Another Foggy Day in Scotland

I spent most of yesterday evening with a terrible migrane that I only managed to cure, not by taking off brand aspirin which only made it worse but, by eating leftover chinese while watching a panorama documentary on "will the Scots Ever be Happy". They never did answer that question.

I was still feeling a little funny today. I fell asleep after breakfast on a couch in the front lobby. The couch was much more comfortable than the bed in my room. Also, it helps that I didn't have to listen to one (possibly two) of my snoring roomates. In class we discussed Oedipus Rex. Poor guy. Then we went for a walk in the park to what we like to assume is a small ampetheatre but which may originally have been a garden of some sort. I decided to do a play for my drama project. I found one online for three people that sounds like fun. It involves a modern playwrite, the greek god of theatre, and the greek writer Edipus. Also lightning bolts, many sheets of paper, and a trunk large enough to stuff a body into.

After lunch, which was haggis and tasted wonderful, I fell asleep on a different couch. This one wasn't as comfortable as the lobby one but still softer than the bed. I guess I forgot to do anything about my paper. I did get a perfect score on my outline. The instructor thought it was well researched and thoghourly thought out (did I spell that right?), which is funny considering it only took me ten minutes to write after I read nothing and pulled some random books with globalisation in the title off the library shelf. B. says I shouldn't go around telling people that but I don't care. (B. also agreed to be in the play with me. We haven't decied who gets which part yet but whoever fits in the trunk gets to be the writer. Now we just need a trunk.)

Enjoy some random pictures of Scotland (since my whole Ireland experience was tainted and I don't feel like reliving it).

Globalisation is:

An American from Northern Minnesota eating Chinese take-away in Dalkeith Scotland while watching a BBC documentary on the effects of driving after smoking weed, and also something about Italian super cars.

I still have until Thursday to finish my 2,000 word paper on globalization. The instructor hasn't sent anyone back their outlines yet so I'm not the only one who hasn't even started yet. At least we finished the group project on Scottishness and Britishness today. Most of the time was spent sidetracked watching you tube videos of Obama swatting a fly. For crying out loud! why is that so much better than Bush dodging a shoe? Apparently the fly thing is the closest to a miracle the modern world will ever come (to quote a scottish newspaper I was reading this afternoon). Now if only he could fix the economy like he said he was going to.

Apparently just about everyone on this trip is planning to get a tatoo for a souvinere. I'd love to get a tattoo but I have this thing about needles and besides, what would I get? Any suggestions would be welcome (what does my lone follower think about some sort of Scottish symbol?) Become a follower and leave a comment.

Enjoy a few more pictures from my Ireland trip.

Back from Ireland

Okay, so it took a little longer than a week to get back. K. and I decieded to stay an extra day in Dublin. There were a whole pile of Aussies, a spanish couple, a few Canadians and two south africans on the tour with us. So, here's a quick rundown of all the things and places we saw on our tour:

Day one: the preserved head of St. Oliver Plunket. We stopped in a graveyard to see the tallest Celtic Cross in Ireland. I talked to a couple of nice Irish ladies who ran the postcard stand. One of them has a son who married a girl from Minnesota. We stopped at the hill where St. Patrick first lit a fire to get a meeting with the pagan king of Ireland. (I felt slightly sad that our tour guide was so wierd. He had a pony tail and flip flops and was totally self absorbed. About the only thing he had going for him was the accent and even that sounded kind of gay.) We Stayed overnight in Londonderry (if you're protestand British), Freederry (if you're Catholic Irish), or Derry (if you don't want to offend anyone.Walking tour of Derry. The walking tour guide was petty good. He would randomly break into Irish song under his breath. There was a little pub that was decorated with the preserved parts of a butchered pig, including head.




Day Two: Carrick-a-rede rope bridge, the Giants Causeway (where I picked up a sea shell) and, Dunluce Castle. The Ponies halfway up the Giants Causeway hill were more worth it than the view. This would be the day our Tour guide told his only two stories, about the giants who made the causeway, he was a little vulgar and I'd heard them before told much better. (the salmon of wisdom was the other story and there was a bit about the giants son and a deer lady). Overnight in Belfast. A lot of the folks on the bus went to dinner and then to the pub. One kid, who got nicknamed lofty, threw up right where I had been sitting after I got up to use the toilet, one girl accidentily stepped in it. The live music wasn't very good (probably because I was the only one not drinking and everyone else, including the band, was).

Day Three: We also saw the grave of W.B. Yeats. Lofty was sick again and threw up in the bus, in the seat right in front of mine. I decided to avoid him like the plague for the rest of the trip. The worst part was he never said anything, or apologized, or offered to help clean up. We stayed the night in Galloway. The group from Dalkeith that I was with decided to have dinner in, one of the guys on our tour was a chef and he cooked a chicken thing that was really good. They had said they were all going to the pub to meet up with the rest of the bus later but all we did was go for a walk to the peir and sit on a wall. Everytime I opened my mouth to suggest we go they would ignore me or say go by myself. I didn't want to go alone andbesides, the point was they told me they would go and then just ignored me.


Day Four: We stopped at the Cliffs of Moher and the cliffs they used in the cliffs of insanity scene in the Princess Bride movie. Lots of driving. We stayed and the Randy Leprechaun hostel and pub. There was kareoke. Me and a group sand Friends in Low Places. The guide's friend was the rose of Tralee and she did an Irish dance for us.


Day five: Stopped at an ocean beach. There were jellyfish, some stang? Stung? Stinged? Shoping stop in Dingle. Horseback riding in the national park (my horse's name was Black Jack). Overnight in Killarny. We all went out to eat and went to this one night club/pub with live music. There was dancing and I tried a shot of Jagger? The lead singer of the rock band liked to mingle with the crowd and sing standing on top of tables.

(that's not blackjack, just some random donkey)

(that is a jellyfish) (and this line won't center, Arrrgh!)

Day Six: Long boring bus ride. Kissed the Blarney stone at Blarney Castle. Tour of Guinness factory back in Dublin. I got a t-shirt and a coke (we got a free drink with our entry but I decided I don't like beer after tasting somone else's). We all went out to dinner for one last hurrah. I caught a cold and couldn't smell or taste anything. Everyone else left the Celt, the pub, and went otherplaces but stayed. I ran into Steven, who happened to be a Paddy Wagon Tour guide. He was much nicer than our actuall tour guide (whoI found out really was gay, as well as a freak who made inapropriate comments to some of the girls, made personal phone calls while the bus speaker was on, and never told more than two stories the whole tour, and let's not forget the terrible fashion). The live music was pretty nice.

Day seven: Free New Europe tour of Dublin with Julie. Really nice, lots of sites and this guide told awsome stories. I felt like I learned more from her in two hours than I did from the paddy tour guide in six days. (I also learned way more history on the highland tour but that's another complaint altogether.) We also did a little shopping. I got to go to the music store I wanted to see. They had a much smaller whislte selection than I was led to beleive from the web site. I found out my fingers and hands were too small to play a low D and it would never fit in my suitcase. I got a reular D instead, but it's an uber nice one. K. and I stayed the night in a hotel. With a t.v., lamps, a clean tub/shower, clean carpets, soft beds, free tea, etc. I took a shower, then ran a really hot bath and soaked for ten minutes until I could breath again (that darn cold, I must've caught if from that blarney stone, thousands of people kiss it everyday and I don't think they wash it).

(I found Waldo, by the way. I always knew he hung out somewhere in the Europe area. Points if you figure out where, I'll give you a hint: he's somewhere in Dublin at the moment.)

Day eight: Watched t.v. till noon. Checked out of the hotel and lugged my bag around Dublin for four hours until we coud catch our bus to the airport. I bought a book to read at the airport. As soon as our flight landed in Edinburgh I felt like my cold went away and I could breath again. I really missed Scotland.

Today: Slept in till eleven. Did laundry. Watched harry potter movies three and four, then Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (funny stuff, a little weird, but good), and finally posted on my blog. (Also, I drank two cans of Irn Bru. I'm gonna really miss that stuff back in the states. Maybe I can order online and have it shipped.) More Pictures later, maybe...

Poetry Day

Today was our class trip to Linlithgow to see the castle, excuse me, pallace (palaces were for entertaining and castles were for defense and war). Our assignment was to view the castle and write some poetry. I wrote three poems, Train Ride to Linlihgow, Rock in Rain, and Castle. They can be viewed at White Foxx: Silver Crow and on Fifteen Minutes of Fiction (As I was Walking in the Park one Day is now a featured poem on that site, yay me!). The best bit of the castle was the stone fountain in the courtyard.

(extra points if you can spot the fireplace onthe wall and the pigeon)

I will be going to Ireland tomorrow and I won't be bringing my laptop with me. This means it will be an entire week before this blog gets updated (unless by some miracle I find computer access in the hostels). I will return.

God's Country

I wrote a Poem today called God's Country that was inspired by my trip to the Scottish Highlands. It can be read at White Foxx: Silver Crow and on my page at Fifteen Minutes of Fiction. Here are a few more picures from my Highlands trip.

Highland Pictures

The views from the trip were amazing. We saw a lot of famous places including Loch Ness (where we all swam), a magical stream reputed to give you eternal beauty if you dipped your face in it (which we all did), a magical fairy glen where the answers would come to you if you aksed a question, the Kilt Rock, several castles, a couple different battlefields, and the National William Wallace Monument. We also climbed up a mountain (two if you count the one the wallace monument was on top of despite the paved pathway). Enjoy some photos of the sights. If you figure out which one is which let me know.

Back from Skye

I'm back from the Isle fo Skye. It was pretty cool. I'm too tired right now to relate all that we did but I'm back and everything is fine.

Postcards from Scotland

Today we had a class trip into Edinburgh to visit the Scotland Poetry Center and Library. It was sort of intersting. They had all sorts of books of and on poetry that you could read as well as some interesting exibits on the poetry of well known authors. There was even a working typewriter with paper so you could compose a poem or leave a note. I wrote something that could conceivably be a free verse poem. It goes like this:

I love typewriters;
mine broke.

I also got two free postcards but, rather than pay the postage and mail them, I've decided to post pictures here instead. Enjoy.




After visiting the poetry library and checking out the literary quotations on the side of the Scottish Parliment building, we went to tea at Clarinda's Tea Room, named after Clarinda, the woman who inspired some of Robert Burn's poetry. After mint tea and a scone (they had really good butter) we wandered up hight street looking at a few shops. Since the class part of the trip was over the other two kids in my class decided to go their separate ways and meet up with friends. The teacher had to go and meet her family so I was left alone to wander in the kilt shops and souviner stores. I didn't see anything worth buying, I saw a lot of things I wanted to buy, but nothing worth the price they were asking. I got on a bus and came back to the house.

I watched the Agatha Christie episode of Doctor Who (the girl I was watching it with had never even heard of Agatha Christie). I had to pack for the Isle of Skye Macbackpackers tour this weekend. We'll be leaving early in the morning. Like last time, I won't be bringing my computer with me so it will be a while before you find out what happend. I shall return. In the mean time, you can try and figure out what that one postcard is saying without hurting your eyes. There's a prize if you get it right despite the fuzzy photo.

Kilt Pins and Funny Hats

After class and lunch me and C. took the bus into Edinburgh. We visited the writer's museum. It was a pretty neat little place and it had free admition. We did a little shopping on the Royal Mile which, as it turns out, isn't actually a mile long. We stopped in about five different Scottish kilt and souvinere shops. The first two didn't have anything. I got two kilt pins at the third, one for me and one for my brother. I kept an eye out for sporrans but in most of the places we went they were a minimum of fifty pounds and the belts to hang them on weren't even included. Finally, at the fifth place I found a sporran with the belt included for only twenty five pounds. I also found myselft one of those funny looking hats with a fuzzy ball on top that matched my kilt. It doesn't look as funny when you wear it with the right outfit. Also, thanks to the very helpful woman behind the counter I found a pair of kilt hose in my size and she let me have he sporran for only fifteen pounds instead of twenty five.

After shopping we wandered down to the Grass Market and had dinner at this little tavern/pub called the Last Drop, so named because it was located right across from where the old city gallows used to be and the condemed would be brought there for their last drink before being hung. It had wonderful ambiance, real candles stuck in wine bottles, and some absolutly great artwork on the walls. The service was a little slow but, overall, one of the best places I've been in all summer. Too bad neither one of us remembered to bring a camera.

We Should Have Called it Bushland

I slept in today before going to the english class and then lunch. We had our first class with our Scottish proffesor on globalization and Scotland culture. I didn't like it very much though the rest of the class seemed to. Maybe it was because he was uber liberal and kept refering to the U.S. as Obamaland (which is silly I think becuase it's like calling Great Briton Great Brown and nobody does that. Nobody called the U.S. Bushland when he was president, what gives?) and socialization in the U.K. being oh so wonderful. Not only that, but the class lasted from one to seven thirty. Sure we got an hour break in the middle for dinner but it was still a long time. Not to mention the 2,000 word paper we've been assigned to write.

Anyway, to cheer myself up I'm posting a few more pictures from the Alnweck Castle/Amsterdam trip. Enjoy.

Back from Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Alnweck Castle

I'm back from Amsterdam. I had my first drink on the boat friday night. I didn't like it very much. The little bar I was at had some great live music though, a guitar player named Desmond. He took requests. It was a lot of fun. I hung out there all night.

But before I get too ahead of myself I should mention Alnweck castle. We stopped at Alenweck castle before we got on the boat. It was pretty cool. It was the same place where they filmed a lot of the outdoor scenes in the first Harry Potter film. The inside was all restored and looked really neat. The art collection was amazing. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures inside. The Duke and his family still live in the castle and you could tell, plasma screen t.v.s and family photos and other signs of family life. There was also a huge garden with a gigantic water fountain. The bus was a half hour late to pick us up though.

We got to Amsterdam around tenish on Saturday. A few other girls and I went on a canal tour of the city. There were a lot of houseboats and some of the buildings were very pretty. The best part, for me anyway, was the cat boat: a houseboat that doubled as a shelter for stray cats run by volunteers. After the tour we walked down to the Anne Frank house. We didn't go in because the line stretched out the door, down the block, and around the corner. We went back to where the bus would meet and went into a little souviner shop instead. I got a sweater.

I lost my group for a minute and almost panicked. I called Travis, the phsyc teacher in charge of the trip and go the number for the bus and just got on the bus. A little while later my group got on so I didn't completely loose them. One back in the boat I went straight to bed. We hit some pretty choppy water and I felt so seasick I couldn't even stand up.

I was so glad when we got off the boat today. We had to take a cab to the train station andI felt like I was going to barf but I didn't. Then we had to wait for an hour for the train. The train wasn't so bad. It was moving pretty darn quickly but at least it wasn't rocking from side to side or jumping up in the air. Once we got to Edinburgh we had to take a bus back to Dalkeith. I went up to my room and was so happy not to be moving I just layed there for five minutes. I went to dinner at a restaruant in town. I liked the gravy at the Conan Doyle better though. Now I think I'm just going to sleep. I might watch Burn Notice online. I will post some more pictures of my trip tomorrow. I'm to tired to right now.

I Miss Burn Notice!

Today I went to class, then lunch, then to a session on traveling and how to book transportation that one of the advisors was giving. After that the rest of the people who were doing a Paddy Wagon tour of Ireland booked their things. (I booked mine last night, yay!) My new best friend caleigh (not spelling it right but it sounds the same as the dancing) did some booking for me so were are doing the same thing. Now we both have someone to travel with. After that me and my new friend went to dinner in Dalkeith town.

There was some big to do in the advisor's flat because Big Brother was on tonight. I watched five minutes and decided the comercials were more entertaining than the show. I'm so mad because Burn Notice premeirs tonight and I won't be able to watch it. If only Grandma had let me figure out her DVR before I left. Ahh! I really miss Burn Notice. It's like my favorite show ever on USA network. For those who can watch it's on at 9/8central. I wandered into WIllie's cafe long enough to play The Foggy Dew and the Rowan Tree on a tin whistle for one of the gals. Apparently I'm quite good. Since we're leaving for Amsterdam early tomorrow I'm going to bed now. I won't be bringing my laptop with me, just my paper journal instead. I'll post again when I get back so anyone following can save the "Oh my god what happened to white foxx? Maybe lost or mugged or dead!?!" bit until a few weeks from now when I'm in Ireland with only one other person and not a whole class group.

No pictures today but I did find a music store in Dublin right near where Dublin Castle is that sells LowWhistles. I'm so going there when I'm on the ten day break. I really, really, really want a low whistle but the stores in Scotland are hard to find and the good one only does online orders. G'night.

Walking Tour of Edinburgh With Tour Guide Kenzie

After class and lunch today a group of us took the bus into Edinburgh and went on a free walking tour of the city. Our tour guide was a nice young guy from Inverness... Novia Scotia Canada. He told some really great stories as we walked around the city. We visited the cemetary and saw a funny cage they had over a grave to prevent zombies and grave robbers. Also, for those who care, this is the cemetary where J.K. Rowling got the names for many of the characters in Harry Potter including Hermione Granger and Tom Riddle.

We also saw the Writer's Museum.

And this cool looking crest.

After the walking tour another girl and I went to eat at the Conan Doyle pub and cafe, named after the author of Sherlock Holmes. It had some great memorabelia on the walls and the table we sat at had red leather wingback chairs in front of a fireplace. After we got our pictutes taken in front of the Sherlock Holmes statue a few blocks down.

This is what I ordered for supper: Sausage and Mash. It was delicious.

After getting lost in the London Street Gardens we made our way back on the bus and she helped me book a six day tour of Ireland. I had to get my folks to put more money on my card before it would work though. Now it's off to bed.

As I Was Walking in the Park One Day

After breakfast, class and lunch I was tired. I got the battery charger from the photography teacher but the batteries have to charge for twelve hours. I went into town and on the way back decided to go down some old wooden stairs into the woods. I got quite lost for a while and took some pictures with my wee red camera. Some of them came out quite good and some you can't even tell what it is. I met a nice little old Scottish lady who was visiting the park from out of town with her grandchild and we walked back to the park entrance together.

After I got back to the house I went to get a soda from the machine in the basement. It took my money but wouldn't give me any soda. Stupid machine. And after getting lost in the woods for two hours as well. I watched a little telly and then went to the bar-b-que they had in the back. Hamburgers and sausages and praun flavored crisps/chips. Weird. It was actually quite chilly with the wind. I composed the poem As I was Walking in the Park One Day. You can read it on White Foxx: Silver Crow or on my Wordsmith account on Fifteen minutes of fiction.

I went back in and watched Doctor Who on the telly and then a special on the origins of English poetry/Beowulf. It was really interesting. Then brush my teeth go to bed. The lamp in our room isn't working and it will soon be dark. If the sun sets before I finish my reading I'm sunk.

White Foxx Graffiti

Nothing exciting to post today. I went to breakfast, then class, and then to lunch. I was planning on going into town to buy a new battery charger but then the photography teacher's husband (I'm terrible with names, I still don't even remember the names of my roommates) offered to pick one up since he was already going into town anyway on his little scooter? (two wheeled moterized thing you stand on but I don't know what it's called) and thought it might save me a walk so I took a nap and read the first half of my assignment instead. After my nap I went to Willie's cafe and watched the Titanic episode of Doctor Who with Matt.

I haven't seen Mr. Photo teacher's husband around so I don't have a battery charger yet. I found an unopened pack in the closet but when I put them in my camera it said low battery and change battery. They must have been really old (they were off brand anyway). I managed to get two pictures before the camera died again and I decided I should go do the rest of my homework and then go to bed. Check out White Foxx: Silver Crow for the poems Climbing Archer's Seat and It Rhymed in My Sleep.

Graffiti on left wall of the pool room in the basement.

My contribution. Those are my real initials and '09 in the code I came up with in the 6th grade.