Ironic that after going so long without a post, I then post two in rapid-fire succession. Oh, well. That's how I do. I just wanted to let you know that I have plans for this weekend! Here it is: early early tomorrow morning I'll be taking a bus to Balloch, West Dunbartonshire and spending the day hiking the bonny, bonny banks of Loch Lomond. I'll spend the night in a hostel there and then Saturday morning take another bus up to Inveraray. Inveraray Castle, home of the Duke of Argyll and seat of Clan Campbell, is described as fairytale-like, and its grounds are supposed to be equally lovely. So Saturday and Sunday will be spent checking out all of that, and Monday I'll bus back to Edinburgh, hopefully in time for my afternoon class. It's going to be lovely.
Unfortunately I missed a couple of chances to travel with people. Literally twenty minutes after I booked all of my tickets, a couple of the WashU people invited me to go on a highland day tour with them on Sunday. Then when I informed my Canadian flatmate that I was leaving for the weekend and mentioned that she was welcome to come, she said she would like to go - unfortunately the time I'd booked my bus for didn't work for her. It's a bummer - although solo venturing is fun, I'd really like to have travelling companions for once. BUT the semester isn't even close to over. It'll happen.
Side note, totally unrelated: I watched my very first James Bond movie last night! I made an arbitrary decision to start at the very beginning, so I saw Dr. No, which I think was made in 1962. As really old movies go, it was really not bad. My flatmates, who ended up joining me, thought it was ridiculous, but I thought it was okay. So now we have a date for Casino Royale. (Side side note: "movie" is not a word, says British dictionary. I think it wants it to be "film". Okay, I saw my very first Bond film last night. There we go.)
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Skimming the surface
I should have figured out by now that the more often I update, the less I have to remember to say. Unfortunately, that learning does not seem to have occurred. Sorry about the delay. In case you were worried, I'm still alive.
I should warn you - I've switched my dictionary to British English. Apparently all the papers I write here are supposed to be written that way, so I want to get used to using words like favourite and centre. So. Prepare yourself. If you see a word that you think is spelled wrong, it probably isn't.
(It would be even better if there was a "Scottish Accent" dictionary. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be. Sorry aboot that.)
So anyway, let me skim over the things that have happened in the past week and then we can get on with more interesting things.
I changed my class timetable (schedule) again! For the last time, I promise. I felt really lame not taking any cool Scottish classes while I'm here, so I dropped my psychology classes and took back Intro to Scottish Studies: Conceptualising Scotland. It was kind of a quick decision that I made Monday, and so far I'm happy with it. My logic was this: A) it doesn't make sense for me to be here and not learn about the country, B) I can probably easily get an A in Social Psych at home and thereby raise my major GPA, whereas here not only are As impossible to get but it would only count as "Pass" anyway, and C) seeing as how I'd have to take two classes to get credit for our single Social Psychology course, and they both, despite the lesser credit, seem to be as difficult as if not more difficult than our Social Psychology, I would really be putting in twice as much work as I need to. Anyway. Scottish Studies it is. Two classes in, I'm rather pleased - the section we're on is similar to an International Studies class I took freshman year, and it's very interesting, and I've already learned things about Scotland, and it seems like a minimal-work type course. Brilliant.
To save space, I'll combine all my church-type activities into one paragraph. Since I last wrote, I've been to Christian Union large group on Friday, church on Sunday, and small group on Monday. So far my biggest complaint (if you could call it that) would be the music - they simply have a different repertoire of worship music here, and I don't like not knowing the songs. But to say I'm actually sad about it would be a lie. Some of the songs are the same, and Sunday they did two of my absolute favourites (ha ha, typed that the wrong way first, thanks dictionary), which was a blessing - plus I'm already learning the new ones. And just being with other Christians has made me feel so at home.
I finally made it up Arthur's Seat! Arthur's Seat is this awesome mountain in the middle of the city, and from the top are absolutely incredible views of a lot of Edinburgh, as well as the ocean which it's so easy to forget is nearby. I hiked up with two other American students I've met through Christian Union, and although I love hanging out with non-Americans and I'm consciously trying to keep a diverse friend group, it was really comfortable to be with people with whom I have so much in common. Anyway, it wasn't a bad hike at all, and the view from the top was completely worth it. You could just stand up there for hours, I think. The wind was crazy, though. Arguably the best part was climbing back down. The guy in our little group saw this little set of ruins off to one side and was like, let's go see those! So we did, and then on the way he was talking about how there were blackberry bushes around, and I was like oh my gosh we should pick some to go with our shortbread (we had taken shortbread as a snack). And he was like oh my gosh we should. He agreed! No one ever agrees with my crazy nature girl ideas. This guy and I are going to be friends. So the three of us climbed all over the side of the hill and pushed into brambles and picked a handful of blackberries each and they were SO DELICIOUS. So we continued to the ruins and sat on the least windy side eating blackberries on shortbread and having deep God discussions until we girls were too freezing to sit there any longer. We decided we should make dinner together, so we went grocery-hunting and then made spaghetti and meat sauce and salad and garlic bread for dinner. Such a good day.
Argh. So much for skimming. That was long. Sorry.
Outlook on the next couple of weeks: I'm hoping to get over to the west coast to Inveraray (apparently pronounced Inverarah?) Castle, the seat of Clan Campbell, my very own bit of Scottish heritage. That's a possible trip for this weekend, although obviously that is quickly approaching and I still don't have a bus ticket or anything. This could end up being another one of those hop-a-bus adventures. However, I'm especially excited for these little weekend ventures because I can get away with just using my normal-sized backpack and not have to carry 80 bazillion pounds of stuff. (Side note: British dictionary does not say "bazillion" is not a word. I like this.) So, that's supposed to be beautiful and I'm excited.
Another weekend venture I'm working on is PARIS!! Given my limited time and budget I've had to scale down my travel plans, but Paris, I think, is really a must-see. I've found really good fares as well, so I should have that worked out quite soon, I hope. I'll update you as I get things settled.
Also: one of my WashU friends is coming up here! He's on a program in London for the semester, and they're coming up to Edinburgh for the week next week. (I originally thought it was this week, making for some confusion yesterday when he was still not here. Haha oops.) So we're going to do some of the awesome sightseeing that I haven't had the chance to do yet. I'm very excited for that, plus for getting to see a more familiar face. (Also, it's perfect timing because with the onset of October the tourist season officially ends, and thus off-peak pricing of all the tourist attractions begins. Suh-weet.)
That is all, O friends and loved ones. Tah-tah for now.
I should warn you - I've switched my dictionary to British English. Apparently all the papers I write here are supposed to be written that way, so I want to get used to using words like favourite and centre. So. Prepare yourself. If you see a word that you think is spelled wrong, it probably isn't.
(It would be even better if there was a "Scottish Accent" dictionary. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be. Sorry aboot that.)
So anyway, let me skim over the things that have happened in the past week and then we can get on with more interesting things.
I changed my class timetable (schedule) again! For the last time, I promise. I felt really lame not taking any cool Scottish classes while I'm here, so I dropped my psychology classes and took back Intro to Scottish Studies: Conceptualising Scotland. It was kind of a quick decision that I made Monday, and so far I'm happy with it. My logic was this: A) it doesn't make sense for me to be here and not learn about the country, B) I can probably easily get an A in Social Psych at home and thereby raise my major GPA, whereas here not only are As impossible to get but it would only count as "Pass" anyway, and C) seeing as how I'd have to take two classes to get credit for our single Social Psychology course, and they both, despite the lesser credit, seem to be as difficult as if not more difficult than our Social Psychology, I would really be putting in twice as much work as I need to. Anyway. Scottish Studies it is. Two classes in, I'm rather pleased - the section we're on is similar to an International Studies class I took freshman year, and it's very interesting, and I've already learned things about Scotland, and it seems like a minimal-work type course. Brilliant.
To save space, I'll combine all my church-type activities into one paragraph. Since I last wrote, I've been to Christian Union large group on Friday, church on Sunday, and small group on Monday. So far my biggest complaint (if you could call it that) would be the music - they simply have a different repertoire of worship music here, and I don't like not knowing the songs. But to say I'm actually sad about it would be a lie. Some of the songs are the same, and Sunday they did two of my absolute favourites (ha ha, typed that the wrong way first, thanks dictionary), which was a blessing - plus I'm already learning the new ones. And just being with other Christians has made me feel so at home.
I finally made it up Arthur's Seat! Arthur's Seat is this awesome mountain in the middle of the city, and from the top are absolutely incredible views of a lot of Edinburgh, as well as the ocean which it's so easy to forget is nearby. I hiked up with two other American students I've met through Christian Union, and although I love hanging out with non-Americans and I'm consciously trying to keep a diverse friend group, it was really comfortable to be with people with whom I have so much in common. Anyway, it wasn't a bad hike at all, and the view from the top was completely worth it. You could just stand up there for hours, I think. The wind was crazy, though. Arguably the best part was climbing back down. The guy in our little group saw this little set of ruins off to one side and was like, let's go see those! So we did, and then on the way he was talking about how there were blackberry bushes around, and I was like oh my gosh we should pick some to go with our shortbread (we had taken shortbread as a snack). And he was like oh my gosh we should. He agreed! No one ever agrees with my crazy nature girl ideas. This guy and I are going to be friends. So the three of us climbed all over the side of the hill and pushed into brambles and picked a handful of blackberries each and they were SO DELICIOUS. So we continued to the ruins and sat on the least windy side eating blackberries on shortbread and having deep God discussions until we girls were too freezing to sit there any longer. We decided we should make dinner together, so we went grocery-hunting and then made spaghetti and meat sauce and salad and garlic bread for dinner. Such a good day.
Argh. So much for skimming. That was long. Sorry.
Outlook on the next couple of weeks: I'm hoping to get over to the west coast to Inveraray (apparently pronounced Inverarah?) Castle, the seat of Clan Campbell, my very own bit of Scottish heritage. That's a possible trip for this weekend, although obviously that is quickly approaching and I still don't have a bus ticket or anything. This could end up being another one of those hop-a-bus adventures. However, I'm especially excited for these little weekend ventures because I can get away with just using my normal-sized backpack and not have to carry 80 bazillion pounds of stuff. (Side note: British dictionary does not say "bazillion" is not a word. I like this.) So, that's supposed to be beautiful and I'm excited.
Another weekend venture I'm working on is PARIS!! Given my limited time and budget I've had to scale down my travel plans, but Paris, I think, is really a must-see. I've found really good fares as well, so I should have that worked out quite soon, I hope. I'll update you as I get things settled.
Also: one of my WashU friends is coming up here! He's on a program in London for the semester, and they're coming up to Edinburgh for the week next week. (I originally thought it was this week, making for some confusion yesterday when he was still not here. Haha oops.) So we're going to do some of the awesome sightseeing that I haven't had the chance to do yet. I'm very excited for that, plus for getting to see a more familiar face. (Also, it's perfect timing because with the onset of October the tourist season officially ends, and thus off-peak pricing of all the tourist attractions begins. Suh-weet.)
That is all, O friends and loved ones. Tah-tah for now.
Friday, September 24, 2010
Don't rain on my cake
"Sorry to rain on your cake." I think I laughed out loud in class when my (very Scottish) Philosophy of Time lecturer said that. "Rain on your parade" makes way more sense, but "rain on your cake" makes such a better mental image. Favorite Scottish phrase thus far.
This was a muy exciting week. Classes were whatever. It was all the other stuff that made it. Highlight: Wednesday was my very first harpsichord lesson! It was so so so exciting. After reservation of the harpsichord on campus didn't work, the teacher and I decided to meet at her house. So I walked over there on Wednesday morning - it was about half an hour away. Ironically, I had just had a conversation with someone about how we hadn't been in a really, truly, East St. Louis-esque dodgy part of Edinburgh...the area I walked through wasn't that bad, comparatively, but I don't think I'll do it again. But anyway. The teacher's apartment was delightful, the first real home I've been in since being here. She has two children under 10, so there were Legos everywhere, which made me smile. But back to the real point: the harpsichord. It was beautiful, sitting there in the middle of her...well, I guess it was basically a music room. (I want a music room when I grow up.) And I just got to sit down and play it! Oh, it was fun. After a short tour of the harpsichord, she basically gave me some music and let me have at it, kind of correcting a little along the way. But it was so low-pressure and fabulous.
So, having had my first lesson, let me give you a brief introduction to the harpsichord. It's an early version of the piano - think pre-18th century. The layout is very similar to a modern grand piano, but much smaller. The main difference is that the strings inside are plucked rather than struck. This means that the dynamics are virtually unalterable - whereas on a piano you vary the force of your playing to alter the dynamics, playing more forcefully on a harpsichord just gives you a really ugly sound. So it's played with much more delicacy, and (for the piano players reading this) you don't use the weight of your arm at all, only your hand. Your connection with the inner workings is much more intimate as well - you can literally feel in your fingers when the string is about to be plucked, and the release of pressure as it is.
I came away with three pieces under my sight-reading belt, all preludes: one Jacquet de la Guerre, one Couperin, and one Bach. It was really neat to play them on harpsichord - the Bach is a fairly well-known piece, one that I've heard on piano, but it sounded so much more right on harpsichord. I'm absolutely itching to practice them. (Unfortunately I'm still working things out with the lady in charge of reservations...she asked me if I was a visiting student, I said yes, and she hasn't gotten back to me since. Hmm.)
(Don't worry. Despite the semi-passionate affair I'm having with the harpsichord, the piano remains my first love. There are a number of good reasons the piano took over as the keyboard instrument of choice, variable dynamics not being the least of them, and my appreciation for all those things is only growing.)
Second bit of greatness for the week: I found cornmeal!! I wandered randomly into this great Middle-Eastern-of-some-sort grocery store and, noting their incredible stock of bagged beans, spices, etc., thought, hmm, maybe they have cornmeal. My new keywords, thanks to a Google search on "cornmeal in the UK," were "polenta" and "maize". I wandered down to the end of the bagged-stuff aisle (which had an incredible amount of stuff in it, seriously) and (after slight confusion with a tiny bag of stuff that had pictures of corn all over the front, only Italian writing that included something that looked like it might translate to "corn", and contents that resembled sugar) found an entire section of cornmeal!!!! (Labeled "cornmeal", thank you.) Coarse, fine, white, yellow...so much cornmeal. Happy Melody. So I grabbed the 1.5-kilo bag (it was the smallest they had) of regular yellow, got in line, (found myself to be the only woman without a head covering...awkward...) paid £1.65 for it, and strutted out. (Demurely. The guy behind the counter was already giving me you-dirty-infidel glares. Oops.)
I was, of course, delighted to find out when I got home that the recipe for which I was cornmeal-hunting called for exactly one tablespoonful. Delightful. Oh, well - that tablespoonful of cornmeal made that pizza. No, but really, it was probably the best homemade pizza dough I've ever had, and really easy as well. It's definitely my new standard recipe. The pizza itself, "Pesto Pizza with Butternut Squash," was fully as bizarre as it sounds, and probably will never grace my table again. (Fortunately, but oddly, it's much better either cold or reheated.) Then this morning I made cornmeal pancakes, which were actually really good.
Anyway. My main accomplishment for today was figuring out the library! It was wonderful. I found two of the three books I can't get online, so now I get to read those. (Titles: Time and Space and The Philosophy of Time.) Plus the library seems like a decent place to study, as does the psychology library, so I'll be taking advantage of those in the near future, because all that ever gets accomplished in my room is Friends-watching. Needs to stop.
And finally, tonight is the first Christian Union large group meeting!! I'm so excited. The lack of Overflow-esque-ness in my life has been an issue. I absolutely cannot wait for worship. And fellowship. And really any message at all. I'm so excited. It's kind of lame how excited I am.
Gotta go! Time and Space is due at 10:30 tomorrow morning (because it's a "High-Usage Book"), so I have to see how much of it I can skim before that time. Wish me luck.
This was a muy exciting week. Classes were whatever. It was all the other stuff that made it. Highlight: Wednesday was my very first harpsichord lesson! It was so so so exciting. After reservation of the harpsichord on campus didn't work, the teacher and I decided to meet at her house. So I walked over there on Wednesday morning - it was about half an hour away. Ironically, I had just had a conversation with someone about how we hadn't been in a really, truly, East St. Louis-esque dodgy part of Edinburgh...the area I walked through wasn't that bad, comparatively, but I don't think I'll do it again. But anyway. The teacher's apartment was delightful, the first real home I've been in since being here. She has two children under 10, so there were Legos everywhere, which made me smile. But back to the real point: the harpsichord. It was beautiful, sitting there in the middle of her...well, I guess it was basically a music room. (I want a music room when I grow up.) And I just got to sit down and play it! Oh, it was fun. After a short tour of the harpsichord, she basically gave me some music and let me have at it, kind of correcting a little along the way. But it was so low-pressure and fabulous.
So, having had my first lesson, let me give you a brief introduction to the harpsichord. It's an early version of the piano - think pre-18th century. The layout is very similar to a modern grand piano, but much smaller. The main difference is that the strings inside are plucked rather than struck. This means that the dynamics are virtually unalterable - whereas on a piano you vary the force of your playing to alter the dynamics, playing more forcefully on a harpsichord just gives you a really ugly sound. So it's played with much more delicacy, and (for the piano players reading this) you don't use the weight of your arm at all, only your hand. Your connection with the inner workings is much more intimate as well - you can literally feel in your fingers when the string is about to be plucked, and the release of pressure as it is.
I came away with three pieces under my sight-reading belt, all preludes: one Jacquet de la Guerre, one Couperin, and one Bach. It was really neat to play them on harpsichord - the Bach is a fairly well-known piece, one that I've heard on piano, but it sounded so much more right on harpsichord. I'm absolutely itching to practice them. (Unfortunately I'm still working things out with the lady in charge of reservations...she asked me if I was a visiting student, I said yes, and she hasn't gotten back to me since. Hmm.)
(Don't worry. Despite the semi-passionate affair I'm having with the harpsichord, the piano remains my first love. There are a number of good reasons the piano took over as the keyboard instrument of choice, variable dynamics not being the least of them, and my appreciation for all those things is only growing.)
Second bit of greatness for the week: I found cornmeal!! I wandered randomly into this great Middle-Eastern-of-some-sort grocery store and, noting their incredible stock of bagged beans, spices, etc., thought, hmm, maybe they have cornmeal. My new keywords, thanks to a Google search on "cornmeal in the UK," were "polenta" and "maize". I wandered down to the end of the bagged-stuff aisle (which had an incredible amount of stuff in it, seriously) and (after slight confusion with a tiny bag of stuff that had pictures of corn all over the front, only Italian writing that included something that looked like it might translate to "corn", and contents that resembled sugar) found an entire section of cornmeal!!!! (Labeled "cornmeal", thank you.) Coarse, fine, white, yellow...so much cornmeal. Happy Melody. So I grabbed the 1.5-kilo bag (it was the smallest they had) of regular yellow, got in line, (found myself to be the only woman without a head covering...awkward...) paid £1.65 for it, and strutted out. (Demurely. The guy behind the counter was already giving me you-dirty-infidel glares. Oops.)
I was, of course, delighted to find out when I got home that the recipe for which I was cornmeal-hunting called for exactly one tablespoonful. Delightful. Oh, well - that tablespoonful of cornmeal made that pizza. No, but really, it was probably the best homemade pizza dough I've ever had, and really easy as well. It's definitely my new standard recipe. The pizza itself, "Pesto Pizza with Butternut Squash," was fully as bizarre as it sounds, and probably will never grace my table again. (Fortunately, but oddly, it's much better either cold or reheated.) Then this morning I made cornmeal pancakes, which were actually really good.
Anyway. My main accomplishment for today was figuring out the library! It was wonderful. I found two of the three books I can't get online, so now I get to read those. (Titles: Time and Space and The Philosophy of Time.) Plus the library seems like a decent place to study, as does the psychology library, so I'll be taking advantage of those in the near future, because all that ever gets accomplished in my room is Friends-watching. Needs to stop.
And finally, tonight is the first Christian Union large group meeting!! I'm so excited. The lack of Overflow-esque-ness in my life has been an issue. I absolutely cannot wait for worship. And fellowship. And really any message at all. I'm so excited. It's kind of lame how excited I am.
Gotta go! Time and Space is due at 10:30 tomorrow morning (because it's a "High-Usage Book"), so I have to see how much of it I can skim before that time. Wish me luck.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Time, time, time.
I learned a lot of useful stuff today.
First thing: that cool alarm clock app I downloaded that awesomely uses any song in iTunes as the wake-up? Works like a charm. The snooze button in said app? Doesn't work at all. Yeah. Fortunately I had set it plenty early, so when I woke up an hour later instead of ten minutes, I still had plenty of time to eat breakfast and get dressed and do everything (except actually showering) before my first class. (Yes, for whatever reason I decided to find out the snooze button business on my first day of class. Whatever.) People talked to me, so I think I didn't smell too bad. Which is good.
Aaaaand with the most wonderful irony, my first class was Philosophy of Time. As a philosophy class, I am trying really really really really hard to like it. So far I don't hate it. We're making progress. That is going to be quite the class to have at 9:00 in the morning, though. Oohhhh I hate 9:00 classes. Especially when I can't actually quite wrap my head around the topic. But I did learn the difference between A-series and B-series concepts of time. Interesting stuff.
I learned that one of my psychology classes doesn't start until halfway through the term. So for now I only have three classes. Rock on.
I learned that even though the lower-temp settings on the dryers don't work even marginally well, putting my clothes in on the high setting was a bad idea. My favorite cardigan is...well, to say it's ruined would be a stretch, but its delightful stretchiness is a little bit shot. Scowl.
I learned that the "cornflour" sold in Tesco near the regular flour is not, in fact, cornmeal. It's actually not even corn flour, as the name would suggest. No. No, it's cornstarch. I made biscuits with it. Like, American biscuits. With half a cup of cornstarch in them. They were, shockingly, really good warm, but now they're just kind of edible. Not bad. But not really good. I was so proud of myself, I had found cornmeal...but no. Oh, no. So now cornmeal is on my hunting list.
But are you ready for the best thing I learned today?? I learned to ring church bells!! I just figured out a couple of days ago that the EU bellringing society wasn't just talking about little handbells. Oh, no. (They do that, too, but whatever.) As soon as I found out that they actually go to area churches and ring the big awesome bells, I was on that. So they had practice tonight. Unfortunately, I had a terrible decision to make: the EU Music Society Chorus (non-auditioning), the EU Female Voice Choir (also non-auditioning), or the Changeringers, all Tuesday nights at the same time. UMMM I think we know which one I picked. There are a proliferation of choirs in the States. Changeringers? Not so much. (PS I didn't know what change ringing was either. See the Wikipedia article.) I had a ridiculously good time. We were in the waaaaay upper loft (there were literally five sets of stairs) of this beautiful old church with its own ancient cemetery right in the shadow of Edinburgh Castle. The guy that was trying to teach me was very intense about it - either I sucked or he was very protective of those bells. (Maybe a little of both. They are serious about what they do.) And then it was bad because he had a pretty serious accent and I couldn't understand half of what he was telling me to do. Yikes. Anyway, so about halfway through my mini-lessons he started smiling at me a lot, and I can't decide if it's because I was starting to look scared and he was trying to un-freak me out, or if it was because I was really bad/looked ridiculous/both and he was secretly laughing at me. Lol. Don't care. It was great and I'm going back every week. I only get to participate in the beginners' lessons at the beginning for now, but I am determined to get reasonably good enough to get to actually practice with them.
Tomorrow is my first harpsichord lesson! Ohmygoodness. It's going to be ridiculous. I cannot wait.
First thing: that cool alarm clock app I downloaded that awesomely uses any song in iTunes as the wake-up? Works like a charm. The snooze button in said app? Doesn't work at all. Yeah. Fortunately I had set it plenty early, so when I woke up an hour later instead of ten minutes, I still had plenty of time to eat breakfast and get dressed and do everything (except actually showering) before my first class. (Yes, for whatever reason I decided to find out the snooze button business on my first day of class. Whatever.) People talked to me, so I think I didn't smell too bad. Which is good.
Aaaaand with the most wonderful irony, my first class was Philosophy of Time. As a philosophy class, I am trying really really really really hard to like it. So far I don't hate it. We're making progress. That is going to be quite the class to have at 9:00 in the morning, though. Oohhhh I hate 9:00 classes. Especially when I can't actually quite wrap my head around the topic. But I did learn the difference between A-series and B-series concepts of time. Interesting stuff.
I learned that one of my psychology classes doesn't start until halfway through the term. So for now I only have three classes. Rock on.
I learned that even though the lower-temp settings on the dryers don't work even marginally well, putting my clothes in on the high setting was a bad idea. My favorite cardigan is...well, to say it's ruined would be a stretch, but its delightful stretchiness is a little bit shot. Scowl.
I learned that the "cornflour" sold in Tesco near the regular flour is not, in fact, cornmeal. It's actually not even corn flour, as the name would suggest. No. No, it's cornstarch. I made biscuits with it. Like, American biscuits. With half a cup of cornstarch in them. They were, shockingly, really good warm, but now they're just kind of edible. Not bad. But not really good. I was so proud of myself, I had found cornmeal...but no. Oh, no. So now cornmeal is on my hunting list.
But are you ready for the best thing I learned today?? I learned to ring church bells!! I just figured out a couple of days ago that the EU bellringing society wasn't just talking about little handbells. Oh, no. (They do that, too, but whatever.) As soon as I found out that they actually go to area churches and ring the big awesome bells, I was on that. So they had practice tonight. Unfortunately, I had a terrible decision to make: the EU Music Society Chorus (non-auditioning), the EU Female Voice Choir (also non-auditioning), or the Changeringers, all Tuesday nights at the same time. UMMM I think we know which one I picked. There are a proliferation of choirs in the States. Changeringers? Not so much. (PS I didn't know what change ringing was either. See the Wikipedia article.) I had a ridiculously good time. We were in the waaaaay upper loft (there were literally five sets of stairs) of this beautiful old church with its own ancient cemetery right in the shadow of Edinburgh Castle. The guy that was trying to teach me was very intense about it - either I sucked or he was very protective of those bells. (Maybe a little of both. They are serious about what they do.) And then it was bad because he had a pretty serious accent and I couldn't understand half of what he was telling me to do. Yikes. Anyway, so about halfway through my mini-lessons he started smiling at me a lot, and I can't decide if it's because I was starting to look scared and he was trying to un-freak me out, or if it was because I was really bad/looked ridiculous/both and he was secretly laughing at me. Lol. Don't care. It was great and I'm going back every week. I only get to participate in the beginners' lessons at the beginning for now, but I am determined to get reasonably good enough to get to actually practice with them.
Tomorrow is my first harpsichord lesson! Ohmygoodness. It's going to be ridiculous. I cannot wait.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Raindrops keep falling on my head...no really, they won't stop...
Today was an actually rainy day. Our first real one, where I woke up and the first thing I heard was drops on my window. So that's one down, a zillion left to go. Good thing I'm rather fond of rain.
So, shame on me, I haven't even properly introduced you to my surroundings. How rude. So, first of all, there's my flat. I have my own room, and there are three other single rooms in the flat, plus a kitchen/living room, a bathroom, a little entryway thing, and two big shared closets. (We don't put anything in them.) The building you can tell is pretty old, but the flat seems to have been redone recently, so it's really quite nice. The kitchen has fairly new appliances - a stovetop, an oven, a weird broiler thing that they call a "grill" (I've been making toast in it, which is incredibly energy-inefficient because you have to operate it with the door open, seriously it's in the manual, but whatever I don't really want to buy a toaster), a full-size fridge/freezer (except that for the four of us, we have way too much freezer space and not enough fridge space, so that was poor planning on the part of the fridge company), a microwave, and an electric kettle (classic UK). The bathroom is small, looks like a prison cell, and smells funky despite our nice citrus air freshener, but it's not like we spend that much time in there anyway.
Our flat is in College Wynd, one of the university-owned tenements. (Note: that word has no negative connotation here.) It's arranged into ten stairwells with ten flats off each one. In the center of the building is a cute little courtyard, which would be better if it had more plants, but no one asked me. The building is on, unfortunately, the main clubbing street in Edinburgh. This makes for extremely noisy nights, but it also means we're really right in the city center. Basically all of the really cool areas are within an easy five-minute walk. The university's campus that all of my classes are going to be on (EU has four campuses) is within about a three-minute walk. It's wonderful. There's a cool shortcut to class up a stone staircase and through a tunnel (WU underpass-style! except the art is less awesome ads and more standard graffiti).
The campus area where all my classes are is called George Square. (I think. I've heard that term used pretty loosely, and I'm not sure if it only describes the green park-ish area in the middle that I know is called George Square or is used to cover the entire campus. I think the latter.) It's a rather odd conglomeration of buildings. About a third are really old and historic and beautiful (including, fun fact, Teviot Row House, the oldest purpose-built student union building in the world, constructed from funds raised by EU students), about a third are really new and modern and beautiful, and the other third look like Eliot Hall at Wash U - yeah, the concrete box one. Fortunately, the two buildings my classes are in fall into the first two categories. Woot. Unfortunately, the library falls into the third category. But they're redoing the inside. So that's nice.
The city as a whole is, need I even say it, beautiful. Most of the buildings are really old, and a lot of the streets are cobblestone. (Side note: they say walking on cobblestones is really hard in heels. That is true. Recommend not trying it. I walked all the way to church this morning in heels - no one died, but there were some teetery moments.) There are lots of areas made entirely of little independent shops and restaurants, which are absolutely my favorite. There are also historical sites everywhere - I honestly think two-thirds of the buildings here are historical sites. My favorite things so far, nearby, are Greyfriars Kirkyard, this old church and reeeeeally old cemetery (contains the grave of one Tom Riddle - the cemetery is also close to the previously mentioned Elephant House), and the big cathedral that's about two blocks away from my flat, St. Giles. There are bells that ring there every quarter hour, and then of course that chime the hour. It's not loud enough to be annoying or distracting, just loud enough so that I hear it rather faintly in the distance and think, oh hey, I'm in Scotland. :) There's also a main-ish street that runs near my flat with lots of shops on it. It's very convenient - there are two grocery stores within a five- to ten-minute walk, as well as a drugstore, several discount stores ("Pound Stretcher" and "Pound Saver" being only two), and half a dozen charity shops (secondhand stores similar to Salvation Army, where the proceeds go to a charity - it's wonderful, they're absolutely packed with good clothes).
Princes Street is also within ten to fifteen minutes away, and that's where all the big name-brand stores are. There's a Topshop, H&M, Urban Outfitters, Zara...the list goes on. It's fun to go down there, although I haven't actually gone into any of those places yet. All in good time.
Hopefully I've given you a somewhat satisfactory introduction now to my surroundings! Tomorrow is our first day of classes, but I have nothing to do (life is hard), so I plan to do some walking around and picture-taking. Sorry I'm temporarily really boring.
It's so great right now - it's almost midnight and I have my window open and there is NO NOISE from the club strip. Oh, Sunday night. You are my new favorite.
So, shame on me, I haven't even properly introduced you to my surroundings. How rude. So, first of all, there's my flat. I have my own room, and there are three other single rooms in the flat, plus a kitchen/living room, a bathroom, a little entryway thing, and two big shared closets. (We don't put anything in them.) The building you can tell is pretty old, but the flat seems to have been redone recently, so it's really quite nice. The kitchen has fairly new appliances - a stovetop, an oven, a weird broiler thing that they call a "grill" (I've been making toast in it, which is incredibly energy-inefficient because you have to operate it with the door open, seriously it's in the manual, but whatever I don't really want to buy a toaster), a full-size fridge/freezer (except that for the four of us, we have way too much freezer space and not enough fridge space, so that was poor planning on the part of the fridge company), a microwave, and an electric kettle (classic UK). The bathroom is small, looks like a prison cell, and smells funky despite our nice citrus air freshener, but it's not like we spend that much time in there anyway.
Our flat is in College Wynd, one of the university-owned tenements. (Note: that word has no negative connotation here.) It's arranged into ten stairwells with ten flats off each one. In the center of the building is a cute little courtyard, which would be better if it had more plants, but no one asked me. The building is on, unfortunately, the main clubbing street in Edinburgh. This makes for extremely noisy nights, but it also means we're really right in the city center. Basically all of the really cool areas are within an easy five-minute walk. The university's campus that all of my classes are going to be on (EU has four campuses) is within about a three-minute walk. It's wonderful. There's a cool shortcut to class up a stone staircase and through a tunnel (WU underpass-style! except the art is less awesome ads and more standard graffiti).
The campus area where all my classes are is called George Square. (I think. I've heard that term used pretty loosely, and I'm not sure if it only describes the green park-ish area in the middle that I know is called George Square or is used to cover the entire campus. I think the latter.) It's a rather odd conglomeration of buildings. About a third are really old and historic and beautiful (including, fun fact, Teviot Row House, the oldest purpose-built student union building in the world, constructed from funds raised by EU students), about a third are really new and modern and beautiful, and the other third look like Eliot Hall at Wash U - yeah, the concrete box one. Fortunately, the two buildings my classes are in fall into the first two categories. Woot. Unfortunately, the library falls into the third category. But they're redoing the inside. So that's nice.
The city as a whole is, need I even say it, beautiful. Most of the buildings are really old, and a lot of the streets are cobblestone. (Side note: they say walking on cobblestones is really hard in heels. That is true. Recommend not trying it. I walked all the way to church this morning in heels - no one died, but there were some teetery moments.) There are lots of areas made entirely of little independent shops and restaurants, which are absolutely my favorite. There are also historical sites everywhere - I honestly think two-thirds of the buildings here are historical sites. My favorite things so far, nearby, are Greyfriars Kirkyard, this old church and reeeeeally old cemetery (contains the grave of one Tom Riddle - the cemetery is also close to the previously mentioned Elephant House), and the big cathedral that's about two blocks away from my flat, St. Giles. There are bells that ring there every quarter hour, and then of course that chime the hour. It's not loud enough to be annoying or distracting, just loud enough so that I hear it rather faintly in the distance and think, oh hey, I'm in Scotland. :) There's also a main-ish street that runs near my flat with lots of shops on it. It's very convenient - there are two grocery stores within a five- to ten-minute walk, as well as a drugstore, several discount stores ("Pound Stretcher" and "Pound Saver" being only two), and half a dozen charity shops (secondhand stores similar to Salvation Army, where the proceeds go to a charity - it's wonderful, they're absolutely packed with good clothes).
Princes Street is also within ten to fifteen minutes away, and that's where all the big name-brand stores are. There's a Topshop, H&M, Urban Outfitters, Zara...the list goes on. It's fun to go down there, although I haven't actually gone into any of those places yet. All in good time.
Hopefully I've given you a somewhat satisfactory introduction now to my surroundings! Tomorrow is our first day of classes, but I have nothing to do (life is hard), so I plan to do some walking around and picture-taking. Sorry I'm temporarily really boring.
It's so great right now - it's almost midnight and I have my window open and there is NO NOISE from the club strip. Oh, Sunday night. You are my new favorite.
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Deep breath.
Okay. We're all right. It worked out. In fact, it worked out perfectly - I'm in two philosophy classes, which will finish out that portion of my major (*cue angel chorus*), and two psychology classes which will combinedly give me credit for Social Psych. I am delighted. Thanks, God.
I also found the farmers' market today! (Of course, I didn't find it on my first try, because when has that ever happened, but after just a little bit of wandering I ended up in the right place.) Deeeelightful. I now have carrots, cucumbers, runner beans, tomatoes, raspberries, and blackberries. Yummy. As well as a confirmed source for fresh bread, pumpkins (!!!!), all manner of fresh fall fruit, and ostrich sausage. I was really worried about finding that last one.
As previously mentioned, classes start Monday. This means I have to actually start doing things. Oh...but did I mention I only have class on Tuesdays and Thursdays? Haha. Yeah. So I have four-day weekends. Whut up. I am actually really excited for my classes, though. So I have Language and the Natural Mind (least favorite), Philosophy of Time (OMG how cool is that)(plus it's taught by my advisor who seems very nice), Social Psychology (standard), and Social Judgment and Decision Making (um SWEET. Plus only half a semester long. Awww yeah.)
Oh wow I haven't even really talked about this week in general at all I guess. Okay, so this week has been...FRESHERS' WEEK! Basically like our Freshman Orientation, except longer and with more alcohol. (The drinking age here is eighteen, so virtually all of the freshers can drink, meaning 90% of the people on campus handing out fliers are from pubs and clubs. Also, our flat is on the main club street. Going to bed is very loud.) I've gone to some of the events, but really only the ones that are directly useful and/or fun for me. I did Freshman Orientation once; I'm pretty much done with that experience. So I've watched almost an entire season of Friends, made my flat feel sufficiently like home, and thoroughly explored campus and the entire surrounding area. One event I did attend, however (in addition to all the Christian Union events I've been to), was the Societies Fair (read: Activities Fair). It was weird. I think I went near the end of the day, but still...the rooms (it was so big they had multiple locations) were packed with people and tables, but I literally had to coax information out of anyone sitting at a table. Most of them acted like they really couldn't care less whether or not I joined their society. Um, way to attract people. Fortunately for them, I'm not a self-conscious freshman who would be put off by their seeming rejection. I knew which societies I wanted to know more about, and so I pressed as much information out of the poor table people as possible and then just put my name on their mailing list. Societies I will now receive information from: the Christian Union, the Female Voice Choir (aka the non-audition choir), the Create Society (they do random crafts once a week, soooo yes), the Fashion and Textiles Society (I really have no idea what they do, but there was no one actually at the table to tell me, so I'll just see what kind of emails I get), the Modern Dance Society (they do ballet, jazz, hip hop, break dancing, and modern), and, most importantly, the New Scotland Country Dance Society (highland dancing ftw). Obviously I'm not going to actually join all of those, but I figure at least a few events from each group will be interesting enough to actually go to. Yay for no-strings-attached Stuff To Do!
So anyway. That's pretty much all I know for now. I'd love to hear about everyone else's lives! Shoot me an email any time.
I also found the farmers' market today! (Of course, I didn't find it on my first try, because when has that ever happened, but after just a little bit of wandering I ended up in the right place.) Deeeelightful. I now have carrots, cucumbers, runner beans, tomatoes, raspberries, and blackberries. Yummy. As well as a confirmed source for fresh bread, pumpkins (!!!!), all manner of fresh fall fruit, and ostrich sausage. I was really worried about finding that last one.
As previously mentioned, classes start Monday. This means I have to actually start doing things. Oh...but did I mention I only have class on Tuesdays and Thursdays? Haha. Yeah. So I have four-day weekends. Whut up. I am actually really excited for my classes, though. So I have Language and the Natural Mind (least favorite), Philosophy of Time (OMG how cool is that)(plus it's taught by my advisor who seems very nice), Social Psychology (standard), and Social Judgment and Decision Making (um SWEET. Plus only half a semester long. Awww yeah.)
Oh wow I haven't even really talked about this week in general at all I guess. Okay, so this week has been...FRESHERS' WEEK! Basically like our Freshman Orientation, except longer and with more alcohol. (The drinking age here is eighteen, so virtually all of the freshers can drink, meaning 90% of the people on campus handing out fliers are from pubs and clubs. Also, our flat is on the main club street. Going to bed is very loud.) I've gone to some of the events, but really only the ones that are directly useful and/or fun for me. I did Freshman Orientation once; I'm pretty much done with that experience. So I've watched almost an entire season of Friends, made my flat feel sufficiently like home, and thoroughly explored campus and the entire surrounding area. One event I did attend, however (in addition to all the Christian Union events I've been to), was the Societies Fair (read: Activities Fair). It was weird. I think I went near the end of the day, but still...the rooms (it was so big they had multiple locations) were packed with people and tables, but I literally had to coax information out of anyone sitting at a table. Most of them acted like they really couldn't care less whether or not I joined their society. Um, way to attract people. Fortunately for them, I'm not a self-conscious freshman who would be put off by their seeming rejection. I knew which societies I wanted to know more about, and so I pressed as much information out of the poor table people as possible and then just put my name on their mailing list. Societies I will now receive information from: the Christian Union, the Female Voice Choir (aka the non-audition choir), the Create Society (they do random crafts once a week, soooo yes), the Fashion and Textiles Society (I really have no idea what they do, but there was no one actually at the table to tell me, so I'll just see what kind of emails I get), the Modern Dance Society (they do ballet, jazz, hip hop, break dancing, and modern), and, most importantly, the New Scotland Country Dance Society (highland dancing ftw). Obviously I'm not going to actually join all of those, but I figure at least a few events from each group will be interesting enough to actually go to. Yay for no-strings-attached Stuff To Do!
So anyway. That's pretty much all I know for now. I'd love to hear about everyone else's lives! Shoot me an email any time.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Working it out...
2:30 pm Edinburgh
8:30 am St. Louis
7:30 am Spearfish
Brief update: I've just spoken with the PNP study abroad guy from home and it looks like I have a plan. I'm just going to completely knock out the remainder of my Philosophy requirements while I'm here. Not perhaps ideal, seeing as how I basically despise philosophy, but maybe it'll work out since I'll only be taking three classes total (that's standard here - weird, I know) and two of them will be philosophy - so I'll just kind of go hard at philosophy with little else to distract me and knock it out. And I'm trying to have an open mind about philosophy. Trying.
8:30 am St. Louis
7:30 am Spearfish
Brief update: I've just spoken with the PNP study abroad guy from home and it looks like I have a plan. I'm just going to completely knock out the remainder of my Philosophy requirements while I'm here. Not perhaps ideal, seeing as how I basically despise philosophy, but maybe it'll work out since I'll only be taking three classes total (that's standard here - weird, I know) and two of them will be philosophy - so I'll just kind of go hard at philosophy with little else to distract me and knock it out. And I'm trying to have an open mind about philosophy. Trying.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Oh! Gravity.
12:00 am Edinburgh
6:00 pm St. Louis
5:00 pm Spearfish
Well, apparently according to the laws of physics or something dumb like that, what goes up must come down. So you know how I had a really awesome day a couple of days ago? Yeah. Today was its negative counterpart. Its equal and opposite reaction, if you will.
I could go through and give you the blow-by-blow, but really I have no desire to relive it all, and you probably don't want to read it anyway. So I'll summarize by saying this: the amount of general disorganization here is unreal. Seriously. I really think they just throw the students out there to fend for themselves and I have no idea how anyone does it, because half the university people I spoke with didn't seem to entirely know what was going on either. I spent the entire day in a state of massive confusion, not knowing where I was supposed to be or where I was supposed to have been already or what I needed to do or have done already...I ran back and forth between three different offices several different times. And the conclusion of the day? I'm currently signed up for two classes, one of them is the wrong one, and the list of classes I can take here to count toward my major at home is short and getting shorter. (Neither of the classes I'm in right now falls into that category.) The classes I have signed up for have been cancelled more times than I can count, and it's highly possible that they are STILL changing the schedule of which courses are going to be offered this semester. That whole pre-registration thing we were supposed to do at home was way more important than anyone let on, because even though it was tough to figure out what classes I should be in from thousands of miles away, it's even worse here because half the classes are full and my "advisor" really doesn't even pretend to know what I should or shouldn't take. Oh - and Philosophy courses aren't ones that he can directly sign me up for, meaning I have to go over to yet another office to sign up for those, while in the meantime trying to figure out which ones are worth taking by emailing my abroad advisor from home who, of course, has a six-hour time difference from me, making speedy contact difficult at best. Oh- and classes start on Monday.
I am soooooo frustrated. I'm sure within twenty-four hours this will all be fine and I'll be in worthwhile classes. In the meantime though, I've spent my free time banging my head against stone walls and baking/consuming shortbread. Delightful pursuits both, but perhaps not healthful in the long run. I really need this to be worked out.
Upside of the day was I found a small group for the semester. Yay.
Other upside of the day: I got totally addicted to this. Um, so much better than the original.
PS - sorry for the scatteredness/vagueness of that story. It was complicated and I am tired.
6:00 pm St. Louis
5:00 pm Spearfish
Well, apparently according to the laws of physics or something dumb like that, what goes up must come down. So you know how I had a really awesome day a couple of days ago? Yeah. Today was its negative counterpart. Its equal and opposite reaction, if you will.
I could go through and give you the blow-by-blow, but really I have no desire to relive it all, and you probably don't want to read it anyway. So I'll summarize by saying this: the amount of general disorganization here is unreal. Seriously. I really think they just throw the students out there to fend for themselves and I have no idea how anyone does it, because half the university people I spoke with didn't seem to entirely know what was going on either. I spent the entire day in a state of massive confusion, not knowing where I was supposed to be or where I was supposed to have been already or what I needed to do or have done already...I ran back and forth between three different offices several different times. And the conclusion of the day? I'm currently signed up for two classes, one of them is the wrong one, and the list of classes I can take here to count toward my major at home is short and getting shorter. (Neither of the classes I'm in right now falls into that category.) The classes I have signed up for have been cancelled more times than I can count, and it's highly possible that they are STILL changing the schedule of which courses are going to be offered this semester. That whole pre-registration thing we were supposed to do at home was way more important than anyone let on, because even though it was tough to figure out what classes I should be in from thousands of miles away, it's even worse here because half the classes are full and my "advisor" really doesn't even pretend to know what I should or shouldn't take. Oh - and Philosophy courses aren't ones that he can directly sign me up for, meaning I have to go over to yet another office to sign up for those, while in the meantime trying to figure out which ones are worth taking by emailing my abroad advisor from home who, of course, has a six-hour time difference from me, making speedy contact difficult at best. Oh- and classes start on Monday.
I am soooooo frustrated. I'm sure within twenty-four hours this will all be fine and I'll be in worthwhile classes. In the meantime though, I've spent my free time banging my head against stone walls and baking/consuming shortbread. Delightful pursuits both, but perhaps not healthful in the long run. I really need this to be worked out.
Upside of the day was I found a small group for the semester. Yay.
Other upside of the day: I got totally addicted to this. Um, so much better than the original.
PS - sorry for the scatteredness/vagueness of that story. It was complicated and I am tired.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Day of Win
12:30 pm Edinburgh
6:30 am St. Louis
5:30 am Spearfish
Yesterday was a fantastic day. Everything worked out well. I got so much accomplished and it was brilliant.
I have to get the single disaster of the day out of the way, though. I was on a coffee hunt around 1:00, and I ran across a Starbucks and thought, ooooo Pumpkin Spice Latte. Have to get one. So I went in feeling not confident at all that they would actually have it, but hoping beyond all hope that they would. (Pumpkin Spice Lattes, in case you don't know, are probably my single very most favorite thing about fall. I'm really not exaggerating. I love fall in general, but I am incredibly ridiculously hopelessly in love with those things. I acknowledge that it's a little weird, but don't judge me.) So I walked up to the counter like I knew what I was doing and said, "Do you have pumpkin spice lattes?" And the lady gave me this very sweet but confused look and said, "Sorry, what?" Stomach drops. "Pumpkin spice lattes." "No, sorry," she said, completely unaware that she had just thrown a little black raincloud over my parade. I said "okay" and "thanks" and "sorry" in some order and walked out. I probably should have ordered something, just walking out was a little awkward of me, but whatever. I didn't want anything else. So boo for that.
First win: grocery shopping. I found a drugstore and bought all the things I was running out of, including contact solution (which is even more expensive than at home??? dislike...), so that was good. But then I went to the grocery store carrying this massive list of ingredients that I couldn't find at Lidl (Lidl is my life. It's this German grocery store chain where everything is massively cheap. Like unbelievably so. It's a little dodgy, but not enough to make me not go there.), and spent quite some time weaving in and out of every single aisle at least three times each, picking things up and staring at them trying desperately to determine whether or not they were what I thought they were. Most of the time they weren't. But I eventually emerged semi-victorious with all the ingredients on my list except ditalini pasta (which I had a suitable substitute for, aka elbow noodles, because all pasta is basically created equal as far as I'm concerned), garbanzo beans, curry powder, leeks (I bought spring onions on my last grocery trip thinking they were leeks. I'm really bad with onion-like-thing varieties.), vegetable juice (which is incredibly hard to find even in the States), and pumpkin because I was hoping I could make my own lattes. The beans, curry and leeks I found at this adorable little Indian grocery store, where the shopkeepers seemed really surprised to see a white girl. I forgot to look for pumpkin there, but I remain doggedly hopeful that it will show up somewhere, sometime over the course of the season. So I dragged myself and my weird groceries home and put them away with pride, fairly pleased with myself for that portion of the day.
Oh, except the dairy products were a problem as well. The varieties of cheese here basically consist of the following: cheddar, aged cheddar, really aged cheddar, sharp cheddar, cheap cheddar, expensive cheddar, Scottish cheddar, and feta. There are some other really random varieties, but at least where I was it was like someone had had a cheese catalog and just pointed randomly at a few different types and said, "Eh, those look like fancy cheeses that weird people might buy to cook with or something." So I ended up buying some weird French type that I've never heard of and have no idea what it tastes like. I should have just gotten mozzarella. I think they had that. And then the butter was weird too. Although the Scottish are immensely fond of butter, they don't seem to be so fond of real butter. Everything here is, at best, "Made with real butter!"; most of it is at least half vegetable oil. And none of it comes in the handy little one-inch-equals-one-tablespoon sticks; it's either in a weird giant cube or in a tub for spreading. I finally got the tub, and I guess I'll just scoop it out with my measuring spoons. This semester is going to be a cooking adventure. Even more so than usual.
Aaaaanyway. Next win: found an adorable yarn shop and got some needles with which to make my hat out of my Irish tweed. Woot woot. And all the yarn in there was lusciously soft and also local, I think. So I'll be in there rather a lot, I think.
Next win: one of my favorite people was in Edinburgh a few weeks before I was, and created this amazing scavenger hunt for me around the city. I searched for the first clue when I was here before my trip, but it had been evilly stolen or something. So she directed me to the next clue, and yesterday I found it! (I mean, it wasn't hard because she told me exactly where it was. But whatever.) So now the hunt is on. I am so freaking excited.
Final and favorite win. (Can I have a favorite win? Well, I do.) Last night I did my first activity with the Christian Union! It was sooooo much fun. It was a "Grub Crawl", aka a progressive dinner, one of those where you have the first course at one person's house and then walk over to the second house for the second course, et cetera et cetera. This was an incredible multiple win. 1) All the food was AWESOME. 2) I got to talk to a lot of AWESOME people. 3) Now I know some people in CU, and I'm going to definitely get involved (I mean, that was already the plan, but now I know them). 4) It was literally the most fun I've had since I've been here. The last house was tea/coffee and biscuits, but then afterwards we played alll these games and just laughed hysterically the entire time. 5) My flatmate came with! She's not Christian, but she came for the free food and met a lot of people as well and had a lot of fun and I think now I could convince her to come with in future? It was really funny - we were talking beforehand, as we were waiting to set off for the first house, and I guess I'm the first serious Christian she's ever met. Actually, now that I think about it, that's kind of really scary. Pray that God helps me be a good ambassador - because now it really counts. Either way, though, I'm very glad she came with.
Ha. The fire alarm just went off here. (It was not me this time.) It only went off for about 30 seconds, though, and fortunately it's nothing like the ones at home (aka brain-disabling). So none of us went outside or anything. Hopefully the building isn't really on fire. I feel like it is not.
Good news, there seem to be no hard feelings over the "devolution" fiasco the other day. For clarification, I guess I didn't actually say this - devolution is when a higher level of government gives power to a lower level, so the mug was for the 10-year anniversary of when the British government gave some level of autonomy back to Scotland, and the Scottish Parliament was formed. Definitely not a joke.
Heh. Sorry for a bit of a novel today. Haha oh speaking of books - thanks Ali, you're really sweet. :)
Vocab for the day:
Biscuit = cookie
Scone = biscuit
Brilliant = awesome
Class = awesome
6:30 am St. Louis
5:30 am Spearfish
Yesterday was a fantastic day. Everything worked out well. I got so much accomplished and it was brilliant.
I have to get the single disaster of the day out of the way, though. I was on a coffee hunt around 1:00, and I ran across a Starbucks and thought, ooooo Pumpkin Spice Latte. Have to get one. So I went in feeling not confident at all that they would actually have it, but hoping beyond all hope that they would. (Pumpkin Spice Lattes, in case you don't know, are probably my single very most favorite thing about fall. I'm really not exaggerating. I love fall in general, but I am incredibly ridiculously hopelessly in love with those things. I acknowledge that it's a little weird, but don't judge me.) So I walked up to the counter like I knew what I was doing and said, "Do you have pumpkin spice lattes?" And the lady gave me this very sweet but confused look and said, "Sorry, what?" Stomach drops. "Pumpkin spice lattes." "No, sorry," she said, completely unaware that she had just thrown a little black raincloud over my parade. I said "okay" and "thanks" and "sorry" in some order and walked out. I probably should have ordered something, just walking out was a little awkward of me, but whatever. I didn't want anything else. So boo for that.
First win: grocery shopping. I found a drugstore and bought all the things I was running out of, including contact solution (which is even more expensive than at home??? dislike...), so that was good. But then I went to the grocery store carrying this massive list of ingredients that I couldn't find at Lidl (Lidl is my life. It's this German grocery store chain where everything is massively cheap. Like unbelievably so. It's a little dodgy, but not enough to make me not go there.), and spent quite some time weaving in and out of every single aisle at least three times each, picking things up and staring at them trying desperately to determine whether or not they were what I thought they were. Most of the time they weren't. But I eventually emerged semi-victorious with all the ingredients on my list except ditalini pasta (which I had a suitable substitute for, aka elbow noodles, because all pasta is basically created equal as far as I'm concerned), garbanzo beans, curry powder, leeks (I bought spring onions on my last grocery trip thinking they were leeks. I'm really bad with onion-like-thing varieties.), vegetable juice (which is incredibly hard to find even in the States), and pumpkin because I was hoping I could make my own lattes. The beans, curry and leeks I found at this adorable little Indian grocery store, where the shopkeepers seemed really surprised to see a white girl. I forgot to look for pumpkin there, but I remain doggedly hopeful that it will show up somewhere, sometime over the course of the season. So I dragged myself and my weird groceries home and put them away with pride, fairly pleased with myself for that portion of the day.
Oh, except the dairy products were a problem as well. The varieties of cheese here basically consist of the following: cheddar, aged cheddar, really aged cheddar, sharp cheddar, cheap cheddar, expensive cheddar, Scottish cheddar, and feta. There are some other really random varieties, but at least where I was it was like someone had had a cheese catalog and just pointed randomly at a few different types and said, "Eh, those look like fancy cheeses that weird people might buy to cook with or something." So I ended up buying some weird French type that I've never heard of and have no idea what it tastes like. I should have just gotten mozzarella. I think they had that. And then the butter was weird too. Although the Scottish are immensely fond of butter, they don't seem to be so fond of real butter. Everything here is, at best, "Made with real butter!"; most of it is at least half vegetable oil. And none of it comes in the handy little one-inch-equals-one-tablespoon sticks; it's either in a weird giant cube or in a tub for spreading. I finally got the tub, and I guess I'll just scoop it out with my measuring spoons. This semester is going to be a cooking adventure. Even more so than usual.
Aaaaanyway. Next win: found an adorable yarn shop and got some needles with which to make my hat out of my Irish tweed. Woot woot. And all the yarn in there was lusciously soft and also local, I think. So I'll be in there rather a lot, I think.
Next win: one of my favorite people was in Edinburgh a few weeks before I was, and created this amazing scavenger hunt for me around the city. I searched for the first clue when I was here before my trip, but it had been evilly stolen or something. So she directed me to the next clue, and yesterday I found it! (I mean, it wasn't hard because she told me exactly where it was. But whatever.) So now the hunt is on. I am so freaking excited.
Final and favorite win. (Can I have a favorite win? Well, I do.) Last night I did my first activity with the Christian Union! It was sooooo much fun. It was a "Grub Crawl", aka a progressive dinner, one of those where you have the first course at one person's house and then walk over to the second house for the second course, et cetera et cetera. This was an incredible multiple win. 1) All the food was AWESOME. 2) I got to talk to a lot of AWESOME people. 3) Now I know some people in CU, and I'm going to definitely get involved (I mean, that was already the plan, but now I know them). 4) It was literally the most fun I've had since I've been here. The last house was tea/coffee and biscuits, but then afterwards we played alll these games and just laughed hysterically the entire time. 5) My flatmate came with! She's not Christian, but she came for the free food and met a lot of people as well and had a lot of fun and I think now I could convince her to come with in future? It was really funny - we were talking beforehand, as we were waiting to set off for the first house, and I guess I'm the first serious Christian she's ever met. Actually, now that I think about it, that's kind of really scary. Pray that God helps me be a good ambassador - because now it really counts. Either way, though, I'm very glad she came with.
Ha. The fire alarm just went off here. (It was not me this time.) It only went off for about 30 seconds, though, and fortunately it's nothing like the ones at home (aka brain-disabling). So none of us went outside or anything. Hopefully the building isn't really on fire. I feel like it is not.
Good news, there seem to be no hard feelings over the "devolution" fiasco the other day. For clarification, I guess I didn't actually say this - devolution is when a higher level of government gives power to a lower level, so the mug was for the 10-year anniversary of when the British government gave some level of autonomy back to Scotland, and the Scottish Parliament was formed. Definitely not a joke.
Heh. Sorry for a bit of a novel today. Haha oh speaking of books - thanks Ali, you're really sweet. :)
Vocab for the day:
Biscuit = cookie
Scone = biscuit
Brilliant = awesome
Class = awesome
Monday, September 13, 2010
How to confuse yourself and offend people.
Don't panic. Despite the title of this post, I'm still having an incredible time. I'm just...confusing myself and offending people. Allow me to elaborate.
First, the confusion. The greater part of today has been spent trying to find sufficient measuring utensils. My dilemma last time was measuring cups. It's true, the Scottish don't believe in normal (normal being an incredibly relative term) measuring cups, with the handles and stuff. But what they seem to be really and truly opposed to is measuring anything in cups. They really like milliliters, and they're okay with fluid ounces, but cups they simply will not do. Tina and I trooped alllll over Edinburgh today looking for something that measured in cups. We actually found a set of normal measuring cups, handles and all, in normal cup denominations, but they were like £10 and that is just not worth it. But I was encouraged by the fact that they actually exist. What did not seem to exist at all, however, was measuring spoons. Nowhere, nowhere did they have anything that even vaguely resembled a teaspoon or a tablespoon or any fraction thereof. So finally, after all our trooping and much negotiating with several very kind Scottish shop workers, we ended up in a kitchen store (right place). And I found several very small measuring cups that measured teaspoons (??), but I pictured trying to measure half a teaspoon of baking soda in a little cup that didn't go below 1 tsp and just really wanted the spoons. So finally, finally we found the spoons. Measuring spoons, with a tablespoon and a teaspoon and a half teaspoon and a quarter teaspoon. So beautiful. As for the measuring cups, I finally settled for a little silicone cup that measures in milliliters. I definitely should have gone for something that had fluid ounces as well...oh, well! I'll probably just end up measuring it out in tablespoons and making permanent-marker markings on my cup, a la my delightful homemade measuring cup from this summer, for those of you who saw it. Creativity is where it's at.
Now, as for offending people. It wasn't as bad as it could have been. But unfortunately it was my Scottish flatmate, who in all honesty I think is not crazy about the rest of us already. So, she has this coffee mug that says "Devolution", and then it's something about 10 years of the Scottish Parliament. I was unaware of the political definition of "devolution", so I had been really confused about the mug already, and then we were in the kitchen and Tina asked me about it, so I told her the definition of devolution that I know: as the dictionary puts it, "descent or degeneration into a lower or worse state". (Not verbatim, of course, but you know.) So we were laughing about it, thinking it must be some joke about the degeneration of the Scottish Parliament, but it was weird because it looks so official. So then Rebecca came in and we were like, okay, we have to ask you about your mug...is it a joke? And she gives us this look. "Why would it be a joke?" So I'm quickly backtracking, and we're both kind of fumbling, and eventually she kind of explained the political term, and Tina and I laughed awkwardly and explained what we were thinking...Rebecca left quickly after that. It didn't even have to be a cultural thing, just that I'm apparently kind of stupid and it unfortunately came out as a cultural thing. Oooooops.
So it's been a somewhat embarrassing day. Also, the weather is apparently done playing nice for the new international students, so today it's been really rainy and windy and rather lousy in general. My umbrella turned inside out and was pretty much done after that, so I've been a little soggy for a lot of the day. On the bright side, the humidity is making my hair really pretty and wavy, when it's not actually wet. Another positive is that Tina and I hit up the university poster sale today and got some decorations, so my room isn't quite so bare anymore. I got a Friends poster. Heh heh. Me gusta mucho.
Let me share with you the brand-new lexicon I am acquiring! (Plus provide some reference points for various things.)
Cheers = thank you, you're welcome, goodbye, have a nice day, bless you, excuse me...
Freshers = freshmen
Flat = apartment
Pavement = sidewalk
Lift = elevator
Pound = 1.5 dollars
Kilogram (kilo) = 2.2 pounds (I'm still working on this one)
University = college (can't say college here, college = high school maybe?)
More on all of that as I figure more things out.
Cheers.
First, the confusion. The greater part of today has been spent trying to find sufficient measuring utensils. My dilemma last time was measuring cups. It's true, the Scottish don't believe in normal (normal being an incredibly relative term) measuring cups, with the handles and stuff. But what they seem to be really and truly opposed to is measuring anything in cups. They really like milliliters, and they're okay with fluid ounces, but cups they simply will not do. Tina and I trooped alllll over Edinburgh today looking for something that measured in cups. We actually found a set of normal measuring cups, handles and all, in normal cup denominations, but they were like £10 and that is just not worth it. But I was encouraged by the fact that they actually exist. What did not seem to exist at all, however, was measuring spoons. Nowhere, nowhere did they have anything that even vaguely resembled a teaspoon or a tablespoon or any fraction thereof. So finally, after all our trooping and much negotiating with several very kind Scottish shop workers, we ended up in a kitchen store (right place). And I found several very small measuring cups that measured teaspoons (??), but I pictured trying to measure half a teaspoon of baking soda in a little cup that didn't go below 1 tsp and just really wanted the spoons. So finally, finally we found the spoons. Measuring spoons, with a tablespoon and a teaspoon and a half teaspoon and a quarter teaspoon. So beautiful. As for the measuring cups, I finally settled for a little silicone cup that measures in milliliters. I definitely should have gone for something that had fluid ounces as well...oh, well! I'll probably just end up measuring it out in tablespoons and making permanent-marker markings on my cup, a la my delightful homemade measuring cup from this summer, for those of you who saw it. Creativity is where it's at.
Now, as for offending people. It wasn't as bad as it could have been. But unfortunately it was my Scottish flatmate, who in all honesty I think is not crazy about the rest of us already. So, she has this coffee mug that says "Devolution", and then it's something about 10 years of the Scottish Parliament. I was unaware of the political definition of "devolution", so I had been really confused about the mug already, and then we were in the kitchen and Tina asked me about it, so I told her the definition of devolution that I know: as the dictionary puts it, "descent or degeneration into a lower or worse state". (Not verbatim, of course, but you know.) So we were laughing about it, thinking it must be some joke about the degeneration of the Scottish Parliament, but it was weird because it looks so official. So then Rebecca came in and we were like, okay, we have to ask you about your mug...is it a joke? And she gives us this look. "Why would it be a joke?" So I'm quickly backtracking, and we're both kind of fumbling, and eventually she kind of explained the political term, and Tina and I laughed awkwardly and explained what we were thinking...Rebecca left quickly after that. It didn't even have to be a cultural thing, just that I'm apparently kind of stupid and it unfortunately came out as a cultural thing. Oooooops.
So it's been a somewhat embarrassing day. Also, the weather is apparently done playing nice for the new international students, so today it's been really rainy and windy and rather lousy in general. My umbrella turned inside out and was pretty much done after that, so I've been a little soggy for a lot of the day. On the bright side, the humidity is making my hair really pretty and wavy, when it's not actually wet. Another positive is that Tina and I hit up the university poster sale today and got some decorations, so my room isn't quite so bare anymore. I got a Friends poster. Heh heh. Me gusta mucho.
Let me share with you the brand-new lexicon I am acquiring! (Plus provide some reference points for various things.)
Cheers = thank you, you're welcome, goodbye, have a nice day, bless you, excuse me...
Freshers = freshmen
Flat = apartment
Pavement = sidewalk
Lift = elevator
Pound = 1.5 dollars
Kilogram (kilo) = 2.2 pounds (I'm still working on this one)
University = college (can't say college here, college = high school maybe?)
More on all of that as I figure more things out.
Cheers.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Haggis and homemaking
Oh my goodness. So. Many. Things.
I have officially survived my first twenty-four (plus some) hours as an international student! Woot woot! It has been ca-razy. I'm currently sitting in my room with the window open, laughing at the "wee freshers" as they pass by on their way to the myriad pubs along our street. They'll be going back and forth for probably the next three hours, singing and yelling and chanting things that, between the accent and the alcohol, will be completely incomprehensible. They're pretty funny. I'm sure they, and everyone else who passes on this street, won't be quite so funny a month or two from now, but for now it doesn't bother me enough to make me close the window and shut out the lovely breeze that I have to take advantage of now when it's here.
My room is basically furnished now! Favorite room purchase: flowers for my window. (Laugh all you want, Niko.) I potted them in a little white coffee mug and they are perfect. I spent a total of waaaay too many hours searching for a duvet and cover. Finally got one that will suffice and that fits in with the plan for my room that I have in my head. My stuff is still dumped all over the floor, and there still isn't anything on my walls. But I promise it's going to be grand when it's done. Hopefully it comes out as nicely as it's supposed to. That usually doesn't work. But whatever.
All my flatmates are here! It's very exciting. Besides me we have one German, one Canadian, and one Scot. Such diversity. It's pretty funny, though - the other two internationals and I are all third-years, while the Scot is a fresher. So it's kind of nostalgic for all of us to sit around and watch her go through the whole I-can't-believe-I'm-not-going-home-in-a-week thing. Poor babe. But anyway, I'm really excited about our suite. The German, Tina, is incredibly chill and we've hung out a lot already. I like her a lot. We were the first two here and we bonded pretty immediately, so we're slowly bringing the other two into our little group of awesome. The Canadian, Margaret, is also very nice. She's been here about 6 hours and she's already expressed lots of interest in doing things as a flat - decorating, mass-cooking, etc. We're going to get along. :) And Rebecca is sweet. I feel like she might not quite know what to do with the fact that none of her flatmates are either A) her age or B) her nationality, but we'll convert her, I'm sure.
I had my first haggis!! It was not bad. It's not my new favorite dish and I probably wouldn't order it in a restaurant, but it is not bad. It was very much just like a mashed up, rather salty sausage. They had a Scottish food tasting as one of the Freshers' Week events tonight, so we got haggis, beef stew (I think/hope), and "neeps and tatties", aka mashed turnips and potatoes. It was all very filling and generally pretty good. I am a fan of Scottish food. Especially, although they didn't serve this, the shortbread. OH MY GOSH. I die for shortbread. (Possibly literally. The stuff is, I kid you not, minimum 30% butter. Oh hey, heart failure. ...Eh, oh well.)
I also went to my very first ceilidh tonight! [That word, despite all instincts, is pronounced KAY-lee.] It was very exciting. Basically the name of the game is they give you a crash course in a Scottish folk dance and start playing the music, and the madness ensues. I actually picked up on the dance relatively quickly, but everyone in my little group very much did not, so we had a blast just kind of swinging each other randomly around the floor. The single Scot in our group was, I think, kind of annoyed at us after trying to explain it to us about 27 times. Oh, well. I very much plan to go to a lot more of those in future.
Current song of choice of the club down the road? "Don't Stop Believing". Um...all right.
Random other things I love about the UK:
- Nutella as a fully acceptable alternative to peanut butter
- the cobblestone streets
- the fabulous secondhand shops everywhere
- the fashion-forwardness
- the weird things available in grocery stores. Examples: watercress and hazelnut-flavored yogurt.]
- THE ACCENTS. I predict this NOT getting old.
Things I will be happy to see again in the US:
- a single water faucet that puts out hot and cold AND anywhere-in-the-middle water
- um, measuring cups?? literally cannot find a single set anywhere...
- normal blankets for beds, rather than just a fitted sheet and duvet
- you :)
I have officially survived my first twenty-four (plus some) hours as an international student! Woot woot! It has been ca-razy. I'm currently sitting in my room with the window open, laughing at the "wee freshers" as they pass by on their way to the myriad pubs along our street. They'll be going back and forth for probably the next three hours, singing and yelling and chanting things that, between the accent and the alcohol, will be completely incomprehensible. They're pretty funny. I'm sure they, and everyone else who passes on this street, won't be quite so funny a month or two from now, but for now it doesn't bother me enough to make me close the window and shut out the lovely breeze that I have to take advantage of now when it's here.
My room is basically furnished now! Favorite room purchase: flowers for my window. (Laugh all you want, Niko.) I potted them in a little white coffee mug and they are perfect. I spent a total of waaaay too many hours searching for a duvet and cover. Finally got one that will suffice and that fits in with the plan for my room that I have in my head. My stuff is still dumped all over the floor, and there still isn't anything on my walls. But I promise it's going to be grand when it's done. Hopefully it comes out as nicely as it's supposed to. That usually doesn't work. But whatever.
All my flatmates are here! It's very exciting. Besides me we have one German, one Canadian, and one Scot. Such diversity. It's pretty funny, though - the other two internationals and I are all third-years, while the Scot is a fresher. So it's kind of nostalgic for all of us to sit around and watch her go through the whole I-can't-believe-I'm-not-going-home-in-a-week thing. Poor babe. But anyway, I'm really excited about our suite. The German, Tina, is incredibly chill and we've hung out a lot already. I like her a lot. We were the first two here and we bonded pretty immediately, so we're slowly bringing the other two into our little group of awesome. The Canadian, Margaret, is also very nice. She's been here about 6 hours and she's already expressed lots of interest in doing things as a flat - decorating, mass-cooking, etc. We're going to get along. :) And Rebecca is sweet. I feel like she might not quite know what to do with the fact that none of her flatmates are either A) her age or B) her nationality, but we'll convert her, I'm sure.
I had my first haggis!! It was not bad. It's not my new favorite dish and I probably wouldn't order it in a restaurant, but it is not bad. It was very much just like a mashed up, rather salty sausage. They had a Scottish food tasting as one of the Freshers' Week events tonight, so we got haggis, beef stew (I think/hope), and "neeps and tatties", aka mashed turnips and potatoes. It was all very filling and generally pretty good. I am a fan of Scottish food. Especially, although they didn't serve this, the shortbread. OH MY GOSH. I die for shortbread. (Possibly literally. The stuff is, I kid you not, minimum 30% butter. Oh hey, heart failure. ...Eh, oh well.)
I also went to my very first ceilidh tonight! [That word, despite all instincts, is pronounced KAY-lee.] It was very exciting. Basically the name of the game is they give you a crash course in a Scottish folk dance and start playing the music, and the madness ensues. I actually picked up on the dance relatively quickly, but everyone in my little group very much did not, so we had a blast just kind of swinging each other randomly around the floor. The single Scot in our group was, I think, kind of annoyed at us after trying to explain it to us about 27 times. Oh, well. I very much plan to go to a lot more of those in future.
Current song of choice of the club down the road? "Don't Stop Believing". Um...all right.
Random other things I love about the UK:
- Nutella as a fully acceptable alternative to peanut butter
- the cobblestone streets
- the fabulous secondhand shops everywhere
- the fashion-forwardness
- the weird things available in grocery stores. Examples: watercress and hazelnut-flavored yogurt.]
- THE ACCENTS. I predict this NOT getting old.
Things I will be happy to see again in the US:
- a single water faucet that puts out hot and cold AND anywhere-in-the-middle water
- um, measuring cups?? literally cannot find a single set anywhere...
- normal blankets for beds, rather than just a fitted sheet and duvet
- you :)
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Mi casa es su casa
3:30 pm Edinburgh
9:30 am St. Louis
8:30 am Spearfish
I'm home!! :) I mean technically I've been here for about 6 hours, but I've only just stopped moving. I was the first one here, but shortly afterward one of my flatmates arrived. Her name is Tina and she's from Germany - she's great. We've been shopping already and gotten a lot of the stuff for our flat - all of our dishes, some groceries, etc. The dishes we had to scout around a little bit for, but finally ended up with a good start. My favorite are the white squarish Ikea plates, a set of 8 that we got at a secondhand store for £4. They're slightly classier (and were actually cheaper) than dishes at "Pound Stretcher" (think Dollar Mart), where we got a lot of our other stuff for cheap. It's really great. I still need to work on getting bedding, plus stuff for my room to make it feel a little more homey. I should probably do that before the shops close in an hour. Grr. Okay fine.
Good story - when Tina and I were going out to go shopping, we came out this little alleyway onto the Royal Mile onto a PARADE. It was fabulous - there seemed to be several different bands all playing together. We have no idea what it was for, but it was pretty cool. :)
9:30 am St. Louis
8:30 am Spearfish
I'm home!! :) I mean technically I've been here for about 6 hours, but I've only just stopped moving. I was the first one here, but shortly afterward one of my flatmates arrived. Her name is Tina and she's from Germany - she's great. We've been shopping already and gotten a lot of the stuff for our flat - all of our dishes, some groceries, etc. The dishes we had to scout around a little bit for, but finally ended up with a good start. My favorite are the white squarish Ikea plates, a set of 8 that we got at a secondhand store for £4. They're slightly classier (and were actually cheaper) than dishes at "Pound Stretcher" (think Dollar Mart), where we got a lot of our other stuff for cheap. It's really great. I still need to work on getting bedding, plus stuff for my room to make it feel a little more homey. I should probably do that before the shops close in an hour. Grr. Okay fine.
Good story - when Tina and I were going out to go shopping, we came out this little alleyway onto the Royal Mile onto a PARADE. It was fabulous - there seemed to be several different bands all playing together. We have no idea what it was for, but it was pretty cool. :)
Ew boys
8:30 am Edinburgh
2:30 am St. Louis
1:30 am Spearfish
...In the bathroom, anyway. Sooo last night was my last night in a hostel (WOOT!), and I ended up staying in the same hostel I started in in Edinburgh. It was a very nice hostel, plus it was the cheapest in Edinburgh with availability for last night. However, at the beginning of this trip I was in an 8-person, all-female, ensuite room. (Ensuite meaning it has its own bathroom attached.) This time, the cheapest availability was an 18-person, mixed-gender, not ensuite room. Meaning...the bathroom is shared with the entire floor and is, like the room, for both genders. Oh boy. I got in around 11:15 (made it across the city from the bus station safely, phew) and went into the bathroom to do my teeth-brushing, etc. The bathroom was very nice, but there was water everywhere. It was pretty disgusting. I had to change clothes kind of standing in this puddle...awkward. And then there was this guy just coming out of the shower stall and I just kept doing my thing and didn't make eye contact but it was weird. So, whatever, I finished up and collapsed into bed. Got up this morning and really had no desire to take a shower in that bathroom. But I went in to do my thing, again, and even though it was like 7 am there were a couple of guys in there already. And oohhhh myyyy gossshhh. This one guy...every time he splashed water on his face he scrubbed at it like he was trying to kill his face, and then while he was brushing his teeth he kept doing this terrible violently-sniff-up-all-the-mucus-in-your-nose-and-then-noisily-spit-it-into-the-sink thing. Ewwww.
Sooooo anyway. Hopefully that wasn't too graphic. I'm in Starbucks again, mentally and caffeinely preparing myself to hike across town to my flat. My choice of hostel for last night might just be the single thing I sincerely regret about this trip. I easily could have chosen a hostel between the bus station and my flat. Nope. Instead I chose one like a mile the other direction. I mean, it was a nice hostel and all. But still. Now I have to trek across Edinburgh with this ridiculous pack. Good exercise, I guess. Then after I get over there and check in and drop my stuff, I have to get out to my storage space, get all my stuff, and somehow find a taxi or something back over. Goodness. It's going to be quite a morning. Oh well...SO EXCITED to be moving in!! :)
2:30 am St. Louis
1:30 am Spearfish
...In the bathroom, anyway. Sooo last night was my last night in a hostel (WOOT!), and I ended up staying in the same hostel I started in in Edinburgh. It was a very nice hostel, plus it was the cheapest in Edinburgh with availability for last night. However, at the beginning of this trip I was in an 8-person, all-female, ensuite room. (Ensuite meaning it has its own bathroom attached.) This time, the cheapest availability was an 18-person, mixed-gender, not ensuite room. Meaning...the bathroom is shared with the entire floor and is, like the room, for both genders. Oh boy. I got in around 11:15 (made it across the city from the bus station safely, phew) and went into the bathroom to do my teeth-brushing, etc. The bathroom was very nice, but there was water everywhere. It was pretty disgusting. I had to change clothes kind of standing in this puddle...awkward. And then there was this guy just coming out of the shower stall and I just kept doing my thing and didn't make eye contact but it was weird. So, whatever, I finished up and collapsed into bed. Got up this morning and really had no desire to take a shower in that bathroom. But I went in to do my thing, again, and even though it was like 7 am there were a couple of guys in there already. And oohhhh myyyy gossshhh. This one guy...every time he splashed water on his face he scrubbed at it like he was trying to kill his face, and then while he was brushing his teeth he kept doing this terrible violently-sniff-up-all-the-mucus-in-your-nose-and-then-noisily-spit-it-into-the-sink thing. Ewwww.
Sooooo anyway. Hopefully that wasn't too graphic. I'm in Starbucks again, mentally and caffeinely preparing myself to hike across town to my flat. My choice of hostel for last night might just be the single thing I sincerely regret about this trip. I easily could have chosen a hostel between the bus station and my flat. Nope. Instead I chose one like a mile the other direction. I mean, it was a nice hostel and all. But still. Now I have to trek across Edinburgh with this ridiculous pack. Good exercise, I guess. Then after I get over there and check in and drop my stuff, I have to get out to my storage space, get all my stuff, and somehow find a taxi or something back over. Goodness. It's going to be quite a morning. Oh well...SO EXCITED to be moving in!! :)
Friday, September 10, 2010
Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
6:30 pm Stranraer, Scotland
12:30 pm St. Louis
11:30 am Spearfish
...Except for actually trains, ferries, and buses. I'm chilling in the ferry terminal in Stranraer (a.k.a. Nowhere), Scotland, waiting for my bus to Edinburgh. I've been here since 4:20, and my bus doesn't leave until 7:30. I had originally considered going around and exploring the city a little, but this place is A) not really anything you could call a city and B) more than a little dodgy. ("Dodgy" is my new word. I heard it from an Australian at breakfast this morning and am a fan. Heh.) Sooo I've been sitting in the weird terminal for two hours battling the wi-fi and realizing I'm probably not supposed to sit here this long. Oh, well. Nobody's done anything about it so far.
(PS I have no idea how to say the name of this town - someone said it on the ferry and it sounded vaguely like Schtruuhnroar or something like that. So I'm going to go with my standard and just avoid saying it.)
Sooo I set off the smoke alarm at my hostel this morning. Bahahaha. It wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. I was at breakfast (This hostel had free breakfast!! Best hostel ever.) making toast, and the first time the toast went through the toaster (it was one of those cool conveyor-belt-style toasters) it didn't get toasty enough, so I sent it back through. You know what happened. I was a little concerned about the amount of smoke coming out, but it wasn't that bad, so I waved it away and threw my charcoally toast in the garbage and started over. It took a couple of minutes for the thing to go off, so when it did and everyone else was looking around confusedly I just did the same thing. It didn't go off for very long either, so I continued with my breakfast like nothing had happened. Nobody seemed to suspect anything. Haha. It was kind of hilarious.
Doo doo doo. Only an hour until my bus. And then four more hours and EDINBURGH!! I'm very excited to be back in that lovely city.
12:30 pm St. Louis
11:30 am Spearfish
...Except for actually trains, ferries, and buses. I'm chilling in the ferry terminal in Stranraer (a.k.a. Nowhere), Scotland, waiting for my bus to Edinburgh. I've been here since 4:20, and my bus doesn't leave until 7:30. I had originally considered going around and exploring the city a little, but this place is A) not really anything you could call a city and B) more than a little dodgy. ("Dodgy" is my new word. I heard it from an Australian at breakfast this morning and am a fan. Heh.) Sooo I've been sitting in the weird terminal for two hours battling the wi-fi and realizing I'm probably not supposed to sit here this long. Oh, well. Nobody's done anything about it so far.
(PS I have no idea how to say the name of this town - someone said it on the ferry and it sounded vaguely like Schtruuhnroar or something like that. So I'm going to go with my standard and just avoid saying it.)
Sooo I set off the smoke alarm at my hostel this morning. Bahahaha. It wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. I was at breakfast (This hostel had free breakfast!! Best hostel ever.) making toast, and the first time the toast went through the toaster (it was one of those cool conveyor-belt-style toasters) it didn't get toasty enough, so I sent it back through. You know what happened. I was a little concerned about the amount of smoke coming out, but it wasn't that bad, so I waved it away and threw my charcoally toast in the garbage and started over. It took a couple of minutes for the thing to go off, so when it did and everyone else was looking around confusedly I just did the same thing. It didn't go off for very long either, so I continued with my breakfast like nothing had happened. Nobody seemed to suspect anything. Haha. It was kind of hilarious.
Doo doo doo. Only an hour until my bus. And then four more hours and EDINBURGH!! I'm very excited to be back in that lovely city.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
In Dublin's fair city...
I'm writing this sitting outside in one of the courtyards at Trinity College, in Dublin. My bit of exploring of the city is done, halted by the inevitable 5:00 closure of all things visitable besides restaurants and pubs. I got into the city via train around 1:15, decided to walk to my hostel rather than bus, arrived 45 minutes later, took a few minutes to breathe, and set out. I found the tourist office first (a.k.a. my home away from home), browsed the brochures, and then got directions to the nearest grocery store to find food for the next day and a half. Grocery stores are still a little rough for me, given that I don't understand what 3/4 of the things are, and I'm constantly getting knocked sideways by rampant carts running into my backpack. (Even though I only carry my school-sized backpack when I'm actually out in cities, it sticks out awkwardly behind me everywhere I go. Particularly in narrow grocery store aisles. Arrrgh.)
Anyway. I braved the grocery store and emerged victorious with apples, "carrot batons" (carrot sticks), whole-wheat soda bread, pumpkin seeds (unfortunately pretty gross), some unknown flavor of yogurt (turned out to be plain), some foreign version of Fig Newtons (except for these are WAY better than Fig Newtons), and some random chocolate bar. I was really proud of myself.
I was still debating at this point whether to pay the €8 entrance fee to see the Book of Kells. Unfortunately, I didn't change enough of my pounds to Euros upon entry into Ireland, so I have way more of the former at this point, which aren't doing me any good. So I decided against the Book of Kells. Sorry, O Illuminated Manuscript. Instead, I wandered in the general direction of the Chester Beatty Library, this free collection of historical objects including lots and lots of religious documents. Unfortunately, I did not find it. Instead, though, I stumbled upon Christ Church Cathedral, the biggest cathedral in Dublin or something. Anyway, it was only €3 for students and I really really like cathedrals, so I went in. This was unfortunately much more like a museum than a place of worship - other cathedrals I've visited have at least maintained a generally reverent atmosphere. It made me sad. But I sat down to pray anyway. Then I went down to the CRYPT!!! It was very cool - it ran the entire length of the cathedral, so it was filled with pillars that hold up the entire building. The crypt holds all the cathedral's collection of artifacts, all of which were very interesting. (There was an old document that was an inventory of the cathedral's relics, claiming that they had a "few drops of the milk of the Virgin Mary". ...um WHAT?? Anyway, I didn't see that anywhere...) So then I had a cup of tea in the "Foxy Friars Cafe" (*eye roll*), and walked upstairs to realize that the choir singing I'd been hearing in the background for a while wasn't a CD, it was the cathedral choir practicing! So of course I sat to watch. The cathedral had mostly cleared of visitors at that point, so it was like a private recital for me and the two other people who cautiously sat to watch as well. It was really beautiful - all the harmonies, consonant as well as hauntingly dissonant, just soar into the arches of those buildings. I love it.
Awesome side note: the choirs of Christ Church Cathedral and St. Patrick's Cathedral, also in Dublin, made up the first choir to perform Handel's Messiah, in a building just up the street from the cathedral. How cool is that??
So finally I left, and meandered my way over to Trinity, and now I'm sitting less than a hundred yards probably from the Book of Kells, somewhere in the building at my back. Plan for the remainder of the evening is undecided. Tomorrow I train to Belfast, ferry to Stranraer, Scotland, and bus to Edinburgh. I'm so sad that my touring is nearly over! But I've had an incredible time, and I'm very much ready to have my own living space again. I'm also very excited to have the rest of my clothes back. And I can't wait to sit down and re-read everything I've written thus far. What a two weeks.
I forgot to talk about yesterday at all! Brief overview, then. It was my biggest touristy day yet - I took a guided tour bus around Burren National Park, to the Cliffs of Moher and several very interesting historical sites. It's so funny - whereas in the US "historical" would probably mean 1850-ish, here "historical" means the Bronze Age. Haha. We saw an ancient tomb as well as a circular fort. So that was really neat. The Cliffs of Moher were, of course, beautiful - Google them if you can't wait for my pictures to go up. (The Google pictures are probably better anyway, sadly.) It was great to get out of Limerick and see the Ireland that they show you on postcards. Absolutely stunningly beautiful. We had lunch in a village called Doolin, which was basically a single road with a pub and some folk shops, but which also boasted the "last music cafe until America". I'm still not quite clear on what a music cafe is, but whatever. Had deliciously local seafood chowder in the pub (with this rather smug Canadian dude also on my tour - he was a character) and glanced through the adorable shops. Delightful. So. As soon as I go through the 400-ish pictures currently on my camera, 200 of which are from yesterday alone, you'll be able to see them on Facebook.
Lots and lots of love! I miss you all incredibly.
Anyway. I braved the grocery store and emerged victorious with apples, "carrot batons" (carrot sticks), whole-wheat soda bread, pumpkin seeds (unfortunately pretty gross), some unknown flavor of yogurt (turned out to be plain), some foreign version of Fig Newtons (except for these are WAY better than Fig Newtons), and some random chocolate bar. I was really proud of myself.
I was still debating at this point whether to pay the €8 entrance fee to see the Book of Kells. Unfortunately, I didn't change enough of my pounds to Euros upon entry into Ireland, so I have way more of the former at this point, which aren't doing me any good. So I decided against the Book of Kells. Sorry, O Illuminated Manuscript. Instead, I wandered in the general direction of the Chester Beatty Library, this free collection of historical objects including lots and lots of religious documents. Unfortunately, I did not find it. Instead, though, I stumbled upon Christ Church Cathedral, the biggest cathedral in Dublin or something. Anyway, it was only €3 for students and I really really like cathedrals, so I went in. This was unfortunately much more like a museum than a place of worship - other cathedrals I've visited have at least maintained a generally reverent atmosphere. It made me sad. But I sat down to pray anyway. Then I went down to the CRYPT!!! It was very cool - it ran the entire length of the cathedral, so it was filled with pillars that hold up the entire building. The crypt holds all the cathedral's collection of artifacts, all of which were very interesting. (There was an old document that was an inventory of the cathedral's relics, claiming that they had a "few drops of the milk of the Virgin Mary". ...um WHAT?? Anyway, I didn't see that anywhere...) So then I had a cup of tea in the "Foxy Friars Cafe" (*eye roll*), and walked upstairs to realize that the choir singing I'd been hearing in the background for a while wasn't a CD, it was the cathedral choir practicing! So of course I sat to watch. The cathedral had mostly cleared of visitors at that point, so it was like a private recital for me and the two other people who cautiously sat to watch as well. It was really beautiful - all the harmonies, consonant as well as hauntingly dissonant, just soar into the arches of those buildings. I love it.
Awesome side note: the choirs of Christ Church Cathedral and St. Patrick's Cathedral, also in Dublin, made up the first choir to perform Handel's Messiah, in a building just up the street from the cathedral. How cool is that??
So finally I left, and meandered my way over to Trinity, and now I'm sitting less than a hundred yards probably from the Book of Kells, somewhere in the building at my back. Plan for the remainder of the evening is undecided. Tomorrow I train to Belfast, ferry to Stranraer, Scotland, and bus to Edinburgh. I'm so sad that my touring is nearly over! But I've had an incredible time, and I'm very much ready to have my own living space again. I'm also very excited to have the rest of my clothes back. And I can't wait to sit down and re-read everything I've written thus far. What a two weeks.
I forgot to talk about yesterday at all! Brief overview, then. It was my biggest touristy day yet - I took a guided tour bus around Burren National Park, to the Cliffs of Moher and several very interesting historical sites. It's so funny - whereas in the US "historical" would probably mean 1850-ish, here "historical" means the Bronze Age. Haha. We saw an ancient tomb as well as a circular fort. So that was really neat. The Cliffs of Moher were, of course, beautiful - Google them if you can't wait for my pictures to go up. (The Google pictures are probably better anyway, sadly.) It was great to get out of Limerick and see the Ireland that they show you on postcards. Absolutely stunningly beautiful. We had lunch in a village called Doolin, which was basically a single road with a pub and some folk shops, but which also boasted the "last music cafe until America". I'm still not quite clear on what a music cafe is, but whatever. Had deliciously local seafood chowder in the pub (with this rather smug Canadian dude also on my tour - he was a character) and glanced through the adorable shops. Delightful. So. As soon as I go through the 400-ish pictures currently on my camera, 200 of which are from yesterday alone, you'll be able to see them on Facebook.
Lots and lots of love! I miss you all incredibly.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Spot of tea
Intro story: When I was little, I never understood the story of the Boston tea party. Like, yeah, dumping a bunch of expensive tea into the ocean is kind of low. But really. Come on. It's just tea.
Now I understand.
The Irish - like the British, I'm sure - live off their tea. It's hilarious. Quite literally any time any person goes into the kitchen for any reason, they make tea and offer some to everyone around them. My average tea consumption per day has recently increased to a minimum of four cups. And, like the Scottish, the Irish don't just drink tea - they drink it loaded with milk and sugar. At first I was resistant, but I have totally given in and the result is worth it. The sugar takes out the bitter of the tea, and the milk just makes it perfectly creamy and delightful. I'm a fan, and it's easy to see why everyone here is such a fan. So, cheers, colonial America, for hitting the British where it really, really hurt.
So anyway. As should have been expected, yesterday did not go according to my excellent plan. Guess why? ... If you said, "Because you missed the bus because that's what you always do, hahahaha," you can go die now. I'm insulted.
Except that you're totally right. This time it legitimately wasn't my fault, though! I made it to the bus. I was there. I saw it. I stood next to it and looked in and there was no one inside. So I went inside the Tourist Office (designated meeting place) to see if maybe they were in there. Didn't look like it, but I waited behind this other clueless tourist at the HELP MEEEE counter [not its actual name] to ask, but they were taking too long so I went back outside...and WATCHED my bus drive away. Oops, there it goes. Of course, it was pouring down rain at this point, so I'm sprinting through the puddles in the rain after the bus, but there was no way I was going to catch it. They were outta there. I still DO not understand where on earth that driver came from. I kind of stood there dumbfounded that I could miss yet ANOTHER bus, muttered some choice words, and finally went dejectedly back into the tourist office to look for something else to do. (Convenient place to be, when you need to find something touristy to do.) The brochure rack was totally unhelpful, so I went to aforementioned counter to ask if there was another tour to the Cliffs of Moher. The lady was very sympathetic when I told her I missed the bus (she has no idea how unworthy of her pity I am in this regard), and called my tour company to ask if I could go tomorrow. They said yes. So that's nice, but I still had a whole day to fill, and spending it in Limerick again didn't sound too appealing. So after hopping a bus home, getting off a mile too early, slogging home, making myself cup of tea number two for the day, doing some internet searching, getting on another bus, making it to the train station (right stop this time, even), and successfully handling the ticket machine, I was on a train to Galway.
It was a great day. The train ride was beautiful, and Galway was so much fun - they have this great area of town (that actually a lot of the cities here do) that's blocked off to anyone but pedestrians, and it's entirely filled with adorable little shops. So I went shopping. Bought several things for gifts, plus some deliciously soft Donegal tweed yarn for knitting, and a cute claddagh ring. That was my plan for my main souvenirs of Ireland - Irish yarn and a claddagh ring. Success. (PS - I still have no real idea how to pronounce "claddagh." Is it "cladduh"? "Claddag"? I still haven't heard anyone say it and it's driving me crazy.) And then when I was done, I took the train home again and had fish and chips for dinner, which were very very fried, very very salty, and very very good.
So, today, God willing, I'm off to the Cliffs of Moher. I'm going to leave the house like an hour early and stand outside that bus like it's my job.
Now I understand.
The Irish - like the British, I'm sure - live off their tea. It's hilarious. Quite literally any time any person goes into the kitchen for any reason, they make tea and offer some to everyone around them. My average tea consumption per day has recently increased to a minimum of four cups. And, like the Scottish, the Irish don't just drink tea - they drink it loaded with milk and sugar. At first I was resistant, but I have totally given in and the result is worth it. The sugar takes out the bitter of the tea, and the milk just makes it perfectly creamy and delightful. I'm a fan, and it's easy to see why everyone here is such a fan. So, cheers, colonial America, for hitting the British where it really, really hurt.
So anyway. As should have been expected, yesterday did not go according to my excellent plan. Guess why? ... If you said, "Because you missed the bus because that's what you always do, hahahaha," you can go die now. I'm insulted.
Except that you're totally right. This time it legitimately wasn't my fault, though! I made it to the bus. I was there. I saw it. I stood next to it and looked in and there was no one inside. So I went inside the Tourist Office (designated meeting place) to see if maybe they were in there. Didn't look like it, but I waited behind this other clueless tourist at the HELP MEEEE counter [not its actual name] to ask, but they were taking too long so I went back outside...and WATCHED my bus drive away. Oops, there it goes. Of course, it was pouring down rain at this point, so I'm sprinting through the puddles in the rain after the bus, but there was no way I was going to catch it. They were outta there. I still DO not understand where on earth that driver came from. I kind of stood there dumbfounded that I could miss yet ANOTHER bus, muttered some choice words, and finally went dejectedly back into the tourist office to look for something else to do. (Convenient place to be, when you need to find something touristy to do.) The brochure rack was totally unhelpful, so I went to aforementioned counter to ask if there was another tour to the Cliffs of Moher. The lady was very sympathetic when I told her I missed the bus (she has no idea how unworthy of her pity I am in this regard), and called my tour company to ask if I could go tomorrow. They said yes. So that's nice, but I still had a whole day to fill, and spending it in Limerick again didn't sound too appealing. So after hopping a bus home, getting off a mile too early, slogging home, making myself cup of tea number two for the day, doing some internet searching, getting on another bus, making it to the train station (right stop this time, even), and successfully handling the ticket machine, I was on a train to Galway.
It was a great day. The train ride was beautiful, and Galway was so much fun - they have this great area of town (that actually a lot of the cities here do) that's blocked off to anyone but pedestrians, and it's entirely filled with adorable little shops. So I went shopping. Bought several things for gifts, plus some deliciously soft Donegal tweed yarn for knitting, and a cute claddagh ring. That was my plan for my main souvenirs of Ireland - Irish yarn and a claddagh ring. Success. (PS - I still have no real idea how to pronounce "claddagh." Is it "cladduh"? "Claddag"? I still haven't heard anyone say it and it's driving me crazy.) And then when I was done, I took the train home again and had fish and chips for dinner, which were very very fried, very very salty, and very very good.
So, today, God willing, I'm off to the Cliffs of Moher. I'm going to leave the house like an hour early and stand outside that bus like it's my job.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
A little Irish rain never killed anyone
8:30 am Limerick
2:30 am St. Louis
1:30 am Spearfish
Ohhhh my gosh do I have stories to tell. Unfortunately the best ones should not be told here. So I will save them. Ask me sometime. [Please note: by "best ones" I do not mean scandalous things that I have done. I still don't do scandalous things.]
Ireland has been delightful so far. It’s so wonderful being able to stay in a house! I can do laundry, cook my own breakfast, shower in a reliably clean shower, and shut the door behind me when I go to bed. It makes me even more excited for my own flat this semester, because although it’s a house, it isn’t my house, and I remain the novel American visitor in a house of a surprisingly large number of young Irish. Also, I think everyone living in this house smokes. Fortunately it’s against their rules to smoke inside, but still. I can smell it when I go to bed.
[Side note: the one thing about smoking over here that I do like is that it seems to be required that tobacco companies post an accurate warning on their cigarette boxes. Hence, most of them read quite prominently on the front: SMOKING KILLS. I like it even better here in Ireland, because virtually all signs are written in both English and Gaelic (traditional Irish), and this includes these cigarette warnings. Hence, the box next to me on the counter right now reads: Toradh caithimh tobac-bás – Smoking kills. Hahaha.]
Yesterday I explored Limerick city centre. (As far as I can tell, “city centre” = downtown.) It was actually mildly disappointing – the city is way more city than culture. Limerick is coming up from an extremely bad reputation (“murder capital of Europe”), and they’ve clearly improved, but they’re still working on it. So anyway. Lots of chain stores and pizza restaurants (slash Subways?? There are Subways everywhere here), not a lot of independent, local-type stores. Oh, well. I also saw King John’s Castle, which dates back to AD 1200 and was very cool.
Today is a tour to the Cliffs of Moher, which I’m very excited for. I’m quite hopeful that the advent of September has cleared out most of the tourists, because apparently it’s notoriously flooded with them usually. (Obviously not that I can speak out overly against tourists in general – I am one. It’s just the floods I don’t like.) The tour will also take us past a couple of other ancient historical sites. I’m very excited to get out and see more of Ireland. Tomorrow is still fairly up in the air, but theoretically we’re going to go BLACKBERRY PICKING OMG and hopefully to Galway, which is supposed to be a very “hip” city. Suh-weet. Thursday sometime I will leave to train/ferry back across to Edinburgh, arriving via overnight train early on Saturday morning for move-in!
True to Irish form, it’s raining outside. Off we go.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
12:30 am Limerick, Ireland
6:30 pm St. Louis
5:30 pm Spearfish
I just spent the last excessively long time writing about the last two days, and then Blogger randomly logged me out and I lost it. It was good, too. So here, because I am way too tired to even attempt reproduction of that masterpiece, is a bulleted summary.
In the past two days I have:
- Missed five buses in a twelve-hour span
- Climbed a mountain
- Returned to Edinburgh
- Flown to Ireland
- Spent a delightful evening with my mom's goddaughter and her freaking adorable Irish housemates
- Had my first home-cooked meal in a week (extra points because it was vegetarian)
- Done my laundry, finally
- Posted pictures on Facebook.
And now I'm going to go to sleep in a real, big, clean, soft, non-sketchy, clean bed, in a room free of Germans, Canadians, Spaniards, snoring Asians, French, Australians, and basically just all people that are not me. Joyous day.
6:30 pm St. Louis
5:30 pm Spearfish
I just spent the last excessively long time writing about the last two days, and then Blogger randomly logged me out and I lost it. It was good, too. So here, because I am way too tired to even attempt reproduction of that masterpiece, is a bulleted summary.
In the past two days I have:
- Missed five buses in a twelve-hour span
- Climbed a mountain
- Returned to Edinburgh
- Flown to Ireland
- Spent a delightful evening with my mom's goddaughter and her freaking adorable Irish housemates
- Had my first home-cooked meal in a week (extra points because it was vegetarian)
- Done my laundry, finally
- Posted pictures on Facebook.
And now I'm going to go to sleep in a real, big, clean, soft, non-sketchy, clean bed, in a room free of Germans, Canadians, Spaniards, snoring Asians, French, Australians, and basically just all people that are not me. Joyous day.
Friday, September 3, 2010
Multicultural chillfest in Inverness
9:30 pm Inverness
3:30 pm St. Louis
2:30 pm Spearfish
I'm sitting in the lounge at my hostel watching Mythbusters with people from at least three other countries while the awesome Australian hostel proprietor strums the hostel's resident guitar. The lighting is dim, the couches are black leather, and the walls are covered with random band posters, pictures of Nessie, and various flags. It's perfect. I'm going later to watch some local musicians perform, so I'm just relaxing until then.
Today was amazing. I got up early, around 6:30, hoping to get in and out of the shower before anyone else. My first realization of the day was unfortunate: I didn't have a towel, and reception didn't open until 9 for me to rent one. And I wanted to be on a tour that left at 9:15. Okaaaay, so no shower for me this morning...I felt kind of gross, but got over it. The point of this kind of traveling is not cleanliness...right?
So I set off to find breakfast. I'm not sure what I was thinking - what was going to be open at 7:30 in the morning?? Should have just slept in. I finally found a little coffee/sandwich shop that was open and went in, hoping they also had breakfast. I was thinking croissants, bagels...haha apparently that's not what the Scottish eat for breakfast. My choices were bacon rolls, sausage rolls, bacon AND sausage rolls, egg rolls, or a full breakfast consisting of eggs, sausage and bacon. Oh my. So I went with the sausage roll and a cup of tea (hoping to wean myself off coffee)(it turned out to be a full pot). It turned out to be basically a dinner roll, cut in half and slathered with butter, with two sausage links stuck between the halves. Lol. Whatever, it's breakfast. So I ate it, and drank all my tea, and staggered off, still sleepy, into the still-waking city. I took a really lovely walk on the path along the River Ness that runs through the middle of the city, and got back at a more reasonable hour. So I went to the tourist info center and bought a ticket for a later tour (I realized the earlier one took you out to Loch Ness but not to the castle), and then wandered around into all the adorable little shops in the center of town.
After lunch and a shower (finally), I got on the bus for my tour. A bus took us to Loch Ness, where we sailed around for half an hour to Urquhart (say Urcut, or Urcurt) Castle, an absolutely beautiful set of castle ruins. The whole thing was absolutely incredible and I got a lot of great pictures. The best part, though, was being on top of these ruins and looking around and suddenly going oh my gosh - I'm backpacking Europe. Incredible.
Tomorrow I'm taking a bus up to Ullapool to do some hiking in the northern highlands. I'm exhausted and not the cleanest thing in the world and really missing home/Wash U and kind of looking forward to having some routine in my life again, but I am having a truly incredible time and I absolutely can't complain. So many stories.
3:30 pm St. Louis
2:30 pm Spearfish
I'm sitting in the lounge at my hostel watching Mythbusters with people from at least three other countries while the awesome Australian hostel proprietor strums the hostel's resident guitar. The lighting is dim, the couches are black leather, and the walls are covered with random band posters, pictures of Nessie, and various flags. It's perfect. I'm going later to watch some local musicians perform, so I'm just relaxing until then.
Today was amazing. I got up early, around 6:30, hoping to get in and out of the shower before anyone else. My first realization of the day was unfortunate: I didn't have a towel, and reception didn't open until 9 for me to rent one. And I wanted to be on a tour that left at 9:15. Okaaaay, so no shower for me this morning...I felt kind of gross, but got over it. The point of this kind of traveling is not cleanliness...right?
So I set off to find breakfast. I'm not sure what I was thinking - what was going to be open at 7:30 in the morning?? Should have just slept in. I finally found a little coffee/sandwich shop that was open and went in, hoping they also had breakfast. I was thinking croissants, bagels...haha apparently that's not what the Scottish eat for breakfast. My choices were bacon rolls, sausage rolls, bacon AND sausage rolls, egg rolls, or a full breakfast consisting of eggs, sausage and bacon. Oh my. So I went with the sausage roll and a cup of tea (hoping to wean myself off coffee)(it turned out to be a full pot). It turned out to be basically a dinner roll, cut in half and slathered with butter, with two sausage links stuck between the halves. Lol. Whatever, it's breakfast. So I ate it, and drank all my tea, and staggered off, still sleepy, into the still-waking city. I took a really lovely walk on the path along the River Ness that runs through the middle of the city, and got back at a more reasonable hour. So I went to the tourist info center and bought a ticket for a later tour (I realized the earlier one took you out to Loch Ness but not to the castle), and then wandered around into all the adorable little shops in the center of town.
After lunch and a shower (finally), I got on the bus for my tour. A bus took us to Loch Ness, where we sailed around for half an hour to Urquhart (say Urcut, or Urcurt) Castle, an absolutely beautiful set of castle ruins. The whole thing was absolutely incredible and I got a lot of great pictures. The best part, though, was being on top of these ruins and looking around and suddenly going oh my gosh - I'm backpacking Europe. Incredible.
Tomorrow I'm taking a bus up to Ullapool to do some hiking in the northern highlands. I'm exhausted and not the cleanest thing in the world and really missing home/Wash U and kind of looking forward to having some routine in my life again, but I am having a truly incredible time and I absolutely can't complain. So many stories.
Say what?
1:30pm Inverness
7:30am St. Louis
6:30am Spearfish
I'm in Inverness! About 30 minutes after I checked out of my hostel, I found a bus to the Edinburgh bus station and bought a one-way ticket to Inverness. It was about a four-hour ride, and I slept part of the way even though I didn't want to - the scenery was incredible. I wish I was more poetic so I could adequately describe it to you. There were rolling purple (yes, purple) hills, massive trees, adorable farmland, sparkling lochs...so. pretty.
So I'm kind of way up in the highlands now - Inverness is "The City in the Highlands" - and the accents up here are basically another language. I can literally be standing right next to two people having a conversation and be completely unable to understand them. When I walk past someone on the street and they say something, they could be talking to me. I now use "Sorry" mainly as a question when I need someone to repeat themselves. So...at least once in every conversation.
I had my first fish and chips last night. It was sooooo good. The Scottish are excellent at frying things. Literally the best french fries I've ever had. Good thing I'm walking so much - this food could be my downfall.
I'm leaving now for a boat tour of Loch Ness and Urquhart Castle!! I'm super excited. Tomorrow I'm planning on taking a bus up to Ullapool, in the northern highlands, for some really cool hiking. I have a ton of fun stories, but no time to tell them now. More later!
Love!
7:30am St. Louis
6:30am Spearfish
I'm in Inverness! About 30 minutes after I checked out of my hostel, I found a bus to the Edinburgh bus station and bought a one-way ticket to Inverness. It was about a four-hour ride, and I slept part of the way even though I didn't want to - the scenery was incredible. I wish I was more poetic so I could adequately describe it to you. There were rolling purple (yes, purple) hills, massive trees, adorable farmland, sparkling lochs...so. pretty.
So I'm kind of way up in the highlands now - Inverness is "The City in the Highlands" - and the accents up here are basically another language. I can literally be standing right next to two people having a conversation and be completely unable to understand them. When I walk past someone on the street and they say something, they could be talking to me. I now use "Sorry" mainly as a question when I need someone to repeat themselves. So...at least once in every conversation.
I had my first fish and chips last night. It was sooooo good. The Scottish are excellent at frying things. Literally the best french fries I've ever had. Good thing I'm walking so much - this food could be my downfall.
I'm leaving now for a boat tour of Loch Ness and Urquhart Castle!! I'm super excited. Tomorrow I'm planning on taking a bus up to Ullapool, in the northern highlands, for some really cool hiking. I have a ton of fun stories, but no time to tell them now. More later!
Love!
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Marching on
8:30 AM Edinburgh
2:30 AM St. Louis
1:30 AM Spearfish
Just a quick update on my plans-
I'm (hopefully) leaving Edinburgh today for Inverness. I say hopefully because I haven't actually booked a ticket yet. Hee hee. That's the beauty of traveling by myself - I can pretty much just do whatever like that. (Even if it totally freaks my parents out.) No worries, I have all day to figure it out. It won't be a problem. And if it doesn't happen, there's tons of space in my current hostel for tonight.
Yesterday was awesome. I pretty much just wandered around alllllll over the place. I went to the Elephant House (where Harry Potter was written!!), checked out St. Giles Cathedral, which is so beautiful, and located my flat for the semester. I also bought my first round of Scottish groceries and had a picnic lunch in the Princes Street Gardens. Then last night I got to hang out with one of the Wash U guys! It was really fun. I just want to say again what a great city Edinburgh is.
However, side note, it's massively unfortunate that definitely more than half the people here smoke. It's completely impossible to walk down the street without going through numerous clouds. Ew. Smell that lung cancer.
Better go! I've been in Starbucks for at least an hour taking up their outlets and Wi-fi. Still love you, still miss you!
PS for Donna and really all girls - 85% of Scottish men are absolutely beautiful. And they all dress really well. It's awesome.
2:30 AM St. Louis
1:30 AM Spearfish
Just a quick update on my plans-
I'm (hopefully) leaving Edinburgh today for Inverness. I say hopefully because I haven't actually booked a ticket yet. Hee hee. That's the beauty of traveling by myself - I can pretty much just do whatever like that. (Even if it totally freaks my parents out.) No worries, I have all day to figure it out. It won't be a problem. And if it doesn't happen, there's tons of space in my current hostel for tonight.
Yesterday was awesome. I pretty much just wandered around alllllll over the place. I went to the Elephant House (where Harry Potter was written!!), checked out St. Giles Cathedral, which is so beautiful, and located my flat for the semester. I also bought my first round of Scottish groceries and had a picnic lunch in the Princes Street Gardens. Then last night I got to hang out with one of the Wash U guys! It was really fun. I just want to say again what a great city Edinburgh is.
However, side note, it's massively unfortunate that definitely more than half the people here smoke. It's completely impossible to walk down the street without going through numerous clouds. Ew. Smell that lung cancer.
Better go! I've been in Starbucks for at least an hour taking up their outlets and Wi-fi. Still love you, still miss you!
PS for Donna and really all girls - 85% of Scottish men are absolutely beautiful. And they all dress really well. It's awesome.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
You sleep a lot, no?
12:30 PM Edinburgh time
6:30 AM St. Louis time
5:30 AM Spearfish time
I slept for 14 hours straight last night. I went to bed at 9, feeling really lame but knowing I needed more sleep than usual, and set the alarm on my (new!) cell phone for 7 AM, thinking 10 hours should be plenty. Apparently not. Slept right through the alarm and woke up at 11 AM. Fourteen hours. I don't think I've slept that long ever in my life. My two French roommates (the arguing ones from yesterday) were the only ones still there, and one of them finally spoke to me while I wasstaggering around wondering what happened waiting for the other one to get out of the bathroom. The first thing she said to me? "You sleep...a lot, no?" Yes. Yes, apparently I do. But the next thing she asked was if I had just arrived yesterday, and I said yes, and she asked where I was from, and I said the US, and she seemed like she appreciated how long that must have taken. So I think she understood why exactly it was that I slept so much. Hopefully. Her English was good, but pretty broken. I found out that she and her friend are from Paris, and they've been traveling for eight days. She told me they're going to Inverness tomorrow, and in my sleepy haze I completely forgot that I'm going to Inverness tomorrow, too, so I think I said I was going there on Sunday or something. Which is completely a lie (unintentional, but still). Hopefully I don't see them there. That could be awkward.
I'm in Starbucks again. So much for my no-Starbucks rule. I really wouldn't be, except that it's the only place I can get free, reliable internet. The computer in my hostel is terrible, and anywhere else is £1 for a half hour. That's about $1.50. No, thanks. I'll just pay the extra 50 pence and have a coffee and not be time-limited. Also, Starbucks is a great place for people-watching. I really need to not stare at people, but it's just so interesting. People in Edinburgh seem to collectively have a really great fashion sense. Even the guys. But the best part is the children. Even the little kids are all dressed really adorably. And the fact that they have little mini-Scottish accents is absolutely beyond adorable. Probably all these people think I'm stalking their children because I just sit there accidentally staring at them being adorable. But I swear I'm not. Well...not in a bad way.
My American accent sounds really weird to me every time I speak now. Talking to the French girl was bizarre because my accent was so pronounced next to hers. I'd never be able to accurately imitate a Scottish or even British accent, but I've figured out how to say "sorry" - the word I find myself saying most often, mostly when I bump into people or take too long finding the right change or totally misunderstand someone (so, every five-ish minutes) - in a way that sounds maybe possibly almost Scottish if I mumble or Canadian at the least. I was laughing with someone this summer about how I should really take on a Canadian accent while I'm here...well, I'm getting close. :)
6:30 AM St. Louis time
5:30 AM Spearfish time
I slept for 14 hours straight last night. I went to bed at 9, feeling really lame but knowing I needed more sleep than usual, and set the alarm on my (new!) cell phone for 7 AM, thinking 10 hours should be plenty. Apparently not. Slept right through the alarm and woke up at 11 AM. Fourteen hours. I don't think I've slept that long ever in my life. My two French roommates (the arguing ones from yesterday) were the only ones still there, and one of them finally spoke to me while I was
I'm in Starbucks again. So much for my no-Starbucks rule. I really wouldn't be, except that it's the only place I can get free, reliable internet. The computer in my hostel is terrible, and anywhere else is £1 for a half hour. That's about $1.50. No, thanks. I'll just pay the extra 50 pence and have a coffee and not be time-limited. Also, Starbucks is a great place for people-watching. I really need to not stare at people, but it's just so interesting. People in Edinburgh seem to collectively have a really great fashion sense. Even the guys. But the best part is the children. Even the little kids are all dressed really adorably. And the fact that they have little mini-Scottish accents is absolutely beyond adorable. Probably all these people think I'm stalking their children because I just sit there accidentally staring at them being adorable. But I swear I'm not. Well...not in a bad way.
My American accent sounds really weird to me every time I speak now. Talking to the French girl was bizarre because my accent was so pronounced next to hers. I'd never be able to accurately imitate a Scottish or even British accent, but I've figured out how to say "sorry" - the word I find myself saying most often, mostly when I bump into people or take too long finding the right change or totally misunderstand someone (so, every five-ish minutes) - in a way that sounds maybe possibly almost Scottish if I mumble or Canadian at the least. I was laughing with someone this summer about how I should really take on a Canadian accent while I'm here...well, I'm getting close. :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)