I'm not a doctor and I don't know the technical terminology, but I do know that sunshine activates our happiness glands. -- Jessi Lane Adams

I woke up today to it still snowing hard, with alternates of sleet, and having picked up what I assume is the tail end of my flatmate's cold. All coupled together means that the only time I left the flat today was to go to get tissues and orange juice.

I'd hope to share pictures of St Andrews in snow, but seeing as how standing made me dizzy? I'll leave you with something sunny from a few days ago instead.


St Andrews Harbor at Sunset

A Very British Thanksgiving

As my flatmates are all non-American, none of them had had the experience of the best of American holidays before -- Thanksgiving. A day where you celebrate food. (Regardless of original reasons behind the creation, nowadays we celebrate food. Gluttony, really, but let's just go with food)

So as a good American, I made Thanksgiving dinner for us. Which was a wonderful chance to one, bring out my inner Martha Stewart, and two, to have a nice meal, with all of us together, and let me enjoy a little bit of home here across the pond.

I tend to go with simple veggies and a rotisserie chicken (it was on sale -- turkey wasn't). Although it was funny wandering around St Andrews watching the Americans in town clamor through the Tesco looking for very American ingredients or trying to come up with a UK equivalent. At that point? Just realize you're not going to make it EXACTLY like it was at home. But that's part of the fun of it!

Anyway, I was a good day. Good food, good friends, and a touch of home. I hope everyone else had as good of a day!

Craft Time

It is cold. There's no two ways about it. It is cold here. The cold, the dark, and the silence. Well... not so much silence with everyone milling about in the cold and the dark, but lists are always better in threes.

I rarely check the weather here. I can tell you already what the weather is going to be in St Andrews -- cold, windy, drizzly at points during the day. No need for me to bother with checking the weather.

But my flatmate informs me yesterday that the weather map calls for snow chances all week. Now, this doesn't shock me too much as, like I said before, it's cold.

I don't think too much of it until I'm coming back with laundry and what does it look like outside?




Snow. Snow really coming down. Huge snowflakes really coming down.

Which then makes me want to do this.



I don't care if that makes me eight -- paper snowflakes! For the windows! What better cheap winter decoration is there? And for broke postgrads, there's nothing better than cheap. Or free, as the case may be, since the previous tenant left an entire ream of printer paper.

I know I jumped the gun putting things up before Thanksgiving but... they don't celebrate Thanksgiving here, so I'm going to conveniently ignore that rule!

Night is a world lit by itself. -- Antonio Porchia

We have seven weeks off between semesters because my program doesn't have exams. I'm very happy to be spending it somewhere other than here for the following reason...

The pictures below? Taken at 4:45pm. People aren't even off of work yet, stores aren't closed, and yet it's completely and utterly night. The sun starts setting at 3:30pm and is gone long before these pictures are taken. If this is November, I can only assume what December is like.

Breakaway: Gairloch (Day 3)

Monday was our last day in Gairloch, and as much as I love St Andrews, I really did not want to leave. Coming home means having to deal with home things again (even if it's still Reading Week -- at least being out of town meant that I had the excuse not to do work).

So with everything packed into the cars, we set out for our last walk. We had the option of low-medium, low, or extremely low. Which elicited a chuckle from the group at breakfast, but a fair number of takers because we were all exhausted.

For those of us in the low group, we went back to Loch Maree to walk around the perimeter and just enjoy a nice, simple forest walk. The most we did was climb up a rocky hill to overlook the loch and one of the islands containing trees from the ancient Caldonian pine forests that used to cover Scotland.



Loch Maree and her pretty little waves.


From our lunch-ish perch overlooking the loch and the forests.


Parting shot of Loch Maree and Beinn Eighe and all of the wonderful places we'd been that weekend.


Which meant it was time to pile into the cars and head home, passing through more snow than is appropriate as we approached Pitlochry and stopping at a brewery with free tours -- and we picked the time they weren't actually running the tours. I voted to head to the distillery just up the road outside of Inverness because I like whiskey more than beer, but was outvoted by tired people. Silly tired people.

Now I'm ready to go back out. All I need to do is scrub the boots and the gaiters, and we're back in business.

Breakaway: Gairloch (Day 2)

Sunday in Gairloch was cold. Ridiculously cold. And windy. Did I mention cold and windy? I thought that I was going to be prepared for the wind in Scotland because I grew up on the water and we had wind and cold during the winter and that was quite normal. But there was nothing that prepared me for the way that this wind and cold cuts right through whatever you have on unless it is windproof. And even then, it's wily so it can find a way under the windproof garments.

I got talked into doing another low-medium walk even though my legs were still burning from the previous day with the promise that the one today would be more indicative of a traditional low-medium walk. Fine, it's cool. The burn will feel good.

I don't remember the actual name of where we went (which means I should probably pull out a map and figure it out -- all I remember is pulling off to the side of the road and going through a sheep gate, but that doesn't exactly narrow down the choices in Scotland, does it?) but it was a lovely long rocky path with small lochs and a valley... and a lot of mud. It had snowed a bit the night before and so now the ground was alternately solid and muddy. Lovely.



The forest path before we got up to the rocky hills.


Ah, here we go.


Make sure to add a stone to the cairn as you pass.


Again with the desperate and lonely beauty of the area.


At this point the path headed down to the valley and we were given a choice. We could all go down to the valley, or a few of us could break off and go cross country to circle back to the path. Considering that the valley walk was an extra 7km, and we'd been shaking with cold as we ate lunch, and the fact that I'm pretty sure my legs could get me down into the valley, but up was another deal all together...





I opted for cross country! Which was a bit more interesting than just staying on the path. It was more solitude with the five of us who broke off and a feeling of being out in the middle of the landscape alone.

It's an interesting feeling -- that feeling of being alone in a big, wide expanse. I'm sure that some people would find it incredibly uncomfortable, but I think it's liberating. Fresh air, a chance to clear the mind, and a chance to completely ignore any problems back home for a few glorious hours (or in this case for a few days). No iPod, no constant conversation... a rare opportunity to spend a little time alone with your thoughts as you walk.

It's... uncluttered, I guess is the best way to describe it. And there are far too few times when I feel uncluttered.

Breakaway: Gairloch (Day 1)

So, over the weekend I headed up with Breakaway to the highlands, staying in Gairloch. Totally a last minute thing, as I was the person going 'please, please if you have an extra spot I'll totally keep it warm'. Cheers for one extra seatbelt. Friday through Monday hiking and generally enjoying the outdoors. As it's Reading Week this week, I needed to get out of town and this was just what I needed.

We stayed at Carn Dearg in Gairloch and it was absolutely gorgeous. The views from the front porch of the hostel were out of this world. And on a clear day, like we were lucky enough to have for the majority of our visit, you can see the Isle of Skye across the loch.


Sunrise from the front of the hostel.

The group tends to split and offer 3-4 walks of varying difficulty and length so that everyone can enjoy a day outside at their skill level. Me? I'm a low-medium. A good walk, a bit of height for the views.

So Saturday, those in my group headed out to Beinn Eighe and Loch Maree at the National Nature Reserve to do our walk. Gorgeous, stunning... and way more high steps and vertical movement than I thought I was signing up for. By the end of the walk I am exhausted and sore... and still thrilled for the view.



On our way up, overlooking more of Beinn Eighe and Loch Maree.


The desperately beautiful landscape as we get further up the range as it evens out for a bit.


The peaks got snow overnight, and the part of our group that wanted to make it up the munro got to play in the snow. I was fine just taking a picture.


Victorious as we get to our cairn at 550m (which is in another picture, but I like standing on the rock better) and decide that it's time for lunch before beginning our descent. Which, like the ascent, was steeper than I was anticipating.


And with it being steeper both up and down my legs are exhausted by the time we make it back down to Loch Maree. But, since we finished a bit earlier than anticipated, we decided to go check out part of the beach at Loch Gairloch that the low walking group did that day.



Sunset as we walk down to the beach. This has to be one of my favorite pictures I took all weekend.


The beach and the waves and the sunset -- couldn't get better.


Oh wait, climbing up to the cliffs to overlook the crashing waves does make it even better.


Stunning -- and the best part was that there were two more days of it!

And with it getting dark at 5pm, we head back to the hostel for dinner, which consisted of a really good curry that had actual spice to it. Shocker! Most of the food I've had in the UK has been pretty spice-less. Of course, the curry was also made by our Luxembourgish club president, so perhaps that made a difference? Regardless, delicious.

Breakaway: Lomond Hills

It's amazing what a good walk in the woods will do to clear your head -- one essay done and turned in this morning, and one to go.

The good walk in the woods was on Sunday. The university has a hillwalking club, Breakaway, and I thought it was a great way to see the countryside. Since I have no car and can't really get out and about on my own *lol* Anyway, full day of hillwalking and hiking and since this was the navigation trip, learning how to use a map and compass. Which is a good thing to learn and makes you feel incredibly self-sufficient.

We went to Lomond Hills which isn't too far from St Andrews. But it was open spaces and a gorgeous day -- seriously, we couldn't have asked for a prettier day -- and it was just what I needed to clear the stress out about these papers. We did both hills and I have no idea just how many kilometers we walked in around 6-7 hrs of walking around. But it was a lot, and boy did I feel it this morning. But you know what? It's a good sore.

I ended up with a slew of gorgeous pictures of this area and I'm ridiculously excited for the next walk. There's a weekend walk this weekend, but I'm not sure that's going to happen, even if I'd love going way up into the Highlands for the beginning of Reading Week.

But I digress, pictures...



Looking back at East Lomond, the first hill we'd already gotten to the top of and down, as we made our way to West Lomond.


Feeling pretty awesome standing in front of West Lomond as we approach. I wouldn't be this smiley halfwaup up when my calves were burning like fire.


The view from the top of West Lomond looking over Fife and gorgeous Scottish landscape. I love how farms make such a pretty patchwork from the sky. It was worth the hike.


Our friends as we walked through the area.


A look back as East Lomond in the distance as we walk through more of the area to check out the forest.


The forest where they have awesome things like waterfalls...


... and tree-lined paths that make you feel like you're in the middle of a Robert Frost poem.


Finding an adorable little organic cafe after we get out of the woods and find the road down towards the village.


And after a very long day of walking, finding our way into Falkland to catch the bus back home.

When In Doubt, Bake

I spent Saturday in the loving academic embrace of Aquinas and friends, which meant that by the middle of the afternoon I was desperate to do something, ANYTHING, different from what I was doing. And since it was a nice day, it was worth it to walk to the big grocery store. It's amazing how differently you think about things when you don't have a car and you have to decide 'is a mile and change to far to walk today for the big grocery store' and 'make sure that I don't buy too much cause it would be too heavy to carry' and 'I could always grab the bus, now where's an extra £1.20 around here...' I'm very aware of how privileged I've been in the past now, as this is my first time without ready access to a car.

But it was a pretty day, I felt like doing some cooking, and they just didn't have all of what I needed at the Tesco around the corner. So I made the hike to the second of three grocery stores in town.



Why, hello Morrisons! And gah, perhaps it's not a terrible thing that I don't have access to a car. Unless my math is failing me, £1.14 per litre ends up just a little over $8 per gallon. Holy expensive gas, Batman! Remind me not to complain about $3 gas when I get back to the States...

Anyway, hello Morrisons. You had my sage, and my ziploc bags (I've lasted a month without them cause my flatmates didn't seem to need them, but again, I use the heck out of ziploc bags), but you didn't have the butternut squash that I was craving. Alas, no one's perfect. But you also had tea on sale, so I'll forgive you this time.

My desire to bake (and I'll use bake loosely because the precision of baking often eludes me) came about because of running across this recipe: Spinach Strata with Sage and Gruyere

If the name didn't entice you, how about a picture of the finished product?



One of the worst parts about my little student housing kitchen is that the oven doesn't have a window for me to obsessively watch it cook. But you mix it up, and then 45 minutes later you get this delightful creation. It's warm and carb-y and cheesy and tastes very much like fall. So worth the walk and the late cooking!

Spinach Strata with Sage and Gruyere

Ingredients:

• 1/2 baguette (to yield about 6 cups of torn bread)
• 1 tablespoon softened butter, plus 3 tablespoons melted butter
• 3 eggs
• 2 1/2 cups milk
• 2 tablespoons fresh sage, torn
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 2 medium cloves garlic, minced (about 2 teaspoons)
• 1 1/2 ounces baby spinach (about 1 1/2 cups)
• 3 ounces Gruyere (about 1 1/2 cups, grated)
• 1 ounce Parmesan cheese, grated

1. Cut the bread into slices about ¾-inch thick. Set on the counter for several hours to dry out, or toast the bread in a 400°F oven for about 5 minutes. Tear each slice into several pieces. You should have about 6 cups.

2. Grease an 8-inch by 9-inch casserole dish with 1 tablespoon softened butter.

3. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs until frothy. Whisk in milk, sage, salt, pepper, melted butter, and minced garlic until homogeneous.

4. Add the torn bread to the custard, mixing to make sure every piece absorbs some liquid. Stir in spinach and Gruyere. Pour the bread-custard-spinach mixture into prepared casserole dish. Sprinkle with Parmesan and top with more freshly ground pepper. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to sit for 1 hour on the counter, or several hours in the fridge.

5. Preheat the oven to 375°F (191°C) about 20 minutes before you’re ready to bake the strata.

6. Bake until the top is browned and slightly puffed and the strata is cooked through, about 45 minutes. Let rest a few minutes before serving warm.

Courtesy of Serious Eats

Nom nom nom...

Care Package!

One of the most interesting (and most frustrating) things of living abroad is getting used to what you can and cannot find easily in your new home. Things you took for granted at home suddenly become like gold when you can't just walk into a Walgreens or a Target and find entire walls of what you're looking for. Take for example soft-headed toothbrushes. In the states, these are what everyone buys (unless you're cleaning grout) and what dentists give along with awesome small toothpastes and rolls of floss and they are sold cheaply in packs of three for a couple of dollars.

In the UK? Not so much. Everywhere I look I find medium and firm toothbrushes, but I don't want a medium or a firm toothbrush. I want a nice, gum-friendly, enamel-preserving, soft-headed toothbrush. Looking in the Boots becomes a hunt and the only soft-headed toothbrush you can find that they even sell is a very high tech looking one for no less than £5. Seriously, people? Not cool.

Well, here's where the glory of friends come in.

I was (naturally) complaining about the sad state of available toothbrushes in Scotland to my friend Stacey. Who comes knocking on my door this morning but the friendly Royal Mail carriers with a...



Care package!

Seriously, one of the joys of life anywhere is mail -- actual, legitimate, 'I took the time to go out and get a stamp and write with a pen/crayon/pencil/whatever' mail. Postcards, letters (Hi Mom!) and all of that, love it. Makes me so happy to see those come through the mail slot in the door. So to get not just a letter, but a box? Dance of joy and a tossing down of Aquinas' Summa Theologica to tear into it.

Soft toothbrushes! Crystal Light! Dark Chocolate! Philosophy body wash in a yummy fall scent since, grrr, I had to leave my collection at home because of British Airways weight restrictions! Cheesy romance novel set in Scotland! (Yes, I like my literature light & fluffy to counteract the Summa Theologica) And American GQ -- which, why would she send me American GQ?



Matt Bomer in henley! Damn. For those who haven't discovered the smooth hotness that is Matt Bomer, he plays the lead on USA's White Collar. Which... makes me miss American television too. But dang, he pretty.

It's like mini-Christmas from the US Postal Service.

Makes up for the hours of reading and the ridiculous cold wind that was blowing through town today. It's only October, but I'm already bundled up with scarf, hat, winter coat. I guess it's part and parcel of being right on the North Sea, but still. And I'm one of the ones who hasn't been all that cold lately. So if I'm cold, I can only imagine what the Americans from places like Florida are feeling right now.

On the plus side? Cold + rain + wind + sunset = gorgeous fall colors :)