It is a truth universally acknowledged....

A weekend of bliss and traveling back into the past. I can only describe to the best of my abilities what I take to be the most beautiful house and grounds I've been in. The Burn house was built in 1791 by French prisoners of war. It is unique because unlike most old buildings here that have been gutted and remodeled on the inside, the Burn house still has its old fashioned interior, so all the rooms look like they should in a house like that! It was fantastic! It has been privately owned all the way up to the 1940s, when the current owners', the Russell family, son was killed in Italy in WWII. After that tragedy, the house was abandoned, until it was finally given to Goodenough College, London, to use as a student retreat. Now that is it's only use. Students on holiday, retreats, or who can't get home for a holiday stay at the Burn house. 15 of us from St Andrews were lucky enough to have the entire house to ourselves for the weekend. It was a perfect way to start of spring break. We arrived at the house around half five, and settled in. As we pulled up the drive, I know I gasped, as I am sure many other girls did, for it looked right out of a Jane Austen novel. I resolved then and there to call it Longbourne. We entered the large reading room to a roaring fire, and friendly staff waiting to welcome us. As we were shown our rooms, we got to pick, and Meg got into one particular room first, and got dibs on it. I'm so glad she did for it was the sweetest, most beautiful corner room I'd ever seen. Yellows, greens, and all colors of pastel flowers covered the duvets, the curtains and the chairs. We had three large windows looking out on the grounds, and our own tea set to make morning tea, which we resolved to do.
Dinner was lovely, especially after constant hall food! The dining room was so cozy with lovely table settings, and we all had a wonderful time. Our table in particular was soon laughing quite loudly, and now I can't even remember what it was about! After dinner, the chef, who by the way is the most Scottish person I've ever seen, took us on a tour of the cellars, and dungeons :) We had a grand time making up stories about the people who'd been forced down there in the dark and we wrote our names on the walls beside many others who'd done so. We found names from 1925, which was very neat. After a very fulfilling evening, Meg and I called it a night, and went to bed. The beds by the way were soooo comfortable!
We woke up the next morning to sun streaming in all of our windows and making us nice and warm. We lazily started the day, and made ourselves some tea in our room to enjoy as we looked out onto the morning light over the grounds. We went down to breakfast, which was the best breakfast I've had since I've been here, because I got to make pigs in a blanket! Soooo good! I was very happy. The chef then informed us that in the evening, we would have an 'Address t' the Haggis' supper, so we all had to dress up in something Scottish, and we chose a clan chief who was going to cut the Haggis, and it was going to be grand. With that on our minds, we decided to walk to Edzell, the little town that can be reached by walking along the river. A journey that normally takes about a half hour-forty five minutes took us nearly two hours because we kept stopping to explore the little paths that led down to the water's edge. This river was right out of The Lord of the Rings. It had steep cliff drops and paths that led down and we had many adventures, most involving muddy clothing, climbing up and down the bank. Needless to say, we had quite a bit of fun exploring. By the time we got to Edzell, we had a bout five minutes, then we turned around and started back because of course, none of us wanted to miss lunch!
After lunch, we all went to attack the bin of random clothes they'd left for us to choose from for the night's festivities. We all looked very silly putting on everything from Scottish flags, to old lady clothes, etc. when we'd finally made our decisions, we went out to play croquet, which we all did in our outrageous clothes. The Baylor kids then went for another river walk, and Meg and I took advantage of the Putting green, and the tennis courts, both of which were interesting....needless to say it would probably have been quite humorous to have been a bystander watching us!
We then decided to take our own short walk along the river going the other way for a little bit, and I am here to tell you we found Lothlorien. Not even kidding. Long smooth trees covered in moss, and old stone steps covered in fallen leaves leading down to the water....oh yeah. After our little adventure we decided to bring it inside. We went back to the house and took advantage of the coffee and tea tray always available, which we did many times I must say. We took our tea and biscuits into the library, a beautiful old room with big windows and cozy chairs, and Meg brought something to write, and I grabbed an old, beautiful copy of Great Expectations. It was a lovely time of reading the right book in the right setting with our tea and view. I couldn't get over it! The Baylor kids got back soon after, and it was time to start preparing for our Address t' the Haggis! Meg actually ended up being the Clan chief's wife because she fit the dress provided....I ended up looking sort of like a rebel Scot, with leggings, a tartan scarf around my waist, a plaid vest, and a crazy beanie complete with long feather sticking out of it. I was a mixture of rebel and Robin Hood! Three of the guys were shown by the chef how to wrap themselves in an actual kilt, not just the kind you can rent for dances or anything. He showed them how to take a piece of tartan cloth and fold it into a kilt. It was very interesting to watch! Once we'd all donned our apparel, we sat in the beautifully decorated dining room for Robert Burns' 'Address t' the Haggis'. It was quite good. We had a decorated table with pictures or Robbie Burns, whiskey bottles, and complete with claymore. We were then served a full Scottish meal, complete with haggis and potatoes as the first course, and meat pie and vegetables as the second course. The meat pie even had a thistle, not a real one, cooked into it for decoration! It was lovely. Our desert was of course a kind of fruit and chocolate pudding flambe. It was such a fun evening. We finished off the day with a game of hide and seek in the house, and learning how to play snookers in the game room. A fun, satisfying, relaxing day all around.
The next morning the Baylor kids had to leave at 9 30 to meet their train to London. We all had breakfast and then wished them well. I felt like we were the Bennet family wishing our guests farewell because we all stood outside the door of the entryway and waved as they drove away. There were then only five of us left. We weren't leaving until 12 30. Meg and I decided to go upstairs and practice our Snookers a little more. Around noon, we went outside to get a last breath of air and enjoy the grounds before we left. I was sad to leave, but it had been a very satisfying weekend, and a perfect way to start off spring break. I will always have that image of the Burn house as Longbourne now :)

Cheers!

God is good.....always

Again, I apologize for my lack of consistency in blogging. It's been a rough last two weeks I'm afraid. I have had quite a few venting moments, and have said many times "screw this, I'm going home"! But, I'm ok now, especially with Easter break only 6 days away. I had a bit of a crisis moment on Tuesday. For those of you who don't know, I've worked the last two summers at Lost Valley Ranch in Colorado, and it has been a constant blessing and way to have an income. I received an email on Tuesday saying that I had not been offered a position. The reasoning made sense, sort of. What with the current staff they have, who are staying on, they just wanted to give LVL some new faces on staff. It just came as a surprise to me. Then to top it off, I returned to my room and my adapter had been confiscated because apparently it is illegal in the UK. That kind of did it for me. I sort of....no wait, I DID have a break down! It was just a bad day. I had a horrible chat with the housekeeping manager who'd taking it, and she basically said she wouldn't give it back to me unless I went out, bought a new one, showed it to her and write a note saying I will NEVER use the other one again. Meg got hers back with very little difficulty, but apparently New Hall likes to make their tennants suffer. It was not a good 24 hours for me. I vented about how St Andrews is horrible at advertising, and warning students about certain things, and how I missed the U.S. and hated the UK.....blah blah blah....you get the idea. I feel better now, those are just 24 hours that I want to forget. I know most of my blogs have been fun and light, and I'm sorry to write such a horrid one, but I guess blogging is about everything that happens to you, whether good or bad, so there you have it. I have been constantly reminded since then that God closes doors for a reason, and who knows what could happen this summer because I'll be home. He is good in everything he does, even if it is painful at first. I promise the next blog will be good, most likely because it will be about EASTER BREAK!!!!!!!!!

Cheers

FINALLY! SORRY!!!!!

I know! I know! Finally another post from the unfaithful blogger. I figure to make it up to you, I'll tell a joke. :)
So this man goes into a pub in Ireland and orders three pints of Guinness. He sits at a table and takes a sip from each, one after the other, until they are gone. He does this same thing, the same day, every week. So of course the bartender and other people in the pub are starting to wonder what on earth he is doing. So the bartender finally asks him, "Why do you order the three pints and drink them like you do every week?" The man answered, "Well, I have a brother in America, and one in Scotland, and we all decided that once a week on the same day, we would go into a pub and order three pints of Guinness to drink as if we were together". The bartender and everyone who heard thought that was pretty cool, and so time went on. Suddenly, the man came in on his usual day, but only ordered two pints. Everyone got very concerned. Finally the bartender went over to him and said, "I'm very sorry for your loss". And the man answered, "Oh no! I just gave up beer for lent!"
HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I know you all thought that was funny....
So anyways, I will blame my inconsistency on the fact that it was essay week this week! Literally for the last three weeks I've been sort of freaking out. For some reason, most modules like to put their essays all due in the same week....yeah, that was a brilliant idea. "Hey, let's freak the students out and put all of our essays in the same week! Muahahahhahaha....." You know that's what they were thinking.....So I turned in three essays this week, one on Monday, and the other two on Friday. I gave the biggest sigh of relief I think I've ever given once I dropped the final essay in the box. I'm telling you it's a whole different ball game when you're in a different country. All of a sudden, you are so particular about making sure the format is right, and sweating over how many sources they might want, and so on and so forth. Yeah that was me for the last two and a half weeks. Good fun! But they're in, and last night to celebrate, we went out for a drink. That's what you do around here when you finish a project. You don't go out for ice cream or anything, you go for a drink. So I had the St Andrews Ale in honor of the victory....then I dashed down the street to the Byre because I had to SM (Stage Manage) Romeo and Juliet! That was really fun actually. Since the company had all the people they needed for everything else, I really just did what I did as an ASM back at VU. I made calls, to both the cast and audience, timed the show, and then locked up afterwards and all that jazz. But I got to sit in the wings at the prompt desk the whole time (which is really just in case of a fire, during which I would get the actors off stage and outside). So I got to watch the show which was really fun! It wasn't my favourite rendition of the play, but the adaption was interesting and it was only a cast of 5, so everyone, even the lovers, played multiple roles. Something tells me Sue would have something to say about this version. But overall it was good. The guy who played Mercutio was also the nurse, Friar Laurence, and the Prince. It was quite comical. But that was fun. And now it's saturday, and Meg and I are going to be outside in the beautiful March weather! It's getting steadily warmer here across the pond! Woohoo!

Cheers