"The freedom and simple beauty is too good to pass up"

So this week was very busy, but in a fantastically fun way.

The USC Findlanders and me fighting on in Edinburgh

Tuesday and Wednesday Sami, Jordan and their friends from Finland were in town so after work I met up with them and took them out to experience the lovely Edinburgh nightlife. All our usual pubs were empty since it was the middle of the week but we still managed to have a good night and I think everyone really enjoyed themselves.  I also got a chance to go to the library bar in Teviot on Wednesday night which is something I havent done yet and was very fun.  Traddies should definitely take note of the way the University of Edinburgh does on-campus bars because this one was pretty spectacular.

Thursday was a pretty stressful day.  I made my first big mistake at work when I misread some of my instructions and ended up mislabeling a day's worth of envelopes.  I of course freaked out when I realized how badly I'd screwed up and began apologizing profusely to everyone I was with, but my boss was very nice and made me feel a lot better about my mistake.  Just another instance of Scottish friendliness that has really colored my time here.  Its so much easier to be happy with your study abroad experience when you are surrounded by such nice people.

So after that little drama I was ready to put the week behind me. Fortunately, by Thursday night all the USCers had arrived in Edinburgh for the Highlands weekend trip.  We had another delicious USC sponsored dinner (this time at a yummy chinese buffet) and I got to catch up with Ryan and Shawn who I hadnt seen in a while, as well as meet some other USC students who I didnt know yet.  After dinner those of us from Edinburgh decided it would be fun to take everyone else out for the night so after a Tesco run, some confused directions and a little elevator trouble we all ended up at the Hive which I think all the other USC students really enjoyed.  Especially the ones from London who were shocked to be at a really fun club without having to pay an exorbitant cover-charge.  Overall it was a really fun night and I loved showing off Edinburgh.

Friday morning we had to wake up at the ungodly hour of 7 a.m. to be on the bus by 8 a.m. which was a little intense and may have influenced the relative silence on the bus for the first part of our journey.  The way the USC highland trip works is that we are all booked on a tour bus for the weekend that takes us through the major parts of the Scottish Highlands, with stops at some of the cooler sites.  One of our first stops on Friday was at a whiskey distillery called Tomatin which was amazing despite the insanely intense smell of whiskey throughout the tour. I thought Shawn was going to die of joy.

Shawn and I with 35 year old bottles of whiskey at the distillery

No sight of Nessie!

We also stopped at Loch Ness which was pretty exciting, but not going to lie a little bit of an anti-climactic visit.  You can literally see everything you need to see in Loch Ness in about 15 minutes.  Its pretty much just a lake with a statue of Nessie out front where you take your picture and then go to the bathroom.  Not too exciting, but still a fun place to say I've been.  After Loch Ness we headed to Fort Augustus for the evening where we saw a highland show consisting of weapons demonstrations, a lesson in how to wear a kilt and a long lecture on why the highlanders are the best Scots alive.  It was interesting but felt a little overly theatrical. I'm not so sure it was a necessary part of our trip but still fun.  Our hostel in Fort Augustus was probably the nicest one I've been too.  Shawn, Erin and I all had our own room and I got to have a queen bed all to myself which was wonderful. They also provided us with dinner and a karaoke machine, which was very nice considering how much us Americans love karaoke ;)

Saturday morning we woke up early once again, but fortunately I got a a good night's sleep so I wasnt in quite the comatose state  I was in Friday.  Saturday we headed out to the Isle of Skye, which was a spectacular drive and was our first great experience of just how beautiful the highlands really are.  One of our first stops in the morning was at a castle on a lake in the highlands.  Although I'm a little castled out right now I still really enjoyed the tour as this castle was a lot less formal than many I've been too, and the tour guides did a very good job explaining the place in engaging and interesting ways.  After the castle we headed across the bridge and spent the day hiking through Skye.  If I ever doubted the beauty of Scotland (which I obviously didn't) Skye definitely put all those fears to rest in about five minutes.  The whole island is amazing with rolling hills, beautiful coastlines and amazing views.

Some beautiful shots of the Scottish Highlands from Skye

That night we all headed to the pub for our last USC sponsored dinner.  Dinner was good and there was also a live singer at the bar that night so we all spent the evening just dancing, hanging out and catching eachother up on our mutual abroad stories.  Overall a very pleasant evening :)

Me fulfilling my semester-long dream of feeding a highland cow

Sunday we spent most of the day retracing our steps back down into the lowlands but not without making a few pit stops to take more spectacular photographs.  Our last stop on the tour was probably the most exciting for me, we stopped to feed Hamish the highland cow.  For those of you who dont know Highland Cows, or what the Scottish affectionately call "hairy coos," are adorable, massive, hairy, horned animals that love to eat carrots out of your hands.  I felt like a little kid again feeding mine and thoroughly enjoyed the activity    Overall the whole highland weekend was amazing.  Since Scotland isnt that big we got to traverse a lot of the country over the course of three days, see some amazing sights, and just be outside in some of the nicest weather I've had in Scotland yet. 

We got back to Edinburgh around 3 and I spent the rest of the day showing Ryan, Shawn, Erin and Emin around Edinburgh.  We stopped at some of the main sites, and since it was Sunday we were also able to see some of the street performers, including this amazing guy who could swallow swords whole.  That was slightly disgusting but still really cool.  After dinner, we all met up again with some of my friends from Edinburgh since it was Rob's 21st birthday.  The evenings festivities were quite fun if I do say so myself, especially considering the fact that Sarah and Ana made cake and cupcakes that we all got to enjoy :)

I've got a very busy week to look forward to with less than a month left until elections and my paper's due date looming over my head.  I'm sure it will be a great couple weeks though nd I'm looking forward to seeing whatt else Scotland has in store for me.  Until then I hope you're all well!

Also happy birthday to the the best father in the world who turned sixty today!!! Hope you dont feel too old dad ;)

One last parting shot of the beautiful Scottish Highlands!