Saying Goodbye to Good Friends

Kitty and Tim


Jim, Suz, me, Linda, Jane and Marion


John and Mary cut their cake.
(It was John's 70th birthday party cake too [on June 11])

Bob and Sheila Stewart were gracious enough to host John and Mary's going away party last evening. It was a fun time, but a sad night as well as three years have passed and they flew back to Wisconsin this morning.

It's been an amazing time spent with them - the laughs, the whisky and the great meals and holidays shared. They will be missed and never forgotten.

Summer Term 2006

The summer term officially kicked off yesterday with 29 students from the five western UW schools. Despite the usually jet lag, the 26 girls and 3 guys seem very excited to be here and anxious to learn about Scotland and travel!

It will be our director's inaugural bunch, and with a summer intern, and three new faculty, it should be an exciting summer with new ideas and energy.

Boy's Visit

Amsterdam...

So yeah - to fill you in on my departure on Sunday morning from the hotel room, I need to go back a few hours.

Picture, Sicily, 1963. Okay, It was April's bar in Amsterdam about 8pm... I just finished my (like) my 10th beer (for whatever reason, I was actually drinking more and faster than Randy!). We departed for the Candlelight Canal tour and arrived to find the big backseat open (good suggested move by Randy, Good eye Randy, Good eye!) Every table gets 3 bottles of wine, and all the cheese and crackers they want (as this was my 3rd tour, I knew for a fact they they ONLY give you 3 bottles of wine and all the cheese and crackers you want).

BUT, the tour guide hadn't given tours in over 10 years, so when Cameron jokingly ordered more cheese and crackers and three more bottle of wine, she did. 6 bottles of wine, and we aren't pacing ourselves anymore. After some pictures of, with and for neighbouring tables, we discovered that our table enjoyed white, another red and the third rose...naturally there was some switching going on and we were all very happy.

11pm rolls around, and it is time to disembark (err, stumble off) the boat and, naturally, head to April's for a drink. I'm getting a little hazy here, maybe the boys can help me out, but I think we had one or two or ? and I think Cameron made his way home (to drink the last 2 bottles of wine from the tour I think ;-) and Randy decided (I didn't argue I guess...) that we needed to check out the Exit Cafe, a dance club next door. Did I actually get the glass to my mouth at this bar Randy? Who knows, and at this point who cares. I left Randy at the bar, "man down, man down" is all I'm thinking. It's about 130am-ish, and I have a 630am alarm to wake up to.

Well, my phone (still set on Scotland time) DID go off at 630am GMT, but it was 730am in Amsterdam. Well, I didn't figure that out for a few minutes, and a rushed packing job and kisses goodbye, I stumble on the empty Sunday morning streets of Amsterdam. After hoofing it for 4 blocks, I (accidently rudely) order a ticket to the Train station, run in, and THINKING I had a return ticket to the airport.... scrambled to make it to the 8:13am train. My flight leaves at 9:40am by the way...

So, on the 2nd of 3 stops before the airport, the conductor asks for my ticket, noticed it wasn't valid, and booted me!!! F*ck me. There I am, sitting at a train station with NO one working... I rush to find a machine for tickets and thank god a train came at 8:46pm... I made it through checkin, passport/customs and to platform D55 (and for those of you that know Schipol airport... its way f'ck'n down there) by 9:25am... we boarded, and I was safe on my way. Did I mention I was hung over?

Good times, Good times. Thanks for the fun times boys...

Good times coming to and end: Mary and John depart soon

John and Mary will be leaving soon for home. Henry and Ann were nice enough to invite us over for dinner and drinks, along with Richard and Cath. Good friendships.

Henry, Tim, John, Cath, Mary, Richard and Ann and I in the front.

Seis días en catalán

Translate: Six days in Catalan (home to ¡Barcelona!)

We went to Barcelona for six days in late April/early May... A recap.

Thursday
Arrived in warm Barcelona! We took the bus to "Hotel California" - yes, that was the name, but no worries, unlike the song, we got to leave. We quickly freshened up and headed off to the Spanish Trails tour shop to start our vineyard tour. Charles, the owner was very gracious and nice. He informed us that because of the remodeling and transition their business was going through, that we were the only two signed up for the event and would essentially be getting a private tour. Yeah for us. Trevor, our guide was a very liberal and laid back man from San Diego. He'd been living in Europe for 2 years so he gave us a very nice background history our our way to San Pao, where the grape fields and Felix's (owner) shop was at.

We were escorted through the the little shop, where only four people work - Felix and his wife Christina and two employees - and shown where actual fermentation takes place, how the removal of 'la madre' (The Mother) occurs and the corking happens. Afterwards, Christina brought us downstairs where there were hundreds of bottles, all being aged to different years for different reasons, whites, rosés, reds and cava (champagne).

We got to the last chamber of the basement and a full table of authentic Catalonian food awaited us - breads, cheeses, and a variety of fresh and dried meats. The most unusual that I can remember was the fresh bread that had a butter and fresh tomatoe 'rub' on it. It was sort of like brushetta, but different.

The 'tasting' became drinking after about 20 minutes, and after we finished, Tim and I each got to go through the process of removing la madre (the sediment that accumulates in cava and is slowly pushed to the tip by rotating angled bottles once a day for 15 days) and cork our own bottle to keep! Very fun.

Friday
We made our way have a coffee at our favorite coffee shop in Barcelona. Unfortunately, they had no outside seating at the time, so we went to our second favorite. A couple coffees and our magazines and books and we were ready to start the day. Naturally, after grabbing some lunch, we headed to the beach with a six pack of San Miguel. I LOVE drinking on the beach.

Saturday
After our morning coffee, we made our way to the Metro so we could get to the train station. Upon arriving there, we purchased two tickets to Sitges and what I thought I heard to be 'seises' (6) in Spanish was Cin (5) in Catalonia... Cinco is 5 in Spanish... so, since I heard 6, we got on the wrong train and ended up in Barceloneta. So, after trial number 2 and an hour later than we hoped, we arrive in the resort town of Sitges. We found our hotel and made our way to the beach. Our first cocktail was at a place called Restaurant Kansas - Just making our way through the American states in Spain aren't we?

After freshing up, enjoying a long walk on the beach, we say on the rocky barriers (that protect the beach from waves) and drank San Miguel and talked about our families, and life and when and where we might get married. Very romantic and enjoyable night. We ran into 5 of our students, oddly enough, on our way to dinner. One of them had mentioned that Sitges seemed to be a 'highly gay area' and we concurred (duh! one of the reasons we went! ;-) and laughed about that. It became sort of a running joke for a few weeks...

Pizza for dinner, a wee siesta, and then to some of the bars. The first three bars had an over abundance of 'bear' gay men in them which we found strange (like wtf, is EVERYONE here a bear?). At the last bar of the evening, our French bartender Joel informed us that it was the annual 'Bear Weekend' and they had come from all over Europe... which makes the 'highly gay area' comment so much more relevant and funny now.

The highlight of the night was hearing a song we hadn't heard before called D-I-S-C-O... one that takes DAYS to leave your head after hearing it.
D - delightful, I - incredible, S - super special, C - sweet as candy, O - oooOOhh, It's a Disco... and so on. Great tune, not gonna lie.

Sunday
After a nice lay in, we window shopped, had coffee and then walked around the city.

Repeat the Saturday afternoon of laying out, barrier with Cava this time, dinner again, nap, and then to see Joel.. our new favorite bartender. Very nice gentleman, and generous... ugh.

Monday

As they'd say in español: repetición. Another GLORIOUS day of sun and sand and all the same goodness. Staring at pretty people, reading our books and mags and thoroughly relaxed.

Note: Joel didn't want us to leave on this night... kept filling our glasses for free, the little stinker...

Tuesday
Home to Scotland!

Its the LAST DAY!

"Last week drinks" at Sams... we decided that we're super cute in black and white.



The spring semester for WIS is ending today. The house is being cleaned, clothes are being packed and goodbyes and hugs are starting to trickle in as they make there way to their end of term party.

We'll be at the Rugby club again - sure to be some karaoke and dancing. This has been an absolutely smashing group. Hats off to them!

Como se dice, 'broken camera'?

Just back from Spain... where it was a lovely 70-80 degrees everyday, we sat on a beach at least once on each of the 5 days we were there... But, alas, we had to return. Unfortunately, our camera died before we left, and we have no pictures!

So, to show off the tan and prove we were really in Spain, here's a picture from the Ice Cream Social we hosted the evening of our return. The girls REALLy wanted me to sit on their lap, so that's what I did! Crazy kids - good to be 'home'.