So I hesitate to say this because I know I have friends in grad school in the U.S. who read this… buuuuut my classes for the second semester were over last week! HURRAY! I do have final papers to turn in, but I have three weeks in which to write three papers. Life’s been harder. Although, this being Ireland, basically my entire grade in the course rests on this one paper… damn British education system (that, to be fair, is in place in basically every English-speaking country in the world EXCEPT America).
So, anyway, I spent this past weekend in St. Andrews, Scotland with my friend from ND Lauren. As I was packing on Thursday night, I was talking to my mom on the phone and I mentioned that my classes were over, which for whatever reason she hadn’t known. She said, “Oh! Your classes are over?? You should treat yourself!”to which I responded, “… I am treating myself. I’m… going to Scotland. Remember? I’m packing for it now? While I speak to you?” It was pretty funny.
Anyway, the weekend was great. Lauren got her M.A. from the University of St. Andrews last year, so she knows the town really well and has a ton of friends and everything so it was awesome getting to hang out with her. We are also both huge fans of the Backer (THE BEST BAR IN THE ENTIRE WORLD… no exceptions) so a great deal of our conversations revolved around Backer drinks, Backer bartenders, Backer shoes and Backer sludge. To top this off, my mom (without knowing we’d had these conversations) on Saturday morning emailed me the yelp reviews for the Backer just because she thought I’d enjoy them. Perfect timing, Mom.
St. Andrews is cool. There's a great university there (it's where Kate Middleton met Prince William! ahh!!) and where golf was invented (seriously. The Old Course is awesome). There's also this ruin of a Catholic cathedral that Protestants went to town on and destroyed during the Reformation, and Lauren was telling me that Catholics still refer to it as "the cathedral" and Protestants just refer to it as "the ruin." It was stunningly beautiful, whatever it was. There is also a coffeeshop with a huge sign in the window that says, "Where Kate Met Wills." I'd feel bad for the girl with her life newly under a microscope and all, but she gets to be the Queen of England, so. My sympathy is a little tempered.
On Sunday, I had to spend about four hours in Glasgow because of an awkwardness with when the last bus left St. Andrews and then when my flight itself left. Man, Glasgow sucks. It's not unsafe or dangerous or anything, but the best analogy I could come up with would be something like Peoria, Illinois. It's just like... "okay, I'm here. What do I do now?" My solution was to eat and then walk around aimlessly, which worked out okay for me, but it's not a place I intend to revisit ever in my life.
Overall, it was just so great to be around ND again. I know it seems like I see my college friends a lot if you read this blog, but I really only update it when things of import happen, so I really don’t get to see people from ND much. I just make sure to update whenever I do. Anyway I just love being around ND people and talking about ND. The end.
