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It took us 12 longg hours to FINALLY get there. The first night, the girls and boys split off at first and each did their own shenanigans. Each night we were there, we had a different theme to dress up to. For the first night, the theme was "country gents and ladies". The girls who were leading the night decided it would be funny instead if the girls dressed up as country gentleman too. To complete our outfits, they cut out masks of each of the guys in the group for us to wear. Later that night, we all met up again at the 'pre-BUDS' party for all the university students at one of the local clubs. It was funny to meet up with the guys and show them our costumes.
The next day, bright and early, we headed up to the hill for the competitions (on the way we passed where JK Rowling used to have a house!). I really didn't know what exactly to expect the hill to look like. One image that was hard to not have in my head with it being a ski trip and all was a snow covered mountain. This was not how it looked at all. It was a grassy hill with this strange dentrix mesh stuff on it. It was super interesting to see this! Both days of the competition were definitely cool to be at- just a fun, hyped up atmosphere with so many university kids. The only thing that was a downer was the weather!! It was sooo rainy and cold (yeah, yeah I know shocking, right? It's like its Scotland or something!). But really, a very wet-cold that the dry-cold Montanan was not used to. But it's okay, they had some delicious hot chocolate that made it all okay ;)
The second night, we all went out to Chinese before gearing up for our "tight and bright" night (whoever decided that anything "tight " was a good idea after an all-you-can-eat buffet, 'bad shout'). I really liked the club this night! It was kind of similar to The Venue on campus, only a more relaxed atmosphere. There was of course the big dancing area but then the balcony upstairs had couch/chair things where you could just hang out. I met a Scottish snowboarder up here actually and we ended up talking for a while (mostly because of how much we had to repeat ourselves because of our accent-barrier ;P)
The last day of competitions were really cool! They did the finals for racing, freestyle and 'big air' which were pretty impressive. Towards the end, they brought out a big Red Bull arch and they had a fire-eater and everything so it felt like I was at the X-games or something almost. The last night out was 'dress to impress' so we all got 'smart' (<- their translation for fancy. <- our translation of fancy, not their “to like” translation) and went out for some amazingly delicious Indian food. They do a big 'BUDS Ball' on the final day as a wrap up for the weekend with awards and a slideshow. You needed tickets for this though and they were kind of pricey so it was up to us if we wanted to go. Most of our group went but there was a group of us who didn't want to. Instead, we went to a pub and got some legit Scottish Ale and listened to some live music for a bit. After this we went to a club that easily became my favorite one we went to. It was a place called 'Cabaret' and was underground down in the vaults. Just a very unique atmosphere and it had a lot of character. They had two different rooms, each with different music and a different feel. Lots of fog-machines and strobe lights in one, and in the other one- THERE WAS A SWING. Yes. A swing!! Case in point why it was my favorite place (:
The next morning we were leaving at 10 and conveniently our hostel wasn't far from a church! So I was able to hit mass in Scotland before running back to meet the group getting on the coach to leave.
Overall, it was a fun weekend. Not gonna lie, I was way out of my comfort zone at some points during it. Definitely experienced some things I don’t think I ever would at Carroll. All part of getting out of my little shelter that is Helena, Montana though I suppose!
If anyone is down for a trip to Scotland, let me know cuz I for sure would like to go back and see it during the day ;) But yes, overall, definitely was a weekend I will remember!
Thanks for reading!
Keep Calm and Ski On (even though there is no real snow)
Cheers!
Elyse