Snow!

I've had another busy few weeks. Sadly now I have to become a hermit until our exam, but first I will recount my last few weeks!

A few weekends ago, Andrew and I went to a rugby match - Scotland vs. New Zealand. If you don't know, the New Zealand team, the All-Blacks, is one of the best in the world, and before every match they do the Haka, which is a sort of pre-game ritual in the style of New Zealand natives. While it was very difficult to hear from way up in the stands, we could see them well enough, and could see them on the screens. It was very neat!

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Murrayfield Stadium

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During that week, we had the day off classes on Wednesday, so we went to Agriscot, which is sort of a convention for farm people. It was quite interesting to see all of the different farm businesses and we got lots of free stuff from the pharmaceutical companies and got some information on drugs and feeds and things for farm animals.

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Then last weekend I had a small birthday get together with my friends, at an awesome restaurant on George St. called Hawke & Hunter, which was amazing. The food was delicious, but even better the drinks were absolutely fabulous. I didn't take many pictures, but trust me, it was a really nice place. I had a 'Deep Purple' cocktail, which had lilac syrup in it (delicious!), and a Pear & Honey bitters, which, as it sounds, had pear and honey in it. It was so good (which was fortunate, given that they were £7 a pop!)! They had so many creative drinks on the menu, that I really need to go back there to try them all.

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The Deep Purple!

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After dinner we went to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Pt 1, which was, as expected, amazing. Some weird bits and a bit of artistic license taken here and there, but on the whole it was awesome. I look forward to the 2nd part!

My dad and Anna Marie came to visit the next morning, and it was really great to see them in Edinburgh. We went out to dinner on my birthday with Anik and Andrew and his family, at a restaurant called Wedgewood. It was very nice.

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Andrew provided the balloon, obviously. :P

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I got to explore the city with my dad, which was nice. I finally made it to the castle (only took 2 1/2 years!).

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Beautiful Edinburgh Castle!

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View of Edinburgh from the castle

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Thursday was of course, Thanksgiving, and so Wednesday afternoon I set about making preparations for Thursday's dinner. We made Pumpkin Pie, Pecan pie, Sweet Potato Casserole, Roasted Potatoes, Green Beans, Stuffing, Turkey, Cranberry Sauce, and Cornbread. It was absolutely delicious!

Thursday after a full day of classes (thanks Edinburgh uni, the Americans appreciated that), we arrived at Andrew's parents house to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner. It was so great to have everyone together for Thanksgiving, and even better because it was the first Thanksgiving I'd organised myself, although Anik helped immensely with cooking and everything.

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Cranberry Apple Pecan Stuffing!

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The lovely table!

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Buffet style deliciousness!

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The following Friday I went to the Christmas market with my dad and Anna Marie, then met Andrew for dinner at a little pub on Rose St. It was really nice, and a good end to the week.

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Christmas market/fair in the Princes St. Gardens

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View of the Castle from Princes St.

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Saturday morning we got up bright and early to drop my dad and Anna Marie off at the airport, and then stuck around for a cup of coffee with Andrew's parents at the Gyle shopping centre, and then we headed up to St. Andrews for Thanksgiving with Beth, one of Andrew's friends from uni.

First we explored St. Andrews, and I took some pictures of the pretty sunset. Then we headed back to Beth's for her dinner, which was, as always, delicious.

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A light dusting of snow on the old course

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West Sands at St. Andrews

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It was good I took pictures that afternoon, because the next morning we woke up to about 6 inches of snow!

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Andrew and I are dorks :P

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Anyway, so after the crazy busy week and weekend, we prepared for the busy week ahead, and then on Monday morning I woke up to even more snow! As we couldn't dig out the car, Anik and I decided to take a snow day. Classes ended up being canceled anyway, so that's good as it mean we wont miss the lectures.

We took a bit of time this morning to frolic in the snow. :)

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Snow at 8am!

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Kitten explores the snow!

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Kitten did not like the snow as much as we'd hoped, so we took her back in right after this.

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A very short slide :P

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Pretty winter pinecones

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Snow angels!

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Snowy Penicuik!

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We found a duck pond that we didn't know existed!

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Quack!

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Is this really the UK in November?!

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We enjoyed playing in the snow and exploring the paths of Penicuik, but as it was very cold, we headed back inside to enjoy the warmth. Now we're just chilling out and studying. Also, I'd like to point out, that it is still snowing heavily outside! The snow already on the ground has melted a bit cause it's getting warmer, but it is still coming down. It's great! I wonder whether we'll have lectures tomorrow?

Anyway, now back to studying :)

A jam-packed weekend

It is time for the mystery date to be revealed! :) But he reads this, so I have to be nice, heehee (just joking, Stu!)

So we'll start with Friday night, which was very fun. It was Stu's birthday, so I took him out to dinner at Suruchi, a really delicious Indian restaurant that I'd been to once with Pookish, Anik and Jessica. I had I think the same thing as last time (Almond Lamb Curry), and it was just as delicious. I also ordered what I thought was a small amount of Nan bread for us to share, and they brought out this HUGE basket full of Nan. But we just took it away in a doggie bag for later.

Anyway, so after dinner we took the train to Polmont to drop stuff off at meet his parents, then hurried to the train station to catch the Dunblane train to Falkirk. As we got to the platform, a train was already there and we sprinted up the stairs and across to the opposite platform to just barely make the train, and as the doors closed, we realized we'd gotten the wrong one. Oops! Fortunately it was still going to Falkirk, it was just that it was going to the wrong station. So we got a taxi from one station to the other (much to the amusement of the taxi driver), and eventually ended up at Argyl's Pub (not sure if I spelled that properly, but whatever). A bunch of Stu's friends were there, different from the bunch from last weekend, and they were also very nice, and hilarious as well.

I also got to experience my first "Lock-in," which is basically when, if you know the right people (a.k.a. the owner of the pub), the bartenders let you stay in after hours, so no one else can get in, but you get to keep buying drinks even after last call. The bar officially closed about 1 I think, but we were there till half 2. I can't keep up with Scottish drinkers, so I mostly drank water :)

On Saturday, the reception was at this really nice hotel near the Edinburgh airport, set back a ways from the main road, so you felt like you were out in the countryside. The bride, Louise, looked absolutely gorgeous; her dress was something like out of Cinderella, all chiffon and she had a tiara on. I didn't take a pic of her because I thought that'd be a little odd since I don't know her, but she was very nice in the 10 seconds I met her for. Her new husband Lee also seemed very nice, though I only met him as we were leaving. When they had their first dance together they were so adorable together.

Anyway, so now I've kept you all in suspense, meet Stu (and you already know me, of course):

Gotta love the kilt ;)
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Sadly I forgot to take that silly scarf-ish thing off before the picture, so you can't fully appreciate my dress, but I'm sure I'll wear it again sometime. Also, I have to mention that there was another girl wearing the EXACT same outfit. Same dress, same shoes. She didn't have a shawl as far as I could tell, but it was very ironic. She was very nice though, I bumped into her in the bathroom and we laughed about what great taste we have :)

I also took some artsy pictures because, well, I didn't want to take random pictures of the party itself, because I didn't know anyone, but I decided I needed more to show of the evening than just the one photo :)

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Stu's sporran! Made of seal fur, I think Stu said, though not a baby one, an old dead one :-P
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My little clutch bag, and some table confetti.
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Closeup of my fantastic shoes because, well, I'm a girl and despite the fact that high heels were clearly designed to torture women, I still love a good high heeled shoe :-P
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Annywho, so the reception was very nice, they picked a great band, and they played good music all night long, and there was a buffet with yummy food. I haven't had a good excuse to dress up in awhile, so it was all-in-all a great evening, despite being exhausted from Friday night. We did get up to dance for the last dance, which I think is traditional. Everyone stands in a circle around the bride and groom while they dance. It was a bit cramped cause the dance floor was tiny, but still fun.

On a sidenote, for some reason I'm much less nervous about meeting new people. I'm not quite sure why, but I'm hoping this means I am getting over being so incredibly shy. It also helps that everyone here is extremely nice and welcoming. The only thing I still get nervous about is understanding accents. I'm pretty sure I'm partly deaf or something, because if there's any background noise at all I have a really hard time hearing people talking in general, and combine that with the Scottish accents (which are nonetheless fantastic) makes me feel like a parrot, squawking "WHAT??!" all the time. I'm trying to say "sorry?" or "pardon me?" instead of "what?" because I feel it's less obnoxious, but it's hard to break that habit. I'm getting better at the accents on the whole, especially now that I'm interacting with 'real' Scottish people (as in, not professors who are consciously talking slowly because of all the international students), but I feel like I look like an idiot from time to time because it takes me a few seconds to puzzle out what people are saying to me, haha.

Anyway, I need to get back to studying! Bye all!