Just a quick post to let you guys know about something really cool. I've recently gotten introduced to the tv series "Long Way Round" which is an about 12 episode show that Ewan McGregor and his mate Charlie Boorman made while riding motorbikes all the way around the world from London to New York in the space of three months. It's amazing. They see cultures and people and places that I've never even seen pictures of, and it's reminding me of the wonder of the world, and of all the people in it.
Check out the website, or more importantly, get the dvds from the library or for goodnessake check out the book!
I like Wednesdays, and I like having them without classes!
Today I got up at 12:30, which was really nice after being up late last night with Will watching music videos. It made me miss Gabe! Anyway, I got up and had some breakfast, and then went searching for the top of the big hill behind campus called "the Domyutt." Not really sure about the spelling on that one. So, I went walking toward it and instead of getting up it I sort of went high along the ridge that leads to it, but after going through a valley and not being sure QUITE which way I should be going, I decided to scrap the idea of climbing the hill and just explore. I came across a cool broken down country church with a graveyard that was sectioned off because the ruins and stones were "unsafe." I thought about exploring, but it did look a bit like it was about to fall down, so I decided against it. I also saw a deer! They're much smaller than ours, but quite cute.
Once I got back from my hiking adventure I took a shower and had some lunch (at about 3pm, mind you, but it's still lunch). Then, some time at the library researching for one of my history projects, and now here I am!
Today's been a weird day, weather wise. It's been really windy, and one minute there's lots of sun, and then it's a downpour. Strange, but nice! The birds and rabbits don't seem to mind it much.
As of yesterday I remembered about a movie trailer that Maddie showed me quite a while ago for a new feature called "Were The World Mine." It's based on "A Midsummer Night's Dream" by Shakespeare, which I've just been reading, and I really like both Shakespeare's play AND the soundtrack for "Were The World Mine," which I've totally fallen in love with. Be warned, those of you who don't like musicals. But seriously, the lead in this movie, Tanner Cohen, has the most amazingly pure voice. I love it. So check out the trailer!
This weekend is the Scotland vs. Italy rugby game in Edinburgh, and I'm pretty excited about it! Hopefully I won't get punched again!
And...That's about all the news I have for now. Oh, except that I'm trying to plan a trip to the Isle of Sky with Michelle and Erica for a few weekends from now. It'd be really cool!!!
Oh, AND, I went to church at the kirk in Bridge of Allan last Sunday, and it was very nice. I've never been to a church with a female preacher before, and she was really good. I'd been thinking all week about Psalm 121 and the lines about lifting your eyes to the hills, and, what do you know, that's what the whole sermon was about! Pretty sweet.
And happy belated pancake day to everyone in the U.S.! That's one holiday tradition that I'm planning on bringing back. And is it ok to say "happy ash Wednesday?" I'm going to go for it. Happy ash Wednesday, everyone! I always think of it as the beginning of the Easter season, which I like a lot.
So, that's enough sentences beginning with "and," I think.
I'll leave you with some Shakespeare: "My ear should catch your voice; my eye, your eye, My tongue should catch your tongue's sweet melody, My tongue your tongue, were the world mine.
And I will sing that they shall hear That I am not, I am not afraid, I am not afraid."
So. You're looking at the title of this post going "HwaaaaAAA?! Punched in the face? What can she possibly mean?!"
Well. I shall tell you.
But first I shall talk about what I did today, while I have your attention! :-D
I got up at 6:30 this morning, walked down to the bus stop with Erica, went to the train station in Stirling, took the 8 o'clock train to Edinburgh with the gang, and was on a bus up into the highlands from Stirling at 9:30!
We went up to Blair Castle first, which has been the home of the Dukes of Atholl since forever, pretty much. And yes. Say "Atholl" several times, 'cause it's funny! Of course, though, they wouldn't let us take pictures in the castle (but I assure you it was really cool! Many Jacobite relics!)! So, instead, here's pictures of Erica, Amber and I OUTSIDE!!
So anyway, the castle was really cool, and next we headed about ten minutes away to Pitlichry, which is a great little town filled with OUTDOOR SHOPS GOING OUT OF BUSINESS! I bought a really cheep backpacking backpack for 19.99, and gaiters (which are things that cover the top of your boots up to your knees, and are ESSENTIAL in Scotland) for 9.99! It was great. I now have everything I need for backpacking in the highlands! I have all my own gear! This is really exciting for me. :-)
So, as I was saying, we got to see Pitlochery, and then we went to Dewar's Whisky Distillery, which was about ten minutes away, and we got to go see how whisky was made. I, being the brilliant kid I am, already knew about the barley malting process from my semester in Crops class, but the distilling process was pretty cool! If you want to see more pictures, you'll just have to WAIT, because I'm in the process of upgrading my Flickr account, thanks to my Dad, and I have to wait to get a password before I can put more pictures up!
And, lastly, I shall tell the tale of being punched in the face.
So. This is how it went, for all of you that don't already know.
I was walking with Erica, Amber and Sandy down town in Stirling on Thursday night, and we'd just come from one pub and were going to another to meet up with my flat mates for a pub quiz. We were heading for the bus stop right off the main street. All of a sudden, I see somewhere in my peripheral vision to the left, a girl get up from a group of a few others and start walking in the path between us and the bus stop. Suddenly she's saying something rather angrily (but we can't understand her, partially because of her heavy accent, and partially because of her apparently intense intake of alcohol during the early evening, this being only 8pm). Sandy and Amber quickly walk by, and Erica and I try to, but the girl waylays Erica and starts yelling at her. We still can't figure out what the problem is, and I don't want to leave Erica there by herself, obviously, so we ask the girl what the problem is. In answer to this, she shoves Erica quite hard two or three times, and I, thinking that this could be a bit of a problem, step in between them, still trying to ask the girl what's wrong, while also trying to grab Erica and get past. The girl then says "You shoudn'ta done that." and hauls off and hits me fairly hard in the jaw.
In reaction to this, I grab Erica with one hand, my face with the other, and we move down the street to where there's a bunch of people waiting at the bus stop (and as we leave we hear the girl yell "F*ckin' Yanks! Go back to your own d*amn country! We don't want you here!" so that was apparently what that was about). I was still so surprised that I wasn't quite sure what had happened, except that my eyes were suddenly watering and my lip was bleeding rather badly. Sandy asked if she should call the police, and I said no, since I wasn't sure what the procedure is for that sort of thing here. Erica and Amber flagged down the bus and we all got on, and I finally got a hold of myself before we stepped off at the other pub. My awesome room mate Will felt really bad about it, and told us that although this kind of thing is very rare, it does happen, and he was so sorry that it had happened to us.
Now, don't anybody get upset or anything! I'm fine, and everything is cool now! My lip is all healed, and the small bruise is gone, and it's just one of those interesting stories I get to tell about my time abroad. And, being an anthropologist at heart, and knowing that people are more likely to attribute poor behavior to personality instead of circumstances, I wonder if maybe something bad had happened to the girl to make her think that way about things. For all I know her dad could have been killed in Iraq two days ago, in which case I'm not sure I wouldn't have taken out my sadness in a similarly destructive way. The point is that it's a lesson to be learned, and now I'm more prepared in case anything like this should happen in the future.
I still think it's an interesting story, though. :-)
So, I'll update again as soon as anything interesting happens! This week is classes, obviously, and then this coming Saturday I'll be heading back to Edinburgh for the Six Nations Rugby Championship between Scotland and Italy! Hurrah!
Hey everyone! I'm back from my most recent highland adventure! Currently I'm sitting in my room listening to Snow Patrol's "Hundred Million Suns" album with my door open so I can hear my flatmates moving about. We just got a vacuum cleaner from the porter, so we're all cleaning! Jack just finished his room, Carly's working on hers, Will's doing homework, and Antonio is helping Dave From Boston in the kitchen. Dave showed up last night and asked if he could crash with us for a few days, and in return is making us dinner! He went to Uni here last semester, and he was supposed to go back, but decided that he likes it here so much that he got a visa and is working now. He's been bumming places to stay off of his friends for the last few weeks, so it's about our turn to host him, and a gourmet dinner MORE than makes up for it!
Oy. What to say about this last weekend. I've told so many people about it that I'm getting sick of reviewing! In short, it was a GREAT time. We got to Firbush on Friday night and had a great three course dinner, then on Saturday we spent from sunrise until sunset hiking up a VERY large hill/small mountain. That night we had a Ceilidh (pronounced kay-lee), which is a Scottish folk gathering where everyone dances and recites poems and sings! It was really amazing. Sunday I learned how to kayak and I went off orienteering in the deep woods to learn how to navigate around the area with a map and a compass. Good food and good times were abundant! The area is BEAUTIFUL, and I think I want to live there someday, if only for a little while. The only downside to the weekend was that sometime on Saturday I managed to pull something in my right hip, and it's been really painful ever since. Of course, orienteering the next day, and dragging a bunch of groceries back to the flat today didn't help.
Anyway, that's enough about the weekend! If you want to see pictures, go here!
Speaking of pictures, Mom, I've run out of uploading space on Flickr for the month! I had to cut down my pictures from this trip CONSIDERABLY, because I've apparently hit the limit! They won't let me upload anything else until March unless I upgrade my account! Help!
And speaking of getting groceries today, I LOVE grocery shopping. I needed to get some food for the next week and a half or so, and I went over to Tesco (the supermarket here) between classes this afternoon and got ALL KINDS OF GOOD STUFF! I'm getting a lot better at planning meals and getting things that go well together. My new favorite food consists of Tesco brand mini pizzas in the fridge section. They're just really good crust, tomato sauce and cheese, and all you do is pop them in the oven for 7 minutes and open up a can of pineapple, and voila! A tiny, yummy lunch that only costs 1 pound fifty!
And speaking of tomatoes (wow, this is getting out of hand), I've heard three different pronunciations of the word today. Carly says "Toe-mah-toe," with a long ah sound, Jack says "toe-maa-toe" with a short a as in apple, and I say "Tuh-mae-toe." Go figure.
Ok. On to the class update.
For those of you that don't know, I'm taking three classes this semester, but the Uni system here is strange, and what this means is that although I'm only taking three classes (or modules, as they say here), I've got two or three periods of time allocated per week for each class. So it's like having six classes, or something. And to add to this confusion, classes are in different rooms almost every time we meet. And classes aren't at the same time, like 12 to 1 on Tuesday and Thursday. Oh no, that would be too simple. So, here's my class schedule!
Monday:
12 to 1 - Environmental History Lecture
2 to 3 - Environmental History Seminar
4 to 5 - Scottish Society Lecture
Tuesday:
9 to 11 - Scottish Society Seminar
12 to 1 - History: Renaissance to Revolution Lecture
Wednesday:
Nothing
Thursday:
9 t0 10 - History: Ren to Rev Lecture
4 to 5 - Scottish Society Lecture
5 to 6 - Environmental History Lecture
Friday:
11 to 12 - History: Ren to Rev Lecture
So far all my classes are going well, and are quite interesting. Environmental History is fascinating, and I can't wait for our fieldtrips! It really is a combination of science and history in that you're doing a scientific investigation about the land, temperature, rainfall, etc., but then you put that into the framework of history and all that we know from documents and reports in order to find out how man has affected the whole environment. I'm really digging this class.
Scottish Society hasn't really given me a good idea about how I'll like the class yet. It's looking interesting, but it has a lot to do with "what is society," and I feel like I've covered that whole debate previously in other classes.
My History: Ren to Rev class is AWESOME. We spent the first day looking at documentaries of Mary, Queen of Scots, and then on the second day we covered the reign of James V. I'm SO glad I started reading my giant Scottish history book before I got here. I feel like I have a good framework to start from.
Overall, classes here are much different than ones in the US. You aren't babied and read to like you're still in high school, which is nice. And they don't believe in busy work, which cuts down the amount of time you have to sit about filling in worksheets, which I appreciate SO much.
On the other hand, though, it takes a lot more brainpower to stay up to snuff on everything that's going on, and you have to make sure you're getting everything done because NO ONE is going to remind you of anything. Grades are all based on huge projects, for example (and this is pretty much the same in all of my classes), in my Environmental History class my grade is based on,
One 1500 word essay worth 25% of my final grade,
A practical report of another 1500 words worth another 25%,
and a two hour written exam at the end of the course worth 50%.
That means that after spending however many hours in class and outside writing essays, 50% of my grade will be based on a two hour span of time. *Shiver*
Thankfully, top grades are almost extinct here. A passing grade in the US means getting above a 60 percent, or something like that, and an A is 100 percent. Here you're congratulated and applauded if you get a 65 or 70 percent, and 100's just don't exist. And it's easy to understand why when you think of what that grade is based on.
Anyway, Dave From Boston says dinner is ready, so I'll stop rambling! I'll talk to you all soon, I hope!
The British Isles (or what I've seen of them so far) are amazing. There's this amazing mix of plants and animals that I've grown up with, and ones that I've only heard of in books. The weather here is so changeable, going from fog to sunshine in half an hour, and from spring weather to a winter storm in a night. The snow falls, but never stays on the ground for a whole day before melting off again. The loch which I walk over every morning for classes is slowing de-icing, and the water birds who live here are loving it. I decided to go for a walk around the perimeter of the loch yesterday, and got some great pictures, which I'm not going to upload to flickr, but I'll post them here! Flowers are starting to break up out of the soil, and seeing the heads of lilies and daffodils, as well as these small white flowers, reminds me of The Secret Garden. These little ones are coming up all through the woods.
There are even robin redbreasts! Not like the American kind, which are big and have a very distinct area of the red-orange color. These are little birds, about the size of a chickadee, and they're so funny to watch!
I went down to see the ducks, geese and swans yesterday as well, and there was a nice guy feeding them leftover bread. He asked if I wanted some, and I said sure, and was IMMEDIATELY surrounded by expectant waterfowl...
They were all over me, to the point of standing ON my shoes and looking up at me all "Hey! Can we please have some bread?? Please!?" They reminded me of when Cricket begs at the table. :-)
And there's one kind of bird with the strangest feet you've ever seen. I've been trying to figure out if it's a water bird or a land bird. Check this out.
Just LOOK at those feet!! Anyhow, this bird is called a "common coot." They just couldn't come up with a better name if they tried.
And among these wild birds I found a couple of stowaways. Two farm ducks who escaped to the wild! They reminded me of Ferdinand the duck, from Babe (which is a movie among my top ten!).
But, I think my favorite thing from yesterday had to be the swans.
They're so big and graceful. I fell asleep listening to Trumpet of the Swan last night, and even though these aren't trumpeters, they're still beautiful. They don't sit and beg like the ducks; they just bump up against the shore with their big white wings and look pretty until somebody throws them some.
Anyway, that was my nature rant and my most pic heavy post EVER! I'll hope to talk to ya'll later, after my great backpacking adventure this weekend! Prepare for more nature meanderings!
I love my flat mates, Will, Jack, Carly, and Antonio! They're awesome, especially Will, who's been showing me around campus and the pubs and such. We've been to a dance bar down town in Stirling, we've had a nice night here with friends having Bailey's and ice cream and watching Jurassic Park. Tonight we went out to Rock Night at the pub on campus, and actually most of the music was pretty bad, but we had a good time anyway.
Anyway, tomorrow, here's my schedule: - Bus tour of Stirling from 2 to 4 - International Welcome Reception from 4 to 5:30 - Back on campus by 5:30pm.
Who knows what we'll do tomorrow night! Actually, it probably won't be that exciting, since I have classes starting on Thursday. I'm really excited to go and see how everything is! I've been a bit intimidated about what they've told us about the work load, but I think I'll do fine.
This weekend, starting at around 6 on Friday, I'll be rather unreachable, except maybe by phone, because I'm going up to Firbush point with a bunch of other Arcadia kids for a wilderness weekend! We get to hike up in the highlands and go canoeing, and a bunch of other great stuff. I'll be sure to update with lots of pictures when I get back!
In the meantime, here are pictures of my dorm! And Will, 'cause he got in the way of our kitchen. Click the pic for more!
I have a headache. What a bad note to start a new entry on. But it's true! I was just about to go out to a pub in town with Will and Jack (my new Scottish roommates) and the girls (from my orientation group) when all of a sudden my head started pounding, and I remembered that I didn't take my meds last night. Why? you ask. Because, I answer, I was out having a GOOD OLD SCOTTISH TIME!!!
So yes, pub time last night, at which there were many funny stories told, and about which I will pretty much always laugh. I asked the barkeep for a Magner's Cider, which I've only had once, while Mom and I were in Wales, and they didn't have it. What they DID have, however, was "Bulmer's" which is a knockoff brand, and which doesn't have too much of a taste to it. Anyway, we all ordered drinks and settled down to watch the locals carouse about, and we even took part in "trivia night!" Of course, we were all too giggly at that point to pay attention to the game, but it was fun anyway!
So, let's see. I haven't updated since the beginning of the trip, so here's what's been happening: 1) Visited the Scottish Museum and Edinburgh Castle, 2) Left Edinburgh by bus and arrived at Stirling for a few days with our host families, 3) Visited Stirling Castle and the William Wallace memorial...
And a bunch of other things! But you don't really want to hear from me. You want PICTURES! Click on this loverly one to access the rest via flickr!
I've finally figured out where to get wireless, and I talked the nice lady at the front desk (who's name was Alison!) into giving me an access code, so, here we are! P.S. I've never met anyone who spelled their name like mine until I come to Scotland. Go figure.
I'm just going to quickly post a couple of pictures that I took today. Excuse the very Scottish weather! Actually, this is quite unseasonable for them, so I've heard from EVERYONE. I guess it's really rare for snow to stay on the ground for more than 12 hours.
So, follow the photos if you want to see what I'm seeing!
Next, I'll give you a quick rundown of my schedule for the next few days. Remember that I'm 6 hours ahead of you Yanks in the States!:
Tomorrow- 9:00 - Arcadia Orientation Meeting 10:45 - Tea Time 12:15 - Lunch at Le Sept Restaurant 1:30 - Tour of the Museum of Scotland 3:00 - Tour of Edinburgh Castle 6:45 - Trip to the theatre to see "Blood Brothers" by Willy Russell
Feb 4th- 9:30 - Arcadia Orientation Meeting 11:00 - Tea Time 11:30 - Stirling Orientation 12:30 - Lunch 3:30 - Depart by coach (bus) to Homestay in Stirling
And in between all that I'll have some time to explore Edinburgh by myself (or with others)! Everything's so old and pretty here. Here's where I am on a map!
I've landed safely in Edinburgh, and I'm now installed at the Jury's Inn. The view from my window is AWESOME! I'm facing some sort of castle thingy, and the train station, and they're both quite pretty. It's snowing like crazy here, and a bunch of airports have already closed! Glad I got in so early! This weather isn't nearly as bad as ours, though (says the proud Minnesotan).
Everyone has a great accent, and I'm not too jet lagged, and my room is sweet, and everything costs a lot, and my hotel is quite nice, and I have orientation in about an hour. Things are fine, and I'm not nervious about much at all, just now. :-)
Hope you all are having a good day, and I'll update again as soon as I can, and as soon as I can get to some FREE internet (this is costing me one pound!)!
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