Hey, wait a second... I thought it wasn't supposed to snow in Scotland! Apparently, this is the first time in 17 years that there has been snow in December... So, while Minneapolis experienced its first snowfall-free March on records, Edinburgh gets a massive snowfall. The prediction is snow every day for the next week. WOOOO! I hope everything gets cleared out by the time Chelsea and I are meant to fly to London, which is not 2 weeks away, but the way that these people have been dealing with snow, I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't!
After a morning of steel-grey skies, the sun is beginning to peek out, and the sky has become powder blue. It may just be the fact that I've spent the better part of the last three days reading Märchen (international folktales), but I feel like we've been dropped into fairy-world. The library looks out over the Meadows, and all of the trees are covered in snow and birds and squirrels are running around inside. The way the light is coming through the trees is just lovely. I'm sure all of this sentimental blithering is brought on by the fact that I'm in an essay crunch (okay, I have to write a conclusion, but I have 4 hours til I need to turn it in, so not that bad... but begs the question, "why are you blogging when you need to finish an essay?"), and I just want to go play in the snow.
My archaeology lecturer didn't show this morning, so we all decided to leave after waiting around for 10 minutes. Good times. I think as soon as I finish this essay, I'm going to take a break before I start on the archaeology papers. Ahhhh procrastination, why do I constantly fall prey to your wiles?
Monday, November 29, 2010
Friday, November 26, 2010
you can only cover so much territory, of course
Sometimes I get a little overwhelmed by how much goes on in my head. Right now, I'm thinking about storytelling as a mode of cultural presentation and preservation (for my essay), Julia Alvarez's memoir (which I just finished, and which ties in really nicely to the storytelling theme... I might end up using it as a source), how much I need to clean the kitchen (after Thanksgiving dinner, which was so fabulous... I will get to that later!), how nice it was to talk to my family, and how I wish I were with them, how much my grandpa would have loved to hear about my Thanksgiving enterprises, my looming exams and archaeology portfolio, and all of the things I need to do before I leave here (including: booking a hostel in Paris, figuring out when I'll leave Edinburgh for London before I go home, visiting a ton of Historic Scotland sites, going to more ceilidhs, spending as much time as possible with my friends, and probably most dauntingly: cleaning and packing up my room, the mere thought of which sends a shiver down my spine)in less than one month. There is so much that I have planned to do that I probably won't get done, but on the other hand, I have done so many more things that I had never even thought of doing!
I'm so glad to be going home in time for Christmas, okay... well, on Christmas, but I wish that I were going home with the knowledge that I'd be coming back here soon. It took me so long to settle myself and make friends and get involved with anything in Minnesota, but here, I began to feel like I belonged in a circle within four or five weeks of being at the uni. Edinburgh feels like home, except for that one little missing element of family. I know that I will come back sometime, but in my head, something says that it won't be enough to return once or twice on short vacations. Is this the beginning of a dream to move to Scotland? Perhaps it may just be... the whole darkness at 3 pm thing is a little off-putting, though. I think there are enough things to make up for that problem! There is so much to see here, and I feel like I have barely even covered a fourth of the city. I need to get out more often.
When I left home, I was already a little worried about what my first Thanksgiving away from home would be like. Would I have friends with whom I could celebrate? Would I be able to eat a Thanksgiving dinner, or would I be eating a bowl of soup? Well, let me just say that I smashed those fears: last night was the best Thanksgiving that I could possibly have had under the circumstances of the events of last week and being away from my family throughout all of this. I invited a bunch of my friends, both American and non-American, to a Thanksgiving potluck at my flat. I thought about cooking a turkey, but I decided just to go for the turkey breast, because I was pretty sure a turkey would not fit in our tiny oven, plus I have no idea how to cook a turkey. When I talked with them on Skype, Jeff and Matt wouldn't stop making fun of the Vinegar Sauce Incident™, but I assure you all that I made a dry rub for my turkey breast that turned even a non-turkey eater into an eager devourer of poultry (and it contained no vinegar)!
Naturally, I had to skip my afternoon class in order to cook the turkey if we were going to eat at a reasonable hour, so I went to my morning lecture and my morning tutorial- sidenote: this was so sad, because I LOVE the tutorial for Scotland and Orality... our tutor is so much fun, and since there were only four girls in my class, we got the business out of the way and had a generally good time the rest of the tutorial!- and then came home, did a little reading for my essay, and then cleaned and cooked.
Everybody came over, and we somehow managed to all fit around a table. I was sad because a couple of my friends had to bail at the last minute due to essays and sickness, but I felt really good about the whole dinner. I was so happy and so thankful to have so many good friends who could come to celebrate. I even invited a CouchSurfer who was from North Carolina, so I felt especially good that I provided a place for somebody who was traveling alone to come and eat Thanksgiving Dinner! I absolutely love hosting dinner parties, and this was the ultimate in uni halls dinner parties! A few of us had been planning to go to Itchy Feet, which is a once a month club night that features swing, jazz, rockabilly, and ska, and it would have been really fun but nobody was up to it after we stuffed our faces in true Thanksgiving fashion. The meal was wonderful: we had turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, two kinds of rolls, macaroni and cheese, deviled eggs, stuffing, four pumpkin pies, two apple pies, and one apple crumble... and countless bottles of wine amongst us all. We missed the yams, but it ended up being okay, because there was just SO MUCH FOOD!! I was happy to see friends from different circles getting along (though we noticed the table was almost entirely segregated with one side American and non-American) and everybody having a really good time. We made hand turkeys and wrote things for which we were thankful on the feathers, and then we hung up a bunch of them on the fridge. It was such a good night.
The night before had been the Butler Thanksgiving event, which was at a REALLY swanky restaurant, Ghillie Dhu, which is in New Town, and their banquet hall is pretty much a basilica. It was not Thanksgiving-y food, but there was roasted vegetables, and I had salmon with potato dumplings, and it was fantastic. The dessert was this raspberry shortcake kind of thing. So good. Butler is SO GOOD to us! Next week, we get to go have cupcakes and tea at their offices. mmmmmmm.
Going even further back in time, last weekend, Chelsea and I went to see the Scotland v. South Africa rugby match, on the suggestion of both my friend Emily (who ended up not being able to come, sadly!) and Deirdra and Katherine, two of the Butler program people. I am SO GLAD that we went. It was a really good way to take my mind off of things for a while, plus rugby is way better than American football. They don't really stop playing ever, plus, rugby players are (for the most part) fit beyond belief. We didn't really know what was going on, but we got totally into it and started shouting and stuff. At the beginning, when the team was coming out, they had some serious pyrotechnics, which was fab fab fabbity fab fab! Chelsea and I are pretty sure that we ended up on the stadium cam but we're not entirely sure. The Scots actually, won, which was a totally unexpected outcome, but it was a very good match and so exciting, too! Also, when the Scots got a field goal, they played "Chelsea Dagger," which 1)reminded me of home because of the Blackhawks (woooo) and 2) is Chelsea's theme song, so it was swell. They also played "I'm Gonna Be" so we had to sing along with that as well, and I do love that song!
Anyway, it was really, REALLY cold that day, plus it poured the entire time, so by the time the match was over, we were very ready to go home. I had lost one of my mittens on the bus, which made me really sad for the rest of the day because I love my mittens. I'll have to ask for new ones for Christmas, because the bus company lost and found didn't have my mitten when I asked on Monday. On the way back, we had a little confusion with finding the bus, but eventually we got on, and realized that the fuss with traffic was that a motorcade in which Princess Anne was riding was going past, and guess what? WE TOTALLY SAW HER! Pretty cool!
Moving right back along, two weeks ago, I stayed with my Dad's friend Mark's family for the weekend in Fife. They took me up to Saint Andrews, which was really beautiful (though it made me so glad that I chose Edinburgh... St. Andrews is a pretty small town), and then we went to see Due Date. I hadn't been to the cinema for a while (that's actually a lie; Emily and I had seen The Illusionist, which is a French animated film that takes place in Edinburgh, and was devastatingly gorgeously done) the previous week, but that was an arty film and didn't feel sooo much like going to the cinema, so it was really good to see a funny film. That was the night that I spoke with my grandpa for what turned out to be the last time, and filled him in on the adventures of the day, in addition to speaking to the rest of the family, which was all gathered out there.
The next day, we had breakfast and then went to Dunkeld, which is a very beautiful little town, which I think is in Perthshire. The autumn colors were in full force, and we had lovely food (mmm haggis) and went to see the Dunkeld Cathedral, which has a big ruined nave, which was pretty cool, though it was chilly. I feel privileged to have been able to see so much of Scotland! When we got home, Mark introduced me to the band Status Quo, which is huge in GB, but virtually unheard of in the USA. They were showing a concert on TV, so we watched that, and it was pretty cool. Straight up rock and roll. Dinner was lovely and wonderful (oh how I love when people cook for me!), and after dinner we watched the adorable Ava (their granddaughter) demonstrate her adorableness, until Mark drove me home in his LOTUS ESPRIT! That is one sleek car... and it goes faaaaaaaast. Katherine heard the engine roaring when Mark dropped me off outside. Pretty sweet!!
I haven't written about our adventures on Arran, but that is really the only terribly exciting thing that hasn't been involved in the catch-up. I'll get around to it later, but now I have to get back to my paper, I just needed a bit of a pleasure-writing break. There will be links to pictures and video as soon as I get them all uploaded.
PS it says I published this at 4:30 in the morning... very untrue: it is currently 1:47 pm
I'm so glad to be going home in time for Christmas, okay... well, on Christmas, but I wish that I were going home with the knowledge that I'd be coming back here soon. It took me so long to settle myself and make friends and get involved with anything in Minnesota, but here, I began to feel like I belonged in a circle within four or five weeks of being at the uni. Edinburgh feels like home, except for that one little missing element of family. I know that I will come back sometime, but in my head, something says that it won't be enough to return once or twice on short vacations. Is this the beginning of a dream to move to Scotland? Perhaps it may just be... the whole darkness at 3 pm thing is a little off-putting, though. I think there are enough things to make up for that problem! There is so much to see here, and I feel like I have barely even covered a fourth of the city. I need to get out more often.
When I left home, I was already a little worried about what my first Thanksgiving away from home would be like. Would I have friends with whom I could celebrate? Would I be able to eat a Thanksgiving dinner, or would I be eating a bowl of soup? Well, let me just say that I smashed those fears: last night was the best Thanksgiving that I could possibly have had under the circumstances of the events of last week and being away from my family throughout all of this. I invited a bunch of my friends, both American and non-American, to a Thanksgiving potluck at my flat. I thought about cooking a turkey, but I decided just to go for the turkey breast, because I was pretty sure a turkey would not fit in our tiny oven, plus I have no idea how to cook a turkey. When I talked with them on Skype, Jeff and Matt wouldn't stop making fun of the Vinegar Sauce Incident™, but I assure you all that I made a dry rub for my turkey breast that turned even a non-turkey eater into an eager devourer of poultry (and it contained no vinegar)!
Naturally, I had to skip my afternoon class in order to cook the turkey if we were going to eat at a reasonable hour, so I went to my morning lecture and my morning tutorial- sidenote: this was so sad, because I LOVE the tutorial for Scotland and Orality... our tutor is so much fun, and since there were only four girls in my class, we got the business out of the way and had a generally good time the rest of the tutorial!- and then came home, did a little reading for my essay, and then cleaned and cooked.
Everybody came over, and we somehow managed to all fit around a table. I was sad because a couple of my friends had to bail at the last minute due to essays and sickness, but I felt really good about the whole dinner. I was so happy and so thankful to have so many good friends who could come to celebrate. I even invited a CouchSurfer who was from North Carolina, so I felt especially good that I provided a place for somebody who was traveling alone to come and eat Thanksgiving Dinner! I absolutely love hosting dinner parties, and this was the ultimate in uni halls dinner parties! A few of us had been planning to go to Itchy Feet, which is a once a month club night that features swing, jazz, rockabilly, and ska, and it would have been really fun but nobody was up to it after we stuffed our faces in true Thanksgiving fashion. The meal was wonderful: we had turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, two kinds of rolls, macaroni and cheese, deviled eggs, stuffing, four pumpkin pies, two apple pies, and one apple crumble... and countless bottles of wine amongst us all. We missed the yams, but it ended up being okay, because there was just SO MUCH FOOD!! I was happy to see friends from different circles getting along (though we noticed the table was almost entirely segregated with one side American and non-American) and everybody having a really good time. We made hand turkeys and wrote things for which we were thankful on the feathers, and then we hung up a bunch of them on the fridge. It was such a good night.
The night before had been the Butler Thanksgiving event, which was at a REALLY swanky restaurant, Ghillie Dhu, which is in New Town, and their banquet hall is pretty much a basilica. It was not Thanksgiving-y food, but there was roasted vegetables, and I had salmon with potato dumplings, and it was fantastic. The dessert was this raspberry shortcake kind of thing. So good. Butler is SO GOOD to us! Next week, we get to go have cupcakes and tea at their offices. mmmmmmm.
Going even further back in time, last weekend, Chelsea and I went to see the Scotland v. South Africa rugby match, on the suggestion of both my friend Emily (who ended up not being able to come, sadly!) and Deirdra and Katherine, two of the Butler program people. I am SO GLAD that we went. It was a really good way to take my mind off of things for a while, plus rugby is way better than American football. They don't really stop playing ever, plus, rugby players are (for the most part) fit beyond belief. We didn't really know what was going on, but we got totally into it and started shouting and stuff. At the beginning, when the team was coming out, they had some serious pyrotechnics, which was fab fab fabbity fab fab! Chelsea and I are pretty sure that we ended up on the stadium cam but we're not entirely sure. The Scots actually, won, which was a totally unexpected outcome, but it was a very good match and so exciting, too! Also, when the Scots got a field goal, they played "Chelsea Dagger," which 1)reminded me of home because of the Blackhawks (woooo) and 2) is Chelsea's theme song, so it was swell. They also played "I'm Gonna Be" so we had to sing along with that as well, and I do love that song!
Anyway, it was really, REALLY cold that day, plus it poured the entire time, so by the time the match was over, we were very ready to go home. I had lost one of my mittens on the bus, which made me really sad for the rest of the day because I love my mittens. I'll have to ask for new ones for Christmas, because the bus company lost and found didn't have my mitten when I asked on Monday. On the way back, we had a little confusion with finding the bus, but eventually we got on, and realized that the fuss with traffic was that a motorcade in which Princess Anne was riding was going past, and guess what? WE TOTALLY SAW HER! Pretty cool!
Moving right back along, two weeks ago, I stayed with my Dad's friend Mark's family for the weekend in Fife. They took me up to Saint Andrews, which was really beautiful (though it made me so glad that I chose Edinburgh... St. Andrews is a pretty small town), and then we went to see Due Date. I hadn't been to the cinema for a while (that's actually a lie; Emily and I had seen The Illusionist, which is a French animated film that takes place in Edinburgh, and was devastatingly gorgeously done) the previous week, but that was an arty film and didn't feel sooo much like going to the cinema, so it was really good to see a funny film. That was the night that I spoke with my grandpa for what turned out to be the last time, and filled him in on the adventures of the day, in addition to speaking to the rest of the family, which was all gathered out there.
The next day, we had breakfast and then went to Dunkeld, which is a very beautiful little town, which I think is in Perthshire. The autumn colors were in full force, and we had lovely food (mmm haggis) and went to see the Dunkeld Cathedral, which has a big ruined nave, which was pretty cool, though it was chilly. I feel privileged to have been able to see so much of Scotland! When we got home, Mark introduced me to the band Status Quo, which is huge in GB, but virtually unheard of in the USA. They were showing a concert on TV, so we watched that, and it was pretty cool. Straight up rock and roll. Dinner was lovely and wonderful (oh how I love when people cook for me!), and after dinner we watched the adorable Ava (their granddaughter) demonstrate her adorableness, until Mark drove me home in his LOTUS ESPRIT! That is one sleek car... and it goes faaaaaaaast. Katherine heard the engine roaring when Mark dropped me off outside. Pretty sweet!!
I haven't written about our adventures on Arran, but that is really the only terribly exciting thing that hasn't been involved in the catch-up. I'll get around to it later, but now I have to get back to my paper, I just needed a bit of a pleasure-writing break. There will be links to pictures and video as soon as I get them all uploaded.
PS it says I published this at 4:30 in the morning... very untrue: it is currently 1:47 pm
Friday, November 19, 2010
do you realize?
This entry will be another interruption of the regularly scheduled programming. This has been the hardest month and a half of my young life. It is not that I do not love Edinburgh with all my heart, because I love it here, and I love being here, and I love my friends here, and the way the sun shines in the late afternoon, and how the leaves are still golden, and how the crags and Arthur's Seat stand over the city, but the distance from my home is quickly becoming unbearable.
Skype, while it solves some of the problems caused by a lack of physical closeness, cannot make up for the fact that my mom cannot give me a hug. As some of you may know, my grandpa Richard died this morning, and the last month has been a roller coaster of emotion. After the first week of uncertainty and anxiety, I could breathe when he went home and he was okay. Last week, with the numbers (I hate that expression. A kidney is not made up of numbers. We are not made up of numbers. People talk about "the numbers" like they know what it means, but I am sure that we have no idea) headed in the wrong direction, he was given a very negative prognosis, and now he is gone.
It is incredibly hard for me to grasp this. When I left home, he was fine. We chatted away about the adventures on which I was about to embark, and I was certain that I would be back to see him again and share my adventures with him like he shared so many of his with me. As a matter of fact, I am taking a course called Scotland and Orality because I thought that learning about the oral tradition would help me in my recently discovered quest to piece together all of the parts of my grandfather's life. Only a few years ago did I begin to appreciate all of his stories: from growing up, from college, from his days in the merchant marine, from raising my mother and aunts, from seeing me grow up. He saw so much, and for a very brief period, I had the sense to take advantage of his experiences and learn from him. I only wish that I could go back in time, and learn to listen at an earlier age. At least I still have our correspondence. There is not much, but it is precious to me. I have a postcard on my desk that I bought this weekend in Saint Andrews. The thought is simple, the stamp is affixed, but when I was at the post office, I didn't know his ZIP code, so here it sits. I don't know what to do with it. I can't throw it away, but I don't want it here.
My dad set up a Skype account for him so that he could talk to me. We never had the chance to use it, but somebody is still signing in on the account. That unholy notification "Richard Marcus has signed in," is haunting me.
I haven't talked to my mom. I just want to give her a big hug, and I know she feels the same way, but here I am, and here she is not. Jeff said that last weekend, with everybody together, was fun, and that it helped him realize how amazing Grandpa was, and how he should strive to be more like him. Yeah, that would have been helpful. The entire family was gathered together, but I was alone, and being alone, thousands of miles away, makes this so much harder. I had no idea of the situation at any given point. The last I had heard, he had one to three months to live, but here I am two weeks later, and here he is not. I can't adjust to this idea that I will never see him again, never speak to him again, never write to him again. I take comfort in the thought that he was still lucid in our last conversation, and our last words to each other were to send love. I am reminded of the wise words of Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips:
Do You Realize - that everyone you know someday will die?
And instead of saying all of your goodbyes - let them know
You realize that life goes fast
It's hard to make the good things last
You realize the sun doesn't go down
It's just an illusion caused by the world spinning round
His atoms will be somewhere in the universe, perhaps mingling with those previously belonging to my grandma. They are the world, and we walk amongst them.
In the memory of my Grandpa,the caper must continue, and for the memory of my Grandpa, I will continue to make it extraordinary.
Skype, while it solves some of the problems caused by a lack of physical closeness, cannot make up for the fact that my mom cannot give me a hug. As some of you may know, my grandpa Richard died this morning, and the last month has been a roller coaster of emotion. After the first week of uncertainty and anxiety, I could breathe when he went home and he was okay. Last week, with the numbers (I hate that expression. A kidney is not made up of numbers. We are not made up of numbers. People talk about "the numbers" like they know what it means, but I am sure that we have no idea) headed in the wrong direction, he was given a very negative prognosis, and now he is gone.
It is incredibly hard for me to grasp this. When I left home, he was fine. We chatted away about the adventures on which I was about to embark, and I was certain that I would be back to see him again and share my adventures with him like he shared so many of his with me. As a matter of fact, I am taking a course called Scotland and Orality because I thought that learning about the oral tradition would help me in my recently discovered quest to piece together all of the parts of my grandfather's life. Only a few years ago did I begin to appreciate all of his stories: from growing up, from college, from his days in the merchant marine, from raising my mother and aunts, from seeing me grow up. He saw so much, and for a very brief period, I had the sense to take advantage of his experiences and learn from him. I only wish that I could go back in time, and learn to listen at an earlier age. At least I still have our correspondence. There is not much, but it is precious to me. I have a postcard on my desk that I bought this weekend in Saint Andrews. The thought is simple, the stamp is affixed, but when I was at the post office, I didn't know his ZIP code, so here it sits. I don't know what to do with it. I can't throw it away, but I don't want it here.
My dad set up a Skype account for him so that he could talk to me. We never had the chance to use it, but somebody is still signing in on the account. That unholy notification "Richard Marcus has signed in," is haunting me.
I haven't talked to my mom. I just want to give her a big hug, and I know she feels the same way, but here I am, and here she is not. Jeff said that last weekend, with everybody together, was fun, and that it helped him realize how amazing Grandpa was, and how he should strive to be more like him. Yeah, that would have been helpful. The entire family was gathered together, but I was alone, and being alone, thousands of miles away, makes this so much harder. I had no idea of the situation at any given point. The last I had heard, he had one to three months to live, but here I am two weeks later, and here he is not. I can't adjust to this idea that I will never see him again, never speak to him again, never write to him again. I take comfort in the thought that he was still lucid in our last conversation, and our last words to each other were to send love. I am reminded of the wise words of Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips:
Do You Realize - that everyone you know someday will die?
And instead of saying all of your goodbyes - let them know
You realize that life goes fast
It's hard to make the good things last
You realize the sun doesn't go down
It's just an illusion caused by the world spinning round
His atoms will be somewhere in the universe, perhaps mingling with those previously belonging to my grandma. They are the world, and we walk amongst them.
In the memory of my Grandpa,the caper must continue, and for the memory of my Grandpa, I will continue to make it extraordinary.
Friday, November 5, 2010
remember, remember the fifth of november
Today, Chelsea and I decided to go to Glasgow to go shopping because we felt like we didn't really have any clothes. It was a lovely trip, and we had a fantastic time and went to a delightful restaurant. It was also really fun to spend all day with Chelsea. It's been nice getting to know people... especially when we have a lot in common. She's from Rochester, and it turns out that she knows a girl I knew from JCL. So anyway, we stopped each other from spending altogether way too much money, but I probably spent more than I should have.
I looked at my finances today, and it seems that I have spent way more than I budgeted myself for. I knew that would happen, which is why I put myself on a tiny budget, but I totally surpassed it. I shouldn't worry because I anticipated it, but I can't stop. And I guess, that would be the general anxiety disorder. Now that I have my schedule for next semester pretty much taken care of, I have to move on to the next issue, and money is a natural choice. Someday, I'll grow out of this problem. For now, I'm going to try not to think about it. I think it will be something of a relief to go back to a place where the money I spend is the money I spend and that is that... it doesn't fluctuate its relative worth, and I don't have to keep doing math in my head.
Back to a lighter subject, and the post title: I was really excited to be in the UK for Guy Fawkes' Day/Bonfire Night. We had decided early on in the semester that we'd climb Arthur's Seat to watch fireworks. Well, at around 5:30, it started pouring, so Liz, Katherine, and I considered just renting V For Vendetta and calling it a night. However, a bunch of my friends were going to go for it, so we hustled to put on more suitable clothing, and leave with them, but we were sort of too late. So, the three of us set off, but then Liz decided she did not have any practical clothing, so she'd sit it out. This was sad :( So, we attached to a group that was getting very drunk, decided that being around drunk people while climbing a mountain in the dark was not the best idea, and kept going ahead of them. Katherine, unfortunately, did not have the best shoes for this endeavor, and I ended up losing her when she said to go ahead and she'd catch up. Ladies and gentlemen, when in the dark, do not separate from the group. I ended up at the far end of the crags, where I had a pretty decent view of the official big fireworks. I could also see all of the fireworks going off around the city, and across the Firth of Forth in Fife (ALLITERATION WOO!!!). It was really incredible, and even though it was freezing, and wet, and gross, I'm glad I did it. I managed to get safely down, of course, I slipped and fell AFTER managing to climb down the crags, and I ended up covered in mud. Oh well. I found Katherine already back at the flat, and we had grilled cheese, hot chocolate, and I watched 30 Rock.
I don't really have any pictures from up on the crags, but it was beautiful, and now it is pretty firmly embedded in my memory, and it will be a story I can tell for a long time. I think sometimes it is better not to have a camera. I can say with confidence that I will remember the fifth of November, 2010.
Tomorrow, Katherine and I are leaving on a 7 am train to Ardrossan Harbour, whence we shall take a ferry to the Isle of Arran, which I have heard is one of the most beautiful places on earth. Here's hoping the weather improves.
Back on Sunday.
I looked at my finances today, and it seems that I have spent way more than I budgeted myself for. I knew that would happen, which is why I put myself on a tiny budget, but I totally surpassed it. I shouldn't worry because I anticipated it, but I can't stop. And I guess, that would be the general anxiety disorder. Now that I have my schedule for next semester pretty much taken care of, I have to move on to the next issue, and money is a natural choice. Someday, I'll grow out of this problem. For now, I'm going to try not to think about it. I think it will be something of a relief to go back to a place where the money I spend is the money I spend and that is that... it doesn't fluctuate its relative worth, and I don't have to keep doing math in my head.
Back to a lighter subject, and the post title: I was really excited to be in the UK for Guy Fawkes' Day/Bonfire Night. We had decided early on in the semester that we'd climb Arthur's Seat to watch fireworks. Well, at around 5:30, it started pouring, so Liz, Katherine, and I considered just renting V For Vendetta and calling it a night. However, a bunch of my friends were going to go for it, so we hustled to put on more suitable clothing, and leave with them, but we were sort of too late. So, the three of us set off, but then Liz decided she did not have any practical clothing, so she'd sit it out. This was sad :( So, we attached to a group that was getting very drunk, decided that being around drunk people while climbing a mountain in the dark was not the best idea, and kept going ahead of them. Katherine, unfortunately, did not have the best shoes for this endeavor, and I ended up losing her when she said to go ahead and she'd catch up. Ladies and gentlemen, when in the dark, do not separate from the group. I ended up at the far end of the crags, where I had a pretty decent view of the official big fireworks. I could also see all of the fireworks going off around the city, and across the Firth of Forth in Fife (ALLITERATION WOO!!!). It was really incredible, and even though it was freezing, and wet, and gross, I'm glad I did it. I managed to get safely down, of course, I slipped and fell AFTER managing to climb down the crags, and I ended up covered in mud. Oh well. I found Katherine already back at the flat, and we had grilled cheese, hot chocolate, and I watched 30 Rock.
I don't really have any pictures from up on the crags, but it was beautiful, and now it is pretty firmly embedded in my memory, and it will be a story I can tell for a long time. I think sometimes it is better not to have a camera. I can say with confidence that I will remember the fifth of November, 2010.
Tomorrow, Katherine and I are leaving on a 7 am train to Ardrossan Harbour, whence we shall take a ferry to the Isle of Arran, which I have heard is one of the most beautiful places on earth. Here's hoping the weather improves.
Back on Sunday.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
improvements, spontaneity, suggesting coconuts migrate, the best day of my life thus far, and Hallowe'en
I'm taking a moment to do a wee bit of blogging between work on my essay for City of Rome... I need a break! I've been spending a lot of time in the library lately, because I have 2 3000 word essays due in the 3 weeks, 1 2000 word essay due next week (but half of it is a transcription that I've got mostly done already), and a rather large portfolio for Archaeology due on 3 December. Heavy stuff, my friends. Surprised that I've already started working? Yeah, I am too. But let's consider how in the Scottish uni system, my finals are worth 50-60% of my grade, and these essays are worth the rest. Can't afford to have a bad day.
Now, on to the subject of this post: as my parents reminded me while I was having a Skype conversation with them last week, time is moving quickly. I haven't done a lot of the things I planned to do (and, the question of whether I actually end up making it to Dublin is very much up in the air :/), and I don't have that much time left in which to do them. So, following this conversation, I decided to get my act together and get better at balancing academia with living life to its fullest.
This brings me to a little bit of a sidebar: while I haven't crossed a lot of things off of my list of things to do in Scotland, I think I'm becoming a much better and more interesting person while I am here. My life has lacked a lot of balance up until this point; I will simply waste days, scramble to do work, and rarely get out and do things, or if I do, I go crazy doing them. For the first several weeks I was here, I didn't go out that much or make a lot of new friends, or really do much of anything (aside from my homestay and the Highlands) except go to my classes and hang out with some friends once in a while. While people were getting out around Scotland, and living it up in Edinburgh, I was just sort of adjusting and existing (not that I wasn't having a good time). My thought process was that I had all the time in the world later in the semester to do things, but I didn't really account for my essays or the sheer number of things I wanted to do.
Now, I'm learning to get my work done during the day (I pretty much live in the library), so I can go out with my friends at night. A bunch of kids from Hermit's Croft have pretty much become regulars (in a non-alcoholism way) at the Montague, the pub across the street from our flat. It's very cozy and friendly. We're actually going to their pub quiz tonight, hooray! But I have also developed a really amazing close circle of friends from ClassicsSoc (it's weird how no matter where I go, I always end up falling in with these people...), and we go dancing sometimes, or just hang out around campus.
So, back to the point. Last week, my friends and I had tried to get these tickets from the International Student Center to go to Stirling, including entry to the castle, for £7 (such a good deal), but they sold out after only one of us had managed to get to the ticket counter and buy two tickets. So, we could either pay our own way to Stirling or not go. I considered not going, but then we were going to go to Perth and go to Scone Palace because it closes for the season on 31 October, and it's supposed to be nice. However, one of our friends informed us that the ISC said that if we showed our student IDs at Stirling Castle while the ISC was there, we'd get in free, so Katherine (flatmate) and I decided to go to Stirling and meet up with some of our friends there. On Friday night, while we were looking at the guidebook for Scotland that my grandparents so kindly left behind for me, we discovered that there is a castle about 20 minutes by bus away from Stirling, in a village called Doune, that happens to be the castle used for filming nearly every castle scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail!!! Naturally, we just had to go, so we made plans to hit up Sterling, and then leave to go to Doune.
Again: I have been having trouble uploading photos to my blog, so here are links to photo albums:
Stirling: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2031394&id=1135890300&l=bc618a5687
Doune: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2031399&id=1135890300&l=c56f7081eb
We got to Stirling, split a tasty Cornish pasty, and then walked up to the castle, where it turned out that they would NOT let me in free with my ID, so I bought a Historic Scotland card at a steeply discounted rate (£25 woo!!) that I assume will pay for itself with visits to maybe 2 more sites, which is good because we're going to Craigmillar Castle at some point in the near future. It turned out that our timing was not synchronous with my friends, so we went on a tour of the Earl of Argyll's lodgings, which I expected would take about half an hour, but was incredibly wrong concerning this assumption.
You probably know how antsy I get about time (this was at 11:30, and we had to be on a bus by 1:55 or else our day would be entirely thrown off), and how much I have trouble paying attention to people for long periods of time, so I was pretty much freaking out when by noon, we had not even entered the lodgings, but had listened to the guy talking about every aspect of the outside of the building, up to the moulding on the windows. But, there was no way out of the tour because there were security people by the courtyard gate and stuff. So, finally inside, the house was pretty cool, but the tour guide would NOT shut up. I had a frantic texting conversation with my friend Liz, who was at this point inside the castle, expressing my doubts that we'd find them in time to meet up, and also my fear that we would never get out of the townhome tour. Finally, it was over and Katherine and I ran up to the castle and found Liz in the Chapel Royal, which was beautiful. The building, which you can see in my album, didn't really fit in... it was all fairytale building-y, as opposed to the imposing stone of the other buildings. It turned out that the palace itself is closed as they restore it to its original splendour, so I was pretty upset, but anyway, the castle was cool. There were really creepy fake people in the kitchens, but I got over it. The views of the surrounding countryside from the battlements and the outer courtyards were beautiful... stunningly so. Autumn here is just gorgeous, but this was nothing compared to the loveliness of Doune.
We caught our bus, which turned out to be way more expensive than we thought it would be (£6.70 each for a return ticket!!!), and enjoyed the ride through a rather rural area. We went over tiny stone bridges. Idyllic. The village of Doune itself was adorable, very small, and with a lot of wee boutiques, a number of which were of a bridal nature. We followed signs to the castle, and on the way there, we walked through a pasture that was the site of a wooden Roman fort (cool!), and then through the woods for a bit. This begins the part of my day that made it the best day of my life. The weather on this particular day was extremely gorgeous and perfect. Sunny, brisk, but not too cold, and the light was of that particular autumnal variety that leaves everything a little golden and makes me feel extremely happy.
We got to the castle itself, and I was just way more excited than I really should have been. The admission (covered by Historic Scotland, woo!) included an audio tour narrated by Terry Jones! It was pretty fab. Usually, I can't stand audio tours (the attention problem), but I listened to absolutely everything because it was really interesting. Doune Castle is special because it hasn't really been at all altered since the Medieval era. Also, the Duke of Albany, who owned the castle was pretty fascinating, and there's just a ton of cool history that goes with it. I'd recommend checking out at least the wikipedia article, if you're at all interested in that sort of thing. Anyway, the audio tour went through the historical stuff, and then you could listen to all the Monty Python stuff after that. So, I took an excessive amount of pictures, and you might recognize parts of the castle from the movie. Their use of space to make sets for like, 5 different castles (I think?) was really creative.
Of course, I had to run around the Great Hall (where they filmed the Camelot scene) singing the Knights of the Round Table song, and Katherine and I pretended to have coconuts outside, so now I feel like my life is a little more complete. The cool thing about the Castle was that there was just a very little bit that was off limits, and otherwise, visitors are really free to wander wherever they want in whatever order they want to go. So, we spent a long time just checking out all the nooks and crannies of the castle. My observation: this particular castle had a ludicrous number of privies. I don't think I would have liked walking around outside when they were in use...
So, from the top of the castle, we had noticed how breathtakingly scenic the surrounding area was, and decided to take a bit of a hike after the castle closed. It was still lovely, and approaching sunset, which made everything even more beautiful. So, we followed a few paths and the sound of some cows, until we ended up by the river and underneath the most yellow tree I have ever seen. Then we climbed down a precarious bank that seemed like it was really just a lot of moss, and decided it was probably a bad idea to be on it, and continued on our merry way. We saw people fishing, some dalmatians, and a family picking berries. It was like walking through a landscape painting. I have never felt so peaceful and relaxed in my life. I really can't describe it, but it really was the best day ever. We had to hustle just a little at the end to catch our bus, but otherwise, so relaxing.
We got back to Stirling, timed SO perfectly to catch a train back to Edinburgh, and then got home and I sort of threw together a really bad costume to go to the Montague's Hallowe'en party with a bunch of my friends. If you showed up in "fancy dress," you got a free glass of punch. Woo! Katherine and I had started watching an episode of "A Bit of Fry and Laurie," when I realized that the party started at 8... not 9... so I hustled out to the Pub in flip flops and a white sheet with a yellow sheet over it (yes, in Scotland in October), hoping that somebody would declare my costume to be something. It was just vaguely biblical.
At first, it was pretty slow, but more of our friends turned up as time went on, and the party got pretty hoppin'. Some man had brought a giant tub to use for bobbing for apples, and one of the bartenders talked me into being the first to try. I am not good at bobbing for apples, but my motto being, "Never say no to anything reasonable," I decided to go for it. After 3 tries, I figured I wasn't going to be getting any apples, and I was allowed to reach in and grab an apple. TASTY. Corey and Liz both managed to get apples, so clearly, I'm a failure at apple bobbing. The night progressed and Liz, Corey, and Emily all left, while Callie and I decided we'd try going to The Hive, a club that is pretty fun, but to which Callie has never been. The line was reallly long, so we decided we'd just go hang out in Callie's flat for a while. We ended up talking for a while, until I decided I was exhausted and had to go home.
So, the weird thing about Great Britain: they set their clocks back on 31 October. I knew this, but I was still a little confused as some clocks weren't set back, but my phone set itself back. What I'd like to know is how a lot of people I know managed to miss the fact that time was set back for at least TWO days. Seriously, on Tuesday morning, there were a ton of statuses on facebook like, "Showed up an hour early to my 9 am tutorial. GREAT." HOW UNOBSERVANT CAN YOU BE?!?!?! Clocks were set back for like, a full 48 hours and you somehow managed not to notice??
Okay, done with that rant. On Hallowe'en, I got some work done, chillaxed a bit, and went to find stuff to put finishing touches on my cheetah costume. I had a tunic from H&M that I'd bought on sale and decided it was entirely suitable for going out with my friends, and based my costume around that. I found some cheetah print trim and made ears on a headband, and then I did spots with black sparkly brown eyeliner. I think it looked pretty good!
Hallowe'en Photos: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2031456&id=1135890300&l=abb6355979
I met up with my friends Amisha, Sarah, and Sophie from ClassicsSoc to go to a club called Cav. They were dressed as goths, and Amisha was really upset because her hair would NOT get messed up. Sarah looked the part incredibly well, especially after the addition of a leather jacket. So my costume didn't really fit in, but that's okay :) We stopped at our friend Ben's flat on the way over, to try and convince him to come with us, but he apparently hates Hallowe'en more than any day of the year (remind you of Condrad anybody?), and said he needed to do more work for his Cicero class (ew), so we went on without him. Cav was such a good time. We hardly even had to queue, which was great. It was really, really crowded, but we found our own space for most of the night, and just had an enjoyable dancing time, until creepy guys started being creepy towards the end of the night, which ruined the mood a bit. We also kind of lost Amisha towards the end, and Sarah and I spent 20 minutes or so trying to find her, until she found us. She'd been sitting in the same place the whole time, but we had not seen her. Oh well. So, when I got home, I was exhaussssssted. Class the next day was definitely a good time... not.
Okay, this "wee break" has ended up being like an hour... oops. Back to work!
Now, on to the subject of this post: as my parents reminded me while I was having a Skype conversation with them last week, time is moving quickly. I haven't done a lot of the things I planned to do (and, the question of whether I actually end up making it to Dublin is very much up in the air :/), and I don't have that much time left in which to do them. So, following this conversation, I decided to get my act together and get better at balancing academia with living life to its fullest.
This brings me to a little bit of a sidebar: while I haven't crossed a lot of things off of my list of things to do in Scotland, I think I'm becoming a much better and more interesting person while I am here. My life has lacked a lot of balance up until this point; I will simply waste days, scramble to do work, and rarely get out and do things, or if I do, I go crazy doing them. For the first several weeks I was here, I didn't go out that much or make a lot of new friends, or really do much of anything (aside from my homestay and the Highlands) except go to my classes and hang out with some friends once in a while. While people were getting out around Scotland, and living it up in Edinburgh, I was just sort of adjusting and existing (not that I wasn't having a good time). My thought process was that I had all the time in the world later in the semester to do things, but I didn't really account for my essays or the sheer number of things I wanted to do.
Now, I'm learning to get my work done during the day (I pretty much live in the library), so I can go out with my friends at night. A bunch of kids from Hermit's Croft have pretty much become regulars (in a non-alcoholism way) at the Montague, the pub across the street from our flat. It's very cozy and friendly. We're actually going to their pub quiz tonight, hooray! But I have also developed a really amazing close circle of friends from ClassicsSoc (it's weird how no matter where I go, I always end up falling in with these people...), and we go dancing sometimes, or just hang out around campus.
So, back to the point. Last week, my friends and I had tried to get these tickets from the International Student Center to go to Stirling, including entry to the castle, for £7 (such a good deal), but they sold out after only one of us had managed to get to the ticket counter and buy two tickets. So, we could either pay our own way to Stirling or not go. I considered not going, but then we were going to go to Perth and go to Scone Palace because it closes for the season on 31 October, and it's supposed to be nice. However, one of our friends informed us that the ISC said that if we showed our student IDs at Stirling Castle while the ISC was there, we'd get in free, so Katherine (flatmate) and I decided to go to Stirling and meet up with some of our friends there. On Friday night, while we were looking at the guidebook for Scotland that my grandparents so kindly left behind for me, we discovered that there is a castle about 20 minutes by bus away from Stirling, in a village called Doune, that happens to be the castle used for filming nearly every castle scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail!!! Naturally, we just had to go, so we made plans to hit up Sterling, and then leave to go to Doune.
Again: I have been having trouble uploading photos to my blog, so here are links to photo albums:
Stirling: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2031394&id=1135890300&l=bc618a5687
Doune: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2031399&id=1135890300&l=c56f7081eb
We got to Stirling, split a tasty Cornish pasty, and then walked up to the castle, where it turned out that they would NOT let me in free with my ID, so I bought a Historic Scotland card at a steeply discounted rate (£25 woo!!) that I assume will pay for itself with visits to maybe 2 more sites, which is good because we're going to Craigmillar Castle at some point in the near future. It turned out that our timing was not synchronous with my friends, so we went on a tour of the Earl of Argyll's lodgings, which I expected would take about half an hour, but was incredibly wrong concerning this assumption.
You probably know how antsy I get about time (this was at 11:30, and we had to be on a bus by 1:55 or else our day would be entirely thrown off), and how much I have trouble paying attention to people for long periods of time, so I was pretty much freaking out when by noon, we had not even entered the lodgings, but had listened to the guy talking about every aspect of the outside of the building, up to the moulding on the windows. But, there was no way out of the tour because there were security people by the courtyard gate and stuff. So, finally inside, the house was pretty cool, but the tour guide would NOT shut up. I had a frantic texting conversation with my friend Liz, who was at this point inside the castle, expressing my doubts that we'd find them in time to meet up, and also my fear that we would never get out of the townhome tour. Finally, it was over and Katherine and I ran up to the castle and found Liz in the Chapel Royal, which was beautiful. The building, which you can see in my album, didn't really fit in... it was all fairytale building-y, as opposed to the imposing stone of the other buildings. It turned out that the palace itself is closed as they restore it to its original splendour, so I was pretty upset, but anyway, the castle was cool. There were really creepy fake people in the kitchens, but I got over it. The views of the surrounding countryside from the battlements and the outer courtyards were beautiful... stunningly so. Autumn here is just gorgeous, but this was nothing compared to the loveliness of Doune.
We caught our bus, which turned out to be way more expensive than we thought it would be (£6.70 each for a return ticket!!!), and enjoyed the ride through a rather rural area. We went over tiny stone bridges. Idyllic. The village of Doune itself was adorable, very small, and with a lot of wee boutiques, a number of which were of a bridal nature. We followed signs to the castle, and on the way there, we walked through a pasture that was the site of a wooden Roman fort (cool!), and then through the woods for a bit. This begins the part of my day that made it the best day of my life. The weather on this particular day was extremely gorgeous and perfect. Sunny, brisk, but not too cold, and the light was of that particular autumnal variety that leaves everything a little golden and makes me feel extremely happy.
We got to the castle itself, and I was just way more excited than I really should have been. The admission (covered by Historic Scotland, woo!) included an audio tour narrated by Terry Jones! It was pretty fab. Usually, I can't stand audio tours (the attention problem), but I listened to absolutely everything because it was really interesting. Doune Castle is special because it hasn't really been at all altered since the Medieval era. Also, the Duke of Albany, who owned the castle was pretty fascinating, and there's just a ton of cool history that goes with it. I'd recommend checking out at least the wikipedia article, if you're at all interested in that sort of thing. Anyway, the audio tour went through the historical stuff, and then you could listen to all the Monty Python stuff after that. So, I took an excessive amount of pictures, and you might recognize parts of the castle from the movie. Their use of space to make sets for like, 5 different castles (I think?) was really creative.
Of course, I had to run around the Great Hall (where they filmed the Camelot scene) singing the Knights of the Round Table song, and Katherine and I pretended to have coconuts outside, so now I feel like my life is a little more complete. The cool thing about the Castle was that there was just a very little bit that was off limits, and otherwise, visitors are really free to wander wherever they want in whatever order they want to go. So, we spent a long time just checking out all the nooks and crannies of the castle. My observation: this particular castle had a ludicrous number of privies. I don't think I would have liked walking around outside when they were in use...
So, from the top of the castle, we had noticed how breathtakingly scenic the surrounding area was, and decided to take a bit of a hike after the castle closed. It was still lovely, and approaching sunset, which made everything even more beautiful. So, we followed a few paths and the sound of some cows, until we ended up by the river and underneath the most yellow tree I have ever seen. Then we climbed down a precarious bank that seemed like it was really just a lot of moss, and decided it was probably a bad idea to be on it, and continued on our merry way. We saw people fishing, some dalmatians, and a family picking berries. It was like walking through a landscape painting. I have never felt so peaceful and relaxed in my life. I really can't describe it, but it really was the best day ever. We had to hustle just a little at the end to catch our bus, but otherwise, so relaxing.
We got back to Stirling, timed SO perfectly to catch a train back to Edinburgh, and then got home and I sort of threw together a really bad costume to go to the Montague's Hallowe'en party with a bunch of my friends. If you showed up in "fancy dress," you got a free glass of punch. Woo! Katherine and I had started watching an episode of "A Bit of Fry and Laurie," when I realized that the party started at 8... not 9... so I hustled out to the Pub in flip flops and a white sheet with a yellow sheet over it (yes, in Scotland in October), hoping that somebody would declare my costume to be something. It was just vaguely biblical.
At first, it was pretty slow, but more of our friends turned up as time went on, and the party got pretty hoppin'. Some man had brought a giant tub to use for bobbing for apples, and one of the bartenders talked me into being the first to try. I am not good at bobbing for apples, but my motto being, "Never say no to anything reasonable," I decided to go for it. After 3 tries, I figured I wasn't going to be getting any apples, and I was allowed to reach in and grab an apple. TASTY. Corey and Liz both managed to get apples, so clearly, I'm a failure at apple bobbing. The night progressed and Liz, Corey, and Emily all left, while Callie and I decided we'd try going to The Hive, a club that is pretty fun, but to which Callie has never been. The line was reallly long, so we decided we'd just go hang out in Callie's flat for a while. We ended up talking for a while, until I decided I was exhausted and had to go home.
So, the weird thing about Great Britain: they set their clocks back on 31 October. I knew this, but I was still a little confused as some clocks weren't set back, but my phone set itself back. What I'd like to know is how a lot of people I know managed to miss the fact that time was set back for at least TWO days. Seriously, on Tuesday morning, there were a ton of statuses on facebook like, "Showed up an hour early to my 9 am tutorial. GREAT." HOW UNOBSERVANT CAN YOU BE?!?!?! Clocks were set back for like, a full 48 hours and you somehow managed not to notice??
Okay, done with that rant. On Hallowe'en, I got some work done, chillaxed a bit, and went to find stuff to put finishing touches on my cheetah costume. I had a tunic from H&M that I'd bought on sale and decided it was entirely suitable for going out with my friends, and based my costume around that. I found some cheetah print trim and made ears on a headband, and then I did spots with black sparkly brown eyeliner. I think it looked pretty good!
Hallowe'en Photos: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2031456&id=1135890300&l=abb6355979
I met up with my friends Amisha, Sarah, and Sophie from ClassicsSoc to go to a club called Cav. They were dressed as goths, and Amisha was really upset because her hair would NOT get messed up. Sarah looked the part incredibly well, especially after the addition of a leather jacket. So my costume didn't really fit in, but that's okay :) We stopped at our friend Ben's flat on the way over, to try and convince him to come with us, but he apparently hates Hallowe'en more than any day of the year (remind you of Condrad anybody?), and said he needed to do more work for his Cicero class (ew), so we went on without him. Cav was such a good time. We hardly even had to queue, which was great. It was really, really crowded, but we found our own space for most of the night, and just had an enjoyable dancing time, until creepy guys started being creepy towards the end of the night, which ruined the mood a bit. We also kind of lost Amisha towards the end, and Sarah and I spent 20 minutes or so trying to find her, until she found us. She'd been sitting in the same place the whole time, but we had not seen her. Oh well. So, when I got home, I was exhaussssssted. Class the next day was definitely a good time... not.
Okay, this "wee break" has ended up being like an hour... oops. Back to work!
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