We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet

A fact I learned during my Christmas in Scotland is that Christmas was officially banned in Scotland until 1953 therefore the Scottish had to look for other ways to celebrate and focused their attention on the New Year or Hogmanay (no one is sure about the origin of the word so don't ask me), the Scots love their traditions so Hogmanay is still a major celebration especially in Edinburgh. As my mom left on the 29th she did not get to celebrate Hogmanay but my flatmate Elina came back from Finland to celebrate with me! We went to the Light Show on High Street on New Years' Eve Eve, however, the organizers didn't expect the snow so they had to shut it early (it had been snowing for 2+ weeks at this point so I thought that was a little bit of an oversight!) but it did get us in early to be well rested for the Prince's Street New Years' Eve Party, which we hit up in style on the 31st. It was incredible- tons of people (many of the men were wearing kilts!), live music, and at midnight fireworks and the singing of Auld Lang Syne-which was written by the Edinburgh poet Robert Burns so it has particular meaning in Edinburgh (and no I did not just leave off the "e" in take that's the Rabbie Burns spelling!) However, possibly my favorite moment of the night was when we came upon one of the security guards drinking a beer with a spare bottle in his back pocket...only in Scotland! <3

New Years' Day everything was of course closed as it is the day everyone spend at home with their family welcoming in the new year but I made sure that we had our black eyed peas for good luck!

Elina left on the 2nd to spend the rest of break in Luxembourg but I wasn't along for long as Sarah arrived that evening to have our own little New Years celebration complete with real champagne she brought!! After traveling around Scandinavia with her mom for the holidays Sarah decided to take a bit of time to visit me before her next adventures around Europe with Morgan. We mostly had a chill visit as both of us were exhausted from our mothers' visits (yes you would think we were old women...we have built our relationship on that fact!) But we also get to use the excuse it was cold and icy so being warm was far superior to being outside. We focused our activities on being inside like eating, shopping, going to the movies and of course going to the pub! As always it was lovely to see Sarah and I can't wait to visit her in Budapest later this semester!!