Campus

Hey Everyone!

I hope that things at home have been amazing!

The weather here has been awful. It rained a few times but it has been so cold, cloudy, foggy and wet. I guess that is the Scotland weather they talk about so much!

I honestly don't think time could have moved any slower this week. It started off Saturday morning with work on all of my work - the presentation Monday, three papers Wednesday and one more paper Friday. It involved two all nighters and one night with 2.5 hours of sleep. SO glad that it is over! (Everything went well by the way!)

Thursday night, the girls and I went out to dinner to spend one last night together before break. The bartender/waiter was from northern Georgia who entertained us with stories of how his dad shot a bear with arrows and sent him jerky made of bear meat...I guess that's a good dinner time story?

Tonight, Lisa and I went to a little cafe in town and I got a chance to hear all of her stories about her travels around Europe and I am so excited to travel at the end of the semester! Later, Melanie came out with me to meet all of my Spanish and French friends and had an awesome time!

Packing for the hiking trip was fun - since it has been such bad weather, I pretty much packed all of the clothes I have here. We also needed to bring all the food we will need for the 4+ days we will be there. The kitchen is fully stocked with cookware so we can make real meals. It should be about a 6 hour drive to Skye so Saturday will be spent traveling and I am sure Wednesday will be too (although I don't know what time I will be getting back that day...maybe around dinner...so lunch for all of you!) Sunday, Monday and Tuesday will be our hiking days. There are apparently a lot of different trails that we can take and most of them take all day. It will be nice to be away from the world of academics for a while - the last week was crazy.

I will update the blog and post pictures when I get back!

Below is an attempt at a walking picture tour of a short walk around campus. It was sundown when I took the pictures so it's a bit dark. Enjoy!

Love, Shalyn =]



To get to the Cottrell building, Atrium, campus shops, library, cafeteria, campus bar, and loads of other things, this is the route I take:

I will go down this path (after wrapping around my building)


This is my view to the right (as if I were looking to the loch/lake) - it even has a little bench and a place where you can barbecue.


I walk down this path (which is the one I can see from my dorm room)


I have just crossed over the bridge and this is the view to the right of the building, looking at the loch/lake (you can see a bit of the building int he left hand corner)


This is the entrance to the Atrium (which has a different name; I think it is the Andrew Miller building?) and to Cottrell (a building with a lot of classes and the most confusing layout possible)


And now for the walk back:

Here we go over the bridge! On the left hand side of the bridge, you can see buildings over the trees; that is where my dorm is.


Looking to the left while on the bridge going home:


Looking to the right while on the bridge going home (and you can see Dumyat, the mountain that climbed)


Some of the wildlife in the loch/lake:


Over the bridge, down some stairs, then up some more and here is the back side of my dorm building (where my window is)

(If you want to find out which window is mine, start at the top. Start at the top right hand corner; the small rectangular window - not the longer skinny ones. Go down one row and move three to the left so that you are now on the fourth one and that is mine! The kitchen is another window to the left and my flat mates are back to the right)

When the path forks, I go to the right in order to get to the front entrance of the bulding and this is the little path that goes between my hall and the one next to it.