you are all probably thrilled at my lack of journal-flooding, but i feel naked. well. erm. in some odd, not literal at all sense. really, i just mean... a lot has happened since that last journal, especially as the -actual- last one said nothing, and the one before that wasn't very helpful either. let's see what i can remember.

my abduction was up to the adorable town of aberlour (not to be confused with aberdour) in the speyside region of the highlands. [link] according to wikipedia, speyside produces more whisky than any other region of scotland. technically that's not why i was taken there, though i did tour the glenfiddich distillery. my flatmate charlotte, although english and from newcastle, recently bought a house there. or rather her family did. and she and jeannessa conspired to give me a lovely weekend away, in the highlands, drinking white russians and watching movies, having breakfast in bed and dinner on the deck, visiting the coast and waterfalls, touring distilleries and aquariums, and generally just having a grand old time. yay! so delightful, if i say so myself. thank you for my birthday treat, girls

uhhhh.... i've done a lot other than that....

* had a couple dinner parties at my flat. yay for food and friends!
* took andrew to dynamic earth for his birthday, preceeded by brunch at our favourite cafe and followed by watching a movie and then going out to dinner.
*went to linlithgow again, this time on my own. sunbathed at the top of a tower, studied in an adorable cafe, wandered down to the loch...
*oh yeah. lots of studying. boooo
*several pubquizes, per usual
*had a tea party at daniel's flat. very masculine, hehe. nah, it was awesome. he made us proper tea, brewed for the correct amount of time, looseleaf, good quality, all that. i've had a rather full exposure to black teas, but jeannessa and andrew hadn't, so it was a learning experience for them. and just plain yummy for me. then andrew had to leave, so it was just me and jeannessa and daniel, and we sat around talking for ages. i think i'm going to miss them the most out of all my friends here. after a bit, daniel brought out this book to show us, a guide to single malt whiskies. amazing descriptions! then, he also brought out his really really nice whisky and let us try some. since we met at a distillery tour, he knows we both appreciate the good quality stuff. apparently to get the full experience of the whisky, you're supposed to hold it in your mouth for 2 seconds for every year it's been in the cask. we tried it with some lagavulin 16 year... for those of you not familiar with such drinks, holding straight whisky in your mouth for 32 seconds is a bit ... warm. but it really was amazing. you could feel the flavour moving around your tongue, and by the end, all the burn was gone and it was the smoothest sip i've ever had. seriously, try this! we also did the 2-second thing for another whisky he had, but it wasn't nearly as high quality and therefore was just 24 seconds of the same thing. i never thought i'd be anything like a connoisseur of any sort of alcohol, but i'm starting to realise i wouldn't mind it with whisky. see what the past months in scotland have done to me?
*isle of skye - study abroad trip- bus from edinburgh up through some of the key spots in scotland- the new ones for me were the queen's view (a famous lookout over a loch) and eilean donan castle (pictures will come. i meant to submit as i wrote this up, but i'm in a computer lab to escape the keyboard from hell, and therefore don't have my pictures accessible). skye was lovely, absolutely lovely. i had been anxiously awaiting the trip up there, and it was well worth it. we stayed in a sweet hotel in kyleakin, right near the skye bridge ( linking the island to the mainland) and had some fantastic sunsets. i spent most of the weekend with the gang (jeannessa, andrew, liz, emma, brittany, julie... yes, andrew's the only guy, as max isn't on our study abroad program) and there are lots of fun pictures of our silliness. why there was so much singing, i'll never know.... jeannessa opted to stay with me on saturday morning for the bus tour of the island rather than hiking (thank you for not leaving me alone, sweetpea. and man, i hate hiking! but it was the better option anyway, we saw sooo much more of the island!) and then in the afternoon it was dunvegan castle, very very cool.
* lots of studying at the elephant house. lots of studying everywhere, actually. study study study.

*family visiting, and london- this shall have to be gone into later
*exam one on tuesday (went well) exam two on wednesday (don't ask, please...) exam three on monday, and exam four on thursday. ugh! ugh! only half done...

ok. sick of journalling now.

by the way.. .it's a LOVELY day today- i've been chilling out on the meadows (big ol park near my flat) a ton over the past few days. studying, reading, being with friends.... glorious weather, freshly cut grass, blossoming trees, people playing rugby....


[link] click... if you dare


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