I made it!!!!!!!!

After much turmoil and exhaustion. I made it. I am here in Scotland, in my room. It is a typical dorm room. And for those that were wondering... there is room for a air mattress on my floor. Here are some pictures of my room and the view... it still needs to be unpacked because I need hangers bad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Anyway... enjoy. I promise I will put more up when I am not so tired.

Love you all,
Meg

My Bed!!! Thank you Ikea!
the Bathroom (it is tiny)

The view from my window...

The sign on my building!!!!

And on the plane ride. I think this was SLC-IAH (Houston), so I still look pretty cute. :)

St. George...

I am in St. George visiting my mom. As sad as it is... this is the trip the marks the month before I move. And to me... THIS IS HUGE!!! I am so excited and everyday that goes by I get a little more giddy... and also a little more stressed. There is so much to plan... I mean WHAT CLOTHES AM I GOING TO TAKE??????? These are the life changing questions after all. :)

Let's be honest, really. It is the chance of a lifetime and who knew that I would be able to take part in this amazing journey. Let's celebrate.

Here are some pictures from St. George today. - Love you all! (and I will miss you dearly... I hope you all come visit!)

Resolutions

I know, I know. It isn't January and you shouldn't have resolutions, but in an effort to curb insanity and at least hang on to the not so stressed thoughts that I do have... I am going to start blogging more.

On that note, many of my dear friends have told me that they are always decoding and deciphering my text messages. So, I am on a mission to build a dictionary. I will leave it here and you can casually look at the dictionary when needed to decode the language that I have created.

But, for today, here is a picture of a man looking for gold at liberty park. Made my day.

My address

I know it is a little early to be telling everyone my address in Scotland, but I just got it and I am excited. And at least this way you will all be able to find it if by some crazy chance you want to send me a surprise. Here it is... Love you all.

CH819, Churchill House

7 Richmond Place

Edinburgh, Scotland EH8 9ST

Preparing for the next year

I guess the bright side of this weather is that it is preparing me for the next year of my life. I have to say... as much as I love rain. I would take just a little break for some sunshine.

What have I gotten myself into?

Scotland

It is official. I am going to graduate school in Scotland at the University of Edinburgh. I couldn't be more excited!!! This is an opportunity of a lifetime and one that I have been dreaming about for the last 2 years. So, I am going to turn this blog into just that. A blog about Scotland. I will post about what I am doing and pictures and the classes I am taking. And most importantly the adventure of my dreams. I can't wait to be there and start studying. I love school and I have felt a little piece of me missing over the last year, not being in school. Anyway, I can't wait to tell you all about it.

P.S. Skype is going to be my link to the U.S. while I am there. Get an account. Because I want to talk to you!

P.S.S. The program I am in is Nationalism, it is in the Political Science Department.

P.S.S.S. This is the picture I have had on my desk top at work for the last 4 months or so... it is my inspiration. :)

Londons Calling

So much has happened and there is so much to say. While I started this blog mainly to showcase my school and trips I have taken while working at SkyWest, I have so much more to add on. I guess the best place to start is from now and on. Well, I will back up a little. This post will mostly be pictures of my most recent trip to London. I went for Spring Break, which was March 19th - March 24th. One of my best friends in the world was living there for a few months to help out her aunt and I decided that I was going to come visit. So, for my birthday and other reasons I took off on what became an interesting adventure...

It started off at the airport on Saturday morning. My alarm didn't go off and when I got to the airport... I ended up not getting on the direct flight to Detroit. So, I had to find a detour and I found a great one. I decided the best way to get there was SLC to Rapid City to Minneapolis to Detroit and then to my final destination, London. I had a great time and even saw Mount Rushmore in Rapid City, but it turned into a SUPER long day. Now I understand when people complain to me about being awake since 4 am on flights. Ugh.

Here is Mount Rushmore. I rented a car in Rapid and drove the half hour to see this sight. I didn't, however, want to pay the 11 dollars to get up and personal with the presidents. While amazing craftmanship, they were small and a little disappointing. I also stopped at a Taffy making place while I was there, the taffy was good... but nothing like salt water taffy. Nothing is as good as out salt water.

This is one of the first pictures that I took. I promised Emily, a friend from work at the U, that I would take random pics while I was there. And this was one of them. The tube. And this is London. :)

Nat, with her cocktail and the best cocktails sign EVER!

I wish I would have been here all day saturday for the Portobello Road Market. I love markets and I know this one would have been my VERY favorite!!!!

Fish n' chips. I didn't have them last time I was here... so I had them this time! Yum!

Nat and I at a pub... she really likes this place. It was good! and it was right after we saw Pricilla Queen of the Desert! It was so amazing. Best Birthday present EVER!!!

From the top of a bus... I love London.

At Princess Diana's Memorial Playground. It was so amazing. Just like living in Peter Pan's playground!

Map of Kensington Gardens. We... got lost.

Sophie loves her Natty.

This is Hyde Park. My FAVORITE place in London. So peaceful and beautiful... I love it.

More of Hyde Park!

And last but not least... walking across Abbey Road! and more of Diana's Playground.

Aruba

This is post is LONG over due... but better late than never! :) For my graduation trip myself and two of my favorite people decided to take a trip to the Caribbean. We didn't know where we could get to... but we decided on Aruba (we were very careful considering the reason Aruba has been ALL over the news). I love going on trips with these two because they are always so relaxed and chill. After all, after working your ACE off for 4 years, who wants to go on a stressful vacation, not I. So, we got on the plane to JFK, then to Aruba and arrived there on Saturday afternoon. We spent 3 nights and 2 1/2 full days. It was amazing. We laid on the beach, played at the pool (this is what we did most of the time because of the wind... VERY windy. When we were on the beach you felt as if you were being pelleted all over your body with the little grains of sand, so the pool was our choice for relief from the bloody hotness) and walked around downtown. I feel like I should have all these funny stories to tell, but in reality it was just a nice, relaxing vacation. We had A LOT of fun and saw an amazing beach, I didn't get badly sunburned and it turned out to be one of my favorite vacations, because that is what is was, a vacation. Anyway, I am posting some pictures of how amazing it was. I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I enjoyed the experience.

These pictures are COMPLETELY out of order, but no matter. Pringooools were out favorite treat there... and this is Anna and I at the Aruba airport waiting to arrive in Atlanta. We ended up getting stuck in Atlanta for the night, but we made a new friend and they let us stay at their house for the night. It was fun... and I can officially say that I have been to Atlanta... well Fayette ville. Which is where part of Sweet Home ALABAMA was filmed... good thing Alabama and Georgia are so close together...


This is my coveted sunglasses picture of the beach in Aruba... Blue Skies and White beach... amazing. The look on Anna's face in this other picture is the PERFECT look to describe how my fun we had... I mean how can you not laugh at her face.

This was us waiting for a ride to the Casino. I wone 10 dollars on a nickle machine. (this is BIG news... because i NEVER win when I gamble... but we had SOOO much fun). As you can see, I didn't get sunburned, but whitie McWhite Anna did. :)

This is downtown Aruba... It was so cute and RIGHT on the water. I love beach towns, they are so relaxed and calm. No one is in a hurry. And this is one of the THOUSANDS of iguanas that we saw... They were everywhere. They would just walk right up to you and act like you were not scary... but Lynnsi was pretty scared... she ran away from these gentile little guys every time she saw one.

This is the beach that was right across the street from our hotel. We got a KILLER deal on the hotel and the beach was so close and amazing. We had a BLAST. The beach was relatively empty the whole time we were there... especially on Sunday. It seemed that the Island was deserted during the day on Sunday. We decided it was because of Mother's day. I think we have made it a tradition to be AWAY from our mothers on mothers day... oops. Love ya mom.

These two are of Anna and I on our first day. The beach was fun and Anna was still happy... Before the burn. haha

Here is another of the beach and then the view from our suite. It was such a nice hotel and we had a balcony. We played cards on the balcony one night... it was fun. You know you have good friends when you go on a trip together and still want to hang out with each other when you get home. I recommend Aruba to anyone looking for a fun relaxing place to go. But be aware... you may be the only people under the age of 50. :)

GRADUATED!!!!!

I started this blog around the time I started going to the University of Utah. (that was 2 years ago) And now I Finally GRADUATED!!!! I am so happy that so many people and family came out to celebrate this amazing day with me. It was so much fun and I got to graduate with all of the friends that I made at the U. I am so glad I decided to go to this school and get the exact education I wanted. Now, it is time to prepare for my Master's. I am SOOO excited!

Chelsea and I at Stoneground (one of my fave restaurants) and me with the AMAZING mug my wonderful aunt sandy got me.

Part of our party.

My Family

The best and most frustrating gift ever from my cousin Annie (she is so creative) and me before I left to graduate.

With one of my favorite people, Aspen. After we graduated. And then us talking to one of our favorite professors, Professor Hutton.

I have no idea who this is... but I GRADUATED!!!!!

What's New?

Not a lot is new, but there is a little.

Usually at the beginning of every semester I list my classes, this semester I didn't. So here is the list.

Evolutionary Trees, Philosophy and Practical. This class is basically a Philosophy of Science course. It isn't my favorite topic, and I am pretty sure my professor has figured that out by now, but I am there to learn, so I am trying to find bits and pieces that interest me. :)

Native American Religion. This class is fun and my professor is funny. It is on Monday nights which is usually a very very busy day for me. I fight falling asleep in almost every class, but it is interesting still.

Ethnicity and Nationalism. This class is my favorite. It is exactly what I want to keep learning. It is basically the idea that Ethnicity and Nationalism are not the same thing, but we discuss how Ethnic and National identities and groups come to be. What can be the reason behind the formation of such groups and how there is an underlying reliance on an "Us vs Them" mentality. We have looked at everything from Mexican tribal communities to Genocides. There is a lot in this topic and it really fascinates me.

Family and Consumer Sciences. Although this class is just purely for the my bachelors of science requirements, it isn't too bad. It is actually the refresher of all my classes, simple and straight forward.

And last but not least, Death, Rituals and mummification. This class is interesting, but not my favorite. I was hoping that is would be more about the Death and Rituals part, I quickly found out that it is more about the mummification part. Which, is ok, but a little mundane to me. And I every more quickly found out that this class is HARD! Hopefully it will get better.

So that is my LAST and final semester before my Bachelor's Degree. I have been looking all over the country and out of the country for Graduate school programs and I have found a couple that have sparked my interest. But I will probably spend sometime traveling and working before I head to grad school, I might as well while my current job allows for such cheap and amazing trips.

Besides school, I have just been trying to enjoy life and my friends. Since I went back to college in 2007, I have put my social life on the back burner, but this semester I decided that you are only young once and you might as well enjoy your friends while you have them. So this is what I have been doing. And enjoying them has led to many sleep overs, trips to Mexico and fun times with my sister. The only problem is, is that I feel like I am never home. So today, has been a little of a refresher for me. I am home and enjoying my sanity, a long with a long list of things to do around this place and an even longer list of homework assignments. But it is going well. :) Here are some pics of the fun times I have had since new years!