St. Andrews and Hallowe'en!

So last weekend, aside from studying, Andrew took me to see St. Andrews. We went first to visit his friend Beth, who is also from America, and her boyfriend. Beth has been in Scotland for something like 9 years doing undergrad, masters and PhD, so it was nice to see her seemingly so at home here. But it was fun bonding with her over things we miss from the US (like Root Beer, and pumpkin pie, marshmallow fluff, Thanksgiving). And then she said that there was a shop nearby that sold some of those things, so of course we hit that up before heading out to explore.

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Andrew posing in front of a tower of canned Libby's Pumpkin!
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So after buying a can of root beer for me and one for Andrew (who'd NEVER experienced the joy that is root beer), we set off to explore St. Andrews. Andrew went to uni here for undergrad, so he showed me places he stayed and studied at. We passed by the ruins of the cathedral and also the castle, although we didn't go inside the castle cause you had to pay some obscene amount. Perhaps another time.

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The ruins of St. Andrews Cathedral
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Andrew eating ice cream, in the way of my picture. :)
*View of St. Andrews Castle from the cliff
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Beach by St. Andrews with some seagulls!
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Then we took a walk around the famous golf course, and posed for a picture on the famous Swilken Bridge. Apparently anyone who knows golf knows this bridge, but I had never heard of it before. Nonetheless, it was a pretty little bridge, and the course was very pretty right by the water and all.

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Andrew and I on the Swilken Bridge
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Close up shot... Awwww...
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So the week was fairly uneventful, just classes, studying and more classes. Last night was Aletheia, Elisa, Lisa and Lydia's Hallowe'en party, which was quite fun, so in between being studious we were preparing for Hallowe'en by making costumes. I volunteered to make Andrew's costume, cause mine was really easy, and Anik and I are costume-crazy, so I turned a convict's orange jumpsuit into a tiger costume! So about an hour before the party I set about getting myself and Andrew ready to become Calvin and Hobbes!

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Me in my costume!
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Making sure Andrew's hood fits
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Calvin and Hobbes! Andrew was an incredible sport and let me paint his face. That's a couple hundred awesome-boyfriend points. :P
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My mini duplicator. (If you don't know what it references, it's this: Calvin and Hobbes: Scientific Progress Goes Boink)
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I'd never been able to go to any of Aletheia, Elisa, Lisa and Lydia's previous parties or BBQs, so it was nice to actually go this time. As it was a costume party, there was lots of hilarity to go around.

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Elisa, Lydia, Lisa and Aletheia as the elements (Fire, Water, Earth, and Ice)
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Lynn as a Strawberry, and Jessica as Robin Hood
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Kate (Bermuda Triangle), Jen (Little Bo Peep), Katheryn (pregnant prom queen)
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Alison as Big Bird
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Pookish as cameraman & cowboy
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And another one of Andrew and Me, cause it's a cute one. :)
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Anyway so the party was lots of fun. Tonight we're having a few people over for pumpkin cake, apple punch and candy! I'm hoping we get some trick or treaters, but I'm not sure people trick-or-treat much here, especially in such a studenty area. We'll see I guess.

Tomorrow I'm heading to Livingston with Andrew and his parents. He and his parents are all running in an orienteering event in the morning (during which I'll be studying, since there's not much to see), and then we'll all go to Livingston, which is filled with outlet stores and such. It should be a fun morning/afternoon, and then I'll be studying all night. Woo! I'm almost sort of caught up with pharmacology lectures at least. That's not to say I've memorised anything, but I've been going over notes and rewriting the important bits, which I'll go over when I do my actual studying in a few weeks. I was just told yesterday that exams are in something like 5 weeks, so I am going to have to start being less fun and cracking down on the studying. I'm not really worried about anything but pharmacology, which is going to be tortuous to memorise all the drugs. Pathology is a little bit more intuitive, although still very detail oriented, but if I've got those two covered I should be fine.

Anyway, off to clean a bit before our Hallowe'en 'do this evening! :)

Another weekend adventure!

So last week, almost at the last minute, I was invited to go down to England for this past weekend, with Andrew and a group of his friends and most of their wives/girlfriends/boyfriends/husbands for their 5th annual 'Forest Lodge', which is a tradition they have since graduating from uni, pretty much. So after my lectures on friday, Andrew picked me up, and drove us, along with his friend G and G's girlfriend, down to Tebay, and arrived a few hours later at a lovely cottage called Fawcett Mill Fields. It's set in the sheep-filled hills right near the north-western end of the Yorkshire Dales. From the outside front it looks rather nondescript, but inside there were something like 15 bedrooms and 3 huge lounges with couches and a fireplace, and a huge dining room, and a sauna! A pretty good deal if you ask me!

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Sort of nondescript front entrance... but wait!
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View from the back garden
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Another view from the back garden
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A small waterfall where an old mill once ran.
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A pretty bridge over the stream!
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A view from the porch through the leaves.
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The porch looking out over the garden
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Most of the weekend was spent just hanging out in the lounges reading, talking, and putting together puzzles, or exploring the surrounding area, or sitting on the porch drinking tea and coffee in the crisp fall air. Every night we all ate dinner together (cooked by some of Andrew's friends), and then had fun after dinner in the form of "pub quiz" type games, scrabble, twister, and other games. A bunch of people brought musical instruments, so usually at some point every day/night there would be singalongs and mini concerts. Saturday night was a 'fancy dress' night (which for all you American folk is not fancy as in 'black tie,' but rather as in costumes). So since I didn't really have much notice, and forgot the crucial parts of my Hallowe'en costume from last year (i.e. robe and wand). I ended up looking more like a random schoolgirl than Hermione from Harry Potter, but it was still fantastic. Everyone's costumes were amazing. My favourite was Andrew's friend Al, who dressed up as Jamie Oliver (the chef), and looked EXACTLY like him.

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Jam session
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Waiting for hors d'oevres on fancy dress night in the largest lounge.
Note Andrew as the banana.
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Making our way to the dining room with Archie.
* Fancy dress dinner
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A bunch of us on a walk through the hills.
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One afternoon we walked a little ways away, through cow fields and sheep pastures, to a tiny farmer's market, which had lots of fresh produce and cheese for sale, as well as a craft booth. It was very fun. On the way back, Andrew and I hung back to stop into a local pub for some delicious burgers before walking back.

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Walking to the farmer's market. That's me and Andrew at the back of the queue.
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At first I was a little nervous. After all, aside from G's girlfriend, who also was new, everyone else already knew each other. But I needn't have worried, because everyone was incredibly nice, and I felt right at home with all of them. It was so hard to come back to Edinburgh and get back to lectures and studying! But it was also a nice relaxing weekend. So now it's back to the books!