A week of singing

I'll blog about last weeks choir concerts in a bit. Here is a little video of last weeks choral society's concert of Bach's Weinachts Oratorium to start with. Tilt your head and enjoy :)

Weekend with Wilbert

Hurray! Finally I got to show Wilbert where I live, where I go to class, to study, to shop, to drink beer, etc etc.

We speak (almost) every day on msn or skype but still it was weird that he did not have an actual idea of what it looks like around here. And so I was very happy that he came to spend a weekend with me (next to all the more obvious reasons of why you would want to see your boyfriend).
He arrived one day after our one Year aniversary (aaaaaw), I went to pick him up at Edinburgh airport. After having a very festive Toad in the Hole (for the neccesary cultural education) we spent the night on the Royal Mile.

Visiting Edinburgh castle is an experience...First you have to stand in line for about an hour and pay an obscene amount of money. But then the fun begins. The views from the castle are great and the amount of stuff that is there to see is enormous. We ended up seing two of the museums and the chapel and walking up and down the hills 300 times (it was FREEZING, but fortunately the hillsides weren't iced over) and then all of a sudden 3 hours had gone.

After picking up our bags we took the train up to Glasgow. That was actually the first time I took the train here (I went by bus on the way there) and it was quite good :) Nice hilly countryside passing by and the smell of chips and vinegar in the air. And it takes you only 45 minutes by train to go from Glasgow to Edinburgh.

The next two days I tried to show him everything I know about the city, mostly in the West End and the city centre. Luckily we didn't have much rain althoug it was pretty cold at times.

In the West End we spent some time in the Botanics (I hadn't been ín the glass houses before...althoug walk past them almost daily) and at the Hunterian museum in the Uni. As expected Wilbert was most impressed by the University (en terecht..) and said he 'wouldn't mind studying here', hihi.

On Saturday we had dinner at Annemieke's house. It was nice for Wilbert to meet them, since they are sort of my 'home-base' here.

When walking around the city centre we ended up in a little Christmas market with stalls where they sell mulled wine and bratwurst and that sort of stuff. I said 'if they would sell poffertjes here, I would definitely get them...' With the idea, of course, that they really wouldn't be selling poffertjes on a Christmas market in Glasgow. We seriously take two steps after I said this and we see a stall where they are selling 'traditional Dutch tiny pancakes' and belgian waffles.

WHAT? That was just very weird... Of couse I had to buy them, because of what I'd said before.

We end up talking to the lady that makes them, first in english then, after we realise we are all Dutch, in Dutch. She asks us if we are on holiday and I tell her I live here, after which she immediately offers me a job! Since I'm going home for Christmas and have an essay to turn in this week, I don't think I'll go back there to help her, although she did offer me unlimited poffertjes....hmmm.

We also visited the People's palace, which was new for me (and not extremely interesting) and Wilbert met some of my friends when we went to Waxy O'Connor's on Sunday evening. On Monday we did some serious shopping and started to get a bit depressed about the next day, when he was leaving again... So Tuesday duly sucked because of that. I had class so I couldn't take him to Edinburgh. I could bring him to Queen street station in Glasgow and then take the subway back up to class.

Truly a sucky day. Anyway, we had a lot of fun that weekend. I am so happy that it wasn't weird to have him here and that the only 'not so nice' thing was that he eventually had to leave again. No worries though, I'm still having fun here and enjoying (most of) it.

In the last couple of days some things in my course fell apart, with my head professor telling us he is leaving in February (excuse me???). The crisis is averted a bit after having a meeting with him yesterday. I'll keep you posted. The talk of going home earlier than expected has died down a bit, although I was quite close in the last couple of days.

Guiness.....ew. :)

Bridal weekend

Shopping for a wedding dress is FUN!

My mom and her best friend came over to stay with Annemieke so we could spend a whole weekend shopping for a wedding dress. Not for me obviously (though sometimes the 'little girl' side of my brain took over) but for my mother who is getting married on the 21 of March.

The weekend was so much fun. We didn't end up actually buying a dress, but at least my mom hs an idea now of what she wants. Most of the weekend was spent talking and eating, which is always good if you ask me.

I'm uploading some pictures here to illustrate the general happiness and fun times we had. I still have some weekends to cover in this blog ánd I have an essay to turn in next week, so no big blogging shall be done (probably...although procrastination is always around the corner..) until after the 16th, when I will be in Holland for Christmas! Yay!

So some pictures and tiny stories will have to do for now!