St Patricks Day

First off havnt written in a spell due to student activities that have been due in the past few weeks and one coming up in a couple of days, but I feel good about that one so I am taking a brake from paper writing to write in here.
We all know that St Patricks Day is by far the best holiday (Im from the Boston area). I mean if you dont like snakes, like the color green and enjoy beer, whiskey and all things Irish then there is no reason that I can think of, of way you might dislike this holiday. Also you are Irish for a whole day, wheather you want to be, already are or dont want to be. how often does that happen?
I trying to be a responcible young adult, student, studying abroad, also in Scotland, haha. I desided the best course of action would be to hold a Potluck style dinner party. Thinking that people can eat food while drinking making them far less likely to circum to blood poisening.  I thought it was a good idea, other then realizing that the rest of the students along with my self all have projects due in the coming weeks that they should be working on. So only a smaller group out of the large number of inventations verbly spoken out to my fellow students were able to come.  The smaller number of people at the party was not a bad thing, it being a potluck and all. With the 11 or so people there was so much food that me and my roommates are still trying to work through it, theres four of use and its been two days.

I started the day with a quick trip to the gym, outfited in my green on green with green. Was once again for the second year depressed to see a very small amount of people in the city wearing anything that closely related to the color of green. I returned to my flat mid day where one of my flatmates whom remindeds me of one of my cousins back, brought his projector into my room and played the movies Boondock Saints and Leprechaun on my wall while we watch the six nation rugby games of the day on his computer. All the while drinking substains of malty quality (the drinking age in the UK is 18 years of age.)(I had spent the entire week prier stock piling on beer, visting in on all the stores every day to see if they had good deals on, I dont have a drinking problem, I had a buying problem but Im done with that.) In between the two movies I make a green herb bread for my potluck main course idem which was a ham, lettice, tomato, mustard and cheese hero sub cut up. Having already made a chocolate Guinness cake the night before with whiskey chocolate filling, dark chocolate frosting with a cool green mint meringue fluffy topping, while watching a film about Irish independance.
The night went good in my option, though people did end up leaving early to go work on projects and loss themselves in drinking holes. Over all not a bad St Pattys Day abroad, next year Ireland!

This is the chocolate Guinness cake before I put it together, I forgot to take a photo of after it was all stacked up, sadly. But that just means I have to make it again, which by no means is a bad thing. It was so good! and I went off recipe because well the oringal one was no as cool as it should have been, being a cake made from beer.

Due to the general lack of photos I had taken on the day, this is one I did not forget to get a picture of. This is my breakfast that I tryed to make my oatmeal green and only got little specks here and there and my coffee of irish influence that I also tryed to make green but it just made it more brown.

This was a cake brought by on of the students from my Curling team who was able to come to the putluck. And more so in the picture the Leprechaun that she made with her two hands! I thought it was wicked cool and I shall correct and one who may say anything against it, he also came with a pot of gold which is not in the photo but was also of very wicked craftswomensness.

North Berwick, Tantallon Castle

Traveling on my Universitys so called "reading week" that most if not all students considered a spring break to the so talked about small coastal town of North Berwick at the end of the rail east of Edinburgh I was plesently surprised by just that a small quant coastal town. The town known for the large volcanic vent hills that speck its land scape which can be seen from miles away. Also reveared for its natural researves of free birds and large ruins of once extremely powerful and important fortests, castles and monestaries.
I arrived on the at the small town 33 minutes east of Edinburgh on a cloudy, windy and increasingly chilly day. But as a person expecting the weather to only become increasingly more pressent I only brought my old light sail team jacket whihc was perhaps as insulative as a thin sweatshirt and a paper thin rain jacket. But I was greatful I had remembered my rain jacket, due to the speratic rain showers that accompanied to bone chilling wind.
Taking in the beauty of the town while walking through I soon realized that I was at the end of the city and on the trail to the fortest sitting on a bluff high above the water three miles outside the collection of buildings inside the town. Windy, watery and cold past the point of comfortability I was determinded to viste the castle that I had spend the day before investagating online. Pushing through the wind and rain the three miles as small cars showed off their 50 - 80 horsepower engines zooming by every now and again to the main road I was walking on, I finally made it to the castle in good time.
I have had a membership to the Scottish castle historical soceity that would have allowed me to viste Tantillon castle incorporated in my membership fee, But that membership had expired a month before. While talking to the helpful historical soceity woman at the front gate of the castle while my hands regained their usefullness so that I might pay for a continue to my membership, I soon realized that my bank cards would not work. One of the cards didnt have enough money on it, the other was only an ATM card and the other had never worked before but I keep it with me in the hopes that it will work in the future. After many failed attemps to pay with these cards and not enough cash in my wallet to pay for a membership in one go, I was forced to pay just for the day to viste the castle I had traveled so far to see. But not to treat the fee to viste this castle due to its location out side the normally visted areas of Scotland was realitive low. I was soon walking the grounds of history, of rebellion and patriotism, of bravery and restistence. The castle now in ruins of the what greatness it once was, was still an amazing work of enginering and masondary. The castle made for war fare of sords and arrows near the end of its use with stood bombardment by the increase of technology that was 1770's artillary, but met its end to the endless enemy of time. Once inside the walls the veiw over the bluff was the ocean and an island home of a long empty monstary, light house and protected bird habitat.
Due to the cold, wind and rain and a train to level in only a couple of hours, my time at the castle was shorter then I would have enjoyed on a nice day. So sadly sooner rather then later I was back on the street walking the three miles back to the small town center with quant shops and tourest couples marveling at butchers shops as if they had never seen them before. Back on the train back to Edinburgh I made it just in time to be joined buy student from a university just outside of the main city of Edinburgh back to the city center. So back in the city I weaved through the now very large crowd of students and professionals with the same destination in mind as me 'home and food' I made my way back to the building I had started my day in.