Good Friends and Birthday Fun.

This will be my last blog entry for a while, as I'm leaving tomorrow for my two-week Spring break traveling. I wanted to write one more update though before taking off. I turned 22 last Saturday (woo!) and a lot of wonderful things happened! I received some lovely birthday cards in the mail (you know who you are-- THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR MAKING MY DAY!!!) Getting snail mail is one of my favorite things here. My friend from Budapest, Georgy, cooked me a homemade (DELICIOUS!) Hungarian 3-course dinner last Tuesday night. She had me over to the home she's staying at and we had an amazing dinner, complete with a candle to blow out! :) It was a wonderful way to start the week!Then, 3 lovely American gals came to visit. My friend Lizzie Koehler, who goes to Uni of Lincoln Nebraska, who has been studying this semester in Madrid, came Wednesday night and has been staying with me. She's actually going to Paris with me tomorrow and we'll be traveling together for almost a week. My dear Morgan Meyers from ISU and her roommate Bethany came and stayed for about 3.5 days last week as well. It was SUCH a treat to have friends here to visit (especially during my birthday). Friday night, literally just about an hour after Morgan and Bethany arrived in Glasgow, we went to Pizza Hut with some of my friends from Uni here. There were 10 of us total and it was a lovely piece of home to have good ol' American Pizza Hut for dinner.

Some friends and I at Pizza Hut. (from left) My Chinese roommate Mel, me, my friend Victoria from N.Carolina, Bethany, my friend Stacy from Virginia Tech, Lizzie, my friend Patricia from Spain, my friend Rebecca from Bible study (from Scotland), Morgan and Jessi, my other Chinese roommate. :)

My good Scottish friend Steph had invited the 4 of us to come and stay with her family in Inverness (the capital of the highlands) so we took her up on it! :) Steph was kind enough to drive us around wherever we wanted to go in the highlands of Scotland. She's such a gem! :) We drove all down Loch Ness and back up (taking random fun stops along the way) on Saturday and then on Sunday we took the scenic route up to Ullapool, a beautiful little harbor town. Below are a few pictures from the birthday weekend roadtrip. :)

Liz, Morgan and I

Spring has arrived!!!! Horray!

Beautiful rainbow. We saw 5 of these on Saturday and it was amazing.

My Scottish "bestie" Steph. She's the best.

Morgan, Bethany and I during one of our random stops at a castle. (Yes, because castles are all over Scotland. Seriously.) Don't ask me what I'm doing because honestly I don't know.... haha

The 5 amigas!

Breathtaking sky Saturday night. (this isn't photo shopped)

Saturday evening in Inverness

Birthday cake! (I seriously wasn't expecting this...)

Morgan enjoying some delicious Scottish fish 'n chips!

There's nothing like driving through the highlands of Scotland enjoying some ring pops! Thanks Mom for the ring pops! :)

Monday, upon returning to Glasgow, Morgan, Bethany and I went to Edinburgh for the day so they could see the castle and we could do some exploring. Bethany, being a fellow Harry Potter fan, wanted to go to The Elephant House (birthplace of Harry Potter!) so we did! It was super fun and was made complete by us having elephant shortbread cookies (pic above).

I had a WONDERFUL time with Morgan and Bethany and was sad to see them leave Tuesday morning but I'm so thankful they were able to come visit! To sum it all up, great friends, great birthday, beautiful Scotland... you get the point I'm sure. :)

I'm off tomorrow afternoon to Paris and will then be going to Madrid, London and Salzburg (The Sound of Music!). I'm excited but am having a hard time fitting 2 weeks worth of stuff into one small carry-on. Guess that's why they call it "backpacking Europe"... wish me luck! Miss u!<3>