Homesick

Don't get me wrong. I am having a great time here, but this week has been really rough. Cathy's visit reminded me a lot about home and how much I miss it. I see a lot of pictures going up of people getting together for the super bowl and st pats. Its not that I'm mad or anything, I just really want to be a part of everything. This week has been the first time I have ever felt like I am trapped here. Every other day I feel a little homesick I realize that I am here and want to be. This week has not been like that. I feel like I just want to be home for just a minute and that is impossible. Also, I have dealt pretty well thus far with the crazy culture that comes with study abroad and dorm life again, but I am at my end's wit... I have no problem with all the drinking and everything, but it just gets to the point where I am standing in a bar or party, and I am just bored because it doesn't make sense to me to be not your own mind every night or even to spend the money. I personally am done with it. I will still go out with my friends and hang out. I will probably just not be out as late and not have a beer every time or really more than once or twice a week anymore... I miss everyone. I know next week will be better but right now I just want to be home.

Cathy's Visit

So begins the story of my best week in Scotland :) Cathy flew in on Wednesday morning to spend 5 awesome days in Scotland. We got this awesome price on a plane ticket here so we could not pass up on an awesome experience. We got our money's worth... We spent most of Wednesday just sitting around being lazy and napping cause Cathy had a long trip and I am not a morning person. That night we went to international night so we could say hey to all my friends here. This place was so cool. It had an 80's club upstairs and everything was decked out in mirrors and 80's movie posters. I felt like I was in a VH1 special. Amazing. Thursday was Glasgow day. We saw the old church, went to a graveyard and just meandered the city kicking pigeons (sorry PETA). Next day was Stirling. This is where one of the palaces in Scotland is located. It is also the area that Wallace fought some of his major battles. There is a monument to him near the tower the English kept him in before he was put to death. We saw the castle and walked around the city. We drank coffee at this cool local place that was owned by this young Canadian. She was really cool and played awesome music while Cathy and me passed time till our ghost tour. That night we followed a fully costumed executioner down the streets of Stirling and into the old church graveyard. All this was about 2 hours after sunset. It was a very creepy but fun experience. After a train ride home and an early morning we bused up to Inverness (highlands) to stay in a B&B at Loch Ness in a small town about 20 min away from the city. It was a nice little country town in a beautiful area. I bought a wool hat and we walked down to an old ruined castle, saw Loch Ness and ate dinner at a hotel that was in a 300 year old house. We woke up to a homemade Scottish breakfast (I had haggis!) and started the long trip back to Glasgow... It was such a fun visit and I am going to miss not having her around. I got a little homesick watching her leave to get on a plane. I shall return one day though. I still have a little more to do here, I just'll have to do it alone. There are some pictures up already if you are interested.

Stockholm Sweden!!!

Well I just went on my first big trip to Sweden to see Stockholm. When my friends first said they were going to Stockholm I wasn't too sure about it.... What is in freakin Stockholm? Once I was there I realized I was stupid. Stockholm was such a cool city. It had a medieval section in it with all these crazy old buildings and churches. We even ate at a restaurant that used to be a prison and all the little cells had tables in them! We ate right next to the cell that held the man who killed one of Sweden's most famous kings, and I had an awesome meatball sandwich... I asked the guy whether they were Swedish meatballs and he said "Uh, yeah, this is Sweden." I felt a little dumb but he was a cool guy and told us a little about Stockholm.... At night we stayed at a hostel (interesting experience) that used to be an old boat so when we looked out our windows we saw the frozen Baltic Sea. The first night we went out I talked to this Swedish guy at this really cool bar that had beer from around the world and he talked to me for like 30 min about American micro-brews being the best in the world and I saw a cider named Perry! I couldn't take it on the plane though so i didn't buy it... kindda lame. I ate deer meatballs that were so good I cried and then I got to go to a museum that had an old warship from the 17th century. It sank in 20 min after 3 years of construction and they raised it in the 60s and it is in perfect condition. Amazing... It was such a great experience. Look at pictures!