Scotland. Where to begin. I spent a solid 8 days in St. Andrews and I think I experienced 47 different versions of the weather. And that was just the first day. I truly thought Oklahoma had the weirdest weather in the world. Anyone remember this past April when it was 70 one day and a full on blizzard the next? Yeah. Scotland's weather makes ours look like a walk in the park.
Seriously, I walked outside the first morning and needed my sunglasses and in about 5 minutes there was a sudden downpour, which dropped the temperature by 20 degrees, which turned into a windstorm, which turned into sideways rain in my face and all over my trusty rainsuit. Thank god for Gortex.
How did I just dedicate two paragraphs to weather? My life is truly boring, that's how. I was in the birthplace of golf and was more facinated by the weather.
Moving on to scenery. The North Sea? Breathtaking. The town of St.Andrews? Absolutely charming. Here's a pic of sunset over the town. Imagine a bag piper playing in the background as I took this picture. True story.
Seriously, I walked outside the first morning and needed my sunglasses and in about 5 minutes there was a sudden downpour, which dropped the temperature by 20 degrees, which turned into a windstorm, which turned into sideways rain in my face and all over my trusty rainsuit. Thank god for Gortex.
How did I just dedicate two paragraphs to weather? My life is truly boring, that's how. I was in the birthplace of golf and was more facinated by the weather.
Moving on to scenery. The North Sea? Breathtaking. The town of St.Andrews? Absolutely charming. Here's a pic of sunset over the town. Imagine a bag piper playing in the background as I took this picture. True story.
The week I spent here was filled with work full stop. (BTW...full stop is the word brits use for the punctuation mark seen here ---> . The period. They all seemed mortified when I asked if I should abbreviate a word with a period or not. Just another example of the language barriers I encountered, which I plan to recap for you all very soon.)
The work I did was tedious and time consuming to say the very least, but I truly enjoyed every minute of it. And for those that know me well, you know that's not a very common thing for me to say immediately after an event. I did not see one minute of golf....that's not entirely true...I would look up every once in a while and see whichever group was on 16 fairway, but other than that, nothing. My loving husband joined me on Wednesday of my week in Scotland and had the pleasure of watching all four days of this major. Following all Oklahoma State golfers, of course. Go pokes.
Some of my favorite stories of the trip came out of St. Andrews....I could probably blog for a year and still not cover them all. I'll give you a brief recap of the highlights. (Bullet pointed of course. I am still in event mode).
- The Boot. This is what they call the trunk of a car. They do not make SUVs in the UK apparently. And they are way tougher on drivers and penalties than we are as well. So on more than one occasion, I had to fold myself up and fit into the boot of the car in order to fit everyone else "legally" into the car. It was comic relief for all concerned parties, especially when I had to get out of the boot.
- Our Accommodations. We stayed in the New Hall of St. Andrews University. It. was. a. dorm. I felt like I was 18 all over again, except I was surrounded by a bunch of middle-aged white men who love golf instead of fellow 18 year-old sorority girls. I was easily the only American female under the age of 30 in the entire 500 room complex. Which was packed by the way. My favorite part about the dorm was the fact that they had a bar in it. It made all the cliches about the Scots come to life for me. That and the exact same breakfast buffet we shared day after day in the dining hall contained haggis. Gag.
- The Portakabin. I call it a trailer. I've worked in many a trailer and my office was in fact a trailer for a solid two years at one point in my career. On looks alone, this was the nicest and smallest trailer I've ever been in. But let me paint you a picture. 12 men. Small space. No ventilation. I'm the only female. I insisted on double H getting air fresheners. And on more than one occasion I walked into the portakabin only to turn right back around to walk outside and puke. A slight exaggeration, but it really was that bad.
- Pub crawl. What trip would be complete without one? Ok, so we only crawled to two pubs, but hey, I will take what I can get. During this evening double H and JT wrote a whole song (limerick style) that recapped our week. It had me in tears it was so funny. I learned to throw darts (apparently I have some pent up aggression because at one point I could not retrieve one from the wall) drink Bellhaven's Best and make it back to the New Hall in once piece before my 3:30am wake up call.
- My loving husband. I typically don't like for him to come to my events. I know that sounds harsh, but I switch into event mode and I am somewhat tunnel visioned and painfully focused on tasks at hand and I feel like I can't give him the attention he deserves so it is usually best if he stays away. I made an exception for this trip. It was really neat to get to see him enjoy the event. The smile plastered on his face when I would bump into him on the course was priceless. Sharing the dormitory accommodations with him was pure comedy. And let's be real, I needed him there for the additional suitcase storage in order to make it home with all my stuff. I kid, I kid.
After we finished up work, my loving husband and I took a whirlwind trip down south to Paris....
No comments:
Post a Comment