A Great Birthday and Great Weekend!

So all of last week the lectures consisted of Parasitology and inflammation. The lectures were interesting the Parasitology lectures made me very itchy reading about ticks/louse/fleas... I have yet to work on my essay that is due in a few weeks, but will probably finish it tomorrow just so that I can have it completed. I have been working on organizing the material to study for Exam 2 in December and it is approaching closer and closer. This exam may be a little more difficult than the last. We shall see though... This past weekend was GREAT! Had an awesome birthday with friends from class. On Thursday (day of my birthday) Emily from class had about 20 people over for a dinner party, which consisted of homemade Italian food. It was very yummy! Stuffed peppers with Mozzarella cheese and some other ingredients. VERY good indeed! Did not make any random trips this weekend but will next weekend. Went out for a couple of hours yesterday with friends to celebrate my birthday as well as Chad's. I tried a Vodka Martini for the first time (thought I would be like James Bond while I am here) and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Don't think I would make it something I get whenever I go out though. I think once is enough for that. I will stick with my Scottish Ales. Today was a day of wanderlust through Edinburgh. Kristen and I decided to go out and wander around the city. Went to St. James shopping center and found a new clothing store that is AWESOME! I will be going back tomorrow because there are MANY shirts that are going on clearance this weekend and I am determined to be there to grab the good shirts. I picked out two new shirts (with the help of Kristen) and they are now in my top 5 favorite shirt list. After that, we looked at some Christmas things and had lunch and coffee. We then walked around the city and found this really pretty lake that was full of swans, ducks and seagulls. There were probably around 20 swans and dozens of ducks and seagulls. There was one swan that was not in the water but was very friendly (or just hungry) and kept walking at me trying to get into my clothes bag thinking that there was food in it. I thought it was quite amusing. There was a bridge that went across the water that was very slippery too. My shoes kept slipping on the wet wood of the bridge as I was walking across it. On the way back home we found some really neat shops that sell gourmet Italian food and one that sold organic stuff. The organic shop even had giant bags of oatmeal on the floor with big scoops in them. It was really neat. I picked out some sliced parma ham (my favorite new meat) and some fresh butter from France. Weather today wasn't bad, a bit rubbish but in spurts. Rainy this morning then cleared up this afternoon, but then began to sprinkle a bit on the way home. All in all, a great weekend so far. Oh, and there was also the brightest rainbow I have ever seen, watch the video below. Oh, and also, the tree outside my room window has changed into the classic Autumn colors. It smells so good out right now. Smells of wet leaves, you know, that distinct smell of Autumn! I love it! Hope everyone is doing well and can't wait to see you all at Christmas time!