I've been here for this long. If it's possible, I feel like I just got here yesterday but also that I've been here for years. It's a difficult feeling to describe in words that make sense, that's for sure. Laura and I were talking today about how, although we're exited to travel and see the rest of Europe, we will be very sad to leave Glasgow and "the family" for such an extended period of time. We can't even begin to think about what will happen when we leave this fabulous place for good -- I will definitely be bawling my eyes out on the plane ride back. (Sorry in advance to whatever stranger has to sit next to me!)

This past week has been pretty stressful. With the deadline for summer internship applications quickly approaching, I was rushing like a crazy person to get my applications finished and sent to the right places. On top of that, my entrepreneurship group and I have been working what seems like day and night on our project so that we can get it done early. Add this to the pressure of booking all of my spring break trips, and you've got an insane week. While it's nice to have everything planned out, it was pretty hectic getting it all done. So far this is what I have booked: London with Mom & Nip; Belfast with Laura to visit her flatmate, Alan; Madrid, where I'll hopefully see David and get to experience the magic that is El Tigre; Barcelona, where I'll get to see my loves Holly, Michael, and Peter; back to London to hang out with my dad; then Paris with Dad and my "girlfriend," Laura. I haven't booked any other trips in case I have to head back to the US for an internship interview, but if I don't need an interview, I'm hoping to head to Rome, Florence, and Amsterdam. It will be a lot of traveling in a short period of time, but I'm ready for it.

To balance out the stress of the week, we started our weekend on Wednesday night. It was a pretty disgusting day with lots of snow and sleet, so Sarah and I told the other girls that we'd meet them at Buddha Bar, a new bar we had decided to try out. Sarah and I hopped in a cab and told him where we wanted to go. Well, the cab driver decided to take us where he wanted to go -- Bar Buddha. Similar names? Yes. Similar places? No. We got out of the cab slightly confused and distraught, but decided to give Bar Buddha a try. We walked in and were the only two girls under thirty there, but we didn't care. We figured we'd have one drink and then meet the other girls at the real Buddha Bar. Then we saw the cute bartender the Pringles vending machine and decided that maybe we'd stay for a few more drinks. Sarah and I stayed for a few hours, just sitting and chatting with the bartender, Euan, who is a student at Strathclyde University in Glasgow. He recently broke his arm playing soccer, so Sarah and I got to help make drinks and also got a few for free! It was an excellent start to the night, to say the least. After our bartending practice, Sarah and I walked to Octopussy, where we spent the rest of the night with our other friends on the bouncy castles and the dancefloor.

The Pringles vending machine at Bar Buddha

On Thursday, the engineering boys came over to my flat to work on the entrepreneurship project. We ended up getting a lot done, but there are still a few things that will have to be tweaked this week. I love spending time with the engineering boys because they always keep me laughing, but I will definitely be thankful to not spend anymore time on this business plan. After reading the same thing over and over and over and over it can get pretty old. Luckily, we'll be finished with the business plan by Thursday and then on Friday I'm off to Galway, Ireland to visit Hannah.

That night, Laura K's roommates from BC came to visit with one of their friends from Cork, Ireland. We started the night off with a delicious family dinner thanks to Sarah's fabulous pasta bake. When that was over, we piled into cabs and headed to the infamous Bamboo. Luckily, we avoided all fights with crazy drunk girls and had a great time dancing and singing.

Friday was a day of gluttony and recovery. We headed to our new favorite coffee shop, S'mug, but were depressed when it was too crowded for us to sit down. Saddened, we headed to Morton's to cheer ourselves up with bagels. I'm sorry to admit that after we feasted on fabulous bagels we stepped out of Morton's and turned right into the ice cream store next door, where we each had a scoop of ice cream. It was pretty disgusting, but definitely delicious. On Friday night, we were supposed to go see Ted's play that he's been practicing for. Unfortunately, by the time we got there, there were only a few seats left so not all of us could watch. Since I'd already seen one of Ted's plays, Liam and I let Sarah and Jess go watch the play and we left the theater to go play around on Buchanan Street. On the way out, we ran into Laura and Briana, who joined us. We walked around in the rain looking for somewhere to sit and have a nice drink. We wound up at Social, a bar near the Museum of Modern Art in Merchant City. It was nice to sit down and actually enjoy a drink with one another. We sat for a while, people watched, and just chatted. When Ted's play was over, we took the underground back to Laura K's flat where we played a few games before Laura C and I decided it was time for us to make our way to the extra-long Mardi Gras edition of cheesy pop. Normally cheesy pop only goes until 2 am, but on Friday it went until 3, so Laura and I were in heaven. We danced and sang for 4.5 hours until I literally could no longer walk in the boots I was wearing. Exhausted, we headed back to Laura's flat for some toast and late night chats.

In the morning, we woke up and headed to S'mug, where this time there was no wait for a seat. We enjoyed some soup before we began our journey to St. Andrews to visit my friend and fellow BCer, Kaelan, and her boyfriend, John, who goes to St. Andrews. When we were done, we walked to the underground so we could catch a train to Edinburgh. From Edinburgh, we took the train to Leuchars Station, which is the train station in St. Andrews. The train ride was beautiful -- we got to see the entire countryside and the sea at the same time. It was absolutely breathtaking. After a few hours, we arrived at St. Andrews and were a little dumbfounded. The train station looks like it is in the middle of nowhere. Eventually we made our way to a cab and headed to our B&B, the Ardgowan Hotel. It was absolutely adorable, just like all of St. Andrews is. We met up with Kaelan and John, who took us to Pizza Express for dinner. While the name sounds like a fast food joint, in reality it was a cute little italian restaurant with incredible pizza. We sat there for at least a few hours, catching up and reminiscing about St. Louis. After dinner, John took us back to his flat so we could see what it looked like, then we headed to a bar to have a few drinks. The night was really low key and relaxed because there was a huge fashion going on at the university, so everything else was pretty dead. I can't say I'm upset about the lack of people everywhere, Laura and I were definitely tired from our Friday night dancing at cheesy pop. After a few drinks and a lot chatting, laughing, and storytelling, Laura and I went back to the hotel room to get some sleep. Before sleeping, however, we decided to take advantage of our television and tried to watch The Olympics. Unfortunately, when we turned on the T.V., curling was on, so we changed the channel to what is now my new favorite show: Snog, Marry, Avoid? This show takes women that are overly fake -- fake tan, fake hair, fake boobs, fake nails, fake everything -- and gives them a makeunder. It was trashy television at its best, and after not watching T.V. for quite some time, it was a lot of fun to watch.

The Ardgowan Hotel

In the morning, Laura and I woke up and checked out of our hotel before heading to breakfast at BeanScene. We lazed around the cafe for a while and then walked over to John's flat to meet up with him and Kaelan. They gave us the grand tour of St. Andrews and took us walking around the school's campus. We got to see where Prince William lived when he went to school there, which was pretty cool. Next we headed to the ruins of St. Andrews Cathedral, once the largest building in Scotland. During the Scottish Reformation, the cathedral was attacked and was never rebuilt. We also saw the ruins of St. Andrews Castle, built in the 12th century. Then we walked down to the North Sea and took in the incredible views. It was a great experience and an unforgettable trip.

St. Andrews Cathedral

Prince William's old dorm

The North Sea and St. Andrews Castle

This week will probably be stressful until Friday, when I get to see Hannah! Hopefully I will be productive and the week will go by fast, but we'll see. As usual, I'll keep you posted.

Step to Me

As I was writing things down in my planner this past week, I began to realize how fast time is really flying by while I'm here. I counted down the days and as of this week, I have less than 100 days left abroad. Cry cry. Although I absolutely love BC and St. Louis, I really could stay in Glasgow for a while longer. And a long while at that. Every time someone asks me how I'm liking Glasgow, the only thing I can say is that I never want to leave. This country is incredible and it's unfortunate that I only have a short period of time to enjoy it. It's also unfortunate that time flies when you're having fun, because it's practically impossible not to have fun here. I know that when I leave I'm going to have serious withdrawal. It's definitely going to be difficult going back to 40-hour work weeks for the summer. I don't even want to think about it!

Last week was pretty typical, although there seems to be more work going on than usual. The deadline for the entrepreneurship project is rapidly approaching, so we've been meeting twice a week to make sure everything is perfect. On Wednesday of last week, we had a group meeting after our lecture, where we decided we needed to check out some prices on bedding, towels, cookery, cutlery, crockery, etc., so Seb, Simon, Chris and I all piled into Seb's car and drove to Ikea. As soon as we walked into the store, however, instead of checking prices we headed straight upstairs to the café to get some of Ikea's famous Swedish meatballs. After our feast, we wandered through the store and gathered some pricing information for our project. This week we've almost completed the business plan in its entirety, so things are going well. Our goal is to have the plan finished by next Thursday (although it's actually due on March 8th) because we're all going out of town the weekend before it's due.

After conquering the pyramid when Hannah visited, we've grown tired of the Hive and have been switching up our usual Thursday night routines. This week we went to Bamboo, which is a club that we've been to before. It's fairly relaxed and drinks are outrageously cheap, so it's the perfect place for us. This time we discovered another room in Bamboo. This room's DJ plays more R&B music than the pop music we're used to. It was definitely a fun discovery -- that is until we got into a fight! There is a Scottish stereotype that all Scottish people like to fight. So far we haven't really encountered anyone fitting that stereotype but on this fateful Thursday, we met quite a few girls who fit the bill. These girls were aggressive to begin with, we're not sure why, but when one of them poured a drink all over Jess, things got ugly. We really have no idea what her motive was for doing this, but the next thing we know there are two or three girls spitting in Briana's face and pulling Laura Kelley's hair. It was disastrous. Luckily the boys we were with were able to hold the girls back until the bouncer got there to carry those crazies out. It was an interesting night, to say the least. Surprisingly that fight hasn't lessened our love for Bamboo -- we went back this past Thursday night (and avoided all altercations)!

After an eventful Thursday night, we had a more relaxed rest of the weekend. Friday we went to cheesy pop, as usual. If it's possible, each week cheesy pop gets better and better and always ends far sooner than I want it to. On Saturday, Laura C's parents met us in Edinburgh. It was so great to get to meet her parents. As I said in my last post, I always love meeting people's parents, and this trip certainly didn't let me down. During the day, we all went shopping because Liam and Ted wanted to buy kilts. In Glasgow, kilts are relatively expensive and even though they can cost a lot, many of them aren't made particularly well because they're aimed at tourists. The boys had done some research and found a vintage store that sells vintage kilts, so we used the GPS software on my iPod touch (thanks to my grandparents!) to locate the store before we got off the train. The store was crazy and full of every type of vintage clothing you could imagine plus some absolutely insane costumes. They even had the red pleather suit that Britney Spears wears in her Oops... I did it again video. Ted and Liam both bought some stylish kilts and the traditional socks that go with them. The girls, on the other hand, didn't get anything except for a fashion show from Ted and Liam. I'm not complaining, though. Seeing the boys in skirts was totally worth it.

The crazy kilt store in Edinburgh

Ted and his kilt

Saturday night, we enjoyed drinks with Laura's parents at World's End, a pub that houses part of the Flodden Wall, which was built to protect Edinburgh from the English in the 1500s. When we had finished our beers and ciders, we walked up the Royal Mile in search of a place large enough for the 10 of us to have dinner. We ended up at two five-person tables in a cute restaurant near the castle. It was here that I had quite the culinary experience: I tried haggis for the first time! Haggis is the national dish of Scotland and is comprised of sheep's heart, liver, and lungs. Although it sounds absolutely disgusting, it was surprisingly good. Once we had all finished our meals, Ted suggested we go to the Balmoral Hotel, which is the choice hotel of Sean Connery. Here we had some incredibly delicious drinks and just relaxed after a long day. Ted had play practice early the next day so he left early, but not before paying for everyone's drinks! Shocked, we all walked home raving about Ted and how perfect he is.

The Balmoral Hotel

Sarah and her delicious drink

We parted from Laura's parents once we got back to the hotel and got ready to experience a night on the town in Edinburgh. Jess, who goes to Smith, has a friend studying abroad at the University of Edinburgh, so we got in touch with her and she agreed to show us the hot spots in Edinburgh. We decided to go to Vodka Revolution, which is where we went in Newcastle, and walked in to find quite the scene. There were men in women's dresses with lipstick all over their faces, girls in multiple costumes, and just weird stuff all around. Apparently there were a bunch of "hen parties" (bachelorette parties) going on that night, so it was pretty comical to watch. We settled into a booth and just hung out for the entire night. Vodka Revolution closed earlier than we were expecting, so after we left we were on the hunt for somewhere else to play. We ended up at a burlesque club called Siglo, which was anything other than a burlesque club. Basically it was a bunch of intoxicated older people dancing inappropriately with one another. Since Siglo was clearly not our type of venue, we decided to head back to the hotel in hopes that the hotel bar would be open. It was. We ended up purchasing approximately 15 cans of Pringles, a few bottles of cheap wine, and five BLT sandwiches from Gordon and Craig, the bartender and concierge, who were obsessed with us. We enjoyed our provisions in our hotel room while we watched the olympics and laughed about our night. All in all, I'd have to say that this night was one of my favorite nights in Scotland.

The Family at Vodka Revolution

This past week has gone by in a haze. I'll post more on it later since there's a lot to cover.

Today Was a Fairytale

Well, really this entire week has been a fairytale... or at least not real life. It began on Sunday night with the Superbowl, which we celebrated at this bar called PJ Champs. It was a pretty classy affair -- £2 miller lights and £1 hot dogs! It was definitely an exciting event. We got to the bar around 7:30 so that we could get prime seating, but the Superbowl didn't start until around 11:30 pm here, so it was about an eight hour night for us. All the girls were hoping that the Saints would win so that Kim Kardashian could get an engagement ring (according to the rumors we'd been hearing). Getting motivated for class on Monday was difficult, to say the least.

Monday and Tuesday went by unbearably slowly, probably because I was so excited for Hannah and her two friends from Galway to get here on Wednesday night. When Wednesday finally arrived, Sarah, Laura and I went to pick our three friends up at the train station, since they had taken a train from the airport. When we saw them, it was like one of those cheesy scenes out of a bad movie -- we all just ran towards each other with open arms. It sounds really stupid, but in reality we were all just so happy to see one another since it's officially been almost two months since I've seen anyone from BC. We scooped all of the girls into a cab and headed home so that they could shower and change before it was time for family dinner.

Galway Girls in Glasgow

The cheese didn't stop at the train station. Our entire weekend was literally full of cheese. The first night the girls were here, the boys made an absolutely incredible fondue with bread, cheese, and steak. I don't know how this happened, but the boys seem to be the best 21-year-old gourmet chefs I've ever encountered. The next night, Laura K made all of us delicious grilled cheese with these crispy potatoes. That meal was a definite carbohydrate-fest, but heavenly for sure. Then on Friday, Sarah made amazing homemade macaroni and cheese. It would be a lie to say it wasn't the best mac and cheese that I've ever had. (Don't worry, she's going to show me how to make it so I can share it with everyone back home!) She made two giant batches of it, so we got to finish off the rest of it the night after with some chicken and a big salad, so we could at least pretend we were eating healthily.

After our dinner on Wednesday, we decided to go to a club none of us had ever been to before: Octopussy. Don't ask me why it's called Octopussy, but it was fabulous and unlike anything I've ever seen before. The club had multiple floors with hot tubs, pools, bounce houses, ball pits, and an enormous dance floor. It was kind of like a playground, but for college students. One of my flatmates had warned us about going into the hot tubs and pools, so we stuck to the dance floor mainly, with a few trips to the bounce house and ball pit thrown in for good measure. The DJ was fantastic and played a ton of Britney Spears and Lady Gaga, so we danced forever and went home sweating like pigs (after a group sing-along to Journey's Don't Stop Believing, obviously).


On Thursday, it was time to do touristy things, so of course we started the day off with Morton's, where Hannah, Lizzie and I met Sarah after her class. We walked around campus (as usual) and showed them where we go to school then headed to Buchanan Street for some afternoon shopping. That night, we continued typical routine and had family dinner then went to the Hive for some dancing. I'm not sure if I've adequately described the Hive in my blog before, but there is this giant pyramid in the corner of the dance floor that people absolutely LOVE to dance on. The top level of the pyramid is highly desired territory, and every Thursday night it is a fight to get to the top of the pyramid. This particular Thursday, our group got there somewhat early and, after karaoke, we took over the top tier of the pyramid. Little did we know how vicious people get about the pyramid here -- I literally had to have the bouncer kick people out for clawing at us as we were dancing.

On top of the pyramid -- OUT OF CONTROL.

On Friday, Sarah took the girls to Edinburgh for the day and I stayed back because Heather's boyfriend, Greg, was coming to surprise her and I was his only point of contact. As strange as it sounds, I think I was more excited than he was just because we had been in cahoots with one another, planning this surprise for what seems like a lifetime. I woke up all nervous and jittery and kept checking his flight status all morning until I finally saw that it had arrived. When he got here, security called me from the front desk, informing me of my visitor. Then I put on my shoes as fast as I could and ran outside to get him. It was pretty funny since Greg and I have been talking online for months now but have never met in person, so this was our first real meeting. I probably seemed like some sort of psycho freak because I was so excited he was here and was talking a mile a minute. To add to the cheese factor of the weekend, we rang Heather's doorbell and then watched as she sprinted down the stairs and into Greg's arms. It was perfect. I'm a sucker for cheese, literally and figuratively.

Greg and Heather on Buchanan Street

Later that afternoon, I went with Laura to drop her friend, Elizabeth, off at the bus station so that she could go meet her boyfriend for a romantic Valentine's day trip to Paris (I think...) Laura and I left the bus station and stumbled upon a movie theater, so obviously we had to go see the movie Valentine's Day with a few of my favorite men: Ashton Kutcher, McDreamy, McSteamy, Taylor Lautner, Jamie Foxx, Topher Grace and Bradley Cooper. To put it simply, the movie was epic. We laughed, we cried, we were shocked by one part in particular, but I won't give it away! We have plans to see it at least twice more before it leaves theaters. Yes. It was that good.


When the girls got back from Edinburgh, we all got ready for another family dinner and cheesy pop. I know that each week I obsess over cheesy pop, but this week's cheesy pop was honestly the best one yet. I don't know if it was because Hannah was here or if the music was just really good or if I was just in a good mood, but it was definitely a great time. We were dancing by the speakers the entire night though, so the next day my ears were ringing like crazy. As usual, we all left cheesy pop that night looking like we had just showered. It was wonderfully disgusting.

On Saturday, we all slept in a little bit and then tried somewhere new for breakfast -- the creperie. Sarah, her friend Lizzie, Hannah and I all walked over from our dorm at around noon and enjoyed a lazy brunch of crepes, bagels, and paninis. Ted and Liam called mid-brunch to say they were heading to the Museum of Modern Art and asked if we wanted to join, so we did. All I have to say about the Museum of Modern Art here is that I'm glad it's free. I liked some of the stuff, but there were a lot of things in this museum that were over my head, like this bizarre video that I can't even explain. After the museum, we walked around downtown for a while and saw George's Square. By that time it was past four and we decided to head back to our dorms to rest and get ready for family dinner, which we were having at my dorm this week.

At the Museum of Modern Art

When we finished our delicious meal, we made our way to Ashton Lane for a little trip to Vodka Wodka. What we didn't realize was that on the way to Vodka Wodka, we lost the boys. As it turns out, the boys decided to take a detour of their own and did some impromptu Karaoke at this bar near my dorm. The girls had their own fun, however, when we stopped by a hot dog stand that reminded us of Chi Chis, a sausage stand back at BC. In the end, we all met back up at Òran Mór, the club that was once a church, and danced the night away. We danced so much that, even after the hot dogs, we had worked up quite an appetite and ended up at 727, a late-night fast food place right near the club, where I had my second sausage of the night. This one however, was on a whole new level -- it was fried! After a gluttonous night, we came back to my dorm, where Hannah and I proceeded to have an intense life chat.

Me and Hannah

Generally I wouldn't post the details of such life chats online, but this one really made me think about life in general. We started off saying how happy we both were that Hannah was able to come visit and see what my life is like in Glasgow. Then we began talking about what a great group of people were randomly thrown together here and how, even though we've only been here for a short period of time, we are already such a family. This got me thinking that, even though I definitely miss my friends and family back home, I would never trade this experience for the world. The people I've met so far and the places that I've seen have been so incredible. It is truly an experience I can't describe and will definitely never forget. It also reinforced the fact that my dad is always right. So, as usual, thanks Dad for pushing me to do this and thank you to both Mom and Dad for letting me come here! (Cheesy, I know, but it fits right in with the theme of this blog post...)

On Sunday, I was sad to see Hannah leave. We went to Morton's for one last time, so she could enjoy their perfect bagels (which I've tried to give up, but just can't do it). Then I met up with Laura C, Laura K, Liam, Heather, Greg, and Laura C's flatmate, Alan, to go to a Ranger's Football (soccer) game. It was an insanely cool experience. All the fans dress up in Rangers' colors (blue and red) and know all of these songs and chants that they sing the entire game. After the game, the girls (and greg) had the urge to see Valentine's Day again, so we went to the movie theater. Unfortunately, since it was actually Valentine's Day, the movie was sold out so we had to settle for seeing Invictus instead. The movie started off kind of slow and I was absolutely exhausted from a long weekend, so I closed my eyes for what I thought was a little bit and then woke up halfway through. In the end, it was a pretty good movie, but obviously a waste of money since I missed half of it. The popcorn and cadbury eggs were definitely worth it, though.

Laura C and me at the Rangers game

The Rangers Field

This week has started off pretty well. Yesterday, we had an entrepreneurship meeting and, although we chatted through most of it, we actually got some work done. I think this project is going to be absolutely great, so I'm pretty excited about it. Then I hit the gym to work off the two sausages, loads of cheese, popcorn, and cadbury eggs that I ingested over the weekend and just about died. I should probably get back into a routine, but it can be hard when friends are in town (or when Valentine's Day is playing at the movie theater at a good time!) To end the day off right, I got on moodle, which is this Web site that gives you information about classes like homework, tutorial schedule, and grades. After worrying about how I did on that test last week, I was pleasantly surprised with results! I'm hoping that this is a good sign for how the rest of the week will turn out... I guess I'll have to wait and see.

This week should be pretty relaxed (when isn't it?) but tomorrow night a friend of a friend of Jess' is taking us to a bar called the Candy Bar, so I'm excited to meet new people and see new places. Then on Saturday, Laura C's parents are coming to Scotland and taking us to Edinburgh for the night. I always love meeting people's parents because I feel like you can finally figure out why they're the person they are, so it should be fun! As always, I'll keep you posted.