Merry Christmas!

Time has been flying over here is Asia! We are back in Korea after 8 days in Tokyo, and sadly, Travis is back to work. Christmas was yesterday, and Travis' birthday is tomorrow, then New Years is next week. There is just a lot going on!

It was very strange not being home for Christmas. I think this was the first year ever I haven't been home. Travis and I kept things pretty low key here. We had a pizza for dinner on Christmas Eve, then opened our pajamas.  It is a Tufte tradition to open pajamas on Christmas Eve, and even though I am not at home, I didn't want to miss out.

On Christmas day, we woke up and opened presents in the morning. Travis's mom sent a lovely package full of presents, with collaboration from my mom and Travis's grandma. I'm pretty sure my mom made and filled stockings to send. They were great! I missed the orange Santa usually includes in my stocking, but they probably would not have travelled well. I got a lovely Pandora ring from my family, plus a cute owl plushie and owl PJs from Travis's. I also got a ton of good American candy! Travis's family also gave us our tickets to Tokyo as a Christmas gift, which was just lovely.

We had a nice dinner at a little restaurant last night. I'll have to ask Travis exactly what we had. It was a big, pancake like thing with kimchi,  some battered meats and vegetables and a pretty good Korean rice wine.

I was able to get all of our pictures together from the trip today. We took a ton! I don't have my camera charger, I actually think I left it in MN, but Travis did a nice job documenting. He also has a really nice point and shoot camera with 12x zoom so we got some nice shots. Nothing on what Randi would have done, though!

My last days in Edinburgh were quite interesting. The MBA office threw us a wonderful Winter party on December 8, my last paper was due on December 10, then I left for Korea on December 13. I also had to somehow fit in holiday shopping as well. I think I missed the holiday shipping deadline, so apologies to friends and family at home. It should be there soon.

My phone was also stolen the night of the party, so I had to stop at the police station to file a report. Thanks to wonderful Google technology, I have a photo of the girl who took it, along with the GPS coordinates of where it was taken. I haven't heard much from the police yet, but hopefully they will be able to get it back.

I will do a proper post on Japan and Korea so far tomorrow. I have to get out and enjoy some of the Seoul sights right now.

I am missing everyone at home and at school, but am having a great time. I hope everyone had as wonderful of a holiday as I did!

Here are some photos of the Winter party and a few of our little Christmas:

 Cassie and I playing with the party poppers

 Daniele, Diego (my neighbor) and Kieran

 Andrew, one of our programme managers

Travis wore his Christmas sweater to work on Christmas Eve

 Our present pile! The little tree Travis got was overwhelmed.

 With our tree

 Trav opening his pajamas

Showing off my awesome pjs. I also had a Christmas sweater. :-)

Traci's Adventures in Asia: Part 1

I leave for Korea in 9 hours! I am so excited!

Update!

Since tomorrow would make it an entire month since updating the blog, I decided I had better get on it tonight! As you can imagine, it has been a busy month. At my last post, I had just celebrated Halloween, and had just started classes. Classes are now finished, including finals, and we are in the middle of our business simulation.

Classes went pretty good. I think my finals turned out alright as well, which is always a good thing. For the Simulation, we are split into teams and use a software program to simulate running a computer manufacturing company. It is going well so far. My group is going back and forth for the top spot with one other team. It is interesting, but I will just be glad when we are officially done with school.

There have also been many non school activities as well. On 4 November a large group went to the Scotland  v. New Zealand rugby match. The New Zealand All Blacks are the best team in the world, so it was pretty neat to watch them play. They also perform a traditional Haka before each match, which was neat to see. I sat next to Evan, a Greek exchange student, and he made friends with some Greek fans sitting behind us. The shared home made biscuits and smoked salmon with us, which was delicious. Scotland actually scored a few tries, which was neat and unexpected. They even led for a bit! After the match, we ate at Illegal Jacks, an incredibly poor Scottish Chipotle substitute. Here are a few pictures:

A view from my seat. Isn't the city backdrop neat?

Performing the Haka.

Our portion of the group.

There has also been an individual activity going on: Paper Mario. This is one of my favorite video game series. Though Nintendo products are region locked, I was able to download it directly to my DS. I have played it whenever I have spare time, and it has been very fun.

I also had my first taste of Korean food. Two of my friends decided I needed to try it before I left. It was absolutely delicious! I have had it three times since. I will report back once I try the real deal.

My delicious Korean treat. It was like a wafer cookie with vanilla cream filling.

One of the highlights of my trip/life was going to the Proclaimers concert. The Proclaimers are a Scottish band consisting of two brothers. You will likely remember them because of this song:

They actually have many other hits. They of course played I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles), but also my favorite There's a Touch. I got my ticket from a Gumtree seller. He was surprising his wife and family with a trip to Scotland, and they had a spare. He is Scottish, but lives in Sweden. He was very nice. I sat next to his Swedish son during the concert, and joined their group for a drink after. It was a really great night, and certainly one of the best since I have been here. Here are a few pictures from the concert:

My ticket. I ended up with a great seat!

 From my seat.

 The security man let me sneak closer to grab a few more picures

I was sadly in school for proper Thanksgiving, but some friends invited the Americans in the class over for Thanksgiving on the Saturday after. I had by first adventure in cooking with my micro-oven. After a short learning curve (apparently you leave the glass plate in so things still rotate), I was baking in my microwave! I made an apple pie and green bean casserole. I made the usual apple, but it turned out very tart due to the British apple sauce I used. I still liked it, however. I found some "shortcrust" in the refrigerator section, and used that as my crust. It turned out great. I also finally found ground turkey at the big Sainsburys grocery store, so that was a great find. I also got ingredients to make Grandma's Hamburger (Turkey) Hot Dish, so I had that on actual Thanksgiving. Apparently condensed soup is not a thing here. It all comes ready-made. I had to do some improvising! Here is my pie and casserole:

 It burned a little bit before I figured out it needed to rotate.

The 29th was Light Night, the night where the Winter Wonderland opens on Princes Street and the Christmas lights get turned on. Cassie and I wondered down to check things out. It was so nice to see all the lights and the Christmas market. We had some yummy gluwein and wondered around. It was really busy, so we didn't stick around too long. Along with the official opening of the Wonderland, there was a parade, a show, and the tree was lit on the Mound.

For some reason this creepy Santa was there.

Finals week was really intense. We had four written finals, which is much more than the one we had last semester. The only day we didn't have one was Tuesday. Understandably, we were relieved on Friday evening! Directly from the final, almost the entire MBA group went to the Christmas market for mulled beer and drinks. We ended up staying out all night. An exchange student hosted a farewell party on Saturday night, and we again stayed out pretty late. It was very much needed, and it was really nice to spend time with everyone before we go our separate ways for the holidays.

My housing continues to be a nightmare. On Sunday night, the power went out in the entire complex. I was incredibly unlucky and had four loads of laundry in at the time. I had to drag soaking went laundry back to my room in the dark. If that wasn't bad enough, we had a fire alarm that sent us out into the snow in the middle of the night. I was able to finish my laundry Monday night, but I am still very eager to get out of this place!

Our MBA Winter party is Saturday. I am really looking forward to it. It is at quite a nice restaurant, and should be a good night. We all start to disperse starting early next week. I have to turn in a paper on Monday, unless I finish it earlier, and am going to Postsecret Live on Wednesday night. I leave for Korea on Thursday morning, and Travis and I will be in Japan on Saturday! I am also hoping to visit a friend in Thailand over break as well.

I am really looking forward to my vacation, and am also so excited to see Travis. It's been 10 months!! I am a little sad I will not be back at home to see the rest of my family and friends, however. I'll just have to have many grand adventures to make up for it.

Lastly, I got my first real taste of home since being home in September: a package from Mom! We had about a million issues with customs, but it finally arrived. It was a good one, too. If you need to mail anything overseas, please check the Customs/Border Agency website for the receiving country before stating any value. They will get you on import fees! Here are all my goodies:

Fancy the penguin with my package!

All my stuff! It was awesome! A surprising amount was in there.

I opened the Christmas presents that were included. Thanks Brothers! And Mom and Dad! 

Mom included a Great Team Card. These are from Target, and are basically used for recognition purposes. I thought it was really cute!

The GTC is now hanging out with Bullseye.

I promise I will do a much better job staying on top of my blogging next month!

Halloween!

So this post is mostly about Halloween. For those of you who don't know, I absolutely adore dressing up for Halloween. It is my favorite holiday during the year, and since my mom is a rock star, my costumes have always been fabulous. My original plan this year was to have my mom send me an old Robin Hood costume since we just didn't have time to make something new. Unfortunately, Robin decided to go MIA. I, for the first time ever, was left to my own devices. I have to say, I am very happy with what transpired.

Classes started up for the last half of the semester on Monday. Though most people were celebrating Halloween on the 29th, since I, nor my friends, didn't have costumes or plans, we planned to just celebrate the following weekend (Elisa's birthday is Halloween, so she had her party the weekend after). It was also busy because of school. This semester, I have Ethics, Finance, Marketing, Strategic Management and Macroeconomics (still). On Tuesday after class, a few of us went to a local costume shop to get ideas. I couldn't really find anything I liked, but then I saw a costume and made up my mind: Mario. Of course, no female Mario costumes exist, so I had to put on my game face. From the costume shop, I scoured every charity shop on the way home looking for something that would work: a dress, overalls, jean shorts, anything. I found nothing.

On Wednesday (Halloween proper), I had some extra time for lunch. I basically ran from campus to Princes Street to do some shopping. Because my time was quite limited, I basically bought anything that made remote sense. By the end of the day, I had two blue dresses, actual denim overalls and a pair of blue shorts. After class, I took a bus to an outdoor shopping center that contains the only craft store I could find on Google. It was called HobbyCraft. It was like a small Jo Anns, but they had most things. I got craft supplies, felt to make my hat and some yellow buttons (the buttons were a huge score. I found the perfect buttons in a large grab bag for only a pound. I was able to use the extras for a Bonus Craft). I also found a stuffed Yoshi doll, just in case people didn't know who I was.

When I got home, I got down to business. I decided to use a blue tank dress with matching tights as my "overalls".  I safety pinned the buttons to the dress to finish the Mario look. I found a red shirt for only 3 pounds at Primark that I wore underneath. I got some cheap brown shoes to complete it. My hat was the trickiest part. I found a bizarre hair piece that is meant to create beehive hairstyles (like this) and covered it in felt to look like a hat. The comb was a bonus to help it stay in my hair. I also found an amazing moustache necklace at a store to wear so I could have a moustache when needed. It turned out great! I finished everything on Wednesday night just so I could feel satisfied that it was done on actual Halloween. I will include pics of everything below!

The rest of the week went quickly. On Friday night, Cassie and I went out on the town for just a little bit. On our way, we stumbled into the All Blacks, New Zealand's rubgy team. They are one of the best in the world, and  I will actually be going to see them play this weekend. We had dinner at the Elephant Cafe, one of the many that claim Harry Potter was written there. It was a really bad experience. We drowned our sorrows in cheap wine, and went out for a few cocktails. Our first stop was Hotel Missoni. Yes, the designer Missoni. It was very modern and chic. The door guards wore kilts made of the signature zig zag pattern, and everything was decorated like that as well. It made me super jealous I completely missed out on Target's collaboration with Missoni. It had a really cool vibe, and they mixed a delicious dirty martini.

From there, we went to a place called Monteith's, on the Royal Mile, that was recommended by Google. Turns out, it was a total hidden gem! It is tucked away, found by following a little path. It is a super cool bar that specializes in cocktails. We had another martini, which was different but also good. We also split a DIY Lemon Meringue Pie dessert. It really was do it yourself. They brought out lemon curd, shortbread cookies and little meringues. It was good, but it would be so easy to make at home (oh no, I'm turning into my mother). I was a little sad because I really expected a slice of pie. We called it quits after this bar since Saturday was going to be a big day.

In the morning on Saturday, I went shopping with Cassie for the rest of her costume stuff, and also to return my excess purchases. There was a parade for the soldiers that returned from Afghanistan last weekend on the Royal Mile, so we stopped and watched that. It was nice, there were many people watching and cheering. At night, we went to Elisa's a little early to help her prepare for all the guests.

Elisa is from Utah, but has been living in London recently. She is a wonderful baker and a professionally trained chef. She is such a warm person, and really knows how to throw a party. She made tons of delicious food and desserts. It was quite a spread! Many people came, and great fun was had by all. We eventually made it out to the bar, but the best part of the night was hanging out with everyone at Elisa's. Not everyone was in costume, but I will forgive them. It is not nearly as widely celebrated here, and I think people felt a bit silly about it.

Overall it was a great night, and a great weekend. I am also incredibly proud of the costume I managed to throw together. I just wish I had gotten more pictures! I'm sure it will be making an appearance in the future, however. It is definitely on the list of favorites.

Now, pictures:

I found these at the craft store. I didn't buy them, but they are adorable!

 My finished hat. Tacky glue is my best friend. Mom would have done a much better job!

 From the side.

 My moustache necklace!

 The core outfit.

This was the Bonus Craft I made with all the left over buttons. I think it makes my 4 pound mirror look much better!

The All Blacks leaving the bus and entering their hotel.

The start of the homecoming parade.

There were so many soldiers!

Kris, Saahil, me, Cassie, Liz and Mike at the party! 

 Dhruv and I. Yoshi ended up just being attached to me.

 Ruk, Cara and Timur.

 Jason and I. Jason had been the Joker earlier, but he washed his face before the bar. 

Me and Jenny, Mike's girlfriend. She is in the vet program at Edinburgh and is very sweet. She is hosting Thanksgiving for us in a few weeks.

Elisa blowing out her candles! 

A pic of the spread. Elisa did great!  

For some reason, there were no cabs outside the bar. We chose to take a bicycle taxi home instead. Our driver is a grad student at Edinburgh as well, and very friendly.

He even let me take it for a spin!

Blurry cell phone pic of my costume at the end of the night. I had just realized I hadn't taken an individual one! 

I bought this tonight. Didn't win. :-(

Now is is time to stay up for election results. I hope you voted!!

Leadership and my first visitor!

I have fallen off the update wagon. How terrible. I resolve to improve!

I had a great few days visiting with my friend, Mike. It was just great to see a friendly face and to be able to show a friend around my new city. He and his parents were in Germany visiting Mike's brother and wife, and because of their Scottish heritage, they made it over here for a few days. It worked out really well because I was doing a Leadership program during the day and Mike was sightseeing with his parents. We managed to go out together every night, though! Tuesday evening I took Mike on a midnight tour of the major sights. After dinner in a pub, we walked up and down the Royal Mile (stopping to "refuel" of course), visiting the castle, Parliament and Holyrood House. It was a little creepy, but mostly super neat. There were no people around and we got a great view of the city at night, even though it was a little foggy. Wednesday, I took Mike to Cambridge Bar in New Town. I had eaten there with Cassie and Elisa, and it was just as delicious the second time around. On Thursday, I had a reception for the end of the Leadership program, so Mike met me at the venue later in the evening.

The Leadership week consisted of lots of group work and presentations, culminating in a presentation on how Scottish political leadership should change for the better. We had to survey Scottish people on the politics of the country, which was certainly not popular. It was a tough week, but I think we all learned a lot. I was mightly glad when it was over, however! At the reception, I got some feedback from one of the external judges that assessed our final presentations. He said I was one of the top three speakers he saw that day! I was really glad about that, especially since I am not terribly confident presenting and was not exactly proud of what my group put forth. The reception was in Marlin's Wynd, a really cool catering venue. We had lots of Prosecco and capapes, and it was a great way to unwind from the week.

After the reception, the School provided a ghost tour. Mike attended with me. We went around Old Town, ending in Greyfriar's Kirkyard, the (supposedly) most haunted place in Scotland. It was kind of fun, but the evening was cold and our group was large and tipsy, so it was difficult to keep everyone on track and quiet. From there, we went to a few bars and clubs, and had 4am pizza at a little shop on South Bridge. I had promised Mike a kebab, but apparently takeaways can't be open past two am during the week. I am a bad friend.

Mike left on Friday morning. I was very sad to see him go as we only had a few days together. I attempted to get him to stay in Europe longer but I was unsuccessful. I had a meeting on Friday afternoon with the other Program Representatives from around the Business School. As Program Representative, I am responsible for gathering feedback from my peers around improvements that can be made. The meeting consisted of the Reps from all School programs, MBA and MSc, meeting with staff to make future improvements. It was good to see issues addressed, but the meeting went a little long, and some of the Reps really liked to hear themselves talk. Hopefully our next meeting will be more efficient.

On Saturday, a group of us went out for sushi in Haymarket. The food was delicious, but the service was quite poor. Nabeel and I shared the Chef's Special, a magical 6 course feast. The chefs/servers failed to pace our meal with everyone else's so by the end of the night, our friends were waiting for us. I even had to cancel dessert! The food was really good though, so I would try it again with a smaller group. My favorite part of the night was taking the train to Haymarket. The restaurant was located right next to Haymarket Station, and I live five minutes from Waverly Station. It was only 2.50 to get a return ticket! It was a little embarrassing to only take the train for four minutes, but it sure beat walking or paying for a cab! I felt very "in the know," even though I got the idea from Google Maps.

I am going to separate this update post as not to drone on for too long at once. Here are a few pictures from this week:

Mike and Inder made fast friends at the pub.

Me, Elisa and Cassie with our good friend Karim.

Mike and I's very British drink selections our first night together. 

The sushi portion of the Chef's Special. 

 They called this a grilled scallop, but it was so delicious and creamy, almost like a graitn.

My miso soup and sashimi seaweed salad. The salad was the best thing I ate all night. Just absolutely delicious!