Weekend, Interrupted

My weekend of fun adventurous outdoorsy things has been rudely interrupted by classes and I am not pleased. Although I'm actually really enjoying all of my courses, I'm not really enjoying the fact that I have to actually get up and walk to them. I miss being at Duke where I can wake up, get dressed, grab a quick bagel and coffee on the way to class, and not have to walk more than 5 minutes everywhere. Here I have to wake up (after pressing snooze an impressive 12 times over the course of an hour), go to the kitchen, find our cleaning staff in our kitchen and bathroom (not visibly cleaning anything, just talking), retreat back to my room, not really do anything productive, wait until they leave, go back to the kitchen, eat, get dressed, go outside and realize it's raining, go back, get my umbrella, go back outside again, realize it's not raining anymore, and THEN walk 15 minutes or so to class. It's quite a process.

Despite my course material being incredibly interesting, I literally got 4 pages into my book this evening before I fell asleep. Maybe jet lag is just hitting me now? An hour nap seems to have made the world right again, however, and instead of reading I am writing this entry. Procrastination is a sign of normalcy.

Anyway, this past weekend was my flat's trip to Lindisfarne and Berwick-upon-Tweed, which are both in northern England. We went with the International Student Centre, which organizes (organises) trips every weekend during the semester. Lindisfarne was kind of dreary and cold and windy so when we passed a little house advertising tea/coffee (and crab sandwiches) for sale, we of course stopped. I got some tea and normally I don't have milk/sugar in my tea (or coffee), but this elderly Englishwoman asked "milk and sugar, dear?" and of course I couldn't say no to someone who asked me that question in an English accent. The walk to the castle was also made better because we passed sheep on the way. The castle itself was a little odd because it had been renovated into a vacation home (think medieval on the outside, early 20th century on the inside), but it was cool by virtue of the fact that it was a castle on a hill in the middle of nowhere on an island you can only access when the tide permits.

The highlights of Lindisfarne (aka Holy Island) also included a short trip to Lindisfarne Priory, samples of mead and cream liqueur, buying a bottle of mead (slightly sweet for my taste, but good for the right occasion), and buying a jar of homemade strawberry jam. Here are some pictures from Holy Island:

Lindisfarne Castle

Standing in the ruins of the Priory

There were signs posted everywhere saying to turn around if any water covered the road. Our bus driver sped up.

Next up on our trip was Berwick-upon-Tweed, the northernmost city in England. Walls were built around it to keep the Scots out way back when (although, it should be noted that these walls could not keep these Americans out since naturally one of the first things we did was climb them).

Part of the wall

Overlooking a golf course/ocean (this one's for you, Dad)

View from the shore... and yes, those are swans!

Sunday found me exploring Holyrood Park, but that deserves its own entry so perhaps later in the week when I find myself avoiding work (tomorrow), I'll post that recap with pictures. For now I should get back to my reading and rest up for my inevitably stressful morning of trying to get ready for class... which I don't have until 3pm tomorrow.

As a sidenote, if I could have just one wish in the entire world right now it would be that my laundry magically does itself. I've been outside (yes, outside) twice today to check if a washing machine is free and they never are (there are only 3 to my entire building). I desperately need to do laundry and am having trouble finding time to do it, what with all my exploring and napping.

Okay, back to reading...

Things Scottish People Like (and travel stuff)

1. Blackcurrants and blackcurrant things

2. Fire doors

3. Gravy

4. Sausages

5. Pulling fire alarms at least twice a week (this is clearly cross-cultural)

6. Warm milk (milk is advertised as "delicious served cold!" as if it's a novelty)

7. Fire drills (weekly fire drill times are posted in nearly every building)

Given how seriously Scotland seems to take fire safety, it begs the question of why there are no smoke detectors in the kitchen. Although, given how frequently the fire alarms go off here, maybe that's a good thing...

In other news, I've booked a few trips for the semester. In October, I'm heading over to Dublin with at least one (maybe two) of my flatmates. Then the next weekend, my friend Cat is coming down from St. Andrews and we are taking a 3-day trip to the Highlands and Skye (click here). And yes, stops at Loch Ness are included. That's stopS. Plural. We are excited.

Tomorrow my flatmates and I are going to Lindisfarne and Berwick-upon-Tweed. Lindisfarne is a small island that is only accessible at certain times of the day because of the tide. There are only about 160 inhabitants and a castle (surprise, surprise... there is a sort of castle theme in Scotland). Berwick-upon-Tweed is the northernmost town in England and has some good history behind it. Next weekend I'm taking a day trip to some of the places in the Highlands/central Scotland that my 3-day tour doesn't hit.

Things are going well here aside from the fact that my flat has been crippled by a mystery cold-like illness. One flatmate was told by the doctor that because she is American, she's not immune to some of the bugs here and there was nothing she could do for her. That's an interesting theory considering that my Scottish flatmate is also sick with the same symptoms.

I myself decided to kill off any remaining bacteria by going to a whisky tasting last night. I went with a couple friends and met up with some more there. We tried 6 different whisky samples over the course of 2 and a half hours or so. I was pretty surprised by the variation in flavor--some were really smoky and peaty, others a bit sweeter. One was described to us as "a breakfast whisky!" I found two that I really like (for future reference, of course!). Now my mom can stop telling me "you won't like whisky!"

I'll try to keep the updates a bit more regular so that they aren't so long. This week was a little crazy because we started classes and everything (so I have been exhausted these past 3 days from my whirlwind of classes on Monday and Tuesday!). And even though I only have class 2, sometimes 3 days a week, I am taking my studies very, very seriously (Mom and Dad).

First few days in Edinburgh

Now that we have all settled in to the flat (mostly), my flatmates and I have spent a lot of time doing orientation things (advisor meetings, pointless meetings, missed meetings...) and getting familiar with the city.

Yesterday morning nothing exciting was happening in the city except for the Pope stopping by...!

In the afternoon we headed up to Calton Hill and took some great photos:

Last night two of my flatmates, a girl from California, and I went for Indian food with 3 guys we've met (2 American, 1 Swiss) and then one flatmate and I hung out at the student union with the guys until really late. It was nice to have a slower-paced night and we all had a great time--it's probably the most fun I've had since I've been here (and that's saying something)!

This morning all my flatmates and I headed to Edinburgh Castle because it was free for us today. Despite it being incredibly cold and windy at the top of the castle, it was a beautiful day to get a view of the city. There's obviously a ton of history behind the castle (think Mary, Queen of Scots) but the most interesting part was the dungeons and all the prisoner-of-war history we came across. We were also there in time to see/hear the gun being fired--the same gun is fired at 1pm each day--ships used to set their clocks by the firing of the gun.

RIC-PHL-LHR-EDI

It's about midnight here in Edinburgh and it feels like 10 million years since I left home. I did the math and I was traveling for about 24 hours total, although I'm pretty sure I spent 20 hours of that time in airports just sitting around.

It seemed that most of my transit was spent eating, waiting, waiting to eat, and eating while waiting. The flight from Philadelphia to Heathrow wasn't as bad as I was expecting, except I only slept (very poorly) for about 2 hours because the guy sitting next to me snored louder than the engines of the airplane.

After circling in a holding pattern for forever, we finally landed and went through immigration. Due to bad information from an employee (shocker) 75% of my flight stood in the wrong line for 45 minutes, causing many of them to miss their connections. Happy people! I made a beeline for the nearest normal-looking restaurant (figured some food would wake me up) and ordered the most American-sounding thing on the menu. After what seemed like forever, I boarded for Edinburgh and immediately fell asleep (during the safety video, oops). I woke up after what I thought was an hour only to find that we were still on the runway and hadn't even taken off yet.

Once in Edinburgh, I stood waiting for my baggage and watched it go around several times before I was able to squeeze through and grab it. I was awkwardly reaching for it while still having my hand on my carry-on stuff (you know, never leave anything unattended) but finally managed. I stood and waited for the rest of the passengers on my shuttle to my flat and the lady in charge told me to go wait over by the "Loud American" who turned out to be a story in and of himself. The shuttle that took the students to Edinburgh was the single most frustrating experience of the entire journey... the driver had no clue where he was going and had to use GPS and still couldn't find it. Meanwhile, the Loud American was practically shouting into his phone a play-by-play of everything he saw--in detail--describing it to some random friend on the phone. Finally the driver pulled over and stopped the van and just sat there until the Loud American asked what was going on. The driver said that he couldn't concentrate with all the noisy shouting going on in the back. The Scots don't mess around.

My flatmates were out when I got in so I settled in and unpacked everything. My last flatmate arrived and moved in while I was there and we decided to go out for dinner but everywhere was too packed since it's the first night of the freshers' orientation week. Instead we went to a grocery store and bought: bread, butter, an apple, an orange, greek yogurt, and orange juice. Dinner? Also we don't have a toaster so we had to improvise and use the oven. Word of advice: a toaster works better.

Oh, speaking of flatmates, 4/5 of us are Americans and the other is Scottish. So much for cultural immersion, eh? One of the girls is actually a UNC student. I wore my championship shirt tonight.

Once things get going I will post some pictures! Tomorrow night is the pub crawl (hi mom!).

Sidenote: no wireless in the flat except for in the common room. We have to actually plug in to get internet in our rooms. What is this, 2004?