It's been a year

Today it's been a year since I came home from Scotland. It's hard to think about. I want to go back. I want to go back now. It's weird. The day I left Scotland was weird. It was never going to be the same again. It was probably the best year of my life. I got to do so many things and now have friends all over the world as well. Just trying to explain how great it all was just doesn’t work. I don't think I'm able to formulate what I feel so I'll just show yous photos and summarize my time in Scotland. 
I can start with the fist week. 

The photo is taken on North Bridge the first time I went uptown. I was there with Eva, my roommate from Slovakia. The weather was lovely and Edinburgh was filled with people. It was a good week where we did our best to adjust to a new family and a new country. Then school started

School was cool. I was so excited. In the photo you can see Karianne from Norway, Tanni from Denmark and Nicole from Italy. There we quite a few exchange students at St. David's. It was the three in the photo and then my roommate Eva, Me, Mauricio from Venezuela, and Ludo from Italy joined us after two weeks. My subjects were Math, English, Art, History and Geography. The exchange students quickly became a "gang" and after two weeks in Edinburgh I turned 17.

A photo of Mauricio, Nicole and Eva. My birthday was celebrated on ChinaChina at the omni centre. That later became my favorite resturant. I'm not sure in what order of all the amazing thing I got to do happened. But I'll do my best to keep it chronologial.  

The first time I got sick. Oh damn. That was awful. I was knocked out with a 39 in a fever and just felt like shite. I remember calling home and not being able to say anything over all the tears. My host mom didn’t really feel my pain so I was denied to be in the living room. Cheers!

Rain! Can't not mention the rain. Seriously. Rain. All the time.

I had my first nab. I guess it's just another word for hell. I did pass though and I was so happy. Then homesickness punched me in the face again. My brother posted a status on Facebook that made me break down. I even cried in my English class. That was embarrassing. Luckily Nicole was there to comfort me.

Makes me cry up just looking at it.
Then Hell broke loose. My computer broke down. There was no way of fixing it. So I lived without a damn laptop for ages. and ages. and ages. and ages. Luckily my lovely roommate Eva let me borrow hers.

I can't remember when this happened but I can remember that it was still warm outside. The exchange students of St. David's went out to go clubbing. It failed because of Mauricio being late. Again. So we ended up walking around in Edinburgh having a great time. 

 Then we had the first non uniform day. I don't know why, but I felt like I should wear something awesome. For no reason. Non uniform does not mean prom. I can't remember what I ended up wearing, mostly because it didn’t matter at all and was boring. Here’s a photo of my uniform:

That's right. I ate the penguin.
It was getting colder and Eva and I started our late night walks. We walked around in Bonnyrigg just having a wee chat and taking some photos.

 I got to take a wee free trip up to Edinburgh castle because of St. Something-twat-something-day or whatever. 

This is Ondrej host brother, Ondrej from Slovakia, Eva, Linda from the Czech republic, Ornella from Norway and Me

Then came the moment I had waited ages and ages for. My mom came to visit. It was so wierd and nice and sad and lovely. I just wanted her to stay, but she was only there for the weekend. So once again I had to say goodbye. (she gave me a laptop when she came over)

The weather was shit the whole time she was there and just after she left. It started to snow. Christmas was coming up and with Christmas came Christmas shopping. Oh man I love shopping. The bad thing was that I had to say goodbye to Nicole, Ludovica and Octavie. They were only there for half a year and it was time to say bye. 

Christmas was awful. I wanted to go home and even though I had a great time with Eva, that didn’t quite replace Christmas at home. Then Eva left to go home for new years. I went to Margaret, our local coordinator, because the host family was going on a holiday to Tunisia. New Years Eve was spent drunk at the Hogmanay street party.

Yeah. It's all random. Then Eva came "home" again and it was time to go back to the host family. School was about to start. Luckily we got a snow day. That means that there was more or less a centimetre of snow on the ground, so school closed. When school did start, we got a few new exchange students. There was Alexandra from Germany, Charlotte from Belgium and Eduardo from Italy. On Robert Burns day we had haggis for dinner. I actually like haggis. It doesn’t beat pizza, but meh. Then we had our Prelims and they all went to hell. Mauricio, Eva and I went to Portobello beach in the rain and had lunch at a nice and random place.

 Then we got the 6th year photo

Then we had a Random day. We bought a bus pass and went on random buses and all together we took 11 buses that day. It was Tanni, Karianne, Eva, Saara and I that had that little adventure.

How can I write a blog post about Scotland without talking about Starbucks. I even got a membership card there. I must have spent half of my stay in Scotland there. So here's to you Starbucks =D

 Then Mauricio, Eva and I started our friday lunch thing. It lasted for two weeks. We had fun and ate chicken. that was more or less it.

Then all of a sudden some Norwegian teachers from Nordberg came to St. David's.

Then Eva and I went to the Highlands. We had an amazing time and the nature was absolutely beautiful. We went there with her dad that came over from Slovakia. This is Eva and I hiding from the rain

Right after that I went to Dublin. I loved the city, but Iceland fucked it up so on my way home I had to take a bus, a boat, 5 trains and a bus to get home to Margaret, because my host family had gone on a holiday again.

Then the last day of school came. There was an epic food fight in the cafeteria. Just like in the movies. Epic. I started to hang out with Connor at that time. Then the 17th of May came along. Norway's national day. I spent it with Tanni, Eirin and Karianne. The weather was lovely and life was good. 

The departure date was closing up and the days were filled with tears and goodbyes. Tanni's birthday was spent in a lovely park and that day was truly magical. All of a sudden Octavie came back then we went to Portobello where we met Ludo. The next day Nicole came as well. It was so good. But while all of this was happening I had my exams and I had to say goodbye to Alexandra and Charlotte.

Eva, Georgie from Australia, Tanni, Désirée from Switzerland, me and Charlotte. Then came Prom. Everybody looked great and drunken teachers must be the funniest thing ever. The kilts were awesome as well. 

 

The next days were just sad. I didn’t want to go home. Saying goodbye is never easy, but these people became like my family. On the last day I met up with Connor uptown before we went to Iron Mills for goodbye drinks. 

I miss Scotland a lot. The exchange year has given me so many good memories. During this year I've been home I went to Milan for Nicole’s 18th party where I met Ludo, Désirée and Octavie again. Then in September Connor came to Norway for my 18th. Then I went back to Scotland for Hogmanay with Alexandra, Tanni, Karianne, Morgan and Eva. In February I went to Copenhagen to see Tanni again and now in just 5 days, Connor and James are coming over to Norway for a wee visit. Then in August I'm going for a holiday to Scotland again and hopefully I'll move back in September.

(not all the memories and all the people are in here simply because I would have spent a whole day just writing about each and every one of  you amazing people. All of yous are still close to my heart and all the memories are as well)