normal till Thursday

The week went fairly normal until Thursday night. Monday I went to my pub quiz and had a good time with my friends. We came in 12th overall... not bad but not good. Tuesday night I went to the pub with a friend just to catch up cause I hadn't seen him in a while which was nice. Wednesday I had no class and did my federal income taxes, some homework and my FAFSA (federal application for student aid). I love that all those things were done online... made my life very easy. Then on Thursday the flat decided to go out to a new club. It was so much fun but I did fall down coming down some stairs at the very beginning of the night due to lack of grip on my cheap boots and copious amounts of drinks being spilled on the floor. I have pretty nasty bruises from it. The video is my friend Johnny. He's from near Belfast. He's hilarious. I sound like a five year old in the video but just ignore that and the bad quality and enjoy.



Friday I woke up to my flatmates sister making us a proper fry up for breakfast with bacon, eggs, sausage, toast and beans. We just all sat in the sun filled kitchen talking for hours. It was so awesome and comfortable. Then someone, I don't know who, suggested we all go to St. Andrews for the night that night. So by 7:45 that night Johnny and I were on a bus heading to St. Andrews. We had a great night just walking around and meeting my flatmates sisters friends. One of them, who we visited, lives in Prince Williams old student flat which was pretty cool to be in. (I guess) The next morning we walked down to the beach and saw the old course which was covered in snow. St. Andrews is absolutely beautiful. I am definitely going back to thoroughly explore everything. Needless to say I was pretty exhausted on Saturday when we finally got back to Edinburgh so I went to bed at 5:30PM (waking up a couple of times due to a developing cough) and finally got out of bed at 10:30AM this morning. Good sleep. Now I need to finish off my reading for tomorrow.

Everton vs Chelsea

This week was really fun. REALLY REALLY FUN. I did so much and even made it to class all week. It was great.

Monday Ben (my UCSB friend here) and I joined up with some new people for our weekly pub quiz and we actually won something. Instead of coming in 28 out of 34 we got 5th place. It was so fun to actually do well in the pub quiz. The team won a bottle of very cheap Californian wine... it was a rose. Needless to say I didn't actually partake in consuming the pinky cheap wine but instead was just happy we actually did well. Tonight I think we are joining their team again, which is promising. Tuesday wasn't nearly as exciting I just went to class. Funny story though, in my Scottish History tutorial (small discussion group) we were discussing if Scotland has had a social revolution and if so when was it 1914-1945, 1945-1970 or 1970-present. The conversation was hitting all the normal points.. increase in housing, women in the workforce, establishment of the welfare state, ect. I brought up the point that the 1990 marked a period of time where Scotland really created an image for themselves with movies like Trainspotting and Braveheart. I also mentioned that Scotland got parliament in the 1990's but I literally said, "but it's important to remember we got the parliament in the late 90's... wait what do I mean we... I'm not Scottish." At least I got a laugh out of everyone in the room. haha. Sometimes I think I'm Scottish. I really do.


Wednesday was fantastic! Ben and I (I do a lot with Ben... we just sorta get one another and it is a purely platonic friendship) went down to Liverpool to go to the Everton vs Chelsea game at Goodison Park (Everton's stadium). It was a fantastic game to go to. Two American players, one of them my favorite player, play for Everton. Landon Donavan(forward that Everton has playing on the wing) is on loan from the LA Galaxy and Tim Howard (National team goalkeeper) both had a good game but Donavan had a great game! I was just so excited to see Tim Howard play that I didn't really care if they lost. They were suppose to lose because they were playing the team in first place. Much to the surprise to Ben and I they won and it was a very exciting game to watch. Every time an Everton player got the ball and had a defender coming toward him you heard the entire stadium (well less the small Chelsea fan section) yell 'ON'. It was such a great environment to be in. I bought an Everton scarf with the Scottish flag on it. Two birds with one stone. :D After the game came the awful yet hugely entertaining part of our trip the overnight train back to Edinburgh which turned into a real adventure. When we got back into the Liverpool city center we walked around a bit eventually found an Irish Pub to spend an hour an half in. We got kicked out around 1:40 and headed back to the train station to find out it was closed until 15 minutes before our 3:38 train... did I mention it was -4º outside. Ben and I just walked around until 3:15 and saw some cool buildings doing it but dang it was so cold. We finally got back to Edinburgh after two train transfers at 9 in the morning. We both went home and crashed. I woke up for one class and then came back and slept till 6 Thursday night.

Oh Thursday was ridiculous. Because I slept till 6 on Thursday my entire sleep schedule was hugely messed up. When I woke up I got a quick dinner and headed off to Whisky Society with my friends. It was a Ardbeg tasting which is a distillery on the Isle of Islay. There whisky is know to be very smoky and full of peat flavor.

peat (pt)

n.

Partially carbonized vegetable matter, usually mosses, found in bogs and used as fertilizer and fuel.

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[Middle English pete, perhaps from Medieval Latin peta.]

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I actually winning a free bottle of whisky, the Ardbeg Uigeadail, which is really peaty... so I traded with another guy for the Ardbeg Ten Year. It's sitting in front of me right now unopened waiting for a good occasion to drink it. I've never had a bottle of £30 Scotch before so I'm not sure what to do with it.
After the tasting was done we went back to Ben's flat and just watched movies... neither of us were really tired because we had slept all day. I got back to my flat at about 6 in the morning and as I got into my room heard my flatmates phone go off. In the back of my mind I could help but think who the heck is calling her at this time in the morning. The next thing I know she is standing in my doorway asking me if I wanted to hike up Arthur's Seat to watch the sunrise. Beside the slight headache I had I wasn't remotely tired and thought it was a great opportunity to really do something unique in Edinburgh so naturally I went. It was a lovely hike that I took very very slowly knowing that I needed enough energy to last through Friday to get my sleep schedule back on track. It was definitely one of the coolest things I've done here.


The rest of the weekend was pretty quiet because I came down with a bit of a sinus infection. I think the lack of sleep and the cold weather kinda caught up with me. Valentine's day with the flatmates was fun. I bought the flat a dozen yellow roses which stand for joy, friendship, gladness and jealousy... which I found hugely fitting. All of us but one is single right now and we are close and happy flat too. haha. We went for a walk to get some extremely chocolaty cake too... which made my week and took me three sittings to get through. That's it for now... more next week.

Peace and Love,

Liesbeth

snow rain and sun

This week has been remarkably refreshing. Every part of my life has seemed to pick up a little which is nice, well almost every part... I'm finding it hard to put down the beer and chips and pick up a salad but I really need to focus on getting healthy. That's really not what I'm here to share though... moving on.

Monday morning I had a really lovely walk to class as the sun came up and the weather was just great. My history classes are getting very interesting. I'm learning a lot about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Ironically I also learned that bringing up said subject at a lunch with a boy I like was a terrible idea. I got to listen to 15 minutes of very passionate America bashing... and believe me I tried to change the conversation topic several times but failed. That being said the salad I had was absolutely delicious so I just focused on that. I don't think we will be doing lunch again anytime soon. haha

Tuesday it snowed which was nice even though I had to walk to class. Every time I go to class in the snow or rain I think about how in Santa Barbara there would be no chance of most of my friends roughin it for an one hour lecture. no way no how.


On Friday a few friends and I went to an Indian buffet for lunch for only £6. Most definitely one of the best ideas yet. The food was so good and £6 for curry, naan, and a dessert coffee is a steal.

Six Nations started today which means that Ben and I will be spending a lot of time at the pub watching rugby. Other sport related news, I'm going to the Everton vs Chelsea game at Goodison Park on Wed. It's going to be AWESOME!!! I get to not only see Tim Howard(US National team goalkeeper) in action but also Landon Donovan who is on loan to Everton from the LA Galaxy. Of course I get to see all the stars of Chelsea too which is cool, but not as cool as seeing Tim Howard.

I've started this other blog which is more just daily notes instead of my now weekly updates.

http://liesbethcamille.tumblr.com/

check it out.

I'm off to write an essay about the Catholic and Protestant conflict in Scotland in the 1920's and 1930's. Basically I get to talk about why Celtic and Rangers (the two soccer teams in Glasgow) hate each other on account of their religious affiliation.

Peace and Love,
Liesbeth