alright lets see...

it has been a good weekend. decided to take advantage of the gym and swam and played around on the equipment a bit. enjoyed the relaxing dont think about anything but swimming thing. i think im part mermaid. sunday was really awesome. decided while the weather was nice and before it got to cold to go to the botanical gardens. a friend from the hostel, jacquie came along. got a bit of an education in australia which is where she is from and have decided that it is on my list of places to go.

ok sorry about the tangent. so the botanical gardens are beautiful and so peaceful. we watched some squirrels playing around. smelled the roses. saw a little of the leaves change. they had a beautiful chinese garden. it felt like we were out of the city and out in some more rural place. im kinda missing the fall weather though. i think by the time thanksgiving comes around im gonna be craving multicolored leaves and pumplin pie. well we shall see...

we also met up with some friends at a pub to hear some traditional scottish folk music. it was like something you would see on tv. there were tons of men in kilts(representing scotland in the rugby game that day) drinking beer and singing traditional scottish folk songs. banging the tables and trying to teach us the words. singing at the top of their lungs. they also sang some american folk songs from the 60's and a bit of country. it had me cracking up to hear these thick scottish accents singing "take me home. to west virginia. the place where i belong" but the high light was when the folk singer started playing havah nagelia havah and everyone was singing that throwing in an OY! i love the scots.

nils im gonna claim that as my little bit of yum kippor celebration.

today was my 2nd day of work. so far so good. tomorrow looks to be busier and a bit more intense but im ready. walked home today and found so many cute cafes and pubs. as well as a polish market and an asian one. now i can get my fill of perogi as well as ginger veggies. YUM!

hmmm that might be all for now. missing and loving all of you.

3rd times the charm

i dont know if i mentioned this in my last post but i have decided to treat this trip as a seperate entity than the one in july. yes, i am still on the same visa but this is my third time in scotland and this time things are going swimmingly. not to jinx myself.

i moved into the long term hostel yesterday. i was put in a room with 6 people but decided that wasnt for me and moved to a room for 4. this room is at the on the top floor which is really nice since that is quieter. it is clean. i have a bottom bunk. the room is homey with shelves, chairs, tabels, etc. and it is fairly large.

i have a job with the city counsel. a different branch this time. it is located in the city center and im looking forward to that. i have taken the walking tour of edinburgh which was amazing. it was led by an american by he had pretty eyes and was very charasmatic so you could excuse him from not having a scottish accent. taking lots of pictures which i will put up as soon as i can.

spent last night catching up with some old friends from the hostel as well as getting to know some new ones. went dancing. went to the oz bar. went to an irish pub that is more honkey tonk than irish. spent the whole night up with some friends and then when the sun was rising decided the only thing to do was get breakfast. clearly. came back to the hostel and crashed for a few hours. realized i had a free pass to a health club and spent the past few hours in the pool and hot tub. i feel gloriously good right now.

i truly think everything happens for a reason. in the mean time i hope you all are having fabulous adventures.

and im back. i flew out of newark airport at around 10:30 sunday night. had a lovely seat next to the window in the front of the plane cause as luck would have it there was only a handful of people flying to edinburgh. even had the middle seat empty. flying in was a breeze. my ears were killing me on the flight home and thanks to a little pill called benedryl i was fine.

i have spent the past 2 nights at a different hostel than last time. i am moving into that hostel tomorrow and so far its good to be back. i had an interview today and a potential job offer. im just waiting to hear the details. i have been to the international market and im planning on going on a walking tour of the city in a few days. other than that not much is new.

cheers!

so i am lying in bed watching tv. just got back from the doctor and have been put on strict orders to stay in bed and veg out. not quite how i thought things would turn out but im rolling with it. its nice to be back in the states. im looking forward to some dinner dates and a little shopping before i go back and when i go back... well the adventures will follow.

i had one little adventure the weekendbefore i got sick. my roommate from the hostel and i decided to take the tattoo tour. despite the fact that i was starting to feel sick it was amazing. we met at about 8 in the morning and 18 of us boarded a haggis bus. haggis is a tour company not an actual type of bus. we had an amazing tour guide. and we started out heading north into sterling and learned the real legend of william wallace and on to doune castle. doune castle is a 13th century castle used in the movie monty python and the holy grail. it really was an amazing sight. it was once used as a hunting lodge for the stewarts i believe. after that we continued on to callander (i have to update about the highland games at some point) to meet hamish. hamish is a highland cow. he was the cutest thing. all fuzzy and very tame. when we were in callander for the highland games we had gone for a walk and passed some highland cows and they are very nasty animals. hamish was very sweet and you could buy hamish snacks. we then went to the village killan and the falls of dochart. the falls arent anything like niagra but they are really beautiful an we bought lunch and ate it on the rocks of the falls. we then went to loch tay which is one of the largest lochs and sat out by the water. watched some ducklings and their mother swim around. we then went to scotlands oldest wiskey distillery for a wee dram. glenturrett has been making wiskey since the 1700's and is one of the 50 wiskeys that is contributed to the famous grousse. which i tasted and burns like fire. im not a fan but i do now how it is made. we then took a drive through the highlands and saw the feilds covered in heather and back to edinburgh aka auld rekkie.

we then had a few hours before the show and i took a little rest before we went. the show was amazing. they started with a fan fare and tons of men in kilts came out playing drums and bagpipes. they had drums and fifes from the states. drumers from trinidad. motorcycle riders some as young as 6. a girls band from thailand and highland dancers to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the queen to the prince. at the end there was fire works and we all sang auld lang sine and helf hands. it really was a great show. and that is where the night ends. a great day even if it followed with my first trip to the hospital. but its all an adventure...

a lil tired. a lil sick. a lil doped up. i hope this makes sense...

so from where i last left off. i was in edinburgh sick. been to the hospital and on antibiotics. still sick and no one knew what i had. on wednesday my poor mom was feeling so helpless and worried she booked me a ticket home. getting home was a bit of an adventure. the plane was an hour and a half late. once the plane landed and we boarded i passed out when i woke up again as we were flying over albany and the pilot was announcing there was heavy traffic at newark airport and we were gonna flyover albany for a while. so we circled albany for about an hour and the pilot announced we were going to land in newburgh, new york to refuil. while we were only 15 min and 45 miles from the city we landed for saftey reasons. we werent allowed to leave the plane and took off about another hour later. landing in jersey and i waited an hour for my luggage to arrive. they emptied half our luggage andfor some reason the other half quite some time later. i hopped in a cab and came home. my poor mother though after going through the whole thing with my brother was worried about me when i hadnt shown up and the airport had said we landed 4 hours earlier... they left out the part about it being in newburgh new york. and so i have been home since friday. on my third antibitic and to the doctor here. i am really glad to be home because this is the best place to be when i am sick. its good to be around my family. its been good to talk to my friends on line or on the phone or to listen to them talk since i havent had much of a voice to talk . or the sign of a good relationship when you can both be there and neither one needs to say anything.

so i have spent the past 3 days in bed sleeping watching cheesy reruns and eating ice pops. much better than what i had in edinburgh. although i loved it there things were not what i would have wanted. but its late so i think im gonna crash. i will update later though about work, my living situation there, and a few weekend adventures. its an adventure...

heya.

libs is right its been a really long time since i wrote. spent the last week and half sick. went to the hospital twice. as well as a doctor. still dont know what i have. have been on antibitics but they screwed up my body so i am on another pill for that. slightly miserable and while i have great friends here really contemplating hopping on a plane and heading home. i just need to be around my family and a medical system that is hygenic and knows whats wrong with me.

been thinking about how good it would be to sleep in my own bed and eat my moms meals and have my parents near by while im sick. and how much i miss meeting up with my friends or spending hours on the phone while we just watch tv. or climbing into their beds and watching hours of degrassi or films and eating pizza and icecream. i didnt worry about growing apart from anyone special to me while i was here but i realize now how much i really need them by me.

cupa tea and a bun

i am in the process of learning all the european ways of saying my friends. last night i learned the german way which was well i cant type it cause it would be wrong but i know the french, german, and spanish ways now.

alright a lot has happened since i have last updated.

tuesday a group of friends and i were sitting around having dinner and it finally occured to us rather than finding other people to live with we should just live together. by friday we had found our place. it is beautiful georgian town house with a court yard and bay windows. possibly the largest kitchen i have ever seen and a fireplace in the living room. it is spectacular. i am moving in on tuesday with 3 other girls. agnes from berlin, caralyn from berlin, cara-lin from minnesota and then there is me. i seem to enjoy living with people who share the same name?

ok so that is the major thing going on. about a week from now i am going on a tour of dune castle where montypython was filmed and the tattoo. YAY. i am so excited. its also festival season so i am sitting in a pub with some friends waiting for the parade to start. hmmm. that might be all for now.

much love kiddos.