The classes have begun!

Hello Dear Friends,
I hear that the weather in good 'ol Wisconsin is pretty horrid right now? Glad to say that there isn't a pinch of snow on the ground here and I definitely hope it stays this way. It's been raining off and on all week and I'll take rain over snow anyday!

Classes started on Monday and I can't decide if I'm going to like them or not. As bad as it sounds, I kind of forgot that I was coming here for school. I love school don't get me wrong, but when I'm here I'd rather be going into town and exploring the land instead of sitting in a freezing palace doing homework. We have 2 faculty here and between the two of them they teach 6 classes. Again I have 2 music classes, a business management class, and a Scotland Globalization course (taught by a Scottish professor). For the Scottish class we have to do group presentations and they're spread out all throughout the semester. Everyone is required to take this class so the presentations start next week already. Well since I'm such a lucky duck (as well as Jacob), I have the presentation for next week! Talk about chuckin' on the homework quickly! I am partnered up with another girl named Jessica (I wish it was Jessica Van Hoof of course, but sadly she's a million miles away at Michigan Tech) and we have to talk about our initial impressions and differences between Scotland and the U.S. Thank goodness this topic is easy and basically our opinions. Jessica and I sat down tonight and did the entire thing and so did Jacob and his partner so we are both ahead of the game. I'm glad to get this presentation out of the way before more homework piles up.

One of the things that our Scottish professor mentioned was that Scotland and England don't exactly get along. The United Kingdom (Scotland, England, Wales, and Northern Ireland) actually act like the disunited Kingdom. Scotland is having elections this May for a new "president" and some of the people running would like to have Scotland be separate from the United Kingdom. Scotland already has their own government and they are actually not connected to England in any way except for geographically. Scottish people get extremely upset if you call them English and they don't even consider themselves British.

Last night Jacob and I took a garnishing class by a professional chef which was one of the coolest things I have ever done. He showed us how to make flowers out of onions, red/green peppers, celery, etc. He also taught us how to make like 5 different things out of radishes such as toad stools. His name was Henry and I was completely amazed by his talent. We then tried to make a swan out of an apple (mine was an epic fail) but Jacob's turned out magnificant. He even taught us how to make easter baskets out of oranges and peppers. The things we did were endless and I wasn't smart enough to grab my camera until the very end. :(

Jacob and his Swan

Close up of Jacob's swan. He did amazing at this. And he made it all with just one apple.

The other day in the Scotland class the professor was reading off the list of names and taking roll call. Once he was done he was like, "Oh, I noticed some Scottish and Irish names in this bunch!" So he yelled, "Who's the Peebles?". Jacob raised his hand and the professor told him that he must be Scottish. Pretty cool when a teacher can pick people out just by their last names. I can't wait to visit Peebles which is only a hop skip and jump down the road from here.

I hung up some pictures yesterday to make me smile everyday. I've got a pictures of my family, friends, and a couple angels hanging up just so I can remember that I'm loved and that I have people taking care of me. Thank goodness for Skype or homesickness would probably be pretty bad. Skyping is super easy minus the 6 hour time difference and it's almost like I'm just at home. Also, I think my mom would die if skype didn't exist. Just saying :)

Not much else to talk about except tomorrow some more classes, Friday is the St. Andrews trip and I've got to start getting some more sleep. Have a fabulous time with the snow and be safe!

The gorgeous double rainbows yesterday after it rained. There's a very faint one to the right of the very visible one.

This is the view out of my bedroom window. This bridge is amazing and on the Palace's property so it's all ours!

Another picture of the bridge.

Some random Scotland facts:

We spell words without the letter "u" according to them. For example color vs colour.

They call gas "petro". And by the way, gas is super expensive here therefore they have tons of public transportation. Gas is $8.40 per liter here. I guess we have nothing to complain about in the states :)

Instead of grading papers they "mark" papers.