"so what's in Glasgow?" "uh ... Primark?"

sometimes the best days are the ones where you don't do much of anything except laugh, and maybe buy a stevie nicks dress for two quid and maybe a panini with weird british cole slaw, and look at fascinators all day because that's what fashionable people wear.

and maybe Primark turns out to be the land of your dreams, and it's really too bad that there aren't any in Pennsylvania, because three pound for a T-shirt can't be beat with a stick.

and then maybe you get a kick out of studying in the library the next few days because you keep finding passages like this:

"A striking instance of silence is furnished by the case of Osred I, who came to the Northumbrian throne in AD 705 ... by his late teens, however, he had turned to a life of violence which included the defiling of nuns and the killing or expulsion of nobles. Perhaps in response to this behaviour, he was assasinated in 716."

no one ever said the Brits didn't have a sense of humour.

also maybe laughing at these sorts of things are why you and your friends can empty out a certain restricted section of the library faster than you can say Saint Patrick. or Dal Riata. or 'Crith Gablach.' or 'Tain Bo Cuailgne.' if you don't know what these things mean, join the party.

only i'll bet you don't have to take an exam on them in two days.

my friend lauren is always telling me that i have a 'photo face.' looking back at pictures from the last four months, i'm finally forced to admit that she's very much right, although i will never admit it to her.


Argyll Forest trip:

Venice:

Isle of Skye weekend:

... I had no idea. (i got that face from my dad, by the way, so pop, if you're reading this - thanks a lot :] )

today was great though, six of us went to Glasgow for the day for some shopping and picture taking and some really good paninis from the cafe we sat for hours in the last time we were there. tomorrow the studying re-commences with an all-day library marathon with molly. oh, and pictures once i get the rest of them uploaded!

(very exciting, no?)

(twenty three days)

a few days ago while it was still sunny i escaped from my flat and the pages of celtic civ notes that have been holding me captive to spend a few hours in the gardens at Princes Street. everything is blooming and being around nature makes me feel better. it's easy to feel overwhelmed at this point.

the countdown is on.

baby, you're sexier than socks on a rooster (spoiler: no pictures)

the day's events in brief:

bad: i found out that i am allergic to kiwis. at least if my tingling tongue and swollen mouth have anything to say about it. kiwis are one of my favorite fruits and i am pretty devastated.

good: molly, audrey and i made a killer eggplant parmesan.

bad: our 'study date' in the library was productive, but not nearly as much as it could have been.

good: we spent almost six hours in my flat, cooking and talking and clicking so well and we realised how well we're all getting along. also, we're going to see a band called The Schmohowks tomorrow night, which cannot be bad.

bad: i only have one month left here and i'm scared to go home again. it's like as soon as i get used to being in one place and being one emily, i have to turn around and get used to being a different emily in a different place again. it's disconcerting and i'm not sure i want to go back to the emily that's waiting for me at home - like all the things i've done and learned will disappear once i get back to the normalcy of berks county.



one last note: does anyone in edinburgh have a spare tent? we want to go camping.

xxx

a love story about lupe pinto's

i was busy exploring until-now unexplored parts of Edinburgh today with some of my beautiful people friends when one of us saw the unassuming red frontage of a spice store and decided to check it out, because after all, we were being quite adventurous.

see? it doesn't look like anything special.

BUT IT WAS. LUPE PINTO'S IS MY TAJ MAHAL, MY EIFFEL TOWER, ONE OF THE SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD.

because! in addition to being a spice store, Lupe Pinto's is also a purveyor of exotic foods! exotic foods like American foods.

all of a sudden, it was like all these things i had forgotten even existed were making my life totally incomplete! how have i survived 4 months without keebler pre-made pie crusts? or hershey's cookies and cream bars? or aunt jemima pancake mix? and A-1 Steak Sauce, used by 9 out of 10 steak houses or whatever, oh-my-gawd. A-1 Steak Sauce is one of my very best friends, you guys. and! they sell Kraft mac and cheese! granted, it is not the spongebob kind like my  amazing Juliefriend brought me, but i have spent months of my life here searching for this most favorite of my food groups, and all the while it was hiding in a tiny little mis-advertised spice store right down the street.

the owner informed us that although his current selection was embarrassingly empty (whatever, it looked like heaven to us), there would be another shipment coming in next week, to which i say: eight pounds for a box of Froot Loops? yes please sir, and may i have some more?

here is a link to the website, in case (like me) you are feeling more deprived than you ever though possible:

http://www.lupepintos.com/American/View-all-products.html

something that is making me laugh today:

i have a stellar sense of humor.

happy (belated) Easter!!!

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade ..."

- 1 Peter 1:3-4

playing catch-up, part two

after La Spezia, Michelle and I came back to Edinburgh for another week of spring break, albeit much slower paced than the previous two. We spent a lot of time walking, a lot of time eating, and a lot of time talking, and having adventures:



We had one really great night out a place called the Hive, which I've mentioned before. It was their UV / blacklight party night, which meant that we all got glowsticks and road safety vests, but they soon got discarded.

(ignore the creepy guys)

we also climbed Arthur's Seat:

(and then found a completely random guy bagpiping in the hills, nbd)

he was pretty cool.

We spent a really nice afternoon up at St Andrews, enjoying (some) sun and playing in the water:

It was a really, really good week with her here :)

so remember that time I went on holiday and didn't update my blog for like, a month? and how I took over a thousand pictures and so uploading them takes forever and how I would really, really like to be lazy and say "hey, just look at my facebook!" but I won't. But if no one minds we're going to go in reverse order, starting with last weekend, which would make the title of this post

IFSA-Butler Isle of Skye Weekend

(it's completely legit. we got shirts.)

the trip up felt like it took forever and a day, not least because we left at 7:45 am. that's right. AM. not a pretty time for anybody, really. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable about lots of things, which meant that he didn't stop talking nearly the entire way.

We stopped at Culloden battlefield, site of Bonnie Prince Charlie's defeat and the end of the Jacobite rebellion's last hopes in 1746. It's funny because my branch of the Ramsay family hasn't been in Scotland for hundreds of years but I couldn't help feeling a strong connection to the place.

The next stop was at the "headquarters" of Clan MacDonald, where we discovered a secret garden and a wooden Viking boat. It was kind of awesome.

There were a couple other stops, I think, but I don't remember them as well because I was trying to sleep and still a bit groggy from the lack of sleep the last week. Once we finally got there it was dinner time and then free time, and while we completely intended to go out and do some exploring, we ended up camping out on Lauren's bed and having some much needed girl catch-up time.

Saturday was the big day, with hiking to do, oh yay! what was advertised was a 'gentle hike' up the Old Man of Storr (part of a mountain that had slid down during a 'land slip,' as our guide told us). what followed was not a gentle hike, but more like a death march up the side of this mountain. That said, it was incredible! I could try to describe it, but pictures do a much better job:

(eyes closed, so windy and scared of falling)

we left the hotel around nine the next morning and headed back to home to Edinburgh, with stops at Loch Ness / Fort Augustus and this small town that had a small stream running through with purported magical properties - specifically the power to make a person remain at exactly the same age they were when they were at the water - forever. legend has it that submerging your face in this water for seven seconds is enough to keep a person young forever. after thinking about it for a few seconds, we realised that seven seconds in freezing scottish water is nothing compared to an eternity of being twenty one years old, so pell-mell we all went running down to the stream to get our fountain of youth on. it was quite a sight.

the Scottish fountain of youth, ladies and gentlemen. hopefully it works.

Next was the castle of Eileen Donan, which is the most photographed castle in Scotland, and it's on all these calendars and stuff. Yeah. So here we are.

Then we went to Loch Ness and got our Nessie spotting on:







our weekend ended with the tour guides making a mentos and soda explosion in the parking lot.

mom, pop, are you glad you're getting your money's worth?

taking a second to breathe

I'M HOME!

home from paris, home from italy, home from spending a week running around edinburgh, and home from the isle of skye. and i promise to update as soon as i shower and do some much-needed wash. which means possibly tomorrow.

xxx

dream without fear, love without limits

ladies and gentlemen, this is your brain at course selection time:

(i did not take this picture, btw. the boy did, while i was complaining about something as usual. he is a wonderful man of infinite patience, that one)

there is a part of me that h.a.t.e.s course selection. it is annoying and stressful and it is making me realise that I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I WANT TO DO WITH MY LIFE (capslock neccessary).
at the same time, i have to love course selection too, because it is stressful and i thrive on stress, and sadly this is the most important decision i've had to make in a while. i l.o.v.e. important decisions.

figuring out the details might just kill me now that I've decided to pick up a second minor (environmental studies). so now i will be an international relations major with a double minor in politics and environmental studies. important sounding, isn't it? SO worth it though! the fall semester, hopefully, won't be like the last, but if it is that's okay too. i'm looking into doing a research project that is very promising with my environmental professor. with any luck, this could be a foot in a couple prospective doorways that i'm keeping my fingers crossed for.

i wish i had more things to talk about but there is NO TIME because other than course selection i'm completely preoccupied with packing - because tomorrow i leave for the spring holiday! london overnight, paris for a few days, venice for a few more, then the last couple in la spezia on the sea. after that michelle and i will probably be exploring scotland a bit before i head up to the isle of skye with the butler programme (see that british spelling there?)

so here's the question, what does one take for such a holiday?