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Insurance is Hard! |
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This is another trip that hasn't happened yet, but the planning is killing me. I've never done an 8 month trip before, and I really don't know what I'm doing. I don't know what to pack, what to take, etc. I'm going to err on the side of not-enough-stuff because, it |
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Oh so close. |
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Moving out of the country is a lot of work! I've been busier over the past few weeks, since I finished work, than I'd been in quite a while. I'd been putting off a lot of stuff until I became unemployed, so it's all come in a flood.
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This isn't so easy. |
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Wow. Today I had the strongest, most overpowering feeling of being alone that I can remember. As I walked away from Alice and through the metal detectors at Bush Intercontinental, I realized that I’m totally on my own for the first time ever. I’ve been so busy getting everything together for |
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Sleepwalking in St. Andrews |
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I just got back from a failed attempt to register my phone, so I've got a few minutes to kill before my first Rotary meeting in St. Andrews. I'll take a few minutes to write an update on my first day here:
I didn't get any sleep on the plane, so I |
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1000 Ways to Spend a ? |
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My first week in St. Andrews has gone really well, although turns out that the UK is just as expensive as everyone says. The exchange rate is around 1.81 right now, which means that things that don't seem so expensive (say, £2.50 for a sandwich) are really not such a great |
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Hanging out with Sam and Hugh |
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**Pictures 10-24 are new with this entry!**
Today was the final day of the Dunhill Links Championship, a big European golf tournament at St. Andrews. It's a good tournament, but most fun for the non-golf-interested people is that it's also a pro-am, so tons of celebrities come to play with the golf |
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One down... |
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Today I turned in my first graduate-level English paper. It might have sucked. It might have been really good. How am I supposed to know? It occurred to me that I haven't written an English paper since November 2002, so I'm don't really remember how these things work. I guess I'll |
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Old Course, Baby |
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I played the Old Course last week. I can't believe I haven't mentioned this! It's probably the most famous golf course in the world, and I got to play a round there on Wednesday. It was rainy, cold, and gross, and I shot a billion, partially because I couldn't really feel |
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I actually LIKE driving in the UK. |
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**Pictures 31-42 are new!**
For 4 days I travelled around Scotland with my grandmother, cousin, and cousin-in-law (Is that right? Cousin-in-law? My cousin's wife, I mean.). We had a great time, and I got to drive a British car again for the first time since last year. By the end, despite the |
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Thai Breaker |
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You'd be sad to know how long I thought to come up with a thai pun for the title of this post. And it's not even particularly funny.
The reason for the thai-fixation is that today Kailen and I went out for thai food, and let me tell you, it was good. |
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Kilt! Kilt! Kilt! |
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**New pictures, including kilt pics, are from 43-55**
It finally happened, the thing you've all been waiting for. I wore a kilt. Not only did I wear a kilt, but I wore it as a formal outfit to a fancy ball surrounded by lots of distinguished older people. And it was awesome.
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Willow, willow, willow. |
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**New pictures: 55-60**
This past weekend was the Rotary Scholar retreat for District 1010, which makes up the top two-thirds of Scotland. As usual with Rotarians, good times, including some excellent food, info on Rotary, and ceilidh dancing. (What is a ceilidh, you ask? Check out: http://www.bartleby.com/61/47/C0184700.html and http://www.scottishdance.net/ceilidh/dances.html.)
I'm now a |
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A Great Month |
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**Photos 61-68 are new**
Alice left a couple days ago. We had a really fantastic time, despite sharing a room approximately the size of her walk-in closet. I don't have any work to do now for three weeks, so I've been using the time to get my life organized (which has included |
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Scotland's Bard, Rabbie Burns |
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I've always wondered why the Scots drink so much, and I've now learned a crucial aspect of the Scottish alcoholic culture: Robert Burns. Burns was a hard-living Scottish poet, and every year, on or near his birthday, groups of men (and occasionally women these days) get together and celebrate his short |
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It's not the heat... |
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It's the humidity. You hear that all time about why Phoenix feels nicer than Houston in the summer, even when Arizona temperatures hit 110. But it's also true about cold weather, as I'm learning this week in St Andrews. It's painfully cold here, but not in the Embarrass, Minnesota, 40 below |
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Dingwall. I'm not kidding. |
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For some reason, somebody a long time ago decided Dingwall was a good name for a city. Now there's a Rotary club there, so I headed up to give a talk. According to most Scots in St Andrews, Dingwall is on another planet, but it was a nice train ride, and |
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Scotland's still here. |
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I realized I haven't written anything about Scotland -- the place where I actually LIVE -- in quite a while, so I figured I should fill everyone in on what's been happening here.
And the answer to that is: not much. Seriously. I've been here long enough that I don't get surprised |
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Fiesta is not a common word here. |
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**Pictures 76-99 are new!**
The semester's winding down, which is good, but unfortunately it's also winding up for me since I've got papers due this Friday and the next. I actually started doing reading for the first one, and hopefully I'll get it written in the next couple days. I figure that's |
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