For my buddy’s birthday we decided to throw a little barbeque. The local grocery store had one time use disposable grills, three for ¬£5 ($10). About six of us stocked up on hamburgers, sausage, steak tips and bacon. Basically anything you could grill we did it. Just so we could tell our mothers we did so, we even grilled some veggies. It was great. We brought a few pints out with us and huddled around the grill because it was a mere 45 degrees out. We got those coals nice and hot and just piled as much meat as we could on these three little grills. It was great to just hang out laughing our heads off about nothing and best of all doing something we hadn’t done before. It was such a success we have decided to go buy six more grills and throw a big party in the park across the street from our flat. It was so nice to have grilled food again it made me quite excited to get home and grill most every night!¬†
Who but the Scots would melt golf and drinking into one event! Pub golf is, in its simplest form, a pub crawl. Two of my friends organized it and set up the 9 holes across town. Each hole is a different pub/club ranging from pubs including The Links and The Ye Old Golf Tavern (Im not making these names up) and a few clubs thrown in there as well. The most important aspect of this was of course showing up in golf attire. Picture twenty kids running around town dressed in polos,¬†scaly¬†caps, and even some of us losers wore golf gloves. Check out the picture below. It gives a good showing of what we looked like. My friends at home were not kidding when they told me that Edinburgh had a crazy night life. Our¬†tee-time¬†was 7:30 starting at The Links pub. We spent 30 minutes at each place. Needless to say it got crazier as the night went on. I unfortunately had to bow early for a class the next morning. This whole event took place a bout a week ago but pictures started to circulate around the flat and it reminded me to share the story. We actually even got kicked out of one place because they told us that “we dont allow pub golfers in our pub”… yes they have a rule that if you are dressed in golf attire and in a big group they wont let you in! I guess some of these “golf rounds” getting pretty crazy!¬†
Jen and I in front of the Ye Old Golf Tavern. 
As I am sure you have noticed, posts to the blog have become scarce as the semester winds down for me. The past week has been very relaxing considering I don’t have any classes and finals are at least another week and a half away. Things are starting to become very quiet around the flat as people are doing their last bits of traveling and others pack to head home starting the end of this week. The pubs have been frequented since classes have ended as everyone tries to savor their last moments and memories here. Myself, I have been¬†quarantined¬†in my room for the last few days down with a cold passed on from my¬†flat-mates. It has given me a lot of time to do research on topics for my senior research project which starts this fall. As amazing as Scotland has been since January 25th, the general feeling among my friends is we are excited to end the semester on a strong note, say our goodbyes and jump on a plane headed for home. There is a group of people leaving Edinburgh headed for a few more weeks of travel around the world. Me… well I can’t wait to pick my life back up in NH. With the summer full of promising jobs, time with the family and friends, exciting new challenges, and of course those things you take for granted such as driving, smelling the ocean every day,¬†grilling dinner¬†and breathing in the freshly cut hay fields down the street… I cant think of a better place to spend the next four months…. but home.¬†
Well I am happy to announce that I had my last class Thursday morning as a student at Napier University. Don’t get me wrong, classes have been amazing and I have loved them very much but Im getting very excited to move home to NH for the summer. Its funny. Scotland is amazing and to think, I have been living in a foreign country for four months! But to quote Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, “There’s no place like home”. Next week is a reading week and then we have two weeks for finals. As luck would have it, my only final is in the middle of the second week on May 28th. I then will head back to my room and start the daunting task of packing my life back up and moving to NH. The hardest part is trying to find things to do to keep busy for the next two weeks… kidding. My goal is to do a little more traveling throughout the UK and experience everything in Edinburgh I said I would three months ago. My time here has flown and I wouldn’t have changed it for the world but now that it is drawing to a close, I look forward to the great summer ahead and the anticipation of my senior and final year as a college student.
All through the spring I have had three big things on my mind concerning the summer and next year. The first was getting good on-campus housing for the fall semester back in Keene. The problem was further complicated when the school announced that many upperclassmen would not be receiving housing as previously promised. Well 3,000 miles away I was freaking out. Luckily I had a great friend at home taking care of everything for me and he pulled out on top. We matched up with a friend of his who had a great lottery number and we got our first choice housing! It was a big relief.
The second big thing was running for a position in Student Gov back in Keene. Student Gov has been a great passion of mine since I have been in college and I was having to run my campaign from Scotland. Let me tell you it was not an easy task. It included many e-mails to a lot of students asking for their support during the election. The position I was running is two fold. I had to run during the entire school’s general election as a senior class representative. The election was a success and I won the position. The next part was the important one. I had to stand in front of the newly elected student assembly and ask them to vote me in as chairman of the student assembly. Well again, I was 3,000 miles away and needed to be standing in the student center of Keene State College from Scotland. Another task that needed some creative thinking. Being the computer geek I am, I did a video conference from here. Yet another success. I was officially elected chairman of the student assembly for my senior year. I was so excited! Already my buddy Dan (newly elected student body president) and myself have been planning great things for the next year. Even better is that it is the centennial year of our college so we have even more planning to do! I am really looking forward to the fall.
The final, and in my eyes, the most important thing I was worrying about was trying to land an internship for this summer. A friend from church mentioned to me about a great internship at a little local insurance company in the IS (information systems) department. I sent in my resume and a few days later got an e-mail from an HR representative inviting me to do a phone interview (again 3,000 miles away… sensing a pattern here?) for the position. I spoke with two gentlemen in the Hosting Services Engineering department and it went great. Not an hour and a half after the interview I received an e-mail from the HR rep informing me that I had landed the job and invited me to start as soon as I got home. Well the little insurance company is Liberty Mutual (I guess not that little huh) and I will be working on a project that will one day affect every employee at the company… a mere 45,000. It is a dream internship offering great pay and most importantly the chance to learn a ton while working with people who are much smarter than I.
Realizing it was two weeks ago since this trip, I figured I should update on it. London was a blast. It was great to be there with my parents and sister. As you may recall I was there back at the beginning of my trip here in the UK so I was familiar enough with the underground and how to get around town. The best part was that we only overlapped a few things that I did the first time. Starting Friday when we got there, we checked into our hotel down the street from Victoria Station in the theater district. First stop was at the 700 year old Westminster Abby. It was huuge! Needless to say it was also quite beautiful and ornate.
Saturday started off with the Tower of London. It is actually not one tower but lots of towers to make up a castle. The main attraction in the center tower is the crown jewels. There are no words for what these look like. To view them you must line up on a big conveyor belt and it gives you a little drive by of the glass case the jewels are in. Lucky for us there weren’t many people so we went around a few times. We then headed for the river where we took a boat tour down the Thames River through the middle of London. We then jumped on an open top, double decker bus and headed to Madam Tussauds wax museum. In two days, it was the first place I repeated anything from my first trip. It was still so neat. Seeing it for the second time gave me the chance to really take all the detail in. I remember the first time there was very overwhelming trying to look at every person… especially with a group of other kids wanting to move on to the next thing! Saturday night we took a ride on the London Eye. Its a giant ferris wheel in that overlooks the town. Each pod is so big it carry up to 20 people in it! Our final stop of the evening was at this very nice, very very good Indian restaurant. I had never had Indian food before so I was in for a great treat. It was so good! Im just glad Im an adventurous eater.
Sunday we got up early and got a place in front of Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guards. What an incredible amount of fanfare. It was extremely crowded but definitely worth sticking around to watch. The music was great and what we could see of the ceremony was very interesting. A lot of people walking around pretty much. Next stop was the Queens Gallery. It was very interesting and most notably extravagantly elegant. Everything was gold this or eight hundred years old that. Although it was neat, my favorite thing we saw was the Royal Mews. This is where all of the horse drawn carriages are kept. We saw the wedding carriage, my favorite, the scottish carriage used when the queen is in edinburgh and the every day carriage…. Ya, she has an everyday carriage! We then headed to St. Pauls cathedral where we went for a early afternoon service then headed for an early dinner as our final hurrah as a family. After dinner was a quick pack job for me and then I said my goodbyes and headed off to catch a train to the airport. It was so great to see them I was sad to leave but in only a few short weeks I knew Id be seeing them again.
At the¬†beginning¬†of this week, I was lucky enough to go meet my family at the Edinburgh airport and invite them to my new stomping grounds. We had a busy week planned filled with lots of things to see and places to go. Starting Monday, I picked them up at the airport and then headed to check in to their hotel. Once settled in, we took off on a walk to go see my flat and have dinner at the ‘golf tavern’ next door where we met a bunch of my friends and had a great meal and of course…a pint! Tuesday turned out be a beautiful day in Scotland so I took them climbing Aruthur’s Seat, the mountain in the middle of town, and then we jumped on a train headed for Glasgow. We did some shopping, walked around and just took it easy the rest of the day. We took the train back in the late afternoon and proceeded to crash after all the walking around we did. Wednesday was just as fun. I took them on a tour of the three different campuses that make up my uni. At the last campus, I had my scottish culture class so I decided to invite my sister along to join me. She loved being able to go to a college level course and what was even better was the topic was right up her alley… Scottish Architecture. After class we headed back downtown to meet my parents and then headed to a pub called ‘Deacon Brodies’ for a early dinner. Today, Thursday, I am just finishing up my class of the day and then Dad and I are planning to play golf at one of the local courses as long as the rain holds off! Tomorrow morning, Friday, we are flying out of Edinburgh bound for London for the weekend.¬†
As in previous posts, I have talked about how as part of our Scottish Culture course we go on field trips. Well yesterday was our last one sadly though it was so much fun! We took a 45 minute bus ride through all these little towns and finally arrived in the middle of nowhere. In the middle of all these fields was a small campus with a great big sign, Glenkinchie Distillery. As soon as we stepped off the bus you could smell the fresh air. It reminded me of being around home with all the fields around and no city smells. Our first stop at the distillery was the museum which took about fifteen minutes and then we were all ready to do the full tour. The first room was where they milled the hops. We went in to each room of the making process; adding the yeast, heating it, storing it, and best part… drinking it. Of course we went to the tasting room where they had bottle after bottle of different malts including at least ten of their own single malts as well as ones from all over Scotland. Now I have been to a few distilleries and none have been more generous with how much you can try. I had a few different kinds. They¬†taught¬†us how to drink it properly and¬†emphasized¬†there is not “right” way to drink whisky. By adding a tiny bit of water released oils from the malt which takes away from of the harshness of the drink… though I was told drinking it with ice is a big no no at least in Scotland. Ooops! It cools the drink too much to be able to taste the full flavors. Well now I know. After our teacher dragged us all out of the tasting room we headed back to the bus for the ride home at which time almost everyone was asleep.¬†
I have added pictures from the little outing. Check them out under Glenkinchie Distillery. 
Last night I was hanging out in one of my buddies’ room and we were chatting and he asked if I had any plans for the night. I said no and he asked if I wanted to hit up the local jazz club. Being the jazz¬†aficionado¬†that I am, I of course said yes. We took off and got there around 10ish. It was in this little basement bar with red lights… typical jazz club. There was a quartet on that consisted of guitar,bass, drums and sax/flute. They were really good. It was more modern jazz and not the swing type that we were looking for but non-the-less we enjoyed it. Around 12:00 they finished and the MC for the night announced that next was a funk band. As soon as they started we new our entrance cover fee had been well worth it. The funk band consisted of a female vocalist, guitar, drum kit, electric bass and a guy on the B3 Hammond Organ. It was great! They played everything from Aretha Franklin’s RESPECT to Cannonball Adderly’s Mercy Mercy Mercy. People were dancing, singing along and just grooving. The atmosphere was perfect. Suddenly we realized it was 3am so we decided to head back to the flat. When we got outside it was pouring so we walked a little ways then took a cab. On the way home my buddy tells the cabby suddenly to pull over. Im thinking what the heck is he doing? He told me that the “chippy” (thats fish and chip shop to you and I) was still open and we were making a “pit chip stop” on the way home. Yes thats right. There was a fish and chip shop open at 3am. Only in Edinburgh.¬†
 
As in true Scottish fashion, it rained like the dickens today. After spending two weeks in nearly perfect weather and then to be welcomed back to this was a little¬†disappointing. The funny part about it… I am so excited to be back even with the rain! It is just such typical UK weather that I feel right back at home wearing my rain coat all day every day just in case that cloud decides to let loose for the next half hour and then make way for the sun again.
As I was walking back from class today while it was pouring mind you, I looked up and over the buildings in front of me I could make out the castle in the middle of town. It hit me… I am still in freaking Scotland! ¬†Not for a moment was I sad to be leaving vacation and coming back. Everything has just become so second nature. Going to class in a castle, having the view of a mountain outside my flat, paying a small fortune every time I buy groceries, running next door to the pub for a pint with the guys on a random Thursday night, riding a double decker bus around the city every day, hearing that oh so fun scottish accent… I could keep going forever. It has all just become second nature and it hit me today that I cant take a moment for granted because as sad as it is I will have to leave one day. Lesson of the day: appreciate everything and everyone around me.
