Amherst to Edinburgh

I would really like to thank everyone for the incredible outpouring of birthday messages. A special thank you to all of my family in Hong Kong. It was lovely to hear from all of you! I hope to see you guys soon!

My actual birthday was last Tuesday, but seeing as most of us had exams the following day, or like unlucky Don, the next two days, the actual festivities were postponed. However, I did take a bit of a study break to get a good haircut

Just kidding!

and to go out to dinner with Don to a really yummy Jamaican restaurant, Coyaba. We shared the Mango and Ginger Salmon and Curried Goat. Needless to say we finished every bit of it and that I have not been that full for some time.

We went out to play a few games of pool and for some celebratory end-of-term and birthday drinks on Friday – in retro costume! The outing itself was loads of fun on its own, but the night was made complete by the barbecue we had in the courtyard of College Wynd. The original plan had been to hike up Calton Hill and have a sunrise barbecue there, but Scotland being Scotland decided to dump wind and rain on us at around 2am, so we nixed the idea. (Thank god because I was pretty tired by that point!). The courtyard barbecue was good fun, though. We changed into our pajamas and set up the 99p disposable grill that we bought and grilled burgers and sausages with some guy that we didn’t know that just wanted to sit by a fire. Well, that is until the rain came. Luckily, we didn’t have to move far as the kitchen of Don and Fernando’s flat faces the courtyard, so we just handed everything through the window and put out the grill. Just as well because the shitty grill was just not going to do for the sausages and we were all really hungry.

I really can’t say how appreciative I am of all the effort that Don and Celia put into my birthday and of course my other friends for costume hunting on short notice. I really could not have asked for a better end to our semester here than to have spent it with the great friends that we’ve made and with grilled meat. Sadly, Celia did have to leave not very many hours after this, but we do hope that she will visit us soon!

Also, we’re leaving tomorrow morning for a bona fide Scottish adventure: Me, Don, and Fernando are renting a car and driving up to Inverness for the night! We will be stopping in the town of Pitlochry and also Edradour Distillery (the smallest whiskey distillery in Scotland) just outside of it on our way north. After that we will make our way up to Loch Ness for a cruise during which we hope to be eaten by the monster. We figure we have a decent shot as we don’t actually believe in Nessie, which means karma will have to boomerang around and we will have to be eaten, thus proving the monster’s existence. Anyway, wish us luck! We’ll check back in a couple of days with some more photos.

- Nateene