Being Super Classy in Paris/Back to the 'Burgh

Day two began very early. We had breakfast in the hotel's breakfast room, which was super cute, and Chelsea once more got to speak French. I was grateful for the coffee! We ate pretty fast to get to the Louvre early, before it got too crowded, and we definitely succeeded in that goal. The courtyard was nearly empty so we took a ton of pictures, and then went inside. Chelsea talked to the ticket lady, showed her our Edinburgh IDs, and managed to get us in for free, even though we weren't EU residents... she did a good job of talking to the lady, that is for sure. Pleased as punch, we decided to hit up the Mona Lisa first. This was a good choice, as we got to see it, and then like three seconds later a scary hoard of schoolchildren came in yelling and snapping cameraphone pictures. Hooligans. The Mona Lisa is also a little unimpressive. It's way smaller than you think it will be... but it was still cool anyway.

All in all, Chelsea and I spent a little over 6 hours in the Louvre. We saw everrrything. Highlights included Napoleon III's apartments (so swank) and the moat area... where there was a really weird art installation of like, two russian ladies chopping cabbage (what?). Also very cool: giant column things from an Assyrian(?) palace, and Hammurabi's code. And the awesome collection of Roman glass stuff. And erotic pottery. WOOO CNES classes for teaching me about that. We had tasty but overpriced noms in the museum cafe somewhere in the middle of our exploration of the ridiculously large museum.

After that, we went to the Musee de l'Orangerie, where they have 8 very large Monets. You go into the first room and it is just an oval with huuuuuge mural size Monets surrounding you. The second room is the same setup, different landscaping. They were just breathtaking, and beautiful, and gorgeous, and they make me wish I had a better descriptive vocabulary. I could have sat and looked for hours. We then discovered that the basement had a huuuge collection of other art, featuring a ton of Matisses, which was an especially good bonus. When we got done, we waited outside for a bit until my friend Hannah from the U, who was in Paris as part of her grand adventure across Europe, came to meet us. We went to a cafe and sipped on various coffee/tea/hotchocolate products for a bit, until Chelsea and I had to go back to our hotel to change for dinner. It was really fun to see Hannah, but I wish that we could have spent more time with her!

We put on our fancy clothes, and hopped the metro to Odeon, and then walked to the Rue Racine, where Boullion Racine was our final destination. It was a delightful Art Noveau themed restaurant. They pegged us for American quickly though, as they gave us English rather than French menus. Chelsea was upset, but I was okay with this, seeing that I do not speak any French. We took it as a good sign that nobody else in the whole restaurant was speaking English, and it was pretty crowded. We got a bottle of wine, escargot (because we had to try them!), and pumpkin chestnut soup as an appetizer. The escargot were pretty good, actually. I felt brave for trying them, but it was just like eating shellfish. You slather it in butter and garlic until you don't realize how slimy and gross what you are eating actually is. The soup was fantastic, and we both got duck confit, which was divine. I had a creme brulee for dessert, and it was so rich that I couldn't finish it. Chelsea had a very tasty hazelnut cake. We realized that 1) we were a little drunk after polishing off the bottle of wine and 2) we were by no means awake enough to go out on the town after dinner. So, Chelsea got a hold of her friend Sarah who was studying in France for the year, and we decided to meet at a cafe rather than going to a bar or club. I paid the bill (thanks Mom and Dad!), with a little scare when my card was rejected the first time I scanned it... but in the end it worked. Phew.

We found a cute little cafe (it felt sooo Parisian) and I got tea (the second cheapest menu item), while Chelsea got what turned out to literally be hot milk (the cheapest thing on the menu). Sarah was really fun, and we all sat around and talked until we had to go before the Metro stopped running for the night. We got home and pretty much fell asleep straightaway again. In the morning, we went shopping and bought sweater dresses from a boutique where the shop owner spoke not a lick of English. Chelsea was happy as a clam to have somebody who would talk to her in French without trying to switch to English at all. After that, we checked out of the hotel and took the metro to Trocadero, where there was a really nice view of the Eiffel Tower. We took some pictures, and then set off to find a reasonably priced cafe to wait for Sarah to meet us after her class was over. We found a tiny crepe place... i cannot remember the name, sadly, but it was wonderful. We should have gotten the house made cider, but we didn't. The crepes were enough! So, so tasty. Also, there was the cutest little boy, who walked in all by himself, and when his grandma came to meet him, they talked over tea? coffee? and then he paid the bill. SO CUTE. He could not have been more than 7.

Sarah, Chelsea and I had a delightful afternoon at the crepe place, until Chelsea and I decided we had better head to the Porte Maillot, where we would get the bus to the airport. We got there plenty early, and got on an earlier bus than we'd anticipated. Unfortunately, there is really nothing to do at the Beauvais airport for however many hours we were there before our flight. We also didn't realize that there wouldn't really be food for purchase past security. I bought a thing of crispy m&m's behind security when we finally got through, and they sealed them and said I couldn't open them 'til we landed. What the hell is the point of that??? I wanted food THEN not LATER. So, Chelsea and I waited and waited for an announcement that our flight was boarding. It was supposed to be leaving in like 3 minutes, when I realized that people were boarding our plane on the tarmac. The gate we were sitting at was not really a gate ,and the gate for our flight was hidden down a hallway through a secret door, so we dashed onto the plane, and like, ten minutes later we took off. Good thing I looked out the window!!

We were so exhausted and hungry that we pretty much slept the whole way back. We decided we'd go to Karen Wong's when we got back, but we had forgotten to account for the hour train from Prestwick into Glasgow to switch onto a train for Edinburgh. So, we made it back to Edinburgh a little too late to get the Karen Wong fix, so we stopped at Tesco and picked up readymade food. I fell asleep like four seconds after I got home and didn't wake up until late the next day, which I think brings us up to speed.

two months later... finals and festivities

This post is the first in a series of backdated entries that will cover the events that transpired from finals week and my 21st birthday party until my return to the University of Minnesota.

Monday was my first final at Uni. Edinburgh. It had been meant to be rescheduled, and then all of a sudden we found out that the department had received special permission to hold the exam on Monday as planned. This was both good and bad news. Good: Chelsea and I didn't have to worry about the conflict with our trip to London/Paris... Bad: I hadn't really started studying at all. Luckily, we knew pretty much everything that would be on the exam. Chelsea and I ate a delightful lunch at Metropol (how had I not discovered this place earlier!?!?) before heading over to take our test. It ended up not being so bad. I forgot a guy's name that I probably should have known for one of my essays, but whatever, I am pretty sure I did okay.

Tuesday, I crammed for my City of Rome exam, that would be held Wednesday, aka my 21st birthday!! I got the exam done, and felt pretty decent about it. Strangely enough, one of the girls taking an exam in the same room (for a different class) is also a volunteer at Science Museum of Minnesota. She goes to Macalester, and we had met previously. Small world, eh? So, I went home, bought two adorable cakes from Choco-Latte (my first purchase there ever!), and got ready for my party. People started coming over and we played drinking dreidl until everybody was there and we ate some cake. It was soooo good. I was sad, though, because my dear friend Sarah was feeling under the weather, and my equally dear friend Emily had too much work to do, and so they didn't make it over. Nevertheless, we had a large cohort making its way to Koko, and when we got there, a few of my friends were waiting for us. We staked out all the good couches and the merriment began in earnest. I don't usually drink a lot, but everybody kept buying me drinks, so I was having a pretty damn good time. It was cool that my two groups of friends seemed to blend pretty well and get along. Somehow, I managed to be a rather functional human being the next day, though I did not end up walking over to Amisha's to say goodbye before she left, because it was suuper cold, and I thought we were going to see each other in London.

My friend Liz, who had missed my party because of studying (so sad) came over and ate some cake, and then Chelsea and Lindsey and I got Karen Wong's Chinese food and discovered how absolutely amazing it was (seriously way too late in the game). Somewhere in there, I studied for the archaeology exam that was in two days. I spent most of the next day cramming as well. On Saturday, Chelsea, Sam, and I congregated at Metropol before the impending doom, then waited outside the exam hall with the other bundles of nerves about to take this terrible exam. I think I did fine, in the end, but I was super mad because I was closing my booklet as the point came when you had to stay in the room til the end, so I had to wait it out. It was definitely weird to be totally done with academics at University of Edinburgh, but I was also immensely relieved that I was done with finals! It was definitely time to celebrate...

The End is Nigh! (sadly)

I bought an Advent calendar at Tesco the other day, because it had Homer Simpson on it, plus, who doesn't like waking up to a piece of chocolate every morning? However, I realized shortly thereafter that said Advent calendar is also counting down the days until I have to leave the UK for good, so, every time I open another door, I get a little bit more sad. But not really... it is just so hard to believe that I'm almost done here. I feel like I only know one part of Edinburgh really well, and there is so much I haven't gotten around to doing. Today, I thought about going to Craigmillar, but my flatmate Katherine is sick, and we were going to go together, and I didn't want to go alone. Also, my exams start on Monday, and I am thinking that I should probably be doing some serious revision (that is what they call studying/reviewing here) before then. It's 4:21 and I have only read maybe 3 pages of an article. It's been that kind of day here in the Croft(I don't know if I have explained yet that the building in which I reside is called Hermit's Croft, and I'm sure that information is necessary to make sense of much of what will be said here).

An explanation of why it was that sort of day has to take us back to Monday, after I turned in my Orality essay. All the snow was still charming and lovely, and upon my return from class, I found Caroline making Christmas decorations, and I decided to join in on the making of paper chains, while watching Elf, so obviously, I got none of my archaeology work done at all. Five hours and many Christmas songs later, we had covered the entire flat in paper chains, made more decorations out of magazine pages, and I was pretty sleepy, so I went to bed. The next day, I tried again to do some archaeology work, and succeeded in getting maybe one paper (out of six) done by the time I had to go to class at 4.


our delightful decorations!

Wednesday, I had planned to wake up super early, write some reports, and then spend Chelsea and my weekly Wednesday hangout at the Christmas market and then go to the IFSA-Butler tea. This is when things started getting hairy. I woke up late and Katherine and I ended up going to the National Museum of Scotland to do our project for archaeology. It was miserable outside. Remember my last entry, when I was so pleased with snow? Well, it was cute at first when Edinburgh had no idea how to cope with a teensy weensy (by Rochester/Chicago/Minneapolis standards) bit of snow, but after days of slippery sidewalks, everything being closed, and snow, icicles, and occasionally drainpipes falling off our building, it was starting to get really old. We got word that IFSA-Butler cancelled our afternoon tea, to which we'd really been looking forward becuase we were getting hoodies (wooo) and cupcakes (om nom nom), so Chelsea and Katherine (whose class was cancelled) and I regrouped and decided that we would meet for lunch at one of the Indian restaurants on Clerk St. After deciding that one of them was really expensive, we went to a different place, where I got amazing sweet potato/butternut squash soup and tea, which was really nice. We sat around whining about not wanting to do our archaeology papers, and when we were all done, braved the further deteriorating weather to go home. I'd planned to go to the library, but it was just really gross out and my feet were soaked. Chelsea and I decided that we would go to the carnival at night, when everything would be lit up. We ended up not going 'cause the weather was so awful.

This brings us to Thursday. Having written maybe one and a half of my reports by this time, I was starting to get a little worried, especially because the Classics Society Christmas Meal was that night and I wanted to be able to have fun. Well, in the morning we got an email saying that Monday exams were being postponed due to the inability to move furniture into exam locations and get the script books delivered (what bs!!). Normally, this would be great, but in fact, it was terrible for Chelsea and me, as our exam Monday would now be Saturday or later... awful because we had an exam Saturday already, and were leaving for London and Paris the next day. So, both of us were seething for a while, and we went to class to find that almost everybody else was just as upset. One girl had a flight back to Minnesota on the 10th, and it would cost $2000 to change it. Our course organizer told us there was really nothing we could do, so Chelsea and I were all worried and upset.

I went home, tried to write more, and managed to finish all but two and a half of my essays. I figured they'd both take a pretty significant time, so I resigned myself to the fact that I'd have to leave post-meal drinks pretty early. Dinner was so fantastic. We had it at an Italian restaurant, Ciao Roma, that seemed to have a weird pirate theme going on (I couldn't figure out why). There was a skeleton in a cage hanging from the ceiling, and dead pirate type things lying around. I kid you not. Anyway, I ended up having crostini, beef medallions with asparagus, and profiteroles. Such a good meal. So delicious. I was so full. It was really strange, because in the US, I feel like I have a much more casual relationship with a lot of my professors than the formality that is demanded here for the most part, however, I can't imagine more than a few of them joining a bunch of students for a big meal, and more, joining them in drinking.

One of the younger lecturers and a lecturer who is on maternity leave right now but had come to the dinner anyway (incidentally, the one who was supposed to be teaching one of my classes, and more incidentally, knew Oliver Nicholson!) were gossiping about students with my friends. Anyway, after the dinner, we went to a bar nearby and had convinced a number of the lecturers to come along for 'just one drink'. Admittedly, all of them did leave after the one drink (but the drinks lasted a while), but one of them stayed on past when I left, and apparently the goal of all of the students was to get him quite drunk (a plan that seemed to be working well). It was all very weird. I was having a great time until I realized it was midnight, and I announced that my carriage had turned back into a pumpkin and so I had to leave to write my essays. Craig and Veronica were trying to convince me to stay, but I resisted. However, on my way out, I was persuaded to do a tequila shot with everybody. It was hilarious, because one of the girls didn't know the proper order to take the shot (salt, tequila, lime), which is a big joke in an episode of Always Sunny in Philadelphia, but nobody else knew why I thought it was so funny. Anyway, I went home, wrote about 300 words, and then fell asleep.

I woke up around 6:30 and managed to be out of bed, writing by 7. I was hoping to have everything done and be at the library by 12:45, so I'd have plenty of time to print everything and get it turned in before we had to go to the rescheduled butler tea, which was going to be at 2:00. I actually managed to get everything done relatively quickly, until it came to getting the bibliography ready to go. Somehow, this took me an inordinate amount of time, and I was running quite late. I got to the library and started trying to print, but it wasn't working. I think that the printers won't print anything that is saved in .odf (Open document format), so I got around it. I had to print like 50 pages of reports. It was ridiculous. The University goes on about green initiatives, but all the departments insist that you turn in 2 single-sided copies of your essays. With everything all turned in, we went to tea.

Tea was lovely, but I was so exhausted at this point. The cupcakes were yummy, and I saw a lot of people I hadn't seen for ages. I hadn't seen my friend LeeAnn since our Highlands trip in early October, so it was really great to get to chat with her for a while. It was sad to pretty much be saying goodbye to everybody, and to say goodbye to Deirda and Ruth. I was really sad that Katharine wasn't there too, because I wanted to say goodbye. The three of them have been so helpful to me. I didn't expect that I would use much of the IFSA support while I was here, but it ended up being important, and they are all really fantastic people! LeeAnn and I walked back, while Chelsea, Sarah, Lindsey, and Sam walked the other way into New Town to do some shopping. LeeAnn ended up coming over for hot chocolate and more leftover pie and we just sat around talking for like two and a half hours. I was so tired, I'd planned to take a nap before the evening, but I didn't get around to it.

At 6:30, a bunch of Crofties (and Chelsea and Lindsey... pretending to be Crofties, even though they got found out pretty quickly) went on an excursion to the Winter Carnival/German Christmas Market in New Town, and some of the Croft social funds went to buying us all a ride on the Ferris wheel. Chelsea, Lindsey, Liz, Lauren, and I all went on together, and then we realized that 1) we are all sort of afraid of heights and 2) we could make the car spin around. The views from the top were amazing... all the lights and decorations in New Town were beautiful, plus Arthur's Seat and Calton Hill were beautiful in the background. We then partook of Prince's Street Punch, which was, I think mulled wine with brandy in it. It sounded pretty sketchy... and it was. I think I'll have to stand in the really long line for the real Gluwein next time I pop by the German Market (and get some spaetzle and donuts mmmmm). We checked out the whole area, and Chelsea bought a teeny nutcracker. We decided to go home after that. I was going to stop by a pup we hadn't been to yet with some of my friends, but I was so so so so so tired, that I went home, watched 30 Rock, ate dinner, and fell asleep. I slept for like 11 hours, and I was still exhausted when I woke up.

I guess essays do that to you.


the ferris wheel


Edinburgh is beautiful

Oh, also, we found out that our exam for Orality will in fact take place on Monday (which is good!), through special permission, so now I have a lot of studying to do before then. I have a strategy, so it should be okay.

OH OH OH. An exciting thing that I almost forgot... my 21st birthday is on WEDNESDAY! Not that it matters here, but it's still a big deal among my American friends, and even among my British friends, 21st birthdays seem to be worth a fuss. We're using it as an excuse to go out and blow off some steam during finals week. I think it's going to be a really fantastic time, though I'm sad that I can't celebrate with my friends at home. We'll have to do that later!

snoooooooooooooow

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?

Hill-Walking, Reflections on Safety, Costco, Working Hard, Hardly Working, Not Necessarily in that Order

I haven't written in what feels like ages. Oh well, I guess I'll make up for lack of quantity with some high quality blogging. I'm going to start this post out on a serious note, and then move on to the goings on in my life. Also, I apologize for the weird layout of this post. I'm not sure what's up with that. Here goes...

This week, with all of the terrorist threats, Butler sent us a ton of emails and urged us to register with the American Consulate. Normally, I tend not to take things too seriously, but I decided to register right away, because I plan on travelling as much as possible, even with these warnings. I'm pretty sure that most of the places I want to go are not really huge spots. Some of the other Butler kids and I have talked about whether we think there is really any sort of threat or not, and it seems like most people are kind of worried, but still proceeding with plans anyway (my friend Liz is going to Paris this weekend, and other people had already purchased tickets for upcoming weekends to various places). While I don't feel really personally threatened or anything, the volume of information we've been receiving about safety and travelling are really making me consider safety in my travel plans a lot more. Not only did we get emails from all of the Butler people here, we got one from the director of IFSA Butler. I feel like there's not so much we can do differently, and I'm not going to lie, I am very American. I open my mouth, and people know I am American as soon as I say one word. If I travel, I'll be travelling with a group of American students, and there's really very little I can do about that. I try not to draw attention to myself, but I feel like I'm very bad at sinking into a crowd, especially because of my tendency towards brightly colored hats. I don't know where this train of thought is headed... just thought I should probably remark on how seriously Butler is encouraging us to take these travel alerts. Okay, enough of that, and back to your regularly scheduled blog programming.

Since my return from England, and realizing that time moves very quickly here, I've been working on getting myself to do things more frequently. Tuesday was our Butler reunion dinner, which was fun (mmm free food!), but I've just decided that I'm not going to go absolutely day-by-day here because I have been spending a lot of time doing school work (that's a surprise!), so things have been pretty low-key. So, the highlights of the last week and a half:

Wednesday: Getting lost, chilling out, emerging victorious!
Wednesday provided me with much excitement. I had my first tutorial, for Scotland and Orality, and I was a little nervous because I wasn't sure if we were going to be quizzed on the reading or what, but it turned out to be a lot of fun. Our tutor is very warm, friendly, and laid-back, so I think it is going to be a good experience. Starting next week, I'm moved back to Thursday tutorials, because they ended up unable to cancel the date as there was one girl who couldn't make it on a Wednesday. This means that the tutorial will probably consist of me, two other students, and our tutor. After that, my friend and I decided that we should go to the travel "fayre" that Butler was having at their offices, which are located in the New Town (relatively new... it's Georgian. I will write an entry just talking about Edinburgh itself sometime in the very near future), which is a good distance from where our classes are. Having only a vague notion that Rutland Square was on the west side of New Town, we set off, and walked for a long time, eventually (after a call to my roommate for help, and randomly deciding to walk down an alley that fortuitously led into the square) made it to the Butler office. The travel fayre turned out not to be so helpful, as I am pretty savvy at researching destinations and travel options on the Internet, but there were sweets, and a guy to tell us about travel within Scotland, which was actually helpful. When we left, my friend realized that we could have come a much easier way, and went back that way, but I had to do some shopping on Prince's Street, so I went back the way we came. I was looking for a sweater or sweatshirt, which led me to H&M, where I came out with a belt and some hairclips. Oops.

I hustled back to Old Town, to leave my books and stuff in my flat before I went back to the campus area for the Classics Society Pub Crawl, starting at our patron pub, the Greenmantle, where we are always presented with very free food and very low-cost beverages. I started the night out classy with a glass of wine, fried food (it seems like everything is deep-fried here, which is why I tend to do my own cooking as much as possible!), and Haribo gummies (they are HUGE here. every store has a big display of Haribo, which is pretty funny to me). I spent a delightful hour or so with the few people who had shown up at the beginning (Who starts a pub crawl at 6 pm?!?), before I had to go to a different pub to meet up with my flatmates for the Hermit's Croft charity pub quiz. I got there before the rest of the team, so I tried to stake out an area, which was hard, since the pub was terrible and had no more than five tables. We ended up sitting on the floor, which was not particularly comfortable, but oh well. We were presented with a sheet of aluminum foil and the paper for our answers, and the pub quiz began. Our team consisted of me, flatmate Katherine, flatmate Caroline, her boyfriend Liam, and two other girls from HC, Jess and Becky. We stole a team name from a team that had won the FreshAir pub quiz during Freshers' Week: Quiz in my Pants. They told us to use the aluminum foil to make a sculpture incorporating sport and veg(etable), so Becky suggested we make a man benchpressing a carrot or courgette or cucumber. Somehow, I became in charge of making the guy, and we ended up with a lovely little sculpture.

The team was an excellent combination of talents, because we ended up coming in second (1st place in the sculpture category with 9.5/10!!!) and we won a box of variety chocolates. We went back to our flat to celebrate (by eating the chocolate, yum!), and ended up giving most of it away, which was probably a good thing.

Friday: Harvest Festival and a Lovely Dinner
On Tuesday, Ying, Sarah, and I had decided that we would have dinner together at my place and class things up a little bit. I decided I would make a roast pork loin with rosemary, accompanied by a spinach salad and roast sweet potatoes with sage and rosemary. I'd already bought the pork when Ying decided she didn't want to go out since she'd be busy all weekend (sadness), so I invited my flatmates to join our dinner party. But, I have gotten ahead of myself. In the afternoon, I went to the Harvest Festival and learned about various environmental programmes in Scotland, as well as some of the different groups on campus. I wanted to go to a talk about sustainable food, but it didn't happen at the time it was supposed to happen, so I settled for my piece of free pie and then left to go shopping to buy some plates and a roasting pan. All of this was achieved at Poundland, and our plates, as you will see shortly, are quite fashionable. At Poundland, we had our first real unintelligible Scottish experience. A lady kept talking to us, and we were trying to hold up the conversation, but we really,really couldn't understand most of what she was saying. Something about being a bookbinder, but then they moved it to Harvard. I was trying to ask questions, but I'm not sure she understood me either. It's amazing how much difficulty there can be between people speaking the same language...

I started cooking and dinner was ready a little late, but it was okay, because it was DELICIOUS.

I am an amazing chef, and modest too. It was a very nice evening, and then Sarah and I decided we would go out to the Hive, which is a club on the Cowgate. However, we couldn't find it, and in the end, we decided that we're boring, so we went back to her room at Pollock Halls and watched Ferris Bueller's Day Off. It was an entirely worth while choice, and I was so tired by the end of the movie that I got home and fell asleep right away.

Scottish Party Lifestyle
Saturday was a pretty laid-back day in the daytime. I got a little work done, tidied my room, hung out with my flatmates in the kitchen for a while. Katherine and I walked around looking for dinner for a while, but mostly just ended up exploring, because we didn't find anything that we deemed cheap and tasty enough. I stopped at the store to pick up some ciders to take to a friend's birthday party later that night. Sarah was going to come to the party but had work to do, so I went over to the party myself. I got there before my friend who knows the hosts much better than I do, so it was a little awkward, but I was talking to this guy, Yuri, whom I had met last time these people had a party. Fun fact: Yuri was on the Austrian National Basketball team, but now he is getting his PhD (I think) in mathematics. Later, Yuri's flatmate Anthony, who is getting his PhD in classics (but Greek stuff, not Latin) showed up, and we all talked for a while. I had promised Katherine that I would go up Arthur's Seat with her on Sunday morning, so I left fairly early and went home and slept.


Sunday: Muddy Sunday
I woke up later than I meant to, and woke Katherine up to go up Arthur's Seat. She had not realized that I actually wanted to do it. So, we got our act together and went outside. No sooner had we walked out the door than the sky opened and burst forth with torrential rain. No, I'm exaggerating. It was just a cold drizzle, so it was pretty unpleasant, but we were committed to doing some hill-walking. We couldn't figure out where the easy path was, so we started walking up some stairs on the side of the hill. These stairs just so happened to terminate at a random point, leaving no path to follow. However, there was a lovely view of the Salisbury Crags

and of the city as a whole.

So, naturally, we decided it would be a great idea to climb up the rock face and see if there was another path at the level ground that we could see probably 30 feet above us.That is the view looking down from when we found the path at the top that actually did exist. So, we walked until we saw more people walking, and then followed them to what we thought was the top, but was not actually the top. There's a little grassy area between the three peaks, and so we had to walk across it to get to the highest peak on Arthur's Seat. While we were doing that, we saw all the messages that people had written with rocks they found, and we decided to add our own.


At this point, I realized that I was supposed to meet my friend LeeAnn at 1 to make a pilgrimage to Costco, and that we would never make it back down on time, and I didn't have my phone. Oops. So, we went up to the summit and had a grand old time looking all around the city and the surrounding areas, and trying to point out the buildings we knew. There's a map sort of thing that tells you what the big things in the distance are, and how far away they are. We were trying to figure out if we could actually see some of the things in the longer distances, but we still aren't sure.

Then I had a go at trying to pull the sword out of the stone...


On the way back down, we tried to go the "easy way" and failed miserably, facing the choice of sliding down a bunch of rocks or going back up and trying again. We ended up walking down the really steep stairs that go straight down the face of the mountain, and we were puzzled by the people who kept passing us at faster speeds, because we were afraid of falling and dying. It was SO slippery, because it was raining, and the steps are really uneven, and there's nothing to hold on to. It was pretty much my nightmare, but we made it down okay, and then we hustled home so I could get a hold of LeeAnn and tell her I'd be late.

I showered, then ran to the bus stop, where a nice man helped us figure out how to take a bus other than the one we'd planned to take that wouldn't be coming for a while. We were concerned that my card wouldn't work for European Costco, but oh, did it work. After shopping at Tesco Metro for the last month, Costco was heavenly. I ended up not really buying too much because I knew I couldn't carry a lot, but I was pretty proud of myself for purchasing liquor at Costco on my own. The checkout guy was really friendly, and amused that we were Americans at Costco in Edinburgh buying large quantities of liquor. Then, we had hotdogs. It was divine. Mmmmmm...


The Week
It's been a good week, but a busy week. I've been in the library getting things done quite a bit these last several days. You have to do a lot of reading here. A lot a lot. And you actually have to do it. It's been absolutely gorgeous, for the most part, all week, so I have been doing my reading outside and breaking it up with short strolls. Lovely. Tuesday was my first archaeology tutorial, and it turned out just fine. My tutor is nice, and I met an Aussie named Hannah who is quite lively, and I think we will get along very well. Wednesday I did more work, and then decided to go to the Edinburgh CouchSurfing meetup, which was a good plan. Something interesting was pointed out to me as we were all talking about having out of the ordinary names... my name is cool because I can just change the accent and pretend I come from pretty much anywhere in the world. I don't feel like too many names can go entirely unaltered in spelling and general pronunciation throughout so many languages. So, maybe I'll pretend to be German for a while. I was responsible and didn't go dancing afterward, but we were at the pub until they kicked us out just after 1. I forgot how many people you meet at once when you go to CS events! That brings us to today: I got SO much done today. I was proud of myself. After all my classes were done, I went to Spanish Society, because somehow, Ying, who does not speak Spanish, is the president of the society. There was free food. Mmmm. I met a girl from Italy, and a girl called Camille from New Zealand. We hung out for a while after the meeting, and then I went back to my flat to cook up some salmon with Katherine. We blasted Disney music and Motown while cooking, and it was a generally good time.

Now that you're all caught up, I am going to go to bed, because tomorrow I have to meet the bus at 7:30 to go to the Highlands!!! I'm going to go catch the Loch Ness Monster, you betcha.

the rundown: class, flatmates, friends, and the weather

I'm almost done with classes for the week. It's just this last one at 4:10 on a Thursday that stands in the way of my weekend (not that I have any huge plans or anything. I'm going to Shap, a place of which I only have the slightest notion of a corresponding geographical location, for my family homestay). So, here's the skinny on my classes for the rest of the semester:

1) Archaeology of Scotland (MTh (9:00-9:50): Sounds really interesting. Includes a field trip. However, I was a little disappointed to find out that all of the cool Roman stuff happens second semester, when I shall, sadly, be back in the US of A toiling away at my actual degree. Nevertheless, our course organizer was pretty cool, and today's lecturer showed up and taught class in a leather motorcycle jacket. We're starting off with a study of Scotland's post-glacial environment, so I zoned out a little as I am quite familiar with the basic information our lecturer was giving us on the retreat of glaciers after the last ice age, techniques for learning about past environments (ice cores, pollen analysis), and the Gulf Stream's influence on the climate of Great Britain. Hooray, geology, issues in the environment, and meteorology for teaching me things I can feel smart knowing in my life now! The only bother about this class is going to be the large number of essays (okay, mini-essays) that we have to write after each tutorial, plus a museum project, plus a final. At least I know that it's going to be interesting, so the writing should not be too much of a pain.

2) Scotland and Orality (MTuTh 4:10-5:00): I think this is going to be my favorite class. Our course organizer (almost nobody is called a professor in these parts) is delightfully Scottish, and the material is extremely interesting. In just two classes we have already listened to clips of "diddling," rap from the late 80's, and a passionate Southern preacher. Diddling is a sort of singing where, well, you diddle. Instead of singing words, you sing a melody using syllables generally similar to "diddley do." I thought it was pretty sweet. Maybe I should take it up as a hobby for myself, though I guess you still need to be able to carry a tune to diddle. I've already got a few books I need to make time to peruse as background reading (Oh no, I am voluntarily doing unnecessary reading? Is the world coming to an end?!). I'm so excited for the opportunity to learn about and actually do some fieldwork later in the semester. Interesting tidbit about this class: only six people of the 40 or so in the lecture are not visiting students. Weird, right?

3) The City of Rome (MTu 5:10-6:00): This is my token actual-progress-towards-a-degree class. I had been hoping to take Early Vergil and get some Latin language out of the way, but it was not in the cards. I couldn't take Cicero the Advocate and Scotland and Orality, so naturally, I picked Scotland and Orality. If you know me in a Latin-related context, you probably know my contempt for our dear friend Cicero. So, the normal organizer of this class, Lucy Grig, is on maternity leave, which is too bad, because I guess that Dr. Nicholson knows her in some capacity. I am sort of worried that the class is maybe a little too archaeologically focused for somebody who lacks any archaeological experience, such as myself, to be able to enjoy it. I was thinking about transferring to a class about the Severan Dynasty, because Elagabulus was a really interesting figure, but I had already signed up for my archaeology tutorial at a time that conflicted with the lecture, so that idea went out the window. In any case, I will make the best of this class since the material is so interesting, and it's half-seminar. I am sort of nervous for when it will be my turn to lead a seminar. I haven't had to do anything like that at Minnesota, and I am quite worried that I will come up short. I do not even know what my assigned topic will be yet, so I will cross that bridge when I come to it.

So, there you have it, my schedule in all its glory (and no class on Fridays!). I also have no class Wednesdays and a lot of free time every other day, but I am pretty much spending it in the way most students here seem to spend their time: in the library. There is so much reading that needs to be done for all of my classes. I had to take a break before I fell asleep in a textbook about Roman archaeology, so naturally I decided to blog.

Yesterday, was an excellent day. I woke up, read as much as I could in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo before I felt like I should probably be doing some work, then I talked to my roommate, Kaisa, who is from Ukraine, and we discussed our backgrounds. Up until now, I had barely spoken three words to Kaisa, who pretty much keeps to herself in her room (we can't really keep our doors open, so it's easy to stay in your room). Caroline, Katherine, and I spend a lot of time talking in the kitchen, and I feel like I've gotten to know them pretty well, and they are both really fun (though, in entirely different ways). We're planning to start cooking weekly "family" meals in the flat, which is going to be fun. But, I digress...back to Kaisa, it turns out that though she came from the Ukraine, her family is Bulgarian, and she regrets having not been able to communicate very well with her great grandmother, who didn't speak any Russian at all. She shared some of this amazing sheep's cheese from her grandparents farm, and it was sooo delicious. She explained that very nearly everybody in Bulgaria as well as in the Ukraine has sheep and makes their own version of this cheese, and she doesn't know what she's going to do when she runs out of her supply, because she eats it every single day.

We talked about going to the places we are from, and how you feel something, even if you're not in the particular town in which your ancestors lived. She went to Bulgaria this summer, and I went to Sweden, and it was cool to talk about connecting with our cultures. We both had this feeling in our respective destinations, of coming home, even though neither of us can understand the language of those countries. We also talked about how much we both want to learn more about our ancestry and collect the family stories. Since her ancestors moved around a lot and crossed borders, there is a lot of documentation, so they've been able to construct a pretty good family tree. For all of the times I have become interested in genealogy, I feel like I know almost nothing about anybody in my family before my grandparents. I've heard so many family stories, but I can't piece them together and keep track of the cast of characters or anything. This conversation reminded me that I probably owe a lot of people letters from Edinburgh, so I'll try to get around to that relatively soon.

At night, I hung out with the ClassicsSoc at a pub for a few hours, enjoying the free food that comes with pub sponsorship (I really wish that clubs at Minnesota could a)be sponsored by bars, b)meet at bars, and c)get drink specials at those bars due to sponsorship. I think Classics Club could get a lot more members if we could have events such as "drinking free wine and playing toga frisbee in the park." Anyway, after the pub needed more space for a Spanish language conversation group, we decided to hit up Teviot (one of the Student Union buildings), where we enjoyed cheap beverages and conversation ranging from which British TV shows I had to watch, which American TV shows are awesome, Stephen Fry, American Football, and whether I could be considered the replacement for the cool American exchange student (conclusion: yes).

We also played the game where you have a sticker on your head with a name and you have to ask yes or no questions to guess who you are. Everybody thought it was hilarious when I ended up with Sarah Palin, and when I was pretty sure I'd figured it out, my clincher question (in my full-on Sarah Palin accent, as Middlebrookers reading this might remember with a tinge of annoyance from election season) was, "Can I see Russia from my house?" After that, I became Elton John, and it took me FOREVER to figure out who I was knowing that my person was British, a singer, somebody Americans would know, alive, and possibly in a movie or two. In fact, I couldn't do it until somebody, frustrated with my inability to guess, shouted "YOU'RE GAY!!!!" That did it nicely as a hint, haha.

I figured I better go home because I had a 9 am lecture, and everybody was trying to stop me from leaving, but oh, I value my sleep. Unfortunately, I left a little too late in the lull in the rain, and it started pouring as I walked home jacketless, umbrellaless, and in ballet flats. My hat and the flannel shirt I was wearing were still wet this morning when I checked on them. Oh, Scotland, you and your rain! It's been raining all day today, too. Somehow, the city seems almost more beautiful in the rain, though. The old buildings fit right into the grey of the sky, and Arthur's Seat looming on the horizon under steel-colored clouds is such a striking image that I kind of stop and gape for a minute or two nearly every time I look in that direction. The other day, there was still sunlight even with the big dark clouds over Arthur's Seat, and it was one of the most fantastic vistas I have experienced in my young life. I wished that I had my film camera with me. Actually, I could have even gone for my silly digital point-and-shoot, which had run out of battery earlier in the day. I still need to climb Arthur's Seat, but I just don't want to get caught in bad weather on the way up. Obviously, I should do it sooner rather than later, since the further towards winter we get, the less likely I am to be comfortable. Naturally, we'll climb up on 5 Nov, no matter what the weather, so that we can see all of the fireworks and bonfires over the city for Guy Fawkes' Day!

Okay, that's enough procrastination... I really didn't mean for this entry to get any longer than a basic picture of my classes, and here I've gone and written a novel. I have 20 min til my next class, so that's not really enough time to do much of anything. I hate that lag time between classes or meetings that you feel just becomes wasted time. I'm in the library, which I'd assume should be quiet, but they're doing construction, so I keep hearing jackhammers, which sort of eliminates the purpose of going to the library for a peaceful and quiet place to study. Ah! It stopped raining, so I can use my 20 min to walk around in the Meadows, which is the city park. Excellent.

dichotomy

I have lately been thinking of myself as two people. Scottish Claudia and American Claudia. Scottish Claudia is INFINITELY cooler.

In America, I fall prey to the temptation of wearing sweatpants and sweatshirts to class all the time, and if not that, jeans and a T shirt or hoodie. Here, I don't even have a hoodie, and I have maybe two t-shirts. I also don't own any sneakers. I shouldn't be defining myself by possessions here, but I feel like it actually makes a huge difference in my life. I think I am changing for the better: I feel more ambitious, motivated, and confident. I talk to people I don't know, I go to parties, I jump at the opportunity to participate in a dance that I have no idea how to perform (well... I did at the ceilidh, even if I wouldn't try out swing dancing in a style I didn't know). I guess that there is comfort in the fact that a lot of other people at the university ceilidhs also have no idea what they are doing.

Also, my flatmate Katherine and I cook a lot. I feel like we've made more different and exciting things in the last week than I made in an entire school year of living in my apartment last year. In less coolness, but more better personness, I've already started doing work for classes and we're only 2 days into the semester. I woke up at 8:30 am and was at the library by 10:15. Go ME! I'm working on learning how to be a better student and really making the most of my academic opportunities, because I only have three classes, so it's a little harder to get overwhelmed by different material.

I went with my friend Lauren to a place called the Jazz Bar tonight. We had been planning to go to a Uni-sponsored white t-shirt party (neon pens, blacklights), but the posters lied and said the shirts were free, which they weren't. Also, it looked like it sucked, so we just decided to go to the bar. There was an open mic night, and Lauren decided to go up and sing. She was absolutely amazing. I always find myself really jealous of anybody with actual musical talent. It was very strange because it seemed like everybody who went up to play with the band was from Ohio (including Lauren). How unlikely is it that there would be so many Ohioans who don't know each other, in Edinburgh, in the same bar!?

We ended up sitting with these two guys who go to a different university around Edinburgh. They were both 18, and really excited to hear about American university parties. First, let me comment on how strange it is to be sitting in a bar, drinking with 18-year-olds. I think they must have been recently 18, because they were a little overenthusiastic in ordering beers. I had a Blue Moon, and one of the guys, after dissing all American beers, decided he had to try one, and then proceeded to have like, 4 more.

Second, they couldn't figure out why we had come to Edinburgh from America, since they both said that all they wanted to do was move to America. They were both blues guitarists, and they were so passionate and about blues, that I was a little surprised. One of them asked me about the Chicago Blues Festival when I told him I was from Chicago, and also asked if I had ever been to Buddy Guy's Legends, and an assortment of other clubs. Crazy.

Third, one of the guys had a picture of himself doing a keg stand with a tiny Euro-sized keg. Lauren and I explained that no, we hadn't done keg stands, because we are responsible, mature girls, but that there are people who do that sort of thing. They thought that frats and frat parties were just mythical things that didn't actually exist, so I told them about my tradition of watching drunk girls fall over on frat row every Halloween. They laughed and said they'd like to see that someday, as if it were Niagara Falls or the Grand Canyon. I find it hilarious how everybody asks about things like beer pongs, uni parties, red Solo cups, and so on and so forth. It makes me wish I had gone to more parties at Minnesota so I could have more stories to entertain my Scottish friends. So, uh, now I'm gathering stories in Scotland to tell my Minnesotan friends. That's how this exchange thing works, right?

Okay, 3 am has arrived, so even though I don't have class on Wednesdays, it's probably time to go to sleep so I can hit up the library at a reasonable hour. I'll post about my classes by the end of the week. So far, they are, for the most part, excellent!! My family visit weekend has been moved to this weekend due to a conflict with a field trip when I was supposed to go, so that will be another experience to look out for.

OH, one more thing. I have a recently formed addiction to WNYC Radiolab. It is really amazing, and I highly recommend listening to the podcasts off of iTunes (particularly the episodes on Words and Falling)!

Scottish Things, More Observations, and the Pope

So I wanted this entry to be focused on pictures, but it's not letting me upload any, so you'll have to use your imagination until I put up a link to an album.

I feel like I have, for the most part, been carpe-ing the diem. However, I am incredibly exhausted at this point in Freshers' Week, and I think a lot of the other students are as well. Right now, I am so tired that all I want to do is go to sleep, and it's only 11:20 PM and I got plenty of sleep last night. I remember back to Welcome Week of freshman year, how much I wanted to just start classes and have a routine with set places to go every day, and I think a lot of people here are starting to get that feeling, including my flatmate, Caroline. To give a point of comparison to anybody reading this who experienced Welcome Week, Freshers' Week is like Welcome Week on speed. Since the drinking age in the UK is 18, almost all of the events involve alcohol in some way, and for the first several nights, there were at least 3 Uni-sponsored parties to choose from every night. In the next few nights, that will be the case as well, but the last two nights have been pretty relaxed.

In the first two days of Freshers' Week, I went to my first ceilidh, which is a traditional Scottish dance (pronounced like kay-lee). It was so much unlike anything I have ever done in my life, and it was probably one of the most fun! I had asked one of my flatmates, who is also American, if she wanted to come with me, since it was probably going to be a good way to meet people, and there was free Scottish Yummies (more details on that in a second), but she didn't want to come, because she doesn't like dancing, so I headed off by myself. That was certainly a run-on sentence, but I don't care. When I was waiting in line to get into Teviot, one of the student union buildings, I started talking with a group of girls in front of me, and we ended up hanging out at the evening's events. First, we waited in an enormous line for our share of the free food, of which the main attraction was, you guessed it, haggis.

Now, I had been dreading the eventual moment when I was going to have to eat haggis, since I had come all this way to Scotland, but when I started to smell the food, it did not seem like a bad idea at all. Also, I was not (and still am not, really) entirely sure what haggis is. I've heard that you just have not to think of what it is (just like hot dogs), and it will be okay. I was imagining a sausage-like food of a nasty creamy or stomach-y color, but it just looks like ground beef. So, I got my plate with my haggis, stovies, tatties, and maybe some other kind of food but I can't really remember what anything was called, and we all sat down. Here's the kicker: haggis is DELICIOUS. It's kind of spicy, and warm and comfort food-y, and just really yummy. As are stovies (I think it's some sort of root vegetable mashup stuff), and tatties (mashed potatoes). Haggis really just reminded me of shepherd's pie. mmmmmmm. So, with that conquered, I went on to my next authentically Scottish experience, the ceilidh.

There were so many people crammed into the room, and we had had to sneak in, since it was full. Anyway, I guess a ceilidh is sort of like country dancing, because there's a lot of swinging your partner round and round involved, and everybody's kind of in a line. The wonderful thing is that in all of that swinging round, you meet loads of folks in a night. I could tell that the two Scottish girls who were in my group were a little frustrated with the rest of us for not catching on too quickly to how certain dances went, but we were all having fun, even if we were doing it wrong. There was one that I felt I was doing okay at, but then when we switched partners and I was dancing with this one guy who seemed to be an expert, my self-confidence failed a little. Then, we went back to dancing in a big group and it was good again! The ceilidh band had fun playing a tune that I assume must have been from the Full Monty, because they had the lads all dancing for the lasses, and one guy ripped off his shirt at the end (it was pretty funny, see the photo for the awkwardness of the whole event).

I was still feeling a little sick at that point in time, so when the band took a break, a girl whom I had met during the dance, Holly, and I went to go get water. We ended up sitting in the bar talking for an hour or so, when I decided I should go home and sleep and Holly went back to the ceilidh. This was a good choice, because I felt a LOT better in the morning, and I've been feeling much better all week, and I think I'm pretty much as good as new.

So much has been going on that I can't really remember what day anything happened, but at some point between Sunday and Monday, I went to Edinburgh Castle. I was pretty excited about seeing Mary, Queen of Scots' chambers, and just in general seeing the castle. It was as cool as I had hoped! The castle is a mish-mosh of buildings from various time periods and monarchs, all the way up to the present day. It houses an active regiment, and affords some gorgeous views of the city and the Firth of Forth. Luckily, it was another beautiful day, and at that point, I still hadn't experienced any of the bad weather for which Scotland is rather well known. I spent so much time around the castle that I lost all of the people with whom I had come, so I meandered back to my flat at Hermit's Croft and took part in later day activities.

On Monday, there was a West Coast Swing taster session. I was so jazzed to be able to dance again. Of course, it was all incredibly simple and we didn't get to do any free dancing or anything, but it was still nice. That reminds me... I think I forgot to go to the swing dancing tonight. Whoops. There's a social dance tomorrow night, I think. Otherwise, there are a lot of venues for swing dancing around the city. After that, the main event was the Headphones Party. Again, none of my flatmates wanted to go, but a girl from my program met up with me, and we went. It started late, which caused us to be the first to show up, which was super awkward, but then, the whole point of a headphones party is pretty awkward. Everybody gets a headset, and the radio station DJs from like 9 pm to 3 am, with two channels to choose from. So, it's a "quiet" dance. It was hilarious to take off my headphones and just watch everybody rocking out, or sing along to Don't Stop Believin', or do the YMCA with no music. I'm so glad I went, because we met a cool third year and a PhD student who invited us to their house party this weekend, so we'll get to meet some more people who are our own age. I didn't get to bed until like, 5 am. It was sort of crazy for me, since usually I go to bed at around 10 and I value my sleep like gold.

The next day, of course, I ended up sleeping til noon or so, went to more Freshers' Week activities, met a ton of people, and then went to a concert with Caroline and some of her friends. I think I've heard of the Futureheads before, but they're really big here. The show was just nuts. I ended up seeing my friend from the Butler program, Ying, and meeting some of her friends. We walked back to Hermit's Croft, and then Caroline came home and informed me that I should go to the party a few floors down. I'd been planning to go to sleep and I didn't have any alcohol, but I went with them anyway. I always forget how awkward it is to go to a party and not drink, but it ended up being really cool because I met even more people from the building. There are so many nice people here! I met a girl, Zoe, who said I was the first NICE American that she had met at the Uni, and she said that her roommates seemed not to like her, and they didn't try to talk to her at all, or said they couldn't understand when she talked. I was actually doing a pretty good job following her, which was sort of impressive when one considers my inability to comprehend accents, and how she was pretty far gone while this conversation was happening.

I decided to go to home at around 3 am, and naturally, went on Facebook. I tried to talk to the Jeffers, but Mom told him to tell me to go to bed, so I did. I woke up, went to my international student meeting, and then nothing remarkable or exciting happened until yesterday night, when we (my roommate Katherine and fellow Barringtonian Katherine Woodrow)went to a pub quiz. It was... interesting. We couldn't understand half of what the quizmaster guy was saying because they were playing music, the sound system was awful, and he had a really thick accent. Our team was really dysfunctional, and I feel like an answer didn't get written down about half the time. Also, one girl kept just yelling "TENEREIF" (as in the place in the Canary Islands), which was very strange. Needless to say, we did not do too well. It was, however, a good time when all was said and done.

This morning, I felt so exhausted that I decided to get caught up on Mad Men rather than going out and doing things. That is, until I remembered the Pope was coming to Edinburgh. Now, I have no particular interest in the Pope or Catholicism, and those of you who know me well know that I quite actively disagree with most of the man's policies, beliefs, and general mores, and I certainly don't approve of his past Nazism, but I really wanted to see the Popemobile. Don't ask me why, but I think it's super awesome that there is actually something called a "popemobile." I would like a bulletproof "Claudiamobile" and to have somebody to drive me around in it. So, Katherine and I trekked down to Princes' Street as fast as we could, and caught most of the parade leading up to the Papal visit. There were so many tiny bagpipers, it was absolutely adorable. It got pretty chilly in the half hour between the end of that and the arrival of the Pope, but he finally rode past, and I caught a glimpse of the fabled popemobile, so I left happy.

We went shopping more after that, and I bought a brita-type pitcher for water, and we finally got some knives. We got home, but went back out to the poster sale to spruce up our barren rooms. I may have gone a little bit overboard, but I feel so much happier with covered walls. I have to figure out how I'll get my new posters back to America when the semester is over. I certainly don't want to get rid of them, because they're cool, and they came out to something around $5 each. I can't figure out the exact conversion rate for the moment, but $5 is pretty close to the cost, I think.

When we got home, we decided to drink the Irn Bru we had purchased earlier. I've been attempting to make a vlog episode all day, but the sound seems to be desynchronized with the video on my camera, which is disappointing! Basically, Irn Bru is this beverage that is so bad for you they don't sell it in the US, which is really saying something about it. Caroline tells me that they are known for their controversial ad campaigns. Irn Bru tastes sort of like bubblegum mixed with cola, but not really. It's just really, really sweet. And also bright orange, but it doesn't taste like orange. I can't decide if I like it or if I hate it. It's just soooo sweet. It certainly improved when paired with a sandwich. Maybe I'll have it again later.

I meant to go to a chocolate party tonight, but we left too late, and missed out on all the chocolate. I thought about going to a ceilidh, but I was really tired so I just came back to my flat and decided to catch up on my blogging. Tomorrow there is the freeshop, where I'm hoping to obtain a bicycle, some dishes, and maybe a towel hanger or something. It's also picnic day for many societies I'd like to join, so I'll have to pick and choose wisely. I was thinking about going to play with the rugby team, but I don't think I'm going to do it. I don't really have proper athletic shoes or anything, plus I don't feel like getting beat up. I had a go at archery the other day, and the guy told me I did pretty well and I should come back to have another go on Monday, so if it doesn't interfere with class, I'll probably do that.

Speaking of classes, it turns out that Early Vergil is not being offered, and Cicero the Advocate conflicts with Scotland and Orality, the folk history class I really want to take. So, I enrolled in "City of Rome," which looks really interesting, but is only general Classics, and not Latin. This means that I'll have to take one more Latin course at the U when I get back, but that's not a big deal, 'cause I'd have had to take a classics class otherwise. Here's the observation part: they've been telling us that we'll probably get 60's-70's as grades, because you start from zero and work up here, whereas in the US you go from 100 down. Now, I thought this was going to be horrible, but one of the girls I was talking to today said she thought it would be horrible the US way, because you'd be under so much pressure. The UK way, anything you do is an achievement, and so it's easier/more rewarding to have grades that way. I had never even thought about that. In the US it's about taking away points/punishing the student for doing something wrong, and in the UK it's about earning marks for doing things properly. Interesting.

My fingers are actually cramping so I'm going to sign off on this one!

so my last post seems to have caused quite a stir...

Let me defend myself here for a moment:

I'm not saying the Danish system is not good. It's wonderful that anybody has the opportunity to go to college. I think what I mean is that I cherish my education with a particular fervor, because I had to earn it (sort of). A degree is not a magical piece of paper, but I think the point my Danish friend was trying to make was that since you go to school for something incredibly specific (i.e., he goes for performance arrangement, which as far as I can tell means booking shows), when you do time in that, but then decide to be, say, a motorcycle mechanic, it is not as if you've given yourself part of a liberal arts education, you have learned how to do one thing, like midwifery (apparently the subject with the hardest entry requirements in Denmark).

If Europeans want a liberal arts education, for the most part they have to come to America or Canada to get one, so only the wealthy have access to that, since international students obviously don't get a shot at financial aid. So, to sum it up, there are pros and cons to every system. The American system benefits from a wide variety of choice and an emphasis on a well-rounded education, as opposed to something that is more like trade school, in which you only take classes about one thing. The Scots/Brits are all surprised when they hear the classes that we, the US students, are taking during our semester here, when compared with our majors. If you want to take Scottish ethnology, you better be a Scottish ethnology major!

Second, I am not defending the toys that sports people get at my uni. I think giving them mopeds is ridiculous. I'm simply saying that the benefit that I saw was that people who were drawn to give money to the University to build a stadium were also encouraged to give a matching donation for a scholarship fund, which created, I think, at least a few million in new academic scholarships for students. I unfortunately enrolled at the University a year too early to reap the benefits for National Merit scholars...

Stay tuned for details of my first ceilidh, how delicious haggis actually is, and my exciting Scottish night on the town. And maybe some pictures too.

differences

It seems that everywhere I go, I am drawn into conversation about the American higher education system. People are baffled by a number of things related to the aforementioned. Nobody can imagine that I have friends who pay $50,000 every year to go to school, and they wonder how anybody manages to pay back loans. In Denmark, Johan told me that not only is school free, students get paid an allowance every month to cover living expenses. It seems to be relatively similar in both Sweden and in Holland (though, from what I gather, it's not entirely free in Holland). It sounds too good to be true to get paid to go to school, and in a way, I guess it is. Johan was telling me about how so much money gets wasted, because a lot of people will do two years and then drop out, because it's not like they're losing any money or anything. Also, he told me that it's almost unheard of to go to school away from your home because there are only a few universities in Denmark anyway, so you go to the one that lets you into the degree program you want to study.

I feel like I really appreciate the choices that we have in America, though we have to pay (dearly) for them. When I started my college search at the end of my sophomore year of high school, I had, literally, thousands of options, and I could go to study whatever I wanted. In the UK, students know exactly what they are going to do before they finish high school. There is hardly any room to change your degree, and almost nobody does it. My RA actually changed from theology to political science (maybe that's what it was... this conversation happened during a pub crawl, so you'll have to forgive me. It's hard to talk in bars), and she said it was very very hard to convince the university to let her do that. I STILL have no idea what exactly I'd like to do with myself when I graduate. I don't have a specialization area for my major, I don't know if I want to go to graduate school, and I certainly don't know where I would like to do that. These 18 year olds have their lives planned out, and they all seem pretty damn confident about their choices. I changed my major one semester into my freshman year, and while it set me back a little bit, nobody argued with my choice, and it was, in fact, supported.

People looked at me so strangely when I told them I had taken an English class, a Latin class, a few environmental science classes, and a dance class during first semester last year. The liberal arts idea is not a common one around here. I think I would die if I had to take all science classes all the time. Okay, that's melodramatic, but my decision to study abroad and learn about something totally new and interesting is the case in point: I needed a break, especially since next semester will actually be all science all the time. I find it difficult to focus my thoughts on one thing for quite a while without the extra stimulation of concentrating on something completely different. I think that is why I am continuing with my Latin major.

Another major difference: sports. Coming from a Big 10 school such as the U, it's sort of hard to separate athletics from my education. The facilities dominate campus, the athletes are riding around on their scooters, and the student body is abuzz on game day. Anytime I try to explain athletic scholarships to my friends, they just stare at me quizzically. Why would we go to see non-professional athletes when we have perfectly good professional teams? Why on earth would a college pay people to come to the school if they're not the most gifted academically? I suppose we wonder these things ourselves, sometimes (i.e., football players get big scholarships and free mopeds... where is my moped?!), but the athletics bring in money that can be used to support academia (like how Bruiniks worked to get stadium donors to also donate to a scholarship fund). I like having sports on campus... it's a way to bring the students together, but I can definitely see whence the European confusion springs. Without the experience, it's hard to understand why a university would spend so much money on sports!

That's it for now, but this is just the first post in a series highlighting big US/UK differences. I'm feeling a bit better, and tonight I am going to my firstceilidh, or traditional Scottish dance. I might also try some haggis... but it's small steps at first.

edinburgh, at last.

I forgot in my last entry to describe taking the tube during rush hour, which was quite the experience. I was smashed like a sardine into the train, and I felt like such a jerk to be taking up as much space as I was. Oh well, it’s not like I had tried to take so much on in a crowd at any other time, and there was really no other option for getting to the train. I ended up getting there just 10 min before the train left, but I got on and it was all okay. I got to Edinburgh and hauled my crap up some giant hills to get to the orientation hotel. Straightaway, I met some pretty nice people, but I unfortunately missed the free sandwiches. Boo! We walked around the city until dinner. My camera ran out of battery for the first time on the trip, which was incredibly sad.

The hotel beds were so amazing after hostel beds/couches/air mattresses, that I slept all night and barely managed to wake up in the morning in time for breakfast. I love English breakfast. Whoever thought of eating baked beans in the morning was truly a god among men. The rest of the day was orientation stuff, the highlight of which was the Captain of Edinburgh police talking to us. He looked sort of like Craig Ferguson and pretty much spent the entire time cracking jokes about how much he liked drinking, and how much Edinburghers like drinking. But he also did have some important information for us. Today, we had another guest speaker, a member of the Scottish Parliament, who was equally as hilarious. She told a girl that she should marry her grandson, and invited a guy to come with her to an Edinburgh Hibernians football match next weekend. Everybody was INCREDIBLY jealous of the guy. That exchange led to her promising to make the attempt to get us a group rate for a game in the future so that we could all go.

When everything was done, I went out shopping with some girls. That wasn’t particularly exciting. That brings us to now… I hear people singing Don’t Stop Believin’ out the window… I bet it’s kids from this program. I am surprised that they could be drunk enough by 9 pm… but I feel like a lot of people came here solely to party. I need to get better so I can join in. I think I may have a sinus infection rather than a cold, but I don’t want to see a doctor about it or anything, because I hate taking antibiotics for something minor. I haven’t really gone out at all yet, because I just don’t want to make anything worse. So tonight, I came back the earliest yet, at like, 7 pm and just crawled into bed after I repacked all my stuff to move into my flat tomorrow. I just feel pretty gross, and it sucks because Fresher’s Week is a non-stop week of events and I don’t want to have to miss anything! I’m thinking about just going to sleep, and I’ll write a more introspective and less narrative entry later.