Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!! I am writing this right now in an attempt to not be really sad, because the bus that was supposed to pick me up and take me to the highlands to go on a hike never came. I was going to be going with the "breakaway" club (st. andrews hiking group) to Glen Clova, a national nature reserve up in the highlands. I got up at 7 to get ready and waited outside for an entire hour and it never came! Plus I had to pay 10 pounds to go. Rage :(

Thats alright, I still have a lot to be happy about. The past 3 days have been absolutely beautiful - sunny and cool, big blue sky, fresh sea air. I love sleeping with the window open! Thursday I went to CS class and then to my "women and scottish society" class. I was really nervous about it, but it sounds like it will be fun - we each research/give a presentation on one of 10 women who has shaped scottish society in the past 2 centuries. Lots of reading and writing, but it will be a good change from the math/cs classes. We got out of class very early, and then I met up with Sadhbh, Fiona, Jamee, and Cassi and we walked down to the beach and had a picnic of sorts. That night we all just hung out, did some work, and talked. It is nice living in a flat because there seems to always be someone to talk to!

Friday I had math and CS class, and I finished up my homework for next week. (I made a website!! It reads weather data from a URL and then writes it into its own website. Not very cool yet, but hopefully it will get better... http://host-vs235.cs.st-andrews.ac.uk/weather.html ) That night Eric made some delicious tacos and then we all went to the bop (toga themed). Came back, watched a little of the olympics, gorged on some leftover taco supplies, and then passed out.

Yesterday was definitely the most beautiful yet. I woke up late and then went to the "refreshers fayre," where you sign up for clubs. I signed up for sustainable development, board game society, "sandclock society," and a few other random ones. Sandclock society is a group of people whose social gatherings revolve around sand (the beaches) - they have bonfires, treasure hunts, etc. Then Eric, Elizabeth, and I got some fish and chips and walked around town. Fish and chips are too good. I feel great eating them and always bad after. Eric and I got to see some old ruins (cathedral & other religious buildings) and walked out to the pier - pictures below. Also, I picked up phase 10 and another game at a charity shop in town (shout out to Ms. Helms's class.) Later that night we all played and ate some delicious cheese and crackers.

I've been looking at hikes around St. Andrews, and I found something called the "fife coastal path" - it runs for 150 kms along the coast of Scotland near St. Andrews. I found a walk that goes from the aquarium here to Guardbridge, a town about 5 miles away - through something called the "eden estuary local nature reserve!" I'm going to see if I can get anyone to head out there today with me, so that I can at least get a little hiking in!

Happy Valentines day!!

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