Back to the REAL World....of Studying, unfortunately

It's a beautiful day here in St. Andrews - sun is shining, the North Sea a gorgeous shade of blue, birds are chirping, only 40 degrees outside rather than below freezing! I never knew how much sunshine makes a difference in your mood until I moved here and have experienced multiple days in a row, weeks even, without sun rays touching me! It's just too bad that I am inside studying rather than enjoying the fresh air and sunshine! YOU are my excuse to procrastinate, because we all know that it's more important to keep you informed of my life than to study for finals that begin in less than 4 days!

I returned to "the bubble" (as the local students call it) of St. Andrews on Tuesday night after 6 days in Brussels, Belgium and Amsterdam, Holland. It was a great end to the holiday travelling. In Brussels we saw the famous Maneken Pis statue (one of the most notable attractions in Brussels), visited the Belgian chocolate museum, Belgian beer museum, the City Museum (where all of the Maneken Pis' many outfits made by locals and tourists over the years are displayed - and probably one of my favorite rooms in the museum), and some art museums. We also enjoyed many of the Belgian delicacies - chocolate, beer, and Belgian waffles (which, I must add are outstanding and like nothing I've ever tasted....they melted in your mouth)!

Brussels was cold, but bearable with gloves, many layers, and coats. Then there was Amsterdam....and that was extremely cold! We visited the Van Gogh museum, which was probably my favorite art museum that we visited over the last three weeks (and you all know how tolerable I am of museums....I am trying to develop a patience for them!!). We also visited the Anne Frank House, which was outstanding and very interesting. World War II history is one of my more favorite periods in history, and so I really enjoyed this. We enjoyed just walking around the city enjoying the beautiful architecture, houses, canals, bicycles (it is definitely a biking city...with bike paths everywhere you go!), and Heineken Museum the last day. However, it was pretty exhausting, as it was -8 degrees and we were out in that weather for 8 hours a day...and the biggest problem was that we were running out of money, so you can only stop for coffee breaks so often when you are running low on cash!!

The biggest event from Amsterdam surprised us on Tuesday morning. Picture this: there were 5 of us in Amsterdam, and we had a private hostel room with bunk beds for 5 people. My friend Emily was sleeping above me on a bunk, and we she was awoken by the sound of what sounded like someone had their hand in a bag of chips. Well, she thought it was me, and apparently started telling me to stop eating. Then she took her cell phone and lit it up and shined it on me, only to realize I was fast asleep. She then woke me up and asked if I heard the sound that she had been listening to for about 20 minutes. I definitely did....and at that point we realized it was something under our bed. If you go to Belgium, you can't leave without buying some delicious chocolate. When we first got to the hostel, they had said that no food was allowed in the rooms, but we figured if the chocolate was in a sealed and wrapped package, it should be okay, because we weren't going to eat it there. We both had bought chocolates as gifts for friends. Well, once we realized that we probably had a rodent in our room, we turned on the lights and woke everyone else up. We opened the door to the hallway, Emily pulled her bag outside and dumped it out, but there was no rodent in sight. When she started putting the stuff back in the bag, she realized that there had been a rodent....and it had chewed through to her chocolate...and the teeth marks were pretty sizable!

At that, we went downstairs to the reception and they agreed to move us to another room. They also carried our bags for us (I certainly didn't want to carry my bag and the rodent jump out at me!). My concern was that my bag was opened on the floor next to Emily's, so there was a possibility of it being in there! When we got to our new room, we went back to sleep for a few hours and then got up to start getting ready. It was at this time that I realized that my bag had not been spared of the rodent...it had climbed through my bag, dug through clothes to find the chocolate, and it had eaten a chunk of the chocolate. It was quite the adventure, and at that point I decided I was ready to come home. I just felt dirty knowing the rat or mouse had crawled through my bag!

It was nice to get back to St. Andrews to my own bed and a familiar shower with good water pressure, but I can't honestly say I wasn't dreading coming back. Coming home to St. Andrews meant the studying had to start hard core, and let me tell you, it's been a challenge. I have had a hard time finding the motivate to studying and finding any kind of productivity. My exam schedule is a bit harsh, with exams back to back one evening and the next morning for two of the three of them. I've also found that it's very difficult to study in the dark, so that leave basically the hours of 9am - 3 pm for studying in the daylight. After that, the productivity dwindles to pretty much nothing. Finals will be over a week from tomorrow, so I probably will not be doing much communicating in the next week.

After finals there is a large hope that I will be going to ski in the Alps. However, the trip details are still in progress and not set in stone. We have three weeks off before the next semester starts on February 9th, so my ideal break would be to go skiing for a few days and then join a friend on a trip through Spain, Portugal, and Morocco. I'll have to update you on these aspirations at a closer date. Hope everyone's 2009 has started out well! I look forward to hearing from you! Please feel free to email at kglisson@alumni.unc.edu or call at 919 809 6760 anytime I cross your mind! :) Miss you all!