Bones Across Europe

November and all of the assignments are finally piling up. In the next two weeks I have papers and projects that will count for over half of my overall grades in my classes. Been super stressful. Not to mention it has been hard to find a good place to study, as the library at Strathclyde closes at 10 ish every night. Luckily I found a lovely little coffe-shop used bookstore combo that has delicious soup and coffee.
I have also been travelling a lot this month, which hasn't always encouraged my studies. twice to London and once to Portugal. London was fun and I got to see the phantom of the opera at her majesty's theatre. It. was. wonderful. I want to go again and again. Portugal was also really nice because I had forgotten what real sunshine looked like. Thank goodness they still had some left in Portugal, because Scotland's sunshine is on permanent backorder. It was also nice to just get out of town and be in a strange culture again, and Faro Portugal was strange. They love bones there. I went to a church that had a chapel out behind it made entirely of the bones of monks. Supposed to make you stop and think about the fate of all men. Message recieved:

So it was really interesting and also really creepy. The weird thing was, it wasn't just this one chapel. another church had a wall shrine made of skulls and bones too. and some holy people's bones preserved inside. 

I also got to do some much needed beach time in Faro. It was too cold to swim, so I jumped around and splashed and pretty much swam anyway. 

Then back to Scotland. One week I got to do a tour of the City Chambers in George Square. It was beautiful! The leaders of the Labour Party gave us a short speech describing their role and then showed us the building. Apparently they have the largest municipal art collection in Europe. Also, they have the longest (or second longest) marble staircase in the world, competing with the Vatican. (one has two and a half stories and one has three...) 

I also toured a whisky distillery about an hour away from Glasgow with the Whisky Society. We toured the Auchentoshan Distillery. (pronounced ock in tosh in) Very nice. They made fun of Americans for throwing in the "e" in Whisky and also threatened to shoot anyone who asked for coke to mix with their sample at the tasting at the end. I don't think they were serious though. There was an awful american at the other end of the bar screaming about how "all you need to see to see Scotland is Nessie in a kilt" If they were going to shoot anyone, she would have been the one. They are also unique for distilling their Whisky thrice. 

I am finally getting used to the accents here. People can now talk to me like I'm a partially deaf five year old instead of having to play charades every time we have to pick somewhere to eat. 

I have also been to the East coast and the west coast of Scotland now. Both beautiful. pretty similar. On the East coast, I went to North Berwick. It was wonderful. There is a dormant volcano there that Kelly and I decided to climb. I already had blisters from my dedication to my awful shoes and halloween costume the nights before, but I wasn't going to miss out. I climbed a dormant volcano barefoot and in a dress. Felt like a real arkansanite. There was a replica of a whale jaw bone at the top, bones everywhere.