Feeling Better

So I am feeling better after the antibiotics have started to kick in! I have my voice back finally! I had my first presentation for one of my classes today in film on Early American Silent film and I think it went really well so that is always good. This past week I booked my spring break trip with friends and our plans are to fly from Edinburgh on March 28th to Paris and then on the 31st to Rome. We are then taking the train to Florence, Pisa, Venice and Milan. Then on April 8th we are flying from Milan to Brussels, then the train on April 10th to Amsterdam and finally on April 12th flying back to Edinburgh. It is going to be a full two weeks but I am so excited to visit all of those places and generally just travel as I have never been anywhere in Europe before. I'm also really looking forward to my trips in the next three weeks. This upcoming weekend I am going on my homestay with the Butler program to Stirling, Scotland and staying with another girl in the program and a Scottish family. Then the next weekend Butler is taking the group to Loch Lomond in the Highlands of Scotland which should be really a great trip. Then the 13th of March a few friends and I are going to Dublin for the weekend to celebrate St. Patrick's day.

I had my second golf lesson on Tuesday and had my own golf clubs to play with! Mom shipped some of them here for me which was great. I bought a cheap bag and am going to buy a links pass soon so that I can play golf on the Olde Course and the other courses here including the Castle Course! The lessons are really great and I love my swing coach as he is young, quite cute and has an accent. : )

Everything is going great and I am enjoying my time here so much. I will update you after this weekend trip to Stirling with lots of pictures!

Miss and Love y'all!

xoxo
<3
Caroline

Colds are no fun

So Thursday night I lost my voice and have yet to get it back and I also seem to have caught a cold. I have not been doing much except reading for my classes, drinking lemon tea, gargling salt water, drinking cough medicine and sleeping since then. I have an appointment with the student health services tomorrow so hopefully I will get some Scottish drugs to cure me. Friday I leave to go on my homestay with Butler, I am going to Stirling and staying with another Butler student and a Scottish family for the weekend. I am looking forward to seeing Stirling and exploring another city in Scotland. I will keep you updated this week on everything! Miss you! Love y'all!

xoxo

Caroline <3

GOLF!

So these past few days have been great and today especially. I joined the Women's golf club today and had my first lesson with a cute instructor : ) . I also found out that every Wednesday the golf club goes out for pub golf---pubs and golf two of my favorite things, I will so be there! And every Wednesday around two the golf girls go and play so I am sure that I will be starting that. I am so excited about it and just loved hitting balls on the St. Andrews driving range today. It really made me connect more with golf and understand how much I love golf. Here are som pictures from the range.

The town from the driving range


Me looking touristy
My friend Holly from Yale looking touristy : )

A beautiful sunset walking back from the driving range

Uni Hall Ball

University Hall had our Hall Ball last night and I had so much fun! It was in Younger hall which is about a 7 minute walk from University Hall but as most of the girls were in heels and dresses we decided to take a short taxi ride there and back and it was well worth it as my feet still hurt from just being at the ball in my heels. It was a great time and I had the chance to spend time with some students who are not in my program and branch out. The theme was a roaring 20's and the decorations were cute! And the free champagne was a definite plus! Some friends and I are going to make tacos for dinner tonight before our Single Saturday festivities for Valentine's day. Hope you have a great Valentine's day!




Love y'all and miss you!

xoxo

Caroline <3

Snow!

So waking up this morning to snow was great! Even if it is not my first snow ever, snow is always fun! Classes are going great so far (since I have only had class 3 times : ) ) and I'm really enjoying them. Tomorrow night is the University Hall Ball and I'm really excited to get dressed up! I'll post pictures from Hall Ball on Saturday. Here is a picture of the snow from my window.



Love y'all and miss you!

xoxo

Caroline <3

Wait I actually have to go to class?

So my first day of class was today and I really enjoyed my classes. My Jesus and the Gospels class is great (and it doesn't hurt that the Lecturer is cute and young with an accent). I enjoyed my Scottish History class even though all we talked about was what the class will be like. My film history class was interesting but it was the first feelings of Anti-Americanism that I encountered. The lecturer (who seemed to be American?) showed a clip of a film that was set in 2006 on Fourth of July in Texas and was based on the beginning of WWIII as nuclear weapons were dropped. It was not the most comfortable thing for me to watch and as the campus is comprised of 20% Americans I'm sure I was not the only one. But I don't believe the entire class will be like that as we have our first film screening tomorrow of "Some Like it Hot" with Marilyn Monroe. Tonight is the beginning of Refeshers Week with a bop in the Student Union pub. Some friends and I are planning to attend and hopefully meet more students.

Last night out for dinner with some of the Butler group

Love y'all and miss you!

xoxo Caroline<3

More pictures

So last night was great fun and the dinner that we made was so good we decided to make it a weekly tradition and planned next weekend as tacos night! Tonight another girl in the program is turning 21 so we are all going out to dinner and possibly out to a pub after. It should be great fun! I finally have my schedule worked out (mostly) I am going to take Jesus and the Gospels (a divinity class), Scotland, Britain and Empire (a Scottish history class) and Film history. I am only in class Monday, Tuesday and Thursday which is great. Here are some pictures from last night and some from in Edinburgh and I will have to post more soon from tonight!

First weekend in St. Andrews

Hi Everyone! Sorry this weekend has been very busy and my blogging skills are slacking! I am having an amazing time though! Today was great because I slept in until 11:30 and then FINALLY finished unpacking! I then had a late lunch with some friends at an American place called Butlers where they make great cheap wraps and then went to the student union pub to watch the 6 nations rugby games. I can't believe they play rugby in DUBLIN in FEBRUARY in SHORTS and a TSHIRT! I am off to a friends apartment for dinner as the dining hall does not do dinner on Saturday or Sunday, but I wanted to put up some pictures as I have over 200 from the last 3 days and have not put any on here!



I'm not sure what this is but it was in Edinburgh on the Royal mile and I thought it was beautiful so here is a picture of it!
The Edinburgh Castle

From the top of the Edinburgh Castle

Another view of the castle

My dorm at St. Andrews

My very ugly bedspread supplied by the university
My Closet



My first Kilt sighting at St. Andrews! I think there was a wedding


Market Street fountain in the center of St. Andrews


Palm trees in St. Andrews??? They are some hardy Palm trees
The North Sea with the highlands in the background

I see the GOLF COURSE!!!!

The Royal and Ancient club house which I will not be able to go to because I'm not an old Scottish man


The course! It made me fall in love with golf all over again

GOLFERS!

Hope you enjoy the pictures and I will post more soon! Love y'all! Miss you!
xoxo

Caroline <3

In St. Andrews!

Hey Everyone!! I finally made it to St. Andrews yesterday around 5:30pm and quickly found out that internet here requires an eathernet cord which I did not bring! So I had to go get that this morning at the stores close at 5pm in town. I will update my blog later with pictures from the Edinburgh Castle, which we went to on Tuesday and stories from getting to St. Andrews! I am planning on taking many pictures of St. Andrews tomorrow and posting them soon! But so far St. Andrews is great! My dorm is nice, the people that are here are nice (many students are not back from vacation yet) and the food (not in the dining hall--which makes me miss the ACDC at Vassar) is good. I still need to unpack and get settled in my room but so far I am loving it! I will update later today or tomorrow with many pictures! Love y'all! Miss you!

xoxo Caroline <3

Exploring Edinburgh

Hi Everyone! Today I explored Edinburgh, bought a phone and a blow dryer and met some of the kids that are doing the program with me. Most of the students in the program were stuck in London Heathrow airport because of the snow. It hasn't snowed all that much here but I guess it is the most snow they have had since 1991. I would say it snowed about 2 1/2 or 3 inches in Edinburgh but London got about a foot of snow and it is all anyone can talk about! There are about 11 of us Butler students here at the moment and the 37 others are stuck in London, but they should be arriving here tomorrow late in the day (we hope). Exploring Edinburgh was really great and I was able to use my experience later to help the others here get a phone. Some of the students have been traveling around Europe for a week or two but most of us just got here last night or this morning. Everyone is really nice and there is even a girl here who is my year at Vassar! While we didn't really know eachother we know the same people and kind of know of eachother so this should give us a chance to get to know eachother. I took some great pictures of Edinburgh while exploring and look forward to taking some more in St. Andrews! Tonight all the students that are here are going out to a pub in just a bit (Meredith-the 3 sisters pub is right across the street from our hotel!) so that should be fun and I will have to inform you of our adventures tonight tomorrow!
The Edinburgh Castle in the Snow

My first double decker bus sighting!

Again the Castle but frome a different angle--I think it is so beautiful!



Outside the church near the Castle

They really do exisit!




I asked the driver and this is a shipment for ONE PUB FOR ONE NIGHT!!!!

Love y'all! Miss you!

xoxo Caroline <3

I made it! And my suitcases did too!

Hi Everyone!

I made it to Edinburgh along with BOTH of my suitcases! I am so excited! I had a whole row to myself from Denver to LA (a whole 6 seats to spread out! lol) The flight from LA to London was LONG! But luckily I was tired (with some help from some lovely meds) and slept most of the way! In London, I don't think I went through customs (but i got a stamp in my passport?) so maybe I did....I didn't have to tell them anything or have them search my bag or anything! The flight from London to Edinburgh was only 55minutes but we got a sandwich (ham AND chicken salad) and a beverage! For Free! I am so used to American flights where you have to pay for everything! I made it to Edinburgh with no problems and to a taxi with no problems and the hotel is so nice and I can see the Edinburgh Castle from my room! I love it so far! The pictures of the castle from tonight are not great but I will take some more tomorrow to post. I love beeing called love and everyone here is so nice and with such wonderful accents! I can't wait to explore tomorrow!

Before leaving with Lynn, Rhett and Caleigh



In the Denver Airport checking in


My first Sunset in the UK


My Ham AND Chicken Salad sandwich!

The Hotel Room~ I get two beds!

My bathroom

The light switch in the hotel room I could not figure out for the life of me--you have to leave your key in the thing to keep the lights on---I had to call the front desk to ask how to get the lights to stay on...lol


I'll post with more picutres tomorrow! Love y'all! miss you!


xoxo Caroline <3