Ireland and Scotland

Boring title. Sorry. Just gotta keep my travels straight n clear, ya heard? Watch this video to get ya in the mood. They were there to greet us in the airport when we first got to Ireland. How presh.

For whatever reason, I feel like there’s so much invested in this particular blahg post by you readers out there (I know I have at least SOME readers because you’ve been the ones telling me how anxious you are for this particular post). Thanks, but no thanks on the pressure! Sheesh. It’s just going to be normal. So stop being excited. Right now.

The gist of this is that here in England, we get a FOUR WEEK long Spring break. Take that, America. Hmph. They don’t call it Spring break, naturally, in this subfreezing weather, but rather “holiday.” So, I’m off on holiday. I think we’re supposed to be studying during this time. Meh. You better believe I’m doing some traveling. Have I mentioned how awful I am at knowing where I am or in what direction I’m moving? I’m terrible. So here’s a formal thank you to everyone (ok, Chase mostly) who gets me around while I document all the pretty things via my sister’s expensive camera. I’m too poor for that stuff, man. I've been eating cereal out of a chinese takeout container for dinner and sliced white bread for lunch. Ritzy glitzy. That's another talk show.

Cheers!

First stop was Ireland for none other than SAINT PAT’S DAY! Hellur. Never thought I’d say I was there for that. That shit cray. We stayed in a town called Cork for the first several (? I don’t even remember how many. Seems like ages ago now, but something like 4) nights including for St. Patrick’s day. It was so cool to be there for that. In Cork, St. Patrick’s day was more of a family event with a precious little parade filled with locals and bagpipers (locals and bagpipers—I guess that’s one in the same…) and lots of tents set up along the street with food and crafts. Sort of like Double Decker? That’s a stretch, but it at least gives you Oxford kids a visual. We were part of a bigger group that all traveled to Ireland from Leeds (my university) and all went out to the pub after the freezing cold festivities and drank some green beer.

Ignore my face and look at the mold in the corner. Dying. 

We stayed in a couple different hostels during our time in Ire (I’m turning into such a hostel girl these days. I borderline hate them all, but I’m really starting to get the hang of nasty places where tons of people sleep in the same bedroom and shower in each other’s scum) the first one being the best I’ve seen in Europe so far, and the second one being the worst by a mile. I’m soon going to have a blahg post just dedicated to hostels (and another dedicated to food), so I won’t go into too much detail, but there was mold everywhere on the walls, it stunk like the grass cutting boy, and none of the sheets or comforters matched each other which leads me to believe they picked them up at a Goodwill or something. BUT, I loved hanging out with the people we met in the hostel. That is definitely the best aspect of these weird places. They were a group of study abroaders like us from all over the world, studying at another uni (university) in England and were there for the weekend as well. They were so fun. It was like we’d known them all for years. I took this sorta-pic of the nasty hostel, but unfortunately, I didn’t snap any of our friends. We were obvi having too much fun. But I swear they exist. Oh, and we've been playing a lot of card games. It's a good way to meet strangers that sorta bypasses any potential language barriers.

Playin' some curds. And likely getting my butt kicked and then pouting about it.

Here's one pic of the Cliffs. Obvi doesn't do it justice.
Click this pic to make it bigger.

While St. Patrick’s day was legit and cool and fun and whatever, the BEST part was just aghhdsjfjkdsfk AWESOME. We visited the Cliffs of Moher (which I had never heard of until I was in Ire), which was literally the most beautiful place I had ever been to. Like, by a million miles at that. I wished every person I love could have been there with me to see them. It was almost too much for the human eyeball to even focus on. Not almost. It was. Something I have never experienced before. Simply breath-taking. A mild asthmatic, it doesn’t take a lot to take my breath away, so this about killed me. Which is ironic being that 115 people have died off the cliffs in the last 10 years. They have 700 ft. drops to the ocean with minimal (if any at some points) railings for tourist protection. Livin’ on edge, y’all. Regardless, I am just so happy to have been able to go there (and to have lived to blahg about it). If I don’t get to go anywhere else, I think the cliffs would be enough to keep me satisfied for a while. Meh, maybe. I’m really liking this world traveling thing.

We visited Blarney Castle, too. That was neat except that it started raining/snowing just as we got to the top, and you wouldn't believe it-- I fell. I know. It's so normal, it's not even interesting when it happens anymore. Bless the little old Indian man in front of me who sorta caught me. That'd have been a helluva law suit had he not caught me and I instead knocked him off of Blarney Castle.

This is Blarney Castle. You know, the site of Campo vs. Injured Indian. 

Here I am kissing the Blarney Stone. (This is for you, Morgan.)
I don't know why this pic got left out of my Facebook album, but here it is.
Legend says that now I'll have 7 years of eloquent speech for for kissing it.
I say I'll have 20 diseases I didn't have before. 

Then, for the last night, we stayed in a really good hostel. A 16-bed-bedroom that smelled like flowers and rainbows and was visibly clean. Yes. Felt like I had to put that out there after I bashed the hell out of the other hostel.

I just wanted to say that my dad's balloons (my dad owns a balloon business-- get with it)
even beat out international balloons. Check these out, pop. They didn't even use a sizer!

Truly. This is so helpful. The Irish people were the nicest in so
many ways. I literally have no idea which direction to
look when crossing the street anymore. I'm a spastic goose. 

I asked this stranger if I could take a picture of her gloves since we
were having really odd snow/hail stuff. Figured I'd better post it. 

Here's the link to see my entire collection of Ireland pics. You can open the link even if you don't have a Facebook account. Don't fret, lads.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151596233695039.1073741826.600130038&type=1&l=12f4287de0  

Came back to campus for a couple days during which I regrouped, did a butt ton of laundry, grocery shopped and worked on this presentation that is taking years off my life. I have to give a 20-minute presentation on coffee harvesting, grinding, and extraction soon after (like maybe the day after) I arrive back from my big excursion all over eastern Europe so I gotta have it done like…. nowish. It’ll be 80-90 minutes all together with my trustee little group all by my side. That’s a dang long time to talk about coffee if ya ask me. Whatever.

Here they are. Real live Southerners all freezing to death togeth.

Anyway. Spur of the moment trip to Edinburgh, Scotland was brought to the table after a couple days, and voila, we went! That’s the beauty of Europe—going to different countries is like going to different states. The gulf coast to you is like Spain’s nude beaches to me. Sorta. Mind boggling. When we left Leeds early Saturday morning, it was blizzarding outside and we couldn’t get a taxi to the train station. So we walked. For 30 minutes. And I fell twice and have legitimate bruises and a brush burn on my butt. I don’t want to talk about it. This was mine and Chase’s first time traveling together (alone) since we’ve been here, and it was nice. We’re easy and beat to the same drum. Ain’t nuthin’ an ordeal. Even though I really do like traveling in packs, this was a good little switch up. And we made some new friends from Tennessee and Georgia. Hey y'all. Thanks for reading.

Our best selfie yet!  

Being that Edinburgh is a bit farther north, you’d better believe it was FREEEEEZING. I did not plan for that, man. Made Leeds seem like a beach. I’m talking PAINFUL cold. I didn’t bring nearly enough layers. I don’t think anyone did. But especially not me. And I’m a whiner, so that made things real nice and seem way worse than they were.

The direct quote here was, "MERH. WARM ME."

And a highlight of the weekend… we met a Scottish Ole Miss alum who was just the cutest thing ever. Scottish Ole Miss alum whose name I CAN’T BELIEVE we forgot to get, I know you’re reading! Hi! And I’m so glad we met you! Yay! Thanks for the shortbread! Here’s our pic togeth:

The unflattering red lighting is just the result of a bad ass heater they had going in there.

Just cheesin' with some pretty stuff in the background.  

Tell me this is not the cutest moment ever captured on film.
I can't say I didn't literally run to catch it, but I did it. All credit goes right here.

What? I'm falling? No way. Us with the Lochness river. Ya know, home of  Nessy, the Lochness monster! Derr.

I hate awkward single person poses, but nailed this one. Ya want some of that?!

And this one. 

And this one.
So, there's this girl I'm friends with on Facebook. Under normal circumstances, I'd have unfriended her a long time ago, because I'm pretty sure we don't really know each other. She went to my high school. But she always takes the weirdest pics none of which she's smiling in and always looks so dang HOT and artsy. This was my attempt to be like her. That's what you call a photo execution. BAM. 

Irrelevantly and lastly, tomorrow I'm going to get my first manicure in 13 years. For any of you who know what a nail-biter I once was for my whole life (until this Lent) and will hopefully never be again, this is a big deal. I'm going with red. Cha ching cha ching, bling bling bling. 

It's art

Bear with me on this one, folks. I'm really trying to keep telling myself that when in Rome, ya gotta do as the Romans do. 

During the student government election party (which by the way is so intense compared to Ole Miss's—believe that or not— 50 people are campaigning to win one of 6 spots on the board. You should Google: “Leeds The Leadership Race” or something along those lines and check it out. IN-TENSE. Anyway….) encouraged by Beca, my Wale-ish friend, to join a “society.” Societies are equivalent to clubs or organizations, it just sounds way more cult-like, which I’m okay with. Sooo, I did some research yesterday, and found a list of all the societies in alphabetical order. First of which caught my eye was “Art.”

If you didn’t know, I’m telling you now, I sorta like art. I like it a lot, but I go through big time phases with it. Normally if I’m really bored or really stressed I go to it, but I normally don't reach either of those extremes. I typically paint, because it’s not overwhelming and when I mess up (which is often since I don’t practice it much), I can just paint over it and start all over.

Well, on the Art page was some info about a “life drawing” session being held last night—3 pounds and all supplies included. So I went. Me and the Becster. Showed up to a room full of super British-artsy-looking peeps (most of whom I was actually quite jealous of their effortless-looking-but-still-cool style) with chairs and tables lined up around the perimeter of the room. Took a seat in the corner with my pencil and paper.

Then in walks this chick in a robe. Do you see where this is going? No? I’ll just tell you, then. She whipped off the robe, wasting no time, and struck a pose in the center of the room. Naked. Nude. Whatever. Just like that. I can’t sit here and say I wasn’t DYING on the inside—laughing, cringing, dying. But everyone was so normal and cool that I put on my most fakely- mature face and didn’t stare. Except, I did. You would’ve stared, too, if you had to draw the naked person.

**WARNING**WARNING**WARNING**WARNING**

Keep scrolling and you will see drawings of a naked girl. It’s art, okay? Not sexts. I had to tell myself that 100 times and contemplated this blahg post for several hours, even asking opinions and it was unanimously decided that it’s appropriate. Not for young eyes. Or giggly, squirmish eyes, like my own.

I haven’t drawn anything with just a pencil in probably 10 years and never have I drawn a person without clothes, so I was kinda oo’ing (thanks honey boo boo) myself thinking about how I was going to butcher this poor girl’s body and just praying there wouldn’t be a show and tell afterward. I mean, if you were a naked model, wouldn’t you want to see everyone’s drawings of your naked body once it’s all said and done? Shoot. I would. “Excuse me, I don’t look like that!” or “So, thanks for making my stomach look so flat.” or "Could you seriously not have left my cellulite out?" etc.

Back to the nude model standing 6 feet from me. I started drawing. Lit’rally had no idea what I was doing. Then, 2 minutes later, just as I was getting her figure down, some girl said, “New pose, please.” Are you kidding me? Are we going to go back to that pose, orrrr….?

Annnnddddd here it is. A 2-minute-masterpiece in the middle of my paper.

So I was like, alright, that was just a warm-up. This must be the real pose. Game time, y'all. But not. 3 minutes later, she was striking a new one. Stressed me the heck out. How are you supposed to draw a naked human body in 2 minutes? 3 minutes? No.

Taaaa Daaaa. The 3-minute-naked-human-body.

I was kinda starting to get the hang of it by this point. Now, I had 5 minutes to whip something out, and bam. Here’s what I ended up with:

I'm glad this one was quick. I had a front-row view.  And we kept making eye-contact. Awk. 

Then I had 10 minutes for this one. I hate hands and feet. Ignore those.
And she's welcome for me accidently making her butt look better than it really looked. 

15 minutes. Got a little excessive with the shading. Sorry girl. 

15 minutes. I honestly think I forgot to finish her breasteses. Oopsie! She's a man, now.

20 minutes and this is what I came up with. I really don't like this one. Almost didn't even post it. But that wouldn't have been fair to you. Ya welcome. Please look at the lack-of-hand in the box. Awful.

Had 30 minutes for this one-- most of which I spent wanting to cry because I didn't even know where to start. This was a REALLY hard pose for me. Yes. There are drawing-a-nude-levels-of-difficulty, apparently. 

So, this is how I spent my 2 hours after dinner ("tea") last night. Candy and bon bons were also passed around and soft music played in the background, and to be honest, I can’t say I didn’t really enjoy it. It was quite relaxing. Eventually, I started seeing the naked girl not really as a naked girl, but just as a thing (not meaning to de-humanize her or anything) I was drawing. Like a vase, or clouds, or the ocean. Oh, boobs, yeah, sure, I’ll draw those. Butt crack? No big deal. A little shading here and there and voila! 

Point being: Why was I afraid of naked people? This is stinkin' cool and beautiful. And I'm getting cultured. So boom. I don't ever plan on being the model, but more power to those who do. I'll keep drawin' ya. So, yes-- I’m joining the Art society and will be doing more life drawings next week. I might even wear my beret to match my mature, non-giggly face.

Skies of blue, clouds of white

What a wonderful world. The weather has been incredible. I had to share (even if it's almost 1 a.m. here) because I am DESPERATE for it to stay a while. Maybe if I blahg about it, I'll wish it into existence? Nah. So, take a lookie since I much prefer posting lots of pics on here vs. on Facebook-- makin' ya work for it, eh? And make note of the following: 

a. The sunshine

b. No coat

c. The flowers

d. Green grass

e. Architecture of this cool city which has nothing to do with the weather.

No-coat-selfie-Saturday! I admit to posting this one on Insta. I was giddy with excitement. 

Made this one bigger so you could see it. It's a park just near where I live. Def hittin' up those swings soon. And the ice cream truck that makes its way nearby on "warm" days.

Also, I was feeling particularly artistic when we fell upon this precious little British antique shop which some of you will definitely be receiving some goodies from on my arrival back home. 

So I took a pic of these pots. You don't have to care about them. 

Blew this one up for you, too. Don't worry, there's a bench strategically placed right where I took this picture.  Free entertainment? Yes, please.

Now I'm just liking big pictures. This is a bar. I've been to it. But it just looks cool, and that's the point of the pic.

Okay, this couldn't be more awkward. Disregarding the coatless girl with the weirdly placed legs,
CHECK OUT THOSE FLOWERS AND GRASS! 

I think this is just a high school hangout? Young folks were just standing and talking and being happy and loving life. I was loving life, too. I just don't have this many friends to do it with. Dang.

Got my toes in the water, ass in the sand.
Why I want to sing that, I don't know. But let's roll with it. Feelin' beachy in Britain. 

This is city hall. If I were a better photographer, you'd be able to see how incredible this building is. You could Google it if ya wanna. You're welcome for the permission?

Carpe Diem. Spy it... it's on the archway. How fitting, yeah?

LOVE LOVE this picture. It's my new desktop background. Took this one just at dusk walking to the ballet at the Leeds Grand Theatre. That's stinkin' beautiful too-- another Googler if you're bored!

I know. I'm getting a big head. I'm such a faux-tographer. A wanna-be, if you will. But this is my fence outside my door. I always admire how cool it is. So here, I'm sharing it with you. Like my fence, will ya?

And what sparked this random blahg post being posted was when I dropped my wallet tonight, it exploded, and this fell out. A sweet note from ma daddy I've kept with me. I really can't remember when he wrote it, but he stuck it on my keychain before I left home one time, so I'd see it as I was grabbing my keys to leave. I'm assuming it was before I headed back to Oxford after a break or something and being home for a while. It's definitely "decently" old. Who knows. But isn't it cute and fitting? Luv him. Luvin' life.