Dear Autumn, I love you very much.

Let me just inform you: Autumn in Scotland = So so so extremely wonderful.

Favorite things as of late:

Shortbread (from Harbor House in St. Andrews)

Tea (!!!)

Winter hats

Lentil soup from the most small town diner you could ever find

St. Andrews University

Wool socks

Vitamin C

The fact that Scottish people are so tough. Ask me about this sometime.

As most of you know, My mama bear and Gus visited me this past week. On the day of their arrival I started to feel ill. Really fatigued, extremely sore throat, just plain old achy. I'm trying to find words that are not cliche.. but have not succeeded- In all honesty, it was SUCH a 'blessing in disguise'. One may think, "shoot my mom and step-dad just flew some 4000 miles to see me, and here I am being anything but perky and enthusiastic because I feel like CRAP!" But... it was more like "Thank the LORD that I am with my mom right now because when I am sick there is no where I rather be than embraced in her arms!" So, in actuality it was so great that I got sick at the same time they were here. I mean, it would've been wonderful if I wasn't sick at all- but if there was ever a time to get sick while I'm in Scotland, it was now... It would've made it a lot harder if I didn't have my mom's fabulous nursing skills here with me...

Despite my illness, with lots of tea and medicine I seemed to be pretty manageable during the day. It was quite amazing because we had THREE FULL DAYS OF SUNSHINE on our FULL days together! Friday we went to Inverness- walked around the town, hunted for the Loch Ness Monster and saw beautiful castle ruins that looked out over the loch. Saturday we went to Fyvie- ate a the most wonderful random diner next to a post office that we found out about by Gus asking a woobely old grandma walking down the street where a restaurant was, witnessed the most stunning autumn colors I've ever seen, explored a really sweet castle (where a wedding was taking place that very day), stopped at the lovely tearoom and had some strawberry sponge cake and took a beautiful wooded path to the beach by my flat. Sunday we went to St. Andrews- shopped along the awesome Market Street, got laughed at when we asked a store worker where the University was (he replied- "In America they buy a plot of land and build a university on it, but us... we've been building this place for 1600 years"), were blown away by the architecture of the university buildings, saw the St. Andrews castle and the world's famous golf course, spent a perfect fall day together and had the most delicious short bread EVER! Other than that we walked around Aberdeen, checked out some of the local restaurants, and saw my campus. And one time I just escaped from my chaotic flat and went to their cozy hotel room to simply rest under the warm covers.

I am SO lucky that I got to have family visit me while I am here. I am even more happy that I gave my mom an excuse to make her first trip to Europe. There were some extremely hilarious moments like when I found out that my mom and Gus had asked for the crappiest car possible (just in case) but instead were given a Mercedes or when my mom decided to feed some swans and the vicious creatures started attacking her so she grabbed a massive stick to swat them off (view pictures above). Despite the circumstances of me being sick and the difficulty that learning how to drive on the opposite side of the road and on the opposite side of the car proved to be for Gus, it was the best visit I could've asked for.

I feel nothing but thankful right now to have had that extremely beautiful time with mom and Gus, to be starting to feel better (I think...), and to know that one of my bestest friends is visiting me this weekend who is studying at this very moment in York, England!

Hope everyone is enjoying this Fall weather as much as I am (besides my friends in South America/ Australia of course),

with love,

Jess