Och! The places I went!

My trip to the Orkneys was amazing. We had fantastic weather. It rained for about 2 minutes. In seven days, in Scotland, that's superb. Our tour guide was also excellent! A plucky young thing named Kath, who told great faerie stories and was really keen on showing us beautiful little-known parts of the Highlands. Our van was really old and it was probably its last trip, so she christened it Rusty the Ruthless, a viking longship, and tied a plastic viking helmet to the front. So here's a summary of Rusty the Ruthless' daring adventures:

Day one: I meet Rusty at Inverness Bus Station, and we head to Carbisdale Castle Youth Hostel. I get an impression of my travelling companions. Lots of Aussies, up for drinking and flirting with boys in pubs, a sweet Spanish couple, a cool girl from Vermont, a quiet older man from the Netherlands, a boy from India, a bratty Vancouverite, and a mother and two daughters from New Jersey. Over the trip two of the Aussies dominate (i.e. are loudest) but everyone gets along.

Day two: Saw the Broch Cairn Liath. A Broch is the ruin of a tower or fort, and this one had a double wall with a staircase between. Headed to John O'Groats, the most northern part of Britain that you can reach by road, to catch a ferry to the Orkneys. The creation myth of the Orkneys is that they are the molars of the Stuart Worm. This gives you an impression of their gentle rolling shape. There are also no trees. The only 'forest' was planted during Victorian times. It is absolutely surreal to see stretches of green, and blue sky or Sea, dotted with grey houses and no trees. We stayed in St. Margaret's Hope, on South Ronaldsay.

On the island, we visited the Tomb of the Eagles. This is a Neolithic tomb dating back 5000 years. It was discovered by a local man, and ignored by the authorities for 20 years, until it reverted to being his property and he excavated it. He still gives the tour, and his daughters still run the museum. All are grey-haired and have what I suspect is the Scottish ancestor to Canadian English (they really do say 'aboot'). The Tomb of the Eagles, so named because of the large quantity of sea eagle talons found within, is entered via a narrow stone passage, with a wheeled platform provided if you don't want to crawl. Inside it's cool and dry, and just stacked stones making partitions, including a small cubby hole with a skull.

Day three: We saw dolphins!! Two big ones and a baby! We also went to the Orcadian 'mainland', the nice town of Kirkwall. On the way we stopped at the Italian Chapel, which was built by Italian prisoners of war out of concrete and driftwood. The pièce de resistance is a gorgeous fresco of the Virgin Mary over the alter.

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This post is incomplete and several months late but I'm putting it up anyway.

Life? Unpredictable.

This morning I wrote the last exam of my undergraduate degree. If I remember correctly I had to write about the fundamental attribution error, and how it helps children learn to draw through top-down processing. It may also have been 3 separate essays.

Now, I'm in a castle. No, really: Carbisdale Castle Youth Hostel. It's got a great view, and the halls are filled with paintings and statues. I was in a room to myself, too, but I switched with a Spanish girl so she could be with her boyfriend, because these hostels are single-sex rooms only. She said I made her really happy, and I said I'd want the same thing if my boyfriend was here.

There's a field trip of junior high kids here, so this room has just been emptied of a bunch of rambunctious young Scots making structures out of spaghetti and marshmallows. The schoolteachers are clearly at their wits end, but there were several bottles of wine in the fridge so they'll take care of themselves.

I probably won't have internet access again on this trip. I just thought this was worthy of a post.

I really hope I'll get to speak Gaelic to someone.

That's me

In half an hour I will sit my last exam.

At 1:30 I will board a bus to Inverness, launching a week-long trip around the Orkneys and Skye.

At 9pm on May 18th I will say goodbye to everyone I know in Edinburgh, at a smoke-free pub.

At 8:30pm on May 19th I will board a bus to Glasgow, to take a bus to London, to take a plane to Montreal.

At 11am EST May 20th I will be home.

Warning: I look a bit different.

Mum's the word

Ok, so I sort of forgot about my blog. But that means I've been having fun in the real world!

My mom has been visiting since Thursday afternoon, and she leaves this morning. It's been wonderful having her here! I feel an undeserved sense of pride showing her all the beautiful things in the city. It was fun pointing out the first casual glance of the castle, and walking through the Meadows and Princes Street Gardens.

We've managed to see quite a bit in the past few days. Of special note: a day trip to Loch Ness! Departing bright and early Saturday morning, we took the front seats in a big bus driven by a cute, cheerful, chatty guide named Chris. It's remarkable how the landscape changes from the Lowlands to the Highlands. Pretty much, you're looking around you, and all of a sudden the ground level is higher than your eyes. Fertile green fields give way to clumps of brown and snow-capped peaks. Oh, and according to Chris, Scotland doesn't get rain it gets liquid sunshinee. Our tour wound its way up through Sterling and Fort William, stopping at the infamous Loch for a 'cruise'. The boat was equipped with top-of-the-line sonar equipment. Nessie was very polite and "down-to-loch" for such a big celebrity. Our way down passed Urqhart Castle and Inverness, stopping for fish and chips in Port Lochry. The guide (apparantly keeping company policy) interspersed his Scottish history and culture blurbs with traditional music, and some irritating pop. That night I rented and watched Braveheart, just to round out the experience. Just try and tell me I'm not Scottish now!

Otherwise, we've seen the Scottish Museum, dined at the outrageously expensive modern restaurant Oloroso, and visited the Royal Yacht Britannia. I was also lavished with gifts from home, including Fairmount bagels, maple chocolates (for my co-workers, by request, actually), Patisserie de Gascogne marzipan, and excellent wooden sticks to make into Bass Beaters. These sticks were apparantly chosen after a serious conclave of Mum trying to decide if I really wanted them 3 inches thick (I meant centimetres!), Mike my stepfather contributing his hardwood lore, and Andy and his friend Scott their musical expertise.

After seeing her off in a few hours, I will have a month and 8 days remaining on this side of the Atlantic. This weekend I am going away with the Processional drummers for group bonding and many more hours of practice. My first exam is April 27th. I'm hoping to visit some of Northeast Scotland next weekend. April 30th is the big night! The first 2 weeks of May see more exams, and May 11th I embark on a 7-day tour of the Orkneys. I guess it will fly by. I'm really looking forward to going home, but it's a bit scary to have nothing definite there waiting for me. It's exciting too, thinking about the job-hunt. I know I have a good reference from Explore (they may let me write it myself!). At least I know where I'm staying this summer. Heh, I'll be going from Andrew's hometown to his apartment!

Anyway, I am considering whether the current time of day justifies a second cup of coffee, so I will leave you with these words (you can interpret the Lord bit however you want):

May the blessing of light be on you - light without and light within. May the blessed sunlight shine on you like a great peat fire, so that stranger and friend may come and warm himself at it. And may light shine out of the two eyes of you, like a candle set in the window of a house, bidding the wanderer come in out of the storm. And may the blessing of the rain be on you, may it beat upon your Spirit and wash it fair and clean, and leave there a shining pool where the blue of Heaven shines, and sometimes a star. And may the blessing of the earth be on you, soft under your feet as you pass along the roads, soft under you as you lie out on it, tired at the end of day; and may it rest easy over you when, at last, you lie out under it. May it rest so lightly over you that your soul may be out from under it quickly; up and off and on its way to God. And now may the Lord bless you, and bless you kindly. Amen.

Sun is shining

Yes, when you're in Scotland, you talk about the weather. Yes, we have sun today, which means I'm wasting valuable Vitamin D by posting. I was looking at the toy section of a Bargain store the other day, and was very amused to find a "Princess Brolly set" on sale. Why should a little rain keep you from being fabulous?

I have seen the Castle, and it was actually cool. The £10 entrance fee and rumours of it 'not being cool' dissuaded me previously, but Dustin wanted to go so hey. It's quite nice, large, historical... not doing a very good job selling it, am I? There is a very respectful war memorial, lots of talk of batteries, a hall decorated with weapons in various artistic arrangements,and great views of the city. The Honours, ceremonial crown, staff and sword used to crown Mary Queen of Scots and hidden away for 500 years in between, are on display, as is the Stone of Scone (or Destiny if you prefer), used in the official appointing of the King of Scots. Or possibly of Scotland; there is a difference, you know.

We also wandered through the Scottish National Museum, a nice gallery of assorted European and Scottish art. A Titian exhibit was on, and some Scottish landscape works in watercolour. I learned about the Glasgow Boys, a group of Impressionist painters, using a characteristic square brush stroke. I don't know any other unified Scottish art style.

Tonight there is the weekly institution of improvised jazz at Left Bank, a funky cafe-bar. Tomorrow night we'll be catching an Improverts show, should be a good laugh. Saturday, to Rosslyn Chapel for beauty and mystery. Saturday night, Dustin departs for London and the wider European world. It will be sad to see him go, but I suppose I can't be greedy (and anyway he'll be flying back to the colonies from here).

Ooh ooh! If you're looking to impress a young Gael, try this out:
Tha thusa a'coimhead tinn, agus is mise Dotair Gaol!
Pronunciation: Ha oosa uhcoyit tcheen, agis ish misha dohtar gul.
Gloss: You look sick, and I'm Doctor Love!

Whether better weather

Can I just say, it snowed here the other day. I was not prepared for snow in this city. I do not approve. Some Californians in my class were very excited and said this was the third time in their lives they had seen snow. That's just not fair.

Although it has been warmer than -30. :P

On a related note, I'm going to the zoo this Saturday! It's famous for its Penguin parade, and this Saturday is Penguin Awareness Day! Expect a full report.

Since I've been back

I was hoping classes would try to ease us back in. On our first day of Gaelic we did some 'review' reading, wherein I took 2 pages of new vocabulary words. I also have a new class, Simulating Language, which I'm quite excited about. Overall, though, this is going to a much busier semester.

Now on to interesting things! Dustin is staying in a lovely flat with connecting flat, in Bruntsfield, caring for two gorgeous blue cats who are worth more than all my possessions combined. We have had shite weather, gale-force winds and cold rain pretty much every day, but have managed to do stuff anyway. Have caught up with friends, though there is a gaping hole where Kristi once was (she was only over for the semester). Flatmates are fine, Gaya stayed over the break and seems to have relaxed and gotten a better feel of the flat and of the city. I've worked some shifts (had to relearn kids names!) and we had an excellent staff night with curry and wine and a bit of piss taken on our kids (please not I don't know how to passivize that phrase).

So, the most tourist-y thing we've done so far is walk along the Royal Mile, which is mile-long string of Scottish souvenir shops connecting the Holyrood Palace and the Edinburgh Castle. Right below the castle is the excellent Camera Obscura, a living picture of the city, and a museum of illusions. Towards the other end is the Museum of Childhood, which is quaint and free and has enough interesting things to see to make up for old dolls being creepy. We also peeped in to a 'tartan museum', which was really a bunch of tartan shops and weaving factory, with some mannequins in Highland dress thrown in for good measure.

We visited the Royal Botanic Garden, and if you don't believe me look here:


It was pretty enough, but a really cold day, and likely worth another visit from me when there's actually foliage.

This past weekend we hit Glasgow. That was quite fun. On Saturday we saw the Glasgow Cathedral, built atop St. Mungo's tomb. He is the patron saint of Glasgow, and his real name was Kentigern, but Mungo means 'dear friend' and I think I may have to appropriate this word. We also saw the Provand's Lordship, a 15th century house. It was cool in theory (that oak chest is older than Canada!) but still just an old stone house. We then headed towards City Centre and caught the Gallery of Modern Art, a gorgeous building with some interesting pieces. That night we had some drinks at King Tut's Wah Wah Hut, known for its live music every night. Keep an ear out for Infrasound, from Leeds, they may be the next Franz Ferdinand. We stayed at a B&B run by a sweet middle-aged woman and a really nervous dog named Roy.

Sunday we walked from the B&B to the Burras fleamarket, which was a let-down. The guide book said it was really worth a visit, but I've seen more exciting fleamarkets. We did laugh at the stall of vinyl lingerie, staffed by a meek old woman, though. From there we did a bit more walking than we intended, trying to catch a bus to the other southside of the city to view the Burrell Collection. It was well worth the trip, however. Sir William Burrell was an industrialist and serious collector, and gifted some 9000 items to the city of Glasgow. The building itself was designed for the collection, and it's all wood and glass with tall ceilings and lots of skylights. Some of his pieces were old stone doorways and windows that got built into the museum. His collection is quite varied, Egyptian and Roman, Degas paintings, knights armour, Rodin statues, tapestries and Dutch glass. Of special note were the Neolithic jade and pottery works from China, including very well-made axes and knives. There was also a special exhibit on the history of China. The collection is in Pollok Country Park, a lovely public park. The sun actually came out while we were there, so we had a nice walk and saw some native animals- squirrels, Highland Cattle and football players. (I'm not kidding.) Oh, and Glaswegians are definitely friendly. We got a bit confused trying to exit the park, and a jogger finishing his exercise drove us to a bus stop.

So, it's been a good- wow, 2 weeks now!- back, and excellent having the Dustin here. Hopefully there will be enough nice days ahead to see the Zoo, the Castle, Rosslyn Chapel and Calton Hill.

Oh, and apparantly February gets even greyer and rainier. I look forward to finding creative and cheap ways to light my room.

It's back!

Look look!

Blogger support do good work.

I just had my first taste of McSween's vegetarian haggis, and it was superb. I can see why they suggest serving it 'piping hot', the flavour is actually improved.

Hmmm... I suppose I don't have much to say right now, being in Montreal where life is not foreign. I'll pick up again in the New Year, with 100% more Dustin!