Finished!

I'm all done with finals! Some of them went better than others (I have said in the past how I think I fail my finals - there's a part of me that thinks I really did fail my Greek History one), but they're done! In order to celebrate, I've been visiting a few new places, saying "goodbye" to my favorite haunts, and getting a little shopping done.

Wednesday night was my official last time at Institute (and my buddy James' incidental last time, because he missed his flight home), and a few members had been really, really nice and got us a wee little cake and two cards, one signed by everyone, the other a wee postcard showing a map of Scotland. On the back of the postcard was scrawled, "Just so you know where to find us when you visit next, and so you don't forget us." As if I could ever forget these people.

Just like life continues on, so do relationships, even if they are not continued in this life, per se.

Anyway, after Institute was over, we had a small ceilidh with about ten or so people, swinging around the cultural hall (very dangerous, by the way - we had a bit of a casualty), and then we watched Hairspray together afterwards.

Yesterday, I went with three other friends to Linlithgow and saw the Palace there, where Mary Queen of Scots was born. That deserves its own post(!) which I will put up later.

Wow, it's been such a whirlwind of a few days, as after getting back from Linlithgow, I headed over to Rachel's flat in New Town, where we had another unofficial last hang-out with Janine, Sarah, Kieren, and Christian. The latter three had to leave early, and I wanted to hang out a bit more. Janine was already staying over for the night, and Rachel has extra space, so I stayed over too. We got a chippy (one of my last! so sad), and we watched Definitely, Maybe.

Yay!

A farewell chippy meal. Fried squid, chips, and Irn Bru. All you need to be perfectly happy/Scottish.

My sadness looks more like willful distrust - if you understand that sentiment, then we should be best friends. Also, I failed at getting a picture in of the actual chippy food. And I look like a horror story. Only a few more days to go until I'm home. Here, it looks like I'm camping.

I've watched a good portion of movies this semester... the Scottish (or the ones I know) are quite similar to Americans (or at least the ones I know) in that regard.

And today, after making it up to the High Street, I met Beth again for one last hurrah in Scotland before I go home and she continues to stay here to work on her dissertation in St Andrews! It was a good day - Chocolate Soup Cafe, St Giles church, shopping, and German Christmas market. Now, on to packing and a few more goodbyes tonight before settling the very final things.

First Home, then Spain, then Scotland.... I'm getting tired of saying goodbye.