Mt. Carmel with Josh

Josh finished his second set of midterms this past Thursday and in my opinion (and probably the entire 5th term class), these tests could not have been better timed as they ended right before the four day Easter weekend.  Josh and I got to enjoy the holiday weekend free from the worries of medical school.  It. Was. Grand. 

And can I just say that 5th term is proving to be MUCH less stressful than 4th term was.  After every set of midterms in 4th term, the only thing Josh wanted to do was sleep, all weekend.  I would beg him to go out and do stuff and he just needed rest.  But after 5th term midterms, he's been up for exploring the island. 

On Friday, we went to Mt. Carmel Falls with our friends Kris and Tarrah.  This was my third and probably last trip to Mt. Carmel, but I was really glad that Josh finally got to see it.

     
We had a great time at the falls and ended the day with a few relaxing hours at La Sagesse.  Such a fun Good Friday!

I'm Married to a ROCKSTAR

This past weekend, we celebrated Josh finishing his first set of 5th term midterms by going to dinner at Carib Sushi on Friday night. 

Now that the grades are all in, apparently we should have been celebrating him ROCKING his midterms. :)

Pharmacology, Pathophysiology, ICM, and BSFCR ain't got nothing on my hubs!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from the Scurlock's!

I must say I have been very uninspired to blog this past week.  It could be due the fact that I haven't taken any pictures.  Which is due to the fact that I have no camera. :(  AND can you believe there are no pumpkins in Grenada.  Which means no carving them (I know Josh was super bummed).  Boo.  But enough pouting. 

Halloween really isn't celebrated in Grenada.  But that didn't stop the SO's from having some fun this weekend.  My friend Kelsey took it upon herself to throw a costume party together at the school.  It was pretty tame and included a bunch of adults dressed in very creative costumes, some fun Halloween treats, and the movie Hocus Pocus (a Halloween necessity). 

Josh couldn't attend.  He FINALLY finished his midterms this morning.  Poor guy, it's been a long week and classes start back up tomorrow.  Stupid medical school, always ruining his time.

In Grenada, Halloween costumes have to be REALLY creative.  There are no costume stores and even if there were, nobody could afford a costume anyway.  I couldn't believe how creative some of my friends are!  Take a look!

I on the otherhand was not so creative. Somehow this past week with my birthday, Josh's tests, and all the shenanigans that followed I lost track of time to figure out an actual costume.  So I did the next best thing, I found a mardi gras mask, and wore a blue dress.  I didn't win any costume awards.  No surprise here.

But it was still a lot of fun.  Maybe next Halloween when Josh is in clinical rotations, we can actually dress up together, like in 2009.  Seems like ages ago.

Only six weeks till 4th term is over!  The countdown begins.

Happy Halloween!

Compromises

Josh finished his midterms this week for both Pathology and Microbiology.  Fourth term is every bit as challenging as we heard it would be, so it was nice for Josh to have a bit of a break from studying.  Of course, our individual ideas of weekends spent "together" are very different.  It goes something like this...

Steph's idea of a weekend off of studying is going on adventures.  Maybe a hash, or a hike to a waterfall.  A day spent snorkeling on Magazine Beach or sunning on Grand Anse.  Trying out a new restaurant and watching a sunset on the sand.

While Josh's idea of a weekend off is slightly more relaxing.  It includes lounging on the couch watching football, LOTS of football.  Maybe watching a movie in bed. Eating pancakes and cookies, both of which I would be in charge of making.  And staying in our PJ's ALL DAY LONG.

Do you see a bit of a difference here?

So this weekend we compromised.

On Saturday morning, while Josh slept in late, I headed to Grand Anse for beach day with Bel Air Children's Home.  This home actually has really young babies. And I love to go and spend the morning cuddling and playing with them.

Isn't he just the cutest?!?

When I got home, Josh and I lounged.  We both took long naps, watched a movie in bed, and part of a football game.  And by about 4pm, I was able to convince him to head to Grand Anse Beach to watch the sunset.  We skipped rocks in the ocean, I added to my ever growing sea glass collection,  and we waited for the sky to turn a bright shade of orange as the sun set.



The sand was sparkling.



It was stunning.  As it almost always is here.

Look at the orange!

The colors in the sky were just beautiful, like God took a paint brush and painted it Himself.  I guess maybe He did.

Saturday was a perfect day, a perfect compromise.

This morning, we headed to church on campus with CSA (Christian Student Association), came home and had lunch, and then spent a couple hours on the beach throwing the frisbee.  Tonight we are heading to dinner with a few of our Newcastle friends.  Tomorrow Josh is back to school and will be hitting the books hard in preparation for his next set of tests in 6 weeks.  If I haven't already mentioned, 4th term is no joke. 

I wish weekends like this could happen more often, but I guess it makes me treasure them even more because they don't, even if I do have to compromise every once in awhile.

Durham Cathedral

On Friday, Josh took the day off following his midterms so that we could do some exploring together.  It's not often that he can take a break from school and spend some quality time with me, so I cherish those days when we do actually get each others undivided attention.  We decided to go to Durham which is a small town about 15 minutes South of Newcastle by train.  Durham's big tourist attraction is Durham Cathedral.  The cathedral was built in 1093 and is considered one of the most beautiful examples of Norman architecture.  You can see the cathedral from almost every spot in the city.  Even from the train station, it just shoots out of the sky and utterly impossible to miss.

We walked up to the cathedral and if possible, it was even more stunning up close.

We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the cathedral...darn, but we did go up the 325 steps to the top of the cathedral tower.  It was gorgeous up there, but SUPER windy! I thought we might blow off the top of the church if we weren't careful.

View from the top

Nice and Windy...but the only picture of us on the top of the cathedral.

After a while, we headed back down the 325 steps.

Steep steps

After seeing the cathedral, we decided it was time for lunch.  We went to a very interestingly named pub for lunch.  These English people have such a sense of humor!

Josh and his fish and chips

We both enjoyed our lunch at the Fighting Cocks, and after we took a walk down the Wear River to get a better front view of Durham Cathedral.

Durham Cathedral actually reminds me a lot of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France.  Josh and I visited there in 2008.  What do you think?  See a resemblance?

The walk along the River Wear provided such great shots of Durham Cathedral.  I took about 50 pictures of it.  I just couldn't get enough.

After a fun day in Durham, we headed back to the train station.  Along the way, we saw a really neat bridge that I had to take a picture of.

And, we found someone to take our picture up near the train station.

I encourage anyone that can to go to Durham Cathedral from Newcastle.  It's so close and it doesn't even cost anything to go inside the cathedral.  It's well worth the trip.  It's beautiful.  Josh and I had such a fun day together, enjoying Durham, and enjoying each other.

STRIKE!

It's testing week again for the Term 2 boys.  Josh had a Immunology midterm on Monday and has a Genetics final today.  As all my fellow SO's know, that means that our husbands whom are absent most days out of the week, are completely non-existant during testing weeks.  So, we thought what better week than this to have a girls night out on the town.  We met at Monument and Louise (our saviour of an English woman) shuttled us in two carloads to the bowling alley where us girls got our bowl on!  We were decked out in our bowling finest with fancy colored bowling balls and fabulous footware (smelly old leather bowling shoes). 

We bowled one game in which Louise proved to be the best bowler of us all....now we know why she suggested bowling. :) 
I on the other hand think my score was somewhere under 75. 
Maybe I need some more practice. 
Or perhaps I need to stop doing "granny style" bowling. 
You know what I'm talking about. 
Spread your feet apart and swing the bowling ball between your legs with both hands so that it rolls rather slowly and hopefully straight towards those white pins.
Yeah, it's not so cute.
And apparently not very effective.

Anyway, it was still a great time.

Christine, Amberlea, Sarah G., Michelle, Sara W., Me, and Louise

Then we had a little fun.  Don't worry hubbys this was just a joke.  Although if this next picture is any indication of what I will someday look like when I'm pregnant....scary.

After bowling, we went to TGI Friday's for some calories in the form of dessert.  I definitely got the "Brownie Obsession" meant for two people, for myself. And, I. Ate. It. All. Yum.

It was a great night out with the gals.  I always look forward to our girls nights.  Next week, they are all coming over to my place for some baked potato soup.  I can't wait!

Everyone's IRISH on March 17th

"An Irish Blessing"

May the road rise to meet you

May the wind be always at your back

May the sun shine warm upon your face

May the rains fall soft upon your fields

And until we meet again

May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

It's been a very very busy last few days in the Scurlock household.  Josh had both his Physiology and Neuro midterms this week and so he was busy studying and taking tests like a mad man.  His hard work paid off, he did GREAT on both tests!  As a post-midterm treat to both of us, yes I said BOTH of us because midterms are highly stressful for me too, we took a trip over to Dublin, Ireland for the weekend. 
Dublin is about a 1 hour plane ride from Newcastle and when you fly on a cheap airline like Ryan Air, it really is extremely affordable (only about 20 pounds per person roundtrip).   We arrived Thursday afternoon and checked into our hotel in Temple Bar.  Temple Bar is a trendy area in downtown Dublin, just South of the River Liffey.  There is an Irish Pub on just about every corner and most of the major attractions are only a few minutes walk away, an ideal place for tourists like ourselves.  After getting situated in our hotel room, we ventured out to the streets of Dublin for some lunch and some exploring.  We ate lunch at a great restaurant called Elephant and Castle, recommended to us by our friends Tarrah and Kris who visited there last term.  I had the spicy chicken wings, which if you know me well, you would know that I rarely eat chicken off the bone, but these things were amazing!  Josh had a cheeseburger which he ate in about 5 minutes.  I think it was the best burger he's had since living in Europe.  We found out after that there is also an Elephant and Castle in New York.  If we end up there for clinical rotations in a year and a half, you know where I will be frequenting often!

After filling our bellies to the brim, we went exploring around the area near our hotel.  We stopped near the River Liffey to take in the sights.

River Liffey

A shot of me by the Liffey

We then strolled through the Temple Bar area.  There are SO MANY PUBS.  I think if we stayed in Dublin for one month, and went to a different pub every night, we still wouldn't get a chance to go to them all.  It is so fun to see them all though.  They're all look so authentically Irish (at least to me, but what do I know?).  At night, many of them have white lights up and flags and the small streets just look magical.

Josh and I in Temple Bar

Then I saw this sign.  We didn't actually go there, but where else in the world would you see something like this?

After walking around for a bit, we headed back to our hotel for a drink at the "Pour your own Pint" bar.  It was literally a bar where they had taps on each table for you to pour your own glass of beer.  Josh thought it was pretty cool.  He then proceeded to have his first Guinness in Dublin, which to me, seems to be what people drink here instead of water.  A man told me that if you drink lots of Guiness, you'll grow chest hair.  Needless to say, I stayed far away from it.

Dublin Citi Hotel Bar

Pour your own pint

We slept in on Friday and then headed downstairs to have a traditional Irish breakfast.  It was very similar to the "Traditional Scottish Breakfast" I had while in Scotland.  They really like to start the day off with lots of protein in these countries.

Sausage, Bacon, Beans, Haggis, Egg, Tomato, and Mushrooms

It was quite rainy on Friday, but with our umbrellas over our heads, we didn't let the wet weather stop us.  We found St. Patrick's Cathedral. It is an absolutely beautiful church and is the National Cathedral of the Church of Ireland.  There was a large garden on one side of the church, and though it was wet, we walked the grounds, taking pictures of the gorgeous flowers.

The inside of the church was magnificant.  It always amazes me that these churchs were built hundreds of years ago when things like bulldozers and cranes were non-existent.  How in the heck did they do this stuff?!?  My pictures don't do the inside of St. Patrick's Cathedral justice as it was dark inside and I only have a small point and shoot camera, but you get the idea.

One of the many stained glass windows.

They didn't have pews, but they did have these hand stitched knee pillows.  Every single one was different.

Next, we headed over to Christ Church Cathedral.  We didn't go inside this church, but the outside was strikingly beautiful and so we had to take some pictures here as well.

Loved this door of the church.

Just in case you're not sure which way the cars are coming from!

Our next destination was the Guinness Storehouse, but we were getting a little famished at this point, and so we stopped at the cutest bakery shop I've ever seen for a treat.

Queen of Tarts!

A cup of hot tea and a chocolate scone with cream and jam. Perfection.

With our stomachs satisfied, Josh and I continued the journey to the Guinness Storehouse in the rain.  It was about a 30 minute walk from our hotel.  Along the way, we began to notice something very funny about Irish doors.  They are all different colors!  I decided it was time to start photographically documenting them.

The doors of Ireland.

We finally made it to the Guinness Storehouse.  We had to pay 15 Euro each to take the tour, but we both agreed that it was worth it.  The storehouse was huge.  You could easily spend a few hours there.  It included a tour of how they make the beer, the different advertising that has been done over the years, the history of the man who created it, and a bar at the top of the building with a 360 degree view of the city complete with a complementary pint of Guinness for everyone, well everyone over the age of 18.

When we finally made it to the Gravity Bar, our reward was some "Black Gold."  Josh convinced me I had to at least TRY a sip of Guinness while actually at the location that it is brewed, plus it was free.  Josh said the face that I made after sipping it was absolutely classic and I can say that that was my first and last sip of Guinness ever.  Josh ended up with two for the price of one.

View of Dublin from the Gravity Bar

On our way back toward Temple Bar, we made another stop by the Liffey for a few more pictures.

Then we stopped at a pub called O'Donoghue's for some more drinks and some dinner.  Josh got the fish and chips, while I stuck with my new favorite thing, spicy chicken wings.  We called it an early night after all of our exploring.

On Saturday, we headed out for day #2 of exploration.  Our first stop was Trinity College, founded in 1592.  It is the oldest university in Ireland.  I can't imagine trying to study and go to class here, it's so old and beautiful, I don't think I'd be able to concentrate.

Then we took a walk down Grafton Street which is one of the big shopping spots in Dublin.  There were quite a few people on the street doing things for tourists entertainment, trying to earn a euro or two.

Me and the Leprechaun on Grafton Street

Molly Malone: A song that has become the unofficial anthem of Dublin.

At the end of Grafton Street is the entrance to St. Stephen's Green, a public park in the center of Dublin.  It is beautiful and had it been a slightly nicer/warmer day, I could see where it would be fun to get lunch and have a picnic at the park.

Josh and I in St. Stephen's Green

We did some more wandering around the city, but eventually we ended up back at our hotel for more drinks and watched the rugby game.  We were exhausted and since we had an early flight to catch on Sunday morning, we headed back to our room rather early.  We had such a fun time in Dublin and we are both so happy that we have had the opportunity to do some traveling while living in the UK.