Some Southern Jazz Waaaaay Up North

This past weekend was my much anticipated mystery date up in Scotland with Mark! I had not been to St. Andrews since December, and I was hoping that it had warmed up since my last visit... not so much, but it was wonderful nonetheless. I arrived Friday morning and after recovering from the long train ride, we went for a nice lunch in town with a friend, Tiff, and headed off to the library for a little work (don't worry, that wasn't the mystery date part). Friday night was spent relaxing at home with a pizza and a couple of tv shows- a nice way to end the day after the long trip.

Saturday it was time for our mystery date! Actually, Mark gave in and revealed the date to me in advance :) We set off to Edinburgh with Mark's roommate, Tom, and his girlfriend Kirsten. Unfortunately, the weather was not too agreeable and it was rainy most of the time- so we decided to visit the castle, which was fun with some great views of the city. For dinner we had reservations at a delicious tapas restaurant, and it was so nice to be out with friends eating great food as opposed to the usual student food I live on. The skies had cleared and we were off to our final destination- the Edinburgh HMV Picture House for an amazing live jazz concert by Maceo Parker. 
Confession: I did not actually take this picture... but if my camera battery wasn't dead I would have! We were right in front of the stage, and it was such a fun night of swaying and dancing to an amazing jazz concert with my favourite (British spelling since he's British...) guy :)

I had a wonderful time as always up in Scotland, and I am eagerly anticipating my next visit when I hope it will, in fact, be warmer. :)
In other news, Mark has been accepted (I have to be the proud girlfriend and brag for him) for fully funded phd projects at the University of Leeds and the University of Mississippi in addition to a masters somewhere else that I can't remember (Newcastle?). The only catch is that he has to decide by tomorrow- crazy! Stay tuned for an update on where he'll be heading in the fall! 
In more news, I've been it talks with the Greenville Art Museum to hopefully do my special project in partnership with them this summer and it's looking promising- so even though it will be challenging, I am very excited to see how it will develop! It would definitely help the finances to save money and work from Greenville this summer, but we'll have to see how it all works out!

A Nice Friday

I've had a little bit of stress these past few weeks with classes, the internship etc... but today was such a lovely day of unwinding! I headed out this morning on a jog to Greenwich Park (don't fall over from shock- interspersed with a bit of power walking :P ). I've decided Greenwich park is definitely one of if not my absolute favourite (favorite..) places in London- Definitely on the Dean family tour in April! It's so scenic and peaceful, and I even did some yoga (another gasp!) and stretching in the park while lots of playful pups ran about. Made me miss good ol' Toby. After a bit of relaxing in the sun (shocker! ... still cold, but i'll take cold sun over clouds any day!), I strolled (enough of that jogging nonsense) to Greenwich market where I oogled at the market stalls including a really cute display of hats before giving in and buying some cheap dimsum for lunch- amazing! A bit of tidying and work this afternoon, and I think I'll treat myself to a bit of hot chocolate, courtesy of my mum, and a movie to finish off this nice friday. Aaaalmost as nice as next friday will be, when I head up to Scotland to see the boy :)

aaand I forgot to mention, the unwinding started a little bit earlier with dinner out with my friend Liz after I got off of work on Thursday. We went to a fun Cuban restaurant and got a mixed tapas plate and mojitos- mmm can't go wrong with cuban food! :)