everybody loves it when Evan comes to town

before anyone loses their heads, i will just say that this time i have a legitimate excuse for this horrendously delayed post!

last week was my first real, strenuous, W&M-esque, bout of work: my first paper! even though it wasn't due until this past monday, i told myself that there was no way i was going to be cranking out words the weekend Evan visited.

here he is in town, being charming

i cannot honestly say how incredible his visit was. or how grateful i am that he came. or just how it lifted my little soul to have a best friend here where i am still (slowly but surely!) trying to make more friends. i love, love, love him.

but back to academics! so since Evan got to the edinburgh airport at 7:30 a.m. (and yes, indeed, i woke up at 5 a.m. in order to meet him there), i decided to finish as much of my paper as i could in the last week. this is going to sound ridiculous, but i had forgotten just how exhausting academic work is! i spent at least half of last week in multiple libraries, at my desk, in my bed, laptop in lap, trying to piece together 2,000-2,500 words of the tightest, most regulated paper that i think i've ever done. of course i didn't finish in the week, so sunday morning saw me editing the life out of my poor paper trying to fit it to the "guidelines" set by the english department. everything has RULES! footnotes? title? strict adherence to the essay question? bibliography? all of these apparently need to follow a format that i would be  an idiot to ignore. hence, bed at 2 a.m. on morning.

here he is at west sands, naturally laughing

but back to Evan! after we took the train back to campus, we relaxed in the room for a little bit then went walking around town. thankfully, the sun came out after a cloudy morning! we went to all of my favorite places and ended the tour at west sands. we ended up climbing a huge seaweed-covered boulder and you can see that even in the frigid wind, gloveless and hatless, i couldn't keep the smiles off my face. we had dinner in town, went to a few pubs, danced at a club, and ended up doing another one of my favorite things: takeaway pizza from dervish. it is the greasiest, most perfect drunken snack my greedy lil eyes ever did see. i think Evan agrees!

me on windy rock

sunday was for shopping in Dundee. Evan was introduced to Primark, i was introduced to Dundee as a fabulous little city (not the dump that i had heard it to be), and Evan and I were both introduced to slightly senile/questionably racist/too chatty fellow bus riders. hilarity.

evan at west sands, naturally modelling

monday was for breakfast at northpoint, another run down to west sands, class (me), essay drop-off (me!), a self-tour (Evan), and edinburgh. because Evan's flight left tuesday morning, we decided to get a hostel for the night instead of journey the two hour bus ride there and back.
i cannot praise smart city hostel enough! as my first experience, it set the bar way high and i will recommend it to anyone who is ever so inclined to visit edinburgh. which, you must, because it too is a wonderful city! another sunny day graced Evan and i as we fashioned our own tour through the city around mid-afternoon. as picture happy as i was, my poor thing died halfway through but my iphone did me justice. i mean, look at this quality! i'll be putting all other pictures on the flickr!

you go, glen iphone

so we walked, and climbed hills, and took pictures, and gaped at architecture, and walked some more, and stopped in a bakery, and walked some more, and changed clothes at the hostel. then we had dinner at an adorable place, drinks at the hostel bar, made some friends at two clubs, made some friends on the way back from the clubs, and passed out at 4 a.m.

tuesday was for free hostel breakfast, early check out, more walking around, saying goodbye to Evan at the airport D:, and me taking a bus ride back that ended up killing 3 hours of my day. and my poor butt.

but now i'm back in st andrews with another paper due on monday for my other class. i don't even know what i'm going to write about for this one yet, so i'm hoping divine intervention comes down from somewhere and slaps me across the face. also, i will try to stop being so long-winded with these things!

xo nicole