After 2 months of waiting....

Greetings again…FINALLY!

I must apologize for my blog absence for the past 2 months….it’s been a very busy semester since I got back from Austria, and tons of exciting things have happened!

First of all, in the middle of February, I decided to surprise Ruth and fly home for a visit (admittance: couldn’t resist the cheap flights!). It was a great visit with family and friends that was very needed! Of course, though, it was all too short. I missed a week of school (which at the beginning of the semester I didn’t think would have a huge effect on the amount of work missed), but I was wrong! I came back to St. Andrews in the third week of the semester to find myself overwhelmed with the amount of work I had due in the next week! Somehow I had overlooked the syllabus in EVERY class, and had to get down to business. One problem though: I had planned in January to go away to the highlands of Scotland with 5 girls for a little girlie weekend. That weekend was two days after I had returned from America! We rented a small cottage up north in the Highlands and had an absolutely wonderful weekend. It was so nice to be in a cozy little cottage with five of my best friends here just relaxing by the fire. Another luxury of the cottage: a dishwasher! Those are few and far between in this town of St. Andrews, and it was heavenly to just be able to put the dirty dishes in the dishwasher and let it do its job! The fire and couches to lounge on was another treat. With the cold and wet winter air outside, the comfort by the fire as we lounged on the couch was so nice! Overall, it was a great weekend!

I came back to St. Andrews after such a nice weekend knowing that there was no more relaxation for a good three weeks. I had a huge assignment due that week, two papers due the next, and one humongous paper due March 23rd. This seems reasonable except for the fact that I had a big week in March planned – the week of St. Patrick’s Day. Three friends were coming to visit from the States and I knew that I would have no time to do school work, nor would I want to miss out on the fun with them! So that meant I had two weeks to get all of those assignments completed, or nearly completed.
Salem, Ilene, and Lia arrived in St. Andrews on Saturday, March 14th, and it was such a treat to have people from home come and visit! It was nice to be able to show people from home what my life was REALLY like here, as it’s difficult to explain it over the blog or even the phone. We had a blast all week, playing golf, visiting Edinburgh for the day, making time for tea and cake on some afternoons, and I even took the girls to one of the balls in St. Andrews! The highlight of our week, though, was traveling to Ireland for St. Patrick’s Day. We left at 5am on the 17th, arrived in Dublin in time for the parade, and celebrated St. Patty’s Day all afternoon! Since St. Patrick’s Day is a national holiday in Ireland, we couldn’t really do much of the touristy stuff until the next day. The weather both days was gorgeous – probably the best weather I’ve experienced since I came over here in September! The following day we visited had morning coffee and breakfast at the famous Bewley’s on Grafton Street, wandered through St. Stephen’s Green, visited Trinity College, Christ’s Church, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and, of course, the Guiness museum. I then left on Thursday morning at 3:30am to catch a flight and get back to St. Andrews to make it to classes, and the girls came back that evening. On Saturday, the four of us went to a nearby local fishing village named Anstruther for a true fish and chips experience.

The week after they left, it was back to the real world of school and work for me. However, there was only one more week before we had two weeks off for spring break! Spring break will be spent in Eastern Europe with five of my friends. We will travel down the Dalmatian Coast of Croatia, over through Bosnia where a friend who lives in Deans Court with us lives and will meet us to show us around for a few days, and then on up to Budapest to end our trip on Easter Sunday. Stay tuned for tales about our travels!!!