Last days in Scotland

On Tuesday (14th) I was supposed to work on the lab report I had to hand in that Wednesday, but it kind of failed, because my head was already on 'vacation-mood'. In the afternoon the parents of Mathilde arrived at Firhill Court. When looking at the amount of bags/stuff the three of us wanted to get back to the Netherlands by car, I had already prepared myself on having to put some of my stuff back into the suitcase that I was going to check in on the aeroplane. However, it must have been a miracle, because it all fitted!! Wow! The parents of Mathilde then took us out for dinner; we went to Jamie Oliver's Kitchen. We had already been there with them once (and the parents of Leoni and Guy) after we had done the full-day bus tour to Stirling (Castle) and Loch Lomond. The food was really good! The rumour goes that it is a really posh and expensive place, but I don't find it that expensive! I think most dishes might even be cheaper than other restaurant and the spices and combinations of flavours they use is really good. (I'm no great cook, but even I could taste it, haha)

Fortunately, Wednesday was a more productive day. However, it apparently wasn't productive enough, because the three of us were still working on our lab report at 6pm while we had to hand it in before 5pm. Every day you hand it in after the deadline will cost you three 'grade points' (A1 will become an A4), but it was the only options since we didn't want to hand in an unfinished report. Leoni had her last Ultimate Frisbee exercise -and she didn't want to miss it of course-, so she stopped at 6 o'clock and finished it the next day. I stayed until 9pm in the library; I was almost finished. Mathilde stayed until half past 9, but was finished afterwards. It was a very stressful and exhausting day. Especially since I expected to be done with all the school work at Glasgow University on Wednesday the 15th of December at 5 pm.

So the next day Leoni and I finished the lab report and we handed it in. We thought we were a day too late, but almost everyone had handed it in on Thursday. Apparently the office was closed the previous day after noon and no one had been able to hand it in. So, 24 hours later than as planned it was finally time to relax. We celebrated it by having dinner with our friends at Jamie Oliver's Kitchen. The second time for us that week, but we didn't mind at all! Just like the previous two times, the food was delicious.

The saying goodbye part started here for me. Sanne would leave the next day, so this was the last time I would see her in Schotland. After dinner most of us went to Molly Malone (the Irish pub I had already been to with Leoni and her parents) to chat some more in the presence of some (alcoholic) drinks. Another Dutch girl I had met during my stay in Glasgow came by, so we could say goodbye to her as well. At that moment it wasn't sure whether she, Marie-Louise and Sanne would be able to fly the next day, because of the weather conditions. (I'm glad to say they didn't had any big inconveniences and were able to land at Düsseldorf-Weeze Airport.)

I had been really looking forward to my last few days in Glasgow. Do some last sightseeing, relax a bit, pack my bags and clean my room. However, I got very ill that night. Not totally unexpected, though. It had been a few very stressful weeks: the surprise flight to the Netherlands, learning for the exam, the stress of the lab report, I had a bit of a cold and my back was still hurting because of the fall I had made that Monday. So when I was able to relax all the stress came out and I got ill. It is not unusual for me, since this is what happens at the beginning of at least every summer holiday. It did however mean that my Friday didn't work out as planned and I stayed in bed most of the day feeling very ill.

That evening we had planned a dinner at Firhill Court with our friends. We ordered some pizzas and chatted a bit before most of them went to their last party (in 2010) in Glasgow: Cheesy Pop at the QM union. Obviously I didn't join them. It was also a bit of a sad evening; saying goodbye to everyone and stuff. Especially for Leoni, since she was having a Ultimate Frisbee competition the next day and wouldn't be able to wave Verena, Melanie and Esther goodbye. So yes, there was some crying involved. But then again, we're all girls so we're allowed to, haha.

Fortunately, I was feeling a bit better that Saturday, so Mathilde and I waved Verena, Melanie and Esther goodbye from Firhill Court. Esther would go to the Netherlands by train, while Verena and Melanie already went to Edinburgh and stayed there for the night, so they would be in time for their flight that Sunday.

Now I was feeling a bit better I was able to clean my room and start packing. Well, I didn't really had a lot of choice, since we would be leaving Glasgow the next morning. Taking all of my photos and post cards off the wall, made my room look a bit weird. Empty, like it already didn't belong to me anymore. A guy from Firhill Court checked our rooms and we got our deposit back. Unfortunately, in cash, because the cash machine was broken and therefore they were unable to transfer the deposit back on our debit cards. The amount of Scottish pounds left, which you cannot spend anywhere outside of Scotland, was worth visiting my bank in the Netherlands.

Now that we had packed most of our stuff, there were still some things left that we didn't want to bring to the Netherlands. So we gave the pots, pans, plates and mugs away to a girl we had met during the St. Andrews/ Edinburgh trip. The cutlery would go in my suitcase and back to the Netherlands and we left everything that was left in the kitchen (food, lunch bags, aluminium foil, etc.) to the Malaysian people, because they would stay until the end of January.

Love,
Samantha

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Photos: http://s1046.photobucket.com/home/MathildeCastelijns/allalbums
Molly Malone pub: http://www.malonesglasgow.co.uk/