like a rolling stone

Reading week, in a word, was fantastic. I really was working too hard and needed some time to catch up on my studies. And by that, I mean I traveled!

I took the opportunity to fly to Cardiff and visit my friend Hannah in Wales! Well, I flew in late Friday night, and we actually got up early Saturday and drove to London (about 2 hours) in her fiance Dai's company car - turns out that we had several friends from our summer in Konstanz, Germany that happened to be in London that weekend! It was an unexpected little reunion in a big city. Tons of fun. Went to the famous Harrods department store, saw a B-team comedian who thieved us out of five pounds, and of course, we went to a few pubs!

Seeing as I flew into Cardiff, I did want to see a bit of Wales as well. Hannah and Dai (the two making faces in front of St Fagans Castle below..) took off a couple days of work and were the best tour guides and hosts I could have asked for! We did a whirlwind shopping tour of Neath, a storybook castle experience at Castell Coch, and spent a day wandering about the historical village of St Fagans. They introduced me to cheese on toast (delicious!), Welsh cakes (divine with a cup of tea), Bradford pickle (questionable..), and Jaffa cakes (addicting)- I must say, we really ate far too well while I was in Wales!

After Wales, unfortunately I had to come back to St Andrews for a case study on modeling global climate change. As interesting as that was, I was off again soon thereafter...

First stop was the Scottish Deer Centre down the road from St Andrews! One of the most random, strange experiences of my life, but a valuable learning experience. By that, I mean I discovered my underlying fear of feeding wild deer pellets out of my hand. I know, it's a strange fear, but I'm not afraid to admit it. Stuart and I saw an abundance of deer, birds of prey, and apparently one of the largest Highland cows....who was also incredibly intimidating. Some biologist I am, huh?

The next day my friend Jane was en route from Morocco to Edinburgh to visit me, so I took the opportunity to spend the day in Edinburgh with Stuart. I finally made it to the famous castle atop the volcano, and even made it in time to see the 1:00 cannon shot. Nearly jumped out of my skin, but it was worth it. Headed from there to walk around the city a bit and see the Scottish Parliament building and Queen's residence. The Scottish Parliament was an unexpectedly ugly modern building. Apparently it has little "contemplation pods" sticking out of the building at each MSP's office. The building also uses solar panels as part of the sustainability strategy - I don't think the designer realized this was being built in not-so-sunny Scotland.

From there, we met Jane at the airport and headed on back to St Andrews! As her hostess, I had big plans to make sure Jane did everything Scottish and see as much as she could of this wonderful place. We started by initiating the day with a full Scottish breakfast (egg, blood sausage, haggis, beans, toast, tomato) then we hit up the Cathedral ruins and St Andrews Castle. After picking up a healthy serving of Scotch pies and Fisher & Donaldson fudge donuts, we headed towards the Old Course and West Sands for a Chariots of Fire reenactment. Then of course, went to the nearby Anstruther for the famous fish and chips on the harbor. Met up with the gang later at a pub for some Scottish beer drinking, then topped off our evening with your standard fried mars bar. Could not have packed more of Scotland into one day if you ask me!

Followed this up with a two-day road trip up north to the Isle of Skye. It was an interesting 6 hour drive there in the car with Steve and his guy friends - never a dull moment, shall we say! We enjoyed the consistency of west coast cold, rainy weather the entire time, but it was an incredibly beautiful place all the same. We chased sheep, hiked to cliff edges and waterfalls, drove unpaved roads, saw many-a-castles, watched Scotland football with locals, slept in a smelly hostel, and nearly ran out of gas on windy roads far removed from civilization. It was in intense couple of days!

After Jane left and the excitement of Reading Week was over, things calmed down a bit. And necessarily so. Although, with Christmas spirit in the air, I made sure I saw the St Andrews Christmas lights festival! It was a fun-filled event with all of St Andrews in the town center counting down to switch on the lights, followed by a walking tour down to the pier for a fireworks display. Despite the cold, it was a really nice Christmas tradition to be a part of.

So that's really the update on Reading Week and thereafter - more news to come soon on travels to Paris before I head to Chicago for Christmas!