It’s week five of the term already, meaning assignment deadlines are approaching quickly! Most of my essays are worth about 50% of my final grade, so… nae mair scutterin (no more wasting time)! Thankfully, I find my essay topics very interesting. For my Gaelic Ireland class, I am writing about a famous lament from the late 1700s and what it tells us about gender roles in Ireland during the time period. In the lament, the woman reveals that she drank her dead husband’s blood… interesting stuff!
Even though I’m getting busier with school work, I have still found time to have fun with friends and explore more of Scotland. Here are some highlights from this past weekend:
A spontaneous trip to Stonehaven
Friday after class, Merit and I went downtown to go shopping. I needed to buy a winter coat since I’m going somewhere cold soon (any guesses where?) and didn’t have room for one in my luggage when I came here in August. Before we did that, though, we went to a place called “Cups” for tea and cake. It was the cutest place ever, and I hope to go back again soon. There were SO many types of tea to choose from! I usually like Earl Grey the best, but I decided to try something called “African winter”. It was delicious!
As we were walking around downtown, Merit was telling me about a place in Stonehaven that had the best fish n chips ever. You know how much I love fish n chips… so I asked her, “why don’t we go to Stonehaven for dinner then?!”. She replied with, “I love spontaneous trips!”, and we headed to the train station to buy our train tickets.
We arrived in Stonehaven about a half an hour later and made our way to the restaurant using only our senses of direction. Merit had insisted that we try to get there on our own since our parents wouldn’t have had Google Maps when they were traveling at our age. She made a good point! I rely on Google Maps a little too much sometimes.
After a wonderful dinner, we caught a train back into Aberdeen and called it a night.
St. Andrews
I woke up at 5:30 on Saturday morning to get ready for my day trip to St. Andrews and found that there were people still up partying. I cannot even imagine staying up that late! The reason I chose to wake up so early was because I wanted to be able to have a full day in St. Andrews without feeling rushed. I’m glad I did that, but it definitely wasn’t necessary.
It was a short 1.5 hour train ride to Leuchars, which is just outside of St. Andrews, and then a ten minute bus ride to the city center. I made it to my first destination — the café where William and Kate used to go for coffee when they studied at the University of St. Andrews — by 10:00. Not long after I finished my breakfast, I met up with my friend Jasmin to explore the town.
We went to the castle first. It was right on the sea, and the pool was filled with a bunch of people swimming with winter hats on. I guess that tells you how cold the water was!
From there, we went to the cathedral, the university, and the old golf course. We also saw quite a few rainbows! It was all very impressive, and the town was absolutely beautiful.
By about 1:30, we had managed to walk around the entire town at least three times. I am so happy I went to St. Andrews for the day, but I am also thankful I didn’t book two nights in a hotel as I had originally planned!
Speaking of hotels… I am leaving tomorrow morning for yet another trip and won’t be returning until Thursday night. Check out the main page for a clue as to where I’m going!
Until next time,
Clara