The Highlands- 12-14 September

Here it is finally, the highlands trip! I am going to try to get completely caught up today before class. I don't know how possible that will be because I have class in an hour and a half, but I am going to try. --Update-- It is now 16:42 on 1 October, so I did not even get close to finishing yesterday before class!

So the highlands are the more northern part of Scotland, and the biggest difference between there and Edinburgh is the terrain. The highlands are filled with mountains or munroes as they are called here, and there are huge lakes and things like Loch Ness, which just aren't found in the lowlands. The cities were really different as well, they seemed much more like small towns. Similar to the US's South, there are also cultural differences in things like accents. That is a quick recap for you, now I will start on about the trip itself.

We left in the morning on the 12th. Gerry Mooney (who has told me he has been reading this blog so I have to be nice ;-) was our guide for the weekend, and we picked him up in Stirling, then went on to Stirling Castle. The castle was really nice. We started out with a group tour, but after about ten minutes, Leah, D and I got pretty bored and ditched. Then we started walking around, and we saw a lot of cool things.
This is a picture of the dungeon, supposedly the most haunted part of the castle. It was not scary at all, and the only scary part was the fear of bumping your head (which I did). Apparently the old Scots were much shorter than we are now



This is a picture of Leah, Luke, me and D (on the bottom) taken in a tower at Stirling Castle. It was a very small tower.









This is me (duh!) with a portion of the castle in the background. One interesting thing about this castle is that one of the moldings you can see on the building behind me, I think the third one in from the far left (I realise it is impossible to see) is a she-devil. Meaning literally it is the devil, but with a female's body. Apparently this is not very common.



After that, we kind of split up, and half the group had free time, and the other half went to the Wallace Monument, dedicated to none other than William Wallace. I went and saw the Wallace Monument. It was a bit of a hike. It was situated on the top of a hill to begin with, and then once you were there, the actual monument is a tower, so it was some sort of mean surprise. I think there were about 257 steps up the thing, and it was all up a spiral staircase, which made it very difficult to pass people coming down. One party had to plaster themselves to the wall, and you just had to squeeze by. There were several floors, each with a different theme. My favorites were the one with Wallace's history and his sword, and the top floor where you could see all of Stirling. It was really neat.


This is Wallace's sword. I learned in my history class (we had an entire class period dedicated to Wallace and Robert the Bruce, and who was the greater hero and all that, so if you want me to dissect Braveheart for you, I am good to go) that there is no way to really know if this was actually his sword, and that it for sure has gone through renovations to make it a more "fitting" sword for a national war hero. But it was cool either way.

To be honest, I am not sure if this is a view from Stirling Castle or the Wallace Monument, it is the same city though, so it doesn't really matter. Either way it was beautiful.


This one is for sure from the Wallace Monument. See how high up I am? I hoofed it up there on a darn spiral staircase. It was terrible. But again, beautiful view.










After that, we got back on the bus and drove to Doune Castle, which is actually the castle used in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It was really neat because it was not overly redone. It seemed very original, and was really cool to explore. I like those kind of beat up but still standing castles.


This is a shot of the castle right after we arrived. If you have seen Monty Python, you will recognise it. It was one of the best castles I have been to.









This a neat picture of our entire group, or at least most of it. Apparently someone in Monty Python ran up these stairs to save someone. I won't name everyone, but everyone here is really nice, and we all get on really well.








After that, we took a quick stop at Loch Lomand. This is a really famous lake, and has the most surface area of any in the UK. It is 25 miles long and 5 miles wide, with a maximum depth of 600 feet. This is also the area of our first hostel.


This is a fishing boat on Loch Lomand. I thought it was neat.










So the neatest thing about our first hostel was that there were ghost hunters there. Real live ghost hunters. They said that they also do stuff for tv, but this was a private one. The lady we talked to showed us a bunch of her equipment, and let us listen to a voice recorder that recorded really high noises, that humans cannot usually hear, and plays them back. She played us some that was apparently a "level C" ghost, meaning that is just kind of cackles or laughs. I am a bit skeptical of all that, so when she said she would take two of us along with them, Jesse and I waited up almost all night waiting to go along. Unfortunately, she never came back so the end result was that there were apparently ghosts, but I was just really tired and still didn't see any or believe any of it.

The next day, our first stop was in Glencoe, which is a really scenic and beautiful place. Leah, D and I took about a 45 minute hike there. Again, we veered off course of everyone else, and we really took advantage of Scotland's no trespassing laws by sneaking into several fenced off places, including one sheep pasture. Glencoe was also the location of a massacre by the Campbell clan. I'm not really sure why that happened, but I have noticed there is not Campbell's Soup here. Related? I think so.

Here is a poorly taken picture of us on our hike, and I am not sure what all these mountains are called, but I think they are all different ones, and they were all around us.

































Actually, I think these last two are the same mountain, just a before and after shot of when we hopped the barbed wire fence to get into the pasture.















After this, we got on a train and went across the Harry Potter bridge. It is actually called the Glenfinnan Viaduct. The train ride was neat, but kinda pointless because we ended up at a stop to take pictures of the bridge, then the bus drove us pretty much back the way we came. But it was neat being on a train. I also take issue with this being a Harry Potter themed place. It has absolutely no significance in the books, and is just a shot of the Hogwarts Express from above in the movies. I think they are really milking that one.

This is a shot of Leah looking at the bridge. There is really no way to take a picture out of a train without a reflection.










Leah then took a picture of me and the train, and the second one is me at the rest stop where you can just make out the bridge in the distance. You would think they would do it closer.





After the Viaduct, we went on to Castle Urquhart on Loch Ness. It is pretty much only ruins, and the path down to the lake was closed, which was disappointing. Also, it did not have a Nessie theme at all. I figured that they would at least play up the Loch Ness monster a little bit, but that was not the case. Granted, the lake is huge and there is like a specific spot to view Nessie, but still. That is one of things that I would have liked to have done: gone to the actual spot where Nessie had been sighted. I guess Erin and I will have to do that when she gets out here and we go to the Highlands. Actually, though, there is a deep underwater cavern right out in front of the castle, so realistically, that is the primo place for Nessie's home. I still didn't see anything. You can try to look at the pictures and see if you see anything I missed!


This is a shot of the castle toward the top of it. See? It is really not much. All the rest of them are pictures of Loch Ness. Nessie hunt time!






That night we stayed in Aviemore, and we had dinner at the only restaurant/pub that had mexican on their menu. We were craving it! I think like ten of us ordered either nachos or chicken fajitas. There was a large group of us, 14 I think, that all ate there. At ten they moved the tables and turned it into a dance floor, so that was really fun. For like the first half hour, all of us girls owned it. After that, two hen parties and one stag party showed up, so they joined us.





At one point, Leah and I were outside and saw two older women dressed in all black, and I went up to them (this is why I am known as the friendly one, I guess, and always get nominated to talk to strangers) and told them I thought it was neat they were at the bar, and it turns out that they were also there for a hen party, for a 55 year old woman. They had a group of around 20 and ranged in age from 40-67. Mom, you and your Bunko ladies should do that! They were so nice, and asked us a lot of questions about the states and how we liked Scotland, and then one of them gave me her party hat! I am really racking up the free souvenirs!

So I know I look like a zombie in this picture, but I think it is the only one we had from the pub. D and Leah (the one who didn't get the picture hint) are on the left, and Marie is behind me on the right. They were running a pretty good drink special, where these rainbow shots (they had cherry, citrus tequila, sour apple, chocolate-which was actually good, sambuca and blue raspberry) that were only like 3 GBP for 5, so I had a couple rounds of those (don't worry, they were only 14% alcohol, and a normal shot is around 40%, so it wasn't alot) We ended up leaving pretty early.




This is from the walk back home. It is Leah, me, D and Jesse, who we call our little brother, on the way back to the hostel. I really like it, and it emcompasses what a good time we are all having, I think. The hat/headband thing I am wearing is what the woman gave me. It says "girls night out" on the springy things.





After that, we headed back to the hostel, and we stopped to talk to a group of French guys that were also staying there. They were nice, but seemed to fit into the French stereotype of being a little snobby and anti-American. After that, it was bed time!




The next day, we went to Culloden, which is the location of a major battle between the Highlanders and the English government and their supporters (not only the English, there were also some Scots fighting for them, as well as others). We had a nice tour of the battlefield, and wondered around a little bit. I wrote out a postcard for Trevor here.

This is a small hut that is still standing from the battle.












This is a picture of the battlefield itself. The flag shows where the Highlanders stood, lined up, before the fighting started.





This is me driving the bus. Not really, and it is not a very flattering photo. The bus driver, Andy, started picking on me because I kept having to get stuff from under the bus, so finally he just showed me how to pop it open, and that is what I am doing here.

From here we drove to the GlenLivet distillery, and had a tour. It was really, really cool and smelled delicious. We tasted the barley-hops things before and after they prepared them for distilling, and of course we got a wee dram at the end. One of the coolest parts was holding area, which had hundreds of barrels in it. Unfortunately, we could not take pictures in there (they claimed it was because the cameras could make the fumes explode... I'll have to submit that one to mythbusters), but we could in the tasting area. I also thought it was interesting how they got the barrels at the top down... they just rolled them off onto a giant sponge/mat thing. We did not get to see it, but I imagine it is awesome.


This is D, me and Leah in the tasting room. D had 16 year old whiskey, but it was cask strengh (47% alcohol). They don't actually export it that strong, they water it down, so the distillery is the only place you can get it. I had an 18 year old, and Leah had a 12. I liked mine the best. It was really smooth, and kind of fruity because they actually use old sherry barrels from France and Jack Daniels barrels from the states to let the whiskey age in (Other countries, like the US, only let you use a barrel once or twice, so GlenLivet buys them off it for their whiskey)

This is the side of Jason's face (he is someone we hang out with alot), Cassidy in the background, me and then John, our Assistant Director. I don't look like it, but the tour really was interesting. I just probably wanted my whiskey taste.














From there, we stopped at Pitlochry, just another town. Nothing too interesting to report, we just kind of walked around and had some ice cream.

Then we went home! It was very welcome because it was a really long weekend, but very fun. I really enjoyed the Highlands, it was one of my favorite parts of Scotland so far! Whew, this was a long one!

10 & 11 September

Well, the tenth was a relatively normal day. It was Wednesday, so we had super long Scottish History, which is somehow not interesting at all. After that, at the back of 9, Leah, D and I went to Kabob Mahal. It was delicious, as always. I can't remember if I have posted about this yet or not, but I have made friends with most of the staff of KM. They wave at me when I pass in the street, and they are all very friendly and nice. They have given good tips and advice on where to go, and are actually some of the more easy to understand Scots in the area, so that has been nice. Everyone here makes fun of me for it, and I am always the one with a new story to tell about someone I met at some bar or on the street, but I think it is really interesting. To be honest, I didn't come here to hang out with a bunch of people from Minnesota and Wisconsin, and most people are perfectly friendly if you just go right up to them and ask them a question. That is really how I have learned the most about Scotland so far.

While my kabob was grilling, we went over to the store and bought some cider to bring back. After that, we went back to the palace and watched Braveheart with a small group. It was Leah, D, Pearce, Jason, John (our Assistant Director) and me. We had a good time. I really like that movie. People here seem to like it and hate it at the same time. They like it because it really sort of put Scotland on the map in pop culture terms, but it really slaughters their history of the War of Independance. Almost everything is fictionalised, and there is actually very little written history about William Wallace, but there are a lot of myths. My favorite contradiction in it is where all the faces of the warriors are painted and they run across a valley to fight the English (although in reality they were not only fighting the Engligh, but also Wales and even some Scots loyal to Edward I. Look at me, I'm a history whiz!!) and it is supposed to be the battle of Stirling Bridge, but in actuality, the only reason Wallace won that battle was because it was literally on a bridge, and the English could only cross it two by two, so the Scots took them down. They would have been terribly defeated had the battle been on the ground because the English had twice the number of soliders. Enough of a history lesson for today.

The eleventh was another low key day. We had class, and then we packed for the Highlands, which we leave for on Friday. After that, Leah, D and I, along with Sara, Jamie and Julia went to Tesco, which is like Wal-Mart. They are open 24 hours, and have really anything you could need. We took the bus out there (it is in Dalkeith, but about an hour and a half round trip walk). While we were waiting at the bus stop, we were mooned by passerby. Somehow, even without saying anything, they know we are American.

After shopping for a wee bit, we came back to Dalkeith (nearly missing the last bus of the night!) and met another group of students hanging out in the dining hall playing drinking games (we did not participate in those). We hung out with them for a couple hours, but they were all fairly pissed, and were doing some stupid stuff like playing basketball at two am which woke up the caretaker, and someone, although no one will admit who, threw up on the floor and our Director, Patty, had to clean it up. She was not happy, not that I can blame her. It's not often that I feel like the responsible on, but here we are.

That is about it, the next post is going to be a long one about the Highlands. It was a ton of fun, and I'll put up alot of pictures. Thanks to everyone for reading, I look at all the comments, so keep them coming. If you have any questions, just post them and I will answer them. So thanks to Mom, Erin (Drew is single, but young), Aunt Mary (Good luck to Roger for American football) and Aunt Patty and everyone else who is reading!

Cheers, Traci

8 & 9 September

I feel like I am just falling further and further behind at this. I try to keep up, and then all of a sudden a week has gone by, and I'm just even more behind.

So Monday was just classes, nothing too exciting there. Gerry, our Scottish Globalization professor, brought us free cds and dvds he had gotten in the Sunday newspaper for the past several months/years. He always gives us something during class, which is really nice. Monday is a long day of class because we have that three hour one, but luckily I only have two. Monday is also supposed to be our cleaning day, but since the library wasn't messy, I didn't clean. Brilliant.

Monday night was also our first cooking lesson with Henry Hoskins. We made Scottish shortbread and bannack, which is a flat bread that keeps forever and is good to eat with cheese and peanut butter (not at the same time). There is a group of five of us that take the lesson together on Mondays: Drew, Joan, Marie, Jason and myself. There is another group of five that do it on Tuesdays.

Monday night, or I guess technically Tuesday, a group of about seven of us decided to stay up and watch the Vikings/Packers game on streaming video. It didn't start until midnight, and I finally threw in the towel around 3am. I missed like the last eight minutes. It was pretty fun, we were all just laughing and passing around a 2 liter of cider and sweeties. The only real problem was that I was super tired for class the next day.

The best part about the weekend of American football was that I won the picks! There were about eight of us that went in on it, just a pound each, but I was excited to have an extra 7 quid. Leah and I were the only girls in on it, and I think the guys were a wee bit crabbit that I won, but oh well. They will have their revenge this weekend, I'm sure.

I also got some laundry done for the first time, so that was exciting. I wish I would have packed more clothes, though. I know you are never going to believe it wasn't enough, Mom! They lasted me for a long time, but I just hate doing laundry! I also need to get some detergent, Leah let me borrow hers, so that was nice. Also, there is a slight loophole in the laundry system, and the machines just chuck our pence back at us. So I don't see laundry being a big expense this semester.

Now to the food. It is just rubbish. Last year, they actually had a trained chef (Henry, the one doing the cooking and fly fishing lessons) but since two of the UW schools dropped, and they have been struggling budget-wise, food seems to be the thing that got sacrificed. It is just not good. I can't think of one meal yet that I have actually enjoyed. We had pork loin one night, and it was cooked the day before so when it was reheated, it was extremely dry/disgusting. Just absolutely rubbish. And there seems to be no relief. I guess it is about 16 quid per student per week, so I can understand why it is hard, but really. They could at least make it edible. I have never been a salt and pepper user, and now I cover everything in each meal in it. I even went out and bought a pepper grinder because the pepper here is tasteless (and I mean that. I put some on my pizza once, then licked it, and still didn't taste anything). So that is our meal situation. Not a good one. Good thing I have Kabob Mahal.

Oh, and Tuesday was also the night I started the blog. Yay!!

Cheers!

6 September- Girl's Night Out!

Saturday was one of the best days I have had since arriving in Scotland. The whole day was just really, really fun. In the morning, a group of us went shopping in Edinburgh. Leah, D and I kind of broke off and did our own thing, though, because we were the only girls. It was really cool, because we got a great look at the city. We stayed on the Royal Mile for the first couple hours, which is the tourist trap area of the city, but also went down some closes (alleys) and found some great shops. We also went to Princes Mall, which is a mall on Princes Street, one of the largest streets in Edinburgh. That shows how "Americanised" different places are getting. A local told us that until this opened a couple years ago, they never would have called something a "mall." Anyway, in there I found a really cute dress that I ended up wearing out that night.

After we finished shopping, we met up with our friend Dave, and the four of us ate at a small Italian restaurant on Leith Street called Guilianos. I had a three course dinner. It was really good, although you could tell the workers were not too impressed with us. I had a bruschetta-style appatiser and pesto chicken for my main. I had delicious tiramisu for dessert. After we were done eating, we just sat there for a wee bit because we did not know we were supposesd to ask for the bill. Apparently, the Scottish think it is rude to drop it off, like they are rushing people out. There is a sense of that in a lot of places here.

After dinner, we went home and got ready. We left about 22:30, because people go out late here. We were so lucky, because at the bus stop, we ran into four Scottish girls that were also going out. They told us they would bring us around with them, which was just brilliant.

We stopped at a pub called The Tron just to use the toilets, because it was close to us. After that, we went to a pub called Rush that had great student drink specials. One thing that is different here in Scotland vs. the States is tipping and ordering drinks. Waiters and barmen are paid a living wage, so tipping is not at all like at home. For a full service meal, 5-15% is the normal range. At the pubs, instead of tipping for every drink, you would offer to buy the barman a drink at the end of the night and he will add another drink to your tab. You also buy in rounds, so since there were the three of us drinking, I would buy three, then Leah, then D. It was different, but it actually works out really well.

So for a round of drinks after showing student ID, it was like 6 quid, which was great because they were doubles. (We had a double vodka lemonade with black currant night. Oh, and lemonade here is actually lemon lime soda, like 7up) Oh, and I know it says girls night out, but our friend Dave came too. He isn't much of a drinker though, so I don't know how his night went. He says he had fun, so I'll have to believe him.

Rush closed down at one, so after that we went to Espionage, which is a 5 floor dance club. Each level plays different music. It was so much fun! We actually ended up closing it down, which was 4am! After that, we made our way back to the bus station to catch the night bus home. We walked in at about 5:30. It was a really crazy night, but we had so much fun!

Here are the pictures: First, just a picture of my desert from dinner. It was great!


Then, a picture of us girls before we went out: Me, Leah, D.


Then it is the four girls we met at the bus stop: Nat is on the left, Lisa is squeezed in there, Danielle is in the middle and Sam is on the right. They were really nice, and so much fun. They invited us out for a birthday party for Sam and Lisa's younger sister, but we were in the Highlands :-( But the Highlands were very fun, so that was a good thing to do as well. More on that later.

Next, this is a picture of a guy we met at the bus stop on the way home. He was really nice, but kinda weird, and wearing a jacket with all these American classic rock bands on it. He said his mum is Scottish, and his dad is from the States, so he picked his dad's taste in music.






Then it is another picture of the three of us, just later in the night. I have no idea what kind of face Leah is making, but we were having a good time.

Last, this is another person we met at the bus stop. He and his friend are members of the British Army, who were actually on leave from Iraq where they were fighting alongside US Marines. They were nice, but they also where very weird. One of them, not the one pictured, actually started crying on the bus, I think from a combination of lager and post traumatic stress disorder. We didn't really know how to deal with that. Then they followed us off the bus, and D and I kind of ran off to the palace and left Leah and Dave to sort that out. Luckily, nothing more came of it. We definately have Dave to thank for that.

The only casualty of the night was my North Face fleece, which I wore because it was cold, but took off in the clubs, and it got drinks spilt on it, and covered in dirt. Luckily I was able to get it clean, even the white, and now it is as good as new!

Once we were home, we made some noodles and went to bed. We slept most of Sunday, and really only woke up to eat. No matter what, though, it was a great night!

4 and 5 September

We did go out on Thursday (the 4th) night, just in Dalkeith, expecting a normal pub crowd. We were sorely mistaken! It was dead! Leah, D and I (of course... are you sensing a pattern?) had some cider at the palace, then went up to Buccleuch's (which is pronounced Buh-Clue) and as soon as we got there is was last orders. So we had one cider there, and hung out with some rugby players that some of the guys from the house play with. It was fun, but we were expecting a huge crowd, like it is at home on Thursday. Apparently, Thirsty Thursdays are an American thing.

It is good that we weren't out too late on Thursday because we had a field trip on Friday. We (there were 17 from our group of 29 that went) met up with a group from St. Cloud State that are staying in northern England in a town near Newcastle. They are staying at Alnwick (pronounced Annick) Castle, which is the castle used in the first Harry Potter movie when they were learning how to fly. I'm only kind of jealous, because their castle is open to the public and for tourism, where our palace is privately owned by the Duke of Buccleuch, and isn't and never has been open to the public. This is why we get pissed (drunk) locals outside some nights debating on how to get in. They never have, and our caretaker (Jim) gets rid of them because his room is right by the front of the house.

Our director, Patty, is best friends with their director, Wade, so they tried to organize some things together to save us all some quid. This trip was a sightseeing trip through Edinburgh. It just was not great. Things just started off bad, because the bus was an hour and a half late. The St. Cloud group was much larger and more rude than our group, so we were constantly getting yelled at. The first stop was at the new Scottish Parliament building, which is ugly beyond belief. It is supposed to look like a tree and bird or something, but you only get the full impact of that if you are on top of Arthur's Seat, so on the ground it looks like trash. I'll post some pictures of that. It really does look strange. We were not originally supposed to go on a tour of this, Wade said there wouldn't be room, but upon arriving there, he said we could have gone on it. Most of the Dalkeith group decided not to, just because we hadn't eaten yet, because we were told to eat while they were on the tour. Then Wade seemed mad that we weren't going, because he had paid for the tickets, even though we were supposed to eat lunch. Just stupid.

After that, we went to the Palace of Holyrood House, which is the Queen's house while she stays in Scotland, which is only a week or two a year. It was really neat. They have it completely maintained, and there are areas we cannot go, which are the royal bedrooms and stuff, but the rest of it is restored to historic conditions and they gave us an audio guide tour. Some of the memorable rooms were the dining room, which was completely set with the royal silver, a hall of paintings, which showed the Stuart Clan, who ruled Scotland for so long. It was a really long hall, filled top to bottom with paintings. We also saw the King's bedroom, and the former bedroom of Mary, Queen of Scots both of which had original but restored furnishings. All in all, it was really cool. I have pictures of the outside, as well as the old church that has since mostly fallen, but we were not able to take pictures at all inside.

After that, we went to Calton Hill, where they have a couple monuments. This was boring as well, because I had been there during our Amazing Race. We got yelled at for talking some more. I did get a neat picture with a bagpiper though. He was there for a wedding that was being held upon the Hill that day.

We finished at Edinburgh Castle, which looks amazing from the ground, but is really disappointing behind the gates. They have transformed almost the whole thing into a museum, and the inside of the buildings look nothing like the castle used to. I was expecting something totally different. It would be cool if they made it into a Haunted House for Halloween though. I'm sure that would never happen, but it would be the scariest thing ever. While there, the three highlights were: the Scottish War Museum, which had some really pretty sculpture and stained glass, as well as listings of everyone who had died in the line of service from the late 1800's until current, the Scottish Crown Jewels which were not as cool as I thought they would be, but I guess it is neat to see them, and lastly, the view of Edinburgh. You could see everything!

While we were at the castle, it started to rain, so we wanted to get back to Dalkeith. While walking to the bus stop, I did stop and buy a pair of Wellies and a matching bag. They are so cute, and galoshes really come in handy here. After that, me and Leah weren't feeling up to much more, so we stayed in and watching Dirty Dancing on VHS with D (D didn't go on the field trip). Some of our group did go out in Edinburgh, but we were sick of Edinburgh for the day. The palace has a on of movies, but all on VHS and from the early 2000's at the latest. There are some good ones though.
Now here is what all the pictures are: The first one is the old church outside Holyrood House. The story goes that it was built because King David I of Scotland was hunting and fell off his horse. He was about to be trampled by a stag when he saw a cross in its antlers, and as thanks for surviving he built the monastery.

Then it is me with the bagpiper. This also made the trip leaders mad, because of course since I had a picture with the bagpiper, everyone else needed to get one as well. At least I was the first one, so I wasn't wasting time.

Then it is me with my Wellies. They are so cute! Almost everything in the store (called Ness) was really cute colors of tartan. The purse I got is the one on the highest shelf on the right side of the picture. Super cute!

The group picture is all of the Dalkeith students who did not go on the tour of Parliament. We called ourselves the Rebels. From the right is Aaron, Leah, me, Greg (behind me), Pearce, Colin (in the background), Erik and Marie.


Next is a scale replica of the parliament building. This might give a better idea about what it is supposed to look like. They overspent by hundreds of millions of GBP, and then before it was even complete, the artchitect died, so no one really knows if this is for sure what it is supposed to look like.

Next is a shot of Parliament as we were approaching.


Then is another picture of the outside of the building.

Next is a picture of the chamber where they argue. We were up in the observation deck.

Next is a picture of the outside of the Palace of Holyroodhouse. It was really impresssive.

After that, I am sitting outside Edinburgh Castle next to a horse statue.

September 1-3

So I decided to lump a few days together here, because I really did the same thing all three days. We started classes! (yay...?) It was kind of weird starting class on Labor Day, but since it isn't here, there you go. I guess we will have a couple Bank Holidays to make up for it. I am taking 15 credits, which is actually more than I originally planned on taking, but it will be interesting. I can't remember what I have actually said about my classes, so I will go through them all.

On Monday, I start off with Marketing: Consumer Behavior from 8:10-9:50. That is basically looking at specific groups of consumers and how marketers target them, and how they react and purchase. It is taught by a UWRF professor named Stacey Vollmers. She is really nice, and seems to be a really thourough teacher. After that, I have a break until 14:00. Then I have Scottish Globalization until 17:00. Three hours! That is a course about Scottish Culture and influence and is taught by Gerry Mooney, a professor and leading staff member at the OU or Open University in the UK, which is pretty much an online univerisity that mostly the British Armed Forces use, as well as UK citizens that are throughout Europe and the world. (They go to University for free in the UK, so even if the citizens aren't here, they want to go to a Scottish school). He is a really funny, nice guy. It is a long class, but he has brough us presents everyday so far and is really entertaining. The first day he gave us shortbread biscuits, and posters of the Celtic Football Club, of which he is an avid fan.

Tuesday I have Marketing: Principles of at 10:20-noon. That is also with Stacey. It is an intro course, and you usually have to take it first, but UWRF made an exception for WIS students. After that, I have Literature: Science Fiction and Fantasy with Jonna Gjvere, who I think is from Stout. That is a really interesting class, and one I was not planning on taking when I came here. We look critically at lots of different Sci-Fi and Fantasy books and stories, and analyze them in class and we will write papers on them. We are reading Harry Potter right away. It should be really interesting. Jonna is a different type of professor than I am used to because I haven't taken any English-type courses except what is required, and it is much more free form than the usual business classes with lots of power point presentations. Should be good stuff, something different at the very least.

On Wednesday, I have Consumer behavior again and my other Scottish class: British History. It is taught by Dr. Miller, another Scottish professor. She teaches at the University of Edinburgh. So far that has been incredibly boring. She is going all the way back to the original conquering of Scotland, and apparently hates Braveheart. That is another long class, three hours in the evening, and we have to break for tea (tea is dinner and dinner is lunch here).

Thursday is a mirror to Tuesday.

The only other things that happened were that we had Henry Hoskins, who used to be the chef for the program before the other three schools dropped and they couldn't afford him anymore, come in and give us a hygeine training so we could help prepare food. It was like three hours long and super boring. Henry is a really neat guy though, he is a Le Cordon Bleu trained chef, and is doing a weekly cooking class for a group of us for eight weeks. He is also teaching a garnishing class and taking some people on a fly fishing trip. (I signed up for all of the above, there goes like a hundres GBP).

I also went to Kabob Mahal again. It was still delicious.

August 31

This was one of the more relaxing days we have had so far. After we ate a delicious breakfast of either Rice Krispies or Corn Flakes, Apple or Orange juice and toast (sometimes we also get fruit), we had a meeting to determine our "community standards" or basically just house rules. It was the most ridiculous meeting I have ever been to. People could not agree on things that should really just be common sense, like: whether or not you should talk on the phone where it disturbs others, why we shouldn't be able to be as loud as we want all hours of the night on the weekends and my personal favorite, the argument about who should be able to use the internet when (hint: our internet is wireless).

It made me embarassed to be human. So after that trainwreck, we were supposed to do a walk up to Arthur's Seat, which is a mountainous rock that sticks out over the city, but the weather was bad so it was cancelled. I was actively trying to get John, our assistant resident director, to cancel it because I really wanted to do it, but we had also walked around Edinburgh the entire day before. That will be resceduled.

Instead of actively walking up a large hill/rock, Leah, D and I went for fish and chips then took a nap. It was so delicious! This was my first time having them, and it was really great. They have this stuff called brown sauce, which basically tastes like a delicious mix of ketchup, malt vinegar and worschesire sauce, and it is excellent on chips, chicken and pretty much anything fried. Our nap was well needed, and was really one of the only times we have had so far to just catch up with everything.

After the nap, we went to see the fireworks in Edinburgh. It was really cool. We watched them from Letih Park, and they were being shot up over the castle. Pretty cool. They actually did it in time with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, so as the music was playing, they would shoot up a firework to match the tones. It was brilliant. I'll try to post some pictures of that, but my camera died and no one else's really turned out that great anyway.

On the way home, we stopped at Kabob Mahal. This is officially my favorite restaurant in Dalkeith. It is Indian and Tandoori takeaway, and it is so delicious. I usually get a chicken kabob and if I'm feeling really hungry some veggie samosas or some veggie pankora. It is reasonably priced too, just about 3GBP for a small kabob (which is a huge amount of food). They grill up the chicken, which has a spice rub on it, then serve it in a pita covered in cabbage salad with onion, tomato and cucumbers. I also get jalapenos. Then they smother the whole thing with chili and garlic sauces. Yum!

The pictures are of the fireworks-you can see the trees, and right above those, where the pink streaks are, is the castle. Me standing by a mail bin on the way there, some of us girls before the show (me, D, Leah, Sara and Juliana) and another one of Me, D and Leah.

August 30

Today was an exciting day, it was the first time for us to go into Edinburgh! We had an "Amazing Race" type game planned, and it was a lot of fun. First we were split up into small groups, called "clans." Not only were these our groups for the game, but we also split into them for kitchen duty and other lame things. My clan-mates are Dave, Drew, Jocelyn and Anne. We are the Stewart clan, which historically ruled Scotland for a really long time, so we started out with history on our side.

The game basically was a scavenger hunt, which led us all over Edinburgh and up and down the Royal Mile (a really famous part of Old Town in Edinburgh, with tons of shops and historic sights). On the way out to the city, we asked the couple in front of us for help with our quiz, and they were really nice and gave us lots of answers. They also helped us get off the bus at the right time, which was really helpful because the bus can be really confusing.

The game started off really fun, but kind of stalled when we stopped off for a pint at Belushi's (one of the stops on our list) but then we were able to get it back on track. A really popular drink here is called a Snakebite, or a Black Snakebite. It is half Fosters, half Strongbow (or half lager, half cider). A Black one has a shot of black current in it (which is like grenadine but delicious). They are pretty good, but I prefer cider. It is just so delicious.

Our group ended up winning, probably because we ended up doing all the extra questions, which included climbing up Calton Hill to look at crappy monuments, so we totally deserved it. We found out at the wine and cheese social we had that night. Our prize was traditional, locally made Scottish sweets. I have only had one so far, but it was great.

The social was fun, and after it a group of us went out for Chinese and brought it back to the house and sat around talking. On the way we saw a good old fashioned bar fight, which was kind of weird to actually see. The bouncers called the cops and threw them in the street, but didn't interfere any more than that. Others from our house went to the pubs, but I'm glad I wasn't there because they were being stupid, and someone threw a bottle that hit a cab, and it was all just bad news. Made the Americans look like assholes.

Here are some pics from the day:

So, the dog is Greyfriar's Bobby, who is this dog who followed his master until he died, then stayed at his grave with him. Futurama used a similar storyline for an episode, and is sad.











The next one is a shot of us at the wine and cheese social after winning. From the left, it is Dave, Drew, Jocelyn, Me (duh), and Anne.









Here I am writing down some answers, on a very blunt signpost








This is a view of Old City from the top of Calton Hill, which houses several monuments, including one known as Edinburgh's Shame because they never finished it. It looks like half of the Parthenon.




I can't remember what this is a statue of, but it is neat and really shows how modern life was built right on top of the old, because all over town there are statues just like this in the middle of the street.