Grad Parties, Nessie and Fire Alarms

So, we are DONE! Have our certificates in hand, backpacks on our shoulders, and smiles on our faces! Well, I should say we do NOW, last week was too many hugs goodbye and cleaning products. We had a big party at our apartment Thursday night then proceeded to drink until three. Of course we had school the next morning, and it being Europe and all, the program bought us champagne to toast our completion at noon. There was laughing crying and loving bickering throughout the weekend and we traded sleep for reminiscing and pints. Now we have moved out of our apartment, said goodbye to the lovely people in our CELTA program, and are wandering around the Scottish Highlands, My friend Becca flew in to Edinburgh from Wales on Saturday, and since then we have been busy with walking, drinking and touring. We stayed at a hostel Saturday night in Edinburgh where we had an EXCESSIVELY drunk Aussie pound on our door in a most frightening manner. After that we though the worst was over.......then he pulled the fire alarm. That's right, 4am and there are about fifty of us standing in the street in the freezing cold watching as a fire engine searches our hostel. To say the least, we didn't sleep well, but at least we got a nice anecdote out of it!

Today has been simply amazing (though we were zombies through most of it). We caught the 8am tour to Loch Ness and the Ulquart Castle sitting on it. We had the perfect weather, sunny skies! It was frigid, but the pictures look lovely. We saw snow on the jagged mountains and got up close to Highland cows, all while trying not to throw up on the bus. We loved the castle, even more so because it is nearly ruins now. It is like a giant come over and stepped on a child's Lego's.....but somehow it manages to be breathtaking in all its crumbling. We have a nice hostel tonight and are so excited to go to bed early. Tomorrow we want to wander around Inverness and do some hiking to lift our souls! But at this point they are already on the rise, for it is finally sinking in that we are on vacation! No more twelve hour days and grammatical torture, just writing in coffee shops and loitering around lovely forgotten buildings. What can be better? Right now, it seems like nothing could be.......