Ok, I've done a really really bad job of keeping this blog updated. In this entry I will attempt to update you all on the past 2 months...

In the past few months I've gone to Ireland and England with my parents, when they came to visit me over spring break! That was actually a lot of fun, and we got along well for the most part, except for a few times... but being with anyone for weeks straight is bound to result in some conflicts.

Anyway, my parents arrived in Edinburgh on the first official day of my spring break, which was a Saturday. On Friday I had just turned in TWO papers for the end of the term, and to celebrate Jack took me to a party with his friends. It was never my plan to get too drunk, wasted, or extremely wasted. However, all three of the states of mind were achieved, much to my chagrin, and that of my parents. I'm not quite sure what happened when I got home; I remember setting my alarm clock, but I also remember thinking that it would be completely rational to unplug it...

So. I woke up, hungover, head pounding, body aching, and looked at my clock. It was blank, obviously. I slowly stumbled over to my computer, stubbing my big toe on the bed, cursing, etc. One glance at the clock on my desktop was all it took to induce a state of panic, for I realised I was supposed to meet my parents at the airport about five minutes prior.

I rushed to the reception center of the University, trying desperately to phone the airport and page my parents... a quick and rushed end to this story: they took a cab to my dorm room and met me there, what a relief!

We toured Edinburgh, which was a lot of fun. I took them to all the sights I had seen, including Calton Hill, the Castle, etc. There happened to be a parade on the day we went up the Royal Mile. That was interesting to see, except it was a Scottish Unionist parade, which I somewhat disagree with... The Unionists are proud of the union with England--and they think it's for the best for Scotland. This is opposed to the Scottish Nationalist party (SNP), which, 300 years later, still wants independence from England. There is graffiti all over the city, saying things like "End London Rule", "Scottish not British", "Labour R Liars", etc. Coincidentally, the SNP won the majority of parliament seats in the recent election, so it will be exciting to see what happens in the future. I would like to see Scotland rise as an independent nation, but it's probably not going to happen as it is economically unfeasible (in the words of a Scottish physicist I met in Ireland).

We stayed in a hostel, because it is difficult to find accommodation for three people without booking two hotel rooms, which, on the pound, is rather expensive. The hostel was decent, except the first night there we had to have a roommate. This 26-year-old Briton from Australia was a total lush: he got so drunk that he confused a chair with the toilet! And yes, he peed in the middle of the room while my parents and I were asleep. He also got urine on my parents' coats. And if that's not enough, later that night he went into the bathroom (maybe he was a little more sober), puked, and passed out on the bathroom floor. My mother was so freaked out that she refuses to stay in a hostel ever again.

After that horrible incident, we were off to Ireland! My parents were looking forward to that more than I was, since my step-dad is part (maybe full?) Irish. I did enjoy myself, though. The only thing I noticed: Ireland is fucking expensive. I think it's because they're on the euro instead of the pound. They probably get a lot of their imports from Britain, and the value is the same, but since the euro is weaker, the numbers are higher. For instance, I bought a meal at a fast-food place that was 7 euro (probably 4 or 5 dollars in the states, and 3 or 4 pounds in Scotland), and a double Belvedere on the rocks with lemon was 12 euro!! Geeze, thank god I had my parents there to foot the bill.

That aside, Ireland is really, really beautiful. Maybe I'll get around to posting pictures. But I really loved the Irish countryside and all the castles. We saw the Rock of Cashel, which is in the middle of nowhere, but wow, you can see for miles and miles, and there is nothing but green pastures and a few hills. Beautiful. It was, however, unfortunate that our bed & breakfast was right next to a sheep farm, so we couldn't open the window without thinking that there were 1000 reeking sheep in the room with us.

We also saw Blarney Castle, which so far is my favorite castle. Unlike Edinburgh castle, it hasn't really been redone and it's not a major tourist attraction... so you can go explore all the different rooms of the castle without having to worry about boundaries and signs that say "do not touch" or "private" or "do not enter". There is even a cave inside the castle, which was so fucking cool. My step-dad and I went spelunking (if you can call it that) and found a tiny cavern in the rocks in which many other people had signed their names. So far my favorite part of my journeys.

After Ireland we went to London. That was a lot of fun, but it was raining the whole time we were there, so that was a bit disappointing (but I'm from Seattle, so I'm used to it!). I like London, but it is crowded, expensive, and busy. There are a lot of nice sights though, and I like how the city is on a river. We even took a boat tour and saw so much. I love the water, etc... I also was the (almost)victim of an attempted pick-pocketing. Thankfully my wallet was full of receipts and other crap (unfortunately not money) that it was too heavy for the thief to lift out of my pocket subtly. I felt something on my pants and quickly moved away, putting my wallet in my coat pocket. We went to the National Gallery and saw Seurat's The Bathers and Van Gogh's The Sunflowers. This worked out well because I wrote about them on my final exam for art history!

We ended the trip by taking the train from London to Stirling, Scotland. On the way we had to change trains (and train stations) in Glasgow. From what I've seen I'm not sure if I'd like Glasgow... it was so... modern. Like, so much pop culture that you wouldn't know what to do. Also, there were tons, and I mean tons, literally several thousand pounds, of scene/emo kids. So So SO much.... but since I was only in the city for 30 minutes, I can't say for sure whether or not I would enjoy it. I probably would, but who knows.

In Stirling we saw the Castle and the Wallace Monument. Stirling is also really beautiful, and I really enjoyed seeing so much of the Scottish countryside. When we arrived in the evening, we were trying to find a place to eat. We tried one pub, but there was a group of kids outside arguing, and then the owner (self-identified to us) came out and started arguing with them! The next pub had stopped serving food... so of all places we ended up eating at an Americana/Nostalgia chain restaurant, something like Red Robin, Chili's, or Ruby Tuesday's. It was actually quite nice; we saw a bunch of license plates from Wyoming and Washington, I got drunk on my parents' tab, and ate a huge meal of ribs, chicken wings, and fries (which I have been missing dearly since I came to the UK).

The Scots are (as far as I know and have seen) proud of William Wallace. They also hate Mel Gibson and the movie Braveheart. BUT, at the Wallace monument in Stirling, there is a 6-foot-tall stone statue of MEL GIBSON portraying Wallace in his movie. The plaque at the bottom even says BRAVEHEART and not William Wallace. I don't know how this got permission to be built, but obviously someone had a lot of money and a lot of influence. BUT, the Scots' sentiment is still truly expressed; someone knocked of the nose of the statue!

That's about all I have to say about spring break. It was a lot of fun, I didn't have to pay for anything, the accommodation was terrible, and I saw a lot of countryside!

I am going home in 9 days and I COULD NOT be more excited. I am also going to Amsterdam next week!

Oh man how great is Scotland! Emmie, Martha, Sasha, and Emily all came to Edinburgh on spring break yesterday so I met up with them for a great pub crawl. It was really great to see some familiar faces, as well as meet new kids--I didn't know Emily or Sasha before, although I had intro psych with Sasha freshman year. We talked about how awful our professor was, and if you know the great James Corpening the II you'd understand.

The night starts with me getting lost on the way to their hostel. And of course I cannot figure out how dial Emily's cell phone (uh, duh, you don't need to use the international code when calling from a payphone in the same country), and I don't have a cell phone of my own, so it was quite an adventure. Perhaps it was not the best idea to use the cartoon map provided on the hostel's website as a reliable navigational guide.

After walking halfway down Princes Street again, I gave up hailed a cab. I didn't want to spend a lot of money though so I asked him to take me as far as £3 would get me. And of course, this was not far, since the starting rate for the cab was £2.50. As it turns out I was really close to the hostel anyway, and £3 got me right down the street from it.

The first pub we went to was quite...how should I put this? Awkward? Confusing? Shocking? First, there was a large group of guys all dressed up in vests! I am not kidding here, the kind of vests that you would wear under a tuxedo or as part of a three-piece suit. Not just a few guys were wearing them, but probably 10 out of the 12 guys that were part of the group. I like to think they were going to or coming from some sort of party. Because matching with your friends is not a great way to pick up chicks.

That aside, we start to get drinks while a young man, probably in his 20s, is setting up a guitar and microphone in the background. Ok, we figure, there's going to be a show in the bar tonight. Then he starts playing BIG YELLOW TAXI. Now of course we were beyond bewildered. That song is how old (?), Canadian, and being covered by a J.Mayer emulator in a pub in Scotland. Bizarre.

It turns out that Scottish girls are also bizarre. Now, I recently realised that the British and Scottish like to sing when they get drunk. I hear it outside my window all the time, or really, out of any window on any street on most weekday nights. Americans sing too, but not like this, or with this frequency--or passion, for that matter. So it was no surprise to me when a large group of very intoxicated girls starts singing from across the pub. They would sing along with the man who was playing, or just by themselves. The real reward of chosing this pub over the rest was made clear when the singer started playing WONDERWALL and all 10 or so girls begin to dance in the middle of the pub. Sloppy as usually. In addition, one girl walked by us twice, talking to herself.

I don't even know where to fit this in, but there was a vending machine near the bathrooms that sold not only condoms, but also vibrators and hand-cuffs.

Summary of Scotland: a lot like America but more bizarre. Who would have ever thought we would hear a 20s something musician covering such great classics like Big Yellow Taxi, Wonderwall, and some Johnny Cash. I can only hope that the look-alikes in vests achieved their goal and got lucky with that group of silly/sloppy drunk girls. Perhaps they used the hand-cuffs.

Well it's been a month since my last update. I haven't really done much exciting except accidentally fix my camera by hitting it (I think, it might have been something else I did to it). I took a walk up Calton Hill (Carlton Hill?). Anyway pictures from that are availble on my webshots page, and more pictures will be there as they come along.

The day I went up Calton Hill was pretty amazing. The weather was beautiful: not too windy, just warm enough for a light jacket, and sunny! The sky was the best shade of blue I've ever seen, and the grass was pretty green, too. I took some pictures of the Scottish National Monument. I wikipedia'd it and it turns out it's supposed to be modelled after the Parthenon. Some say it was never finished because the project ran out of funds in the middle. Others say it was intentionally designed to look that way. I like the latter explanation.

I'm getting used to the city, although in general I hate cities so I have a general disdain toward the place I'm living. I considered moving out here after I graduate but after six weeks here I definitely don't think that's going to happen. Nothing in particular is wrong with this city, but I prefer to live in a forrest. Thus my love of Vassar and Gig Harbor. Also, I've noticed that debit card use out here is not nearly as prevalent as it is in the U.S. I've been to at least five or six stores that don't even accept debit/credit cards. The ones that do sometimes don't even keep their debit card machine by the register. Once I whip out my card they have to go into the back room to get it. Weird, I don't know why they don't just keep it out front... but oh well.

School is going ok. My classes are fine, and interesting enough, but not nearly as engaging as I expected. In addition, my lectures rotated, so my art history class went from being led by this really amazing professor to the most boring person I have ever met in my life. On top of that, he's a bad lecturer, doesn't write the names of the paintings or artists in his power-point (instead preferring to spell them out loud once), and is a total "NO TALKING IN MY LECTURE" Nazi. Seriously. He once walked to the top of the lecture hall with three minutes left in class and asked some people to leave. I had a boring lecturer in my linguistics class for about two weeks, but now we have a new one who is much more interesting and engaging. In addition, I just finished writing a paper that was due three days after a test in the same class. All in all though I don't really like this school. In fact sometimes I hate it. But that's all I'm going to explain about it right now.

Webshots

Well, I've finally done something authentically Scottish (besides drinking Hendrick's, that is)! Last night my neighbor Tom invited me to a ceilidh, which in simple terms is like a Scottish square dance. Same idea--traditional dancing to traditional music, sometimes with partners or sometimes with groups, except there isn't a man with a fiddle singing "swing your partner 'round and 'round!". Actually there was no singing. I'm not sure what kind of instruments usually play, but there was a band who played last night, so it was a nice touch. Also, many people came dressed in traditional outfits--you know, kilts and what not. Tom and his friend wore a kilt. I wish I had one; I would have worn it. If only I'd saved my marching band outfit from Shorecrest! There was a whole range of kilts--from men in the whole outfit, from guys just wearing a kilt with a polo shirt on top. Not bad.

It was a lot of fun, I'd have to say, although a bit confusing because I didn't know how to do any of the dances. I learned how to do some, and they have someone telling you how to do it at the beginning of each dance. Plus, you just repeat the same steps, so if you watch other people you can get it down pretty quickly. I mean, just the general stuff, the footwork can be difficult, especially if it's pretty fast.

Unfortunately I don't know any of the names of the dances, but my favorite ones were the dances that you needed three or four couples for. Then you'd end up dancing with two or three different people in one round, and then one set of couples would step one way, and the other the opposite way, and then everyone would have a new partner! Also, there was one dance where everyone lined up in two parallel lines, men on one side and women on the other, and one couple started spinning on one end. They then spilt, did a little do-si-do-type-thing with the next person in line, back to the middle with their partner, and then to the next person in line, and so on, all the way down the line. This was great--because never before have I danced with so many people! And going down an entire dance hall spinning with your partner and every other person in the line can be quite tiring--I mean, really tiring. I don't know how they do it! Because apparantly there have been much, much longer lines, as this was quite a small dance hall.

At the end, they did a dance to Auld Lang Syne, and everybody sang (except me because I don't know the words). Everyone stands in a big circle holding hands, and moves them up and down to the beat. Then they cross hands and repeat. Then the circle moves in and out, sort of like the Wave. Finally, as the music started to get faster, the circle split, the band jammed, and everyone danced in a free-for all.

I really had a fun time at the ceilidh, and it was nice to see the traditional Scottish culture alive and vibrant. Reminded me of how much I liked watching the Highland Dancers at Shorecrest!

I am both thrilled and a little disappointed that the extent of my cultural experience of Scotland has been pub crawls and night clubs. But last night's was fun to say the least.

It started out by going to BLOGS, the QCVC of UE. The purpose of last night's meeting was to play a supermarket-sweep-type game, where each group had a list of 15 or so drinks, and the goal was to drink as many of them as we could. Thus began the crawl, again to Oddfellows. While at the meeting, I met a guy named Ewan, who, as it turns out, was good friends with Andrew Villani while he was here. That's quite the coincidence, but not really if you consider that we went to the same school and joined the same club only two years apart. Anyway, after Oddfellows, we went to another pub called The Tron. Pretty nice, but also kind of crowded. After The Tron it was on to The Street, which is where we went last week. This bar is really nice because there's hardly anyone there! Although that is the beginning of my hearing troubles, because we say next to a huge speaker and pretty much had to yell to hear each other.

After The Street, we went down the street to a club called Ego (or something). It's a nice club, I suppose. Not too crowded, and the music was decent. They actually played Dragostea Din Tei (yeah, you know you remember that) and the European audience got quite into it. The bottom floor played a lot of hip-hop, but sometimes would randomly switch to something else, like reggae. Anyway, the point of the title of this entry: While at Ego, I spotted someone who looked quite familiar. After we both stared at each other for a few minutes, I asked if he was from the U.S. He was, and he knew that I went to Vassar. Turns out it was Tom Muzyka, who graduated from Vassar last year and is now living in Edinburgh. I didn't really know him at Vassar, but I definitely recognized him. Now that is quite the coincidence, I'd say. Not only because I ran into him in a foriegn country, but because last night was the first night that either of us had been to that club. So after that little meet-up, we continued to dance for several hours (really, a lot). The music was really loud (duh, it's a night club), but my ears have been ringing continuously since then. We stayed until three, after which it was pretty much a mob fight to get to the coat check and out the door. Another long walk home but I had company who helped me navigate.

So yet another well-spent Tuesday night with another ill-spent Wednesday morning.

Wow! So I've made it to Scotland and I've been here for about a week. All of it has kind of been thrown in my face and I've had some problems trying to figure out what to do, but I've think I've got it down pat so far. I found all my classes alright (except once when I walked into the room fifteen minutes early during some other class's tutorial!).

It's not too bad, though. Scotland's a lot like the U.S. but there are obvious differences. Aside from the exchange rate (which I'll probably be complaining about the whole time) I've found that things aren't as overpriced as I've heard. Since the dining hall doesn't serve lunch, I'm looking at this as an opportunity to explore some great British, Scottish, and British-takes-on-foreign foods. Not all that great though, because I just can't handle eating beans for breakfast. And I prefer my bacon crispy, and not to be like slices of ham (it's still tasty, though).

At first I was having trouble understanding the accent, and every other thing out of my mouth was "what's that?" or "pardon?" But I'm getting used to it, although I hope I don't try to slip into an accent when I'm drunk. God knows I'll only fail at that, as I'm about as American as you can be, without the southern drawl or Bostonian inability to pronounce post-a rhotics. I however admit that my syntax is changing a bit: because why would I ever say "Have you got the time?" unless I was influenced by this anglophonic grammar? I have to say I'm charmed by some speakers' accent of adding an r sound at the end some words, thus the word 'idea' is quite en"dear"ing. Different words for the same thing might pose a problem, as quite often someone has said something to me, and I've understood what words he was saying, but could only stare, dumbfounded, and ask for clarification. And "cheers" is something I may quite possibly never be able to use in the correct context, since I hear it in the most random and disipersed contexts. All I can gather is that it's some sort of general well-wishing, but I'm not about to start using it until I'm confident. And as many times as I've heard it being used, not once has it been while toasting.

I went bar hopping once (dubbed pub crawling out here) and I suppose there's a good pub scene in the city, although I can't compare it to anything in the states since the only bars which I've hopped there were the Dutch and Griff's, once. Stella's a great beer but out here it comes in cans! Which is also great because now I won't even need a bottle opener. Plus I think it's cheaper here than in the states.

I'm still unsure about the comparison between Vassar and UE. At Vassar I only had classes 4 days a week, here I have them five. It's not too bad but I hate classes that meet five days a week. I guess I don't really have any other option though. As for the workload, I think I'll have significantly less work, mostly less reading, and certainly less writing. As great as that may sound, I'm not thrilled that 60% of my grade in all three classes will be determined by one essay which I have three hours in a crowded lecture hall to write. Even though I'll be taking classes that I could never take at Vassar (who there is going to teach me how to use speech analysis/spectogram software?) I much prefer the discussion-based courses. And I like how all of my written work is associated with my name, and that my professors personally read and comment on all of it. But I suppose that is a consequence of the large university. And it'll still be a great education so, all in, I think it will be a good semester.

And I never thought I would say this, but there actually is a dining hall that is worse than ACDC. It really makes me miss the DC and realize how underappreciated it really is. For instance, there are several stations at ACDC with fresh food that is cooked on request. Here there is only one main course option, pizza and pasta, and soup. But what can you do.

I really don't mean to sound like I'm complaining so much, as I love it out here so far, but I guess those are just my initial impressions. Stay tuned for week two; hopefully I'll be able to get out into the city and do something or see some great sights. Below is a picture of the old college! It reminds me a bit of Main building.