St. Patrick's Day in Dublin

sorry it's been so long folks! i've been super slack, but in my defense, i got a gnarly cold which rendered me incapacitated.

so the american group went to Dublin for st. patricks day. we left that afternoon, started drinking on the train (another reason scotland is awesome) and continued all through the night. now st. patrick's day in ireland is possibly some of the most fun i've had of ever. it was nuts. and people loved me! this guy on the train told me to stop being so irish. i was told more times that night that i look irish than i ever had been in my life. it was so great. people basically threw drinks at us. i found a really sick hat in mcdonalds that these angry german guys (i think they were angry, they looked angry and they sounded angry, but they may have just been drunk germans) left on the table.

Here i am wearing my new hat in the mcdonalds! 

i also met a girl who is a KD at clemson and knows lindsey echols, which was so cool. however, i couldn't tell you her name for the life of me. we took a picture together though. i met an ADPi from North Carolina i think (?) and she was nice as well. we took a greek unity picture. we pretty much bar hopped all night, drinking guinness and dancing, and i found a groovy green scarf as well. i don't have a good picture of it, so you'll have to trust me on that one. we didn't have anywhere to stay that night so we stayed up until like 5 then got the shuttle to the airport where we slept for like an hour before the airport people woke us up. how rude. so we puttered around the airport friday morning until the hotel called us and said we could come to our rooms at like 10 ish and we all showered and passed out for awhile. that was lovely. all of us died over the bathrobes. so nice! 

that night we went to this really excellent italian restaurant where a 3 course meal was 20 euros, so all the girls split in to groups of 2 and split a 3 course meal. alyssa and i split the garlic fried mushrooms stuffed with a trio of cheeses for an appetizer, the smoked salmon and mashed potatoes for the main course and a delightful chocolate brownie for dessert. it was to die for--seriously one of the best meals i've ever had. om nom nom... after that though, the sketchy started. it took us like 2 hours to find our effing bus stop, which was in the hood. while we were there, this crackhead and her 2 male cronies came up and tried to take the boy's shopping bags which had beer in them. when they said no, she grabbed one and ran, and one of the guys turned and grabbed it back from her, only to get decked in the face by the dude. the chick kicked one of the girls in the legs several times, and the other guy fell on the majority of the girls so they couldn't get up. hana and i were on the end and we jumped up and ran to the side. fight or flight at its finest y'all. so the boys are fighting and finally give the girl a beer since thats what she wanted and they left, but not after coming over to hana and myself and trying to apologize i guess? its all hazy. then sean came over to tell them to back off us and the guy threatened to pull a knife on sean's neck. scary potatoes. BUT we got out fine and mostly unscathed. thank god for that. 

then the next day we decided to do touristy things. we got a bus tour of dublin and saw trinity college, the natural history museum and stopped at st. patrick's cathedral and dublin castle. i didn't go in the latter two--they were too expensive and not appealing enough. and my boyfriend, aidan (yes, i have a scottish boyfriend, he's fantastic) told me that i wouldn't like the castle so i didn't waste the money. we ended the tour at the guinness factory. the guinness factory is possibly one of the coolest places ever. you pay 11 euros to get in, but its so worth it. you get a pint at the top in the gravity bar which gives you the most groovy view of dublin EVER. and the whole tour is super awesome as well. sadly, my camera died this morning so i am unable to provide pictures for you here. so trust me. if you ever go to dublin, do not skip out on the guinness tour. even if you think you don't like guinness. a) its better in the factory b/c its made there and b) its just a cool tour. do it. trust me. :) 

so thats really it. i'm leaving in the morning for mid-semester break (though i cannot comprehend how on earth the semester is half over already!) and i'm going with 2 other girls to nice, florence, venice and paris. it's going to rock!!! i packed my charger and adaptor so there will be no mishaps this time camera wise. :) 

love you all, give me suggestions for posts please!!!

xoxo,

natalie

wamboozie and haggis

so last monday i introduced my flat to the delights of wamboozie. for all who are curious/concerned/perhaps want to make some of their own while abroad, we made it with glenn's vodka, a 12 pack of stella artois, 2 liter bottles of lemonade and limeade, and threw in some lemon juice and apple soda to taste. since we lacked a cooler, we made it in pots and a casserole dish, but it worked out just as well.

don't be fooled by the unappealing color, (or should i say colour?) for it tastes delayshus. everyone was a wee bit skeptical at first, i mean it really doesn't sound very good and it looks right nursty, but hollie and i were adamant that it would happen and be awesome, so we made it and tasted it first. once we gave the stamp of approval, we got everyone else going, and let me tell you, it was a hit. we made two batches of the stuff and everyone still wanted more! it was flat bonding at it's best, as the whole flat got in on the crazy! that night we had originally planned to have haggis then wamboozie, but we forgot about the haggis and just made the boozie, which was fine. hollie made me haggis a few nights later and i loved it. its kind of spicy, but not too much, and really hard to describe but i'm definitely a fan. i'd advise it to anyone coming to scotland. vegetarian haggis tastes almost the same, and is just as good, so for all you veggies out there, rule number 76, no excuses, play like a champion. 

sorry this blog is so short, i have a 1000 word biology essay on carnivorous plants due next week, and while i have about 750 words written right now, i still need to work on it. and i have a 2500 word essay due at the end of next week for english (though it is a creative writing piece so it should be fun to write at least). this coming weekend i'm going to dublin for st. patrick's day so worry not, a long fabulous blog post is soon to come. :)

xoxo,

natalie

my first day trip to edinburgh

oh hayyy y'all!

so yesterday, i went to edinburgh with the american gang. we got to ride the train there and it was super exciting and lovely, and then we spent the whole day just doing awesome shooters with our awesome friends and soaking up each other's awesomeness. but seriously, edinburgh rocked. it is an exceptionally beautiful city and has a nice combination of touristy things and normal life things. the people for the most part were friendly, minus a cranky lady who didn't want to tell us where Gregg's was. Gregg's is a little bakery chain that has these awesome sausage rolls for 60 pence each! and they are filling and incroyable. we mostly walked around and took pictures and went in whatever shops we felt so inclined to go in along the way. when we first got off the train and into the city, we encountered a genuine piper playing on a street corner in a tartan that is very similar to the PC tartan. GO BLUE HOSE!

and the fun just continued from there. i bought a mug that looks like Nessie, the loch ness monster, and a scarf with sheep on it from a street vendor, though it smells pretty funky so i'll need to wash it before i wear it. and if i can smell how funky it smells, y'all know it smells right rank. i also purchased an absolutely beautiful leather journal that was hand crafted with a tree on the front and back and celtic symbols from the 9th century around the corners. it is stunning to behold, and is the favorite of the man who carved them. it was a little pricey, but i think i'll be using it forever since it is just a cover and you can switch out the books whenever they get full. and then my favorite purchase of the day is a flower hat. scoff if you must, but this hat is groovy. it looks like an upside down flower, and apparently is all the rage. people can get away with silly things over here, and this hat makes me extremely happy. i'm currently wearing it as i type this blog post. Here is me holding my journal and rockin the hat. 

now isn't that just darling? i got loads of compliments on it as well, so shut your face if you don't like it. :) we also took pictures with a man dressed up as Braveheart for leukemia research. yes, of course i donated money, and no, of course he wasn't wearing knickers under his kilt. he mooned the crowd. 

we went to Edinburgh Castle but didn't go in because the line was very long and it wasn't worth the wait right then. for lunch we had papa john's, because the others really wanted papa johns and who am i to say no! it tastes the same over here. hana and i went in some really cool vintage stores on our way to meet the group for lunch, and then got lost and were helped by some lovely edinburgers who helped us get there, and we luckily didn't get taken a la the movie Taken, since neither of our fathers are Liam Neeson. the only bummer of the day was that the Elephant House, the place where J.K.Rowling wrote Harry Potter, was out of t-shirts. i mean really! so of course i'm going back, it is imperative that i have an elephant house t-shirt. 

and there you have it. a typical travel blog entry from your faithful blogger. comment any suggestions for a themed entry in the future! i like writing on themes. i hope this satisfied the picture craving, i did my best. <3 

hugs and keeses,

natalie

rona, and why clubs are weird.

Dearest readers, 

it is my pleasure to inform you that this blog post is going to be in two parts. the first part is dedicated to my flatmate Rona. This is Rona:

Doesn't she look cool? She lives in the room next to mine in our super groovy and fabulous flat. she is a vegetarian who enjoys a good bbq outside on a nice day, wearing cool clothes and dancing to disco music. we have enjoyed numerous fun times in the 2 and a half weeks since i have been in scotland, and i am sure that we will have more. rona is a fount of knowledge and good times, and i hear that she is a marvelous cook as well. 

she asked me to dedicate a blog post to her, so that was her dedication. hope that's good enough for ya rona. :)

the second part of this blog post is all about why i am not a club person. in my first couple of days in stirling, i ventured out to the Red Room (a club on campus) with three of my new found american friends. it was decent, they claimed to be having an indie night but they played pop music, and the drinks were expensive. it was also extremely crowded and my face got licked (literally) by a total stranger. so grody. but i told myself that that was not typical of a club scene, that there would be more room for dancing in a normal club and less people would try to lick my face. which brings me to last night. i was invited to go to Dusk, another night club around stirling, with the american crew as i have now come to know them. so i went, hoping for a more enjoyable experience. i was hoping for it to be like sigma nu on a good night, with space for me to bust a move to my favorite jam--waka waka (this time for africa) by shakira. we had to wait in a long queue to get in, and luckily i had a pass for a one pound entry b/c the entry fee was 4 pounds. then we got in, waited in line for the toilet and nearly got beat up by a fat girl in a tiny dress. she yelled at me and my friend hana, saying we cut her in line (which we clearly didn't) and since she was rather large we decided to just let her get in front of us. she was still rude to us for the rest of the line waiting time, and tried to fight our other friends as well. how rude. then we decided it was dancing time, so we wiggled our way through the massive crowd to the tiny dance floor where we attempted to shake it but were continuously jossled and pushed by the masses of sweaty people. i made my way to a wall so i could dance without gropage by randos, where i made friends with a tiny man who came up to my shoulders and we did silly dance moves. it was more humid in the club than the nastiest day in summer in georgia, and i was pretty much ready to leave after about 20 minutes. it made me miss pc and the drunk bus, quite frankly. i did get some excellent pictures though, like this: 

                                       

and this: 

so therefore, i have concluded, that i am a pub girl. i like to sit and enjoy my drinks while being able to talk to my friends and not sweating so much that i feel like i just got out of the shower, only sticky, and not being able to move, or do the waka waka dance when they play the song. i mean really. 

lots of love, 

natalie