Wild · Whirlwind · Adventures!

Okay so it's been a couple weeks since I last wrote.  I'm into the home stretch now, have two papers and two journal entries due Monday and five reports and one paper due Tuesday.  All I've done is four of the reports.  Eh, I'll crank them out in the next couple days and life will be good.

To start chronologically, though, I suppose I should talk about what happened after Doune Castle.  I made up my mind that Friday that I was going to get a tattoo.  I decided that if not here, where?  If not now, when?  So I made my appointment for that Wednesday.  My friend and roommate Ali came with me to Tribal Body Art on the Cowgate on the Royal Mile and I was presented to Matty the tattoo guy.  He showed me what he had drawn up which, truth be told, wasn't what I was expecting but I like the design anyway and I really like how he did the thistle's petals so I went "Okie dokie!"  Ali and I proceeded to wait half an hour for him to be all ready and he said it was time but that Ali couldn't come in since they just changed the rules.  So here I am, going into the back with a stranger for my first tattoo.  I was sooooo scared!  He was really nice though and did everything but hold my hand all the way through it.  He reassured me saying "Everything's going to be fine.  I was just as nervous when I got my first tattoo.  I'll tell you everything I do before I do it."  So he ended up going through several pairs of gloves for one reason or another which reassured me overmuch and put the surgical soap on and cleaned the area and placed the transfer and he said that he was going to do a "wee test line" just for me to calibrate.  He did it and I went "... that was it?  I can TOTALLY do this NOW!"  We chatted about why I was in Scotland, what was going on, tattoos, etc.  He said that they get actors and actresses in there, singers, even members of Parliament from right down the road!  He was great.  He gave me all the cleaning instructions and told me where I can get things for it, Ali and I had lunch at Quiznos and it really didn't hurt and even a couple days later it didn't.  It's pretty much healed now and I am very glad I got it.

That weekend was the Celebration Weekend for the Royal Museum of Scotland.  In case I haven't mentioned this before, this is the weekend that the Royal Museum is closing to undergo a huge renovation project for three years.  Celebration weekend is what I've been testing scavanger hunts for these past couple of months.  Now, the original plan for that weekend, since it was an extended break, was to go kayaking in Barra.  Well, money susploded so that plan fell through and I decided to work instead.  I got a snazzy purple t-shirt with the NMS logo on the front and "Event Staff" across the back.  Pretty snazzy.  First day I started out with badge(button) making, had lunch and met up with this cool guy from Manchester/Liverpool named Paul and we sat in the cool comfortable quiet of the National Museum's Early Peoples section doing object handling with Viking and Roman replicas/artifacts.  We were set up right in front of the Viking grave and I was the one mostly manning the Viking stuff so I directed them to the grave to check out some of the stuff.  Much fun.  Afterwards I worked on the freese where we had kids draw their favorite things int he museum and we put it on a timeline.  Very nice.  The day ended with performances and I fell blissfully into bed since I had been running a fever all day.  The next day the fever came back but I still sallied forth.  I didn't make it to the badge making at all and worked on the freese in the morning.  I then had my lunch and met up with Paul again this time to do Egyptian object handling.  Now, these objects are all extant.  Everything I was touching and having the kids touch was over 3,000 years old!  BARE HANDS!!!!!  Amazing, I must say.  After that I worked on the freese again and took a break.  We had the ceilidh and the day closed with a performance by the Red Hot Chilli Pipers.  Oh man they rocked.  And their piano player was cute.  I'll Lion Rampant him any day.  Rawr.  We were all treated to a glass of champagne at the end of the day and I, again, fell blissfully to sleep.

The sore throat has been with me for the past week but I've been feeling better.  This was the last week of classes and to commemorate that, in British History, my last class of the semester, we kind of had a pub quiz except based on all the historical material we've been learning.  Betty, Kelly, Emily and I were team Rawr and we ended up winning, only missing 5 out of the 33 questions.  Joyce, my professor, was quite impressed and it was the best score any team had ever done.  Go Team Rawr!  We got chocolates as our reward.

Today I did some work at the museum doing object handling in Hawthorden Court- the main space of the National Museum.  It was kind of sad that I had to break dreams and explain that there would be no animals or dinosaurs or Egyptians for three years as questioning parents asked of me.  Very sad.

Tonight I'm going to take my last night out at the clubs dancing away!  I really hope I find clubs elsewhere to have fun at.  I really love dancing.

I got some nice news today about my summer job.  I might be working at the Fire Museum as a duty officer so I get another museum on my resume and 12 bucks an hour.  I've been told I pretty much have the job in the bag since I'm apparently the most qualified person for this job ever but I'm still not going to count my chickens before they hatch.

This week is going to be pretty easy.  I'll get my papers done tomorrow after some possible museum fun, Monday I turn some stuff in, Tuesday I have my final and I turn in the rest of my stuff then, Wednesday I have my last of my internship and I'll have my meeting with Moe then, Thursday is the psycho mad cleaning day and house party and Friday I hop on a plane and go back to MD!

Well, I should run and eat something or attempt to get another paper cranked out before I go out tonight.

More when I have it!

-Meredith

This weekend was a particularly special weekend for Scotsfolk everywhere.  One weekend a year, the Historic Trust of Scotland has a free weekend where all of the historic sites are free.  This is a good thing for college students.  This weekend was that weekend.

My adventures started on Saturday with waking up by my roommate Hillary asking if I wanted to go with her and Ali to Stirling Castle.  This sounded fun so I went with.  We hopped on the City Link bus and headed out.  After some wandering around the city (and going to New Look which is officially my favorite store now) we found the castle.  Stirling is not nearly as exciting as I hoped it would be.  Yes, it has been done up nicely and they are currently in refurbishment (scaffolding of course was everywhere) and it is impressive to see a royal residence.  However, it lacked real wandering around fun.  No expansive grounds to explore, just these bits of castle.  It was a shock when I walked into the chapel and saw Unicorn Tapestries hanging on the walls when, just minutes beforehand, I was talking about seeing the originals in the Cloisters in NYC.  After reading a board, I was kindly explained that they were replicas and the other ones were being weaved in process.  It was kind of disappointing and I'm glad I didn't pay to see it.

On the way out I stopped at the clan shop and picked up some expensive things for my exhibit but it'll all be worth it in the end.  Ali and I left early to let Hillary explore more while we went in search of food.  We had intended to go to Pancho Villas that we passed but found out on the way back that they were out of business.  Very disappointing.  We found a Chinese buffet that was okay.  I really miss American Chinese food though!

We found out upon our arrival at the bus station that we had actually missed the last bus for Edinburgh.  We took a train and that was good.  the trains here are surprisingly smooth, not at all what I am accustomed to.

Sunday I had intended to visit three castles- Edinburgh, Doune and Stirling.  Well, I woke up an hour later than I was supposed to and missed the Edinburgh excursion only to find Emily, Kayla and Meghann on the way up to try to find them.  We wandered down the Royal Mile, stopped in Ness and met another Wisconsin person who actually knows and worked with one of Kayla's friends at one of the three grocery stores in her town.  Ridiculously small world.  We also saw some more scaffolding with a nice cover that made it look like a building!  We were very impressed.  The four of us hung out at Waverly station for a little while waiting for some more compatriots to show up, that is, Ann-Marie and Lauren.  We all hopped on the train and headed back towards Stirling!

Our priority was Doune Castle which is where they filmed parts of- get this- Monty Python and the Holy Graile!  Yes, that's right!  It's part of the Historic Trust and was free that day as well!  We waited for our bus and left Ann-Marie and Lauren to shopping in an excellent mall they have over there while we got on a, truth be told, scary little bus that took us to Doune.  Let the hysterics begin.

The four of us just started to geek out hardcore.  We walked in the courtyard where the wedding scene took place and Lancelot killed a whole bunch of people.  We ran up that staircase.  We were in the rooms of Castle Anthrax.  We were Knights of the Round Table!  WE WERE THERE!!!!  We filmed a little terrible rendition of John Cleese doing things.  Oh, it was awesome.  I'm so happy.

We ended up not making it to Stirling but I told Meghann, Kayla and Emily that they weren't missing much and we didn't feel bad about it.  We hopped on the train and headed home.

Once we got to Waverly, I set about trying to find train tickets to Oban.  Well, I hit a glitch and I might not be able to get there to then hop a ferry to Barra to go kayaking.  The only way for me to get back would be to get a train Monday.  With my whole sick in bed episode, I missed to classes and missing this third would drop my grade a letter which would suck.  I'd rather not take the chance.  I'm trying to get my hostel stay booked a night early but I don't know if that's possible.

Worst case scenario, I stay here and do my internship that weekend, which wouldn't be terrible.  I'm short on hours anyway and it's the Celebration weekend for the closing of the Royal Museum.  I'd at least get a fancy shirt and be a part of museum history.  Take the good with the bad.  It would just really not be nice since the two places I wanted to visit- Orkney and Barra- I couldn't get to.

In other news, I have the week ahead of me and I don't know what I'm going to do this weekend.  I might try to get out to Dumfries to see the Costuming Museum or something of the like.  Who knows?  I might just wander around Edinburgh like I've wanted to do for the past two months.  Quien sabe?

Regardless, I have a crick in my neck that might only be healed by a shower.

More when I have it!

-Meredith

I suppose I should start with my last post and work chronologically from there.

So I said I'd probably get better in a couple days... well... yes and no....  It got a whole lot worse before it got better.  I spent Saturday night apparently moaning in my sleep my head hurt so bad.  I was embarrassed.   Sunday was spent not feeling well and generally staying indoors.  I took some drugs and managed to sleep for a little while but little sleep was had all around.  Monday was my worst day.  I was getting a sore throat, my sinus pain was at its worst, nothing I took seemed to help and it was just general unpleasantness.  I missed class and meals and all I ate that day was an orange and a cookie.  Yum.  Tuesday was better but only barely.  Eating lunch took so much energy that I went directly back to bed after eating and dinner was only marginally better.  What was worse was all of the sinus blockage was now blocking my nose so I couldn't breathe and developed a bad sore throat.  I was healthy enough to be conscious but not much else.  I had a tough time sleeping since when I was horizontal all pain came back in my head and breathing was worse.  I felt better on Wednesday but still didn't do anything.  I managed to watch a couple movies so I wasn't in complete boredom.  I ate my meals but class was still not an option since I was still very weak.

Thursday, however, I managed to get enough strength together to go out and do my internship.  I worked with developing a new gallery for the Royal Museum when it opens up again.  I got to watch kids play with fossils and stuffed animals (real ones) and then interview them and their parents.  I met a nice Scottish girl who's trying to get into museum work and had a nice chat over lunch.  For once I wasn't eating lunch on my own!  My favorite moment of the day was in the second half where we had a stuffed Kestrel, a kind of bird native to Scotland.  A lot of the kids liked playing with it and petting it and while this one boy was petting it, he asked me if it was real.  I said yes and he asked "How do you get it to stay so still?"  My tact wasn't working so I said very bluntly, "It's dead."  The boy promptly withdrew his hand.  His companion later asked if he needed to wash his hands after playing with the bird.  I told him it was dead long enough that it didn't have any germs on it.

Friday was a trip to Parliament, a very odd new building that uses a lot of wood in the construction.  I still don't know how I feel about it but I think on the whole I like it a lot.  I took a four hour nap in attempts to get some sleep and was invited to tag along to a bachelorette party.  My housemate Alyssa will be getting married soon to another housemate, Ryan.  They've been together forever and we decided that a party was in need for her.  All of us girls got these bright pink hard hats, wrote nicknames on them (I was "Princess") and we headed out on the town.  I was excited that I got to test out my party outfit which involved party shorts and these really neat tights.  Finnegan's Wake was our first stop in E-burgh (wow, I'm lazy) and it was terribly disappointing.  The music was okay and there were creepy guys.  Second stop was to Espionage right up the street.  That was an amazing amount of time.  It was just the experience I wanted to have in Scotland in a club.  Lots of colored lights, music videos playing on a screen, fog machines and lots of cute guys.  I was even complimented on my tights that I was so nervous about.  Good night all around.

I then had to get up early in the morning, along with the rest of the party, to head to Alnwick (pronounced AH-nick).  We made a stop off to Lindesfarne to see the priory where St. Cuthbert spent a bunch of time.  Go St. Cuthbert.  I need that on a shirt.  Regardless, we looked around the Holy Isle, looked at the castle, didn't go in, and made our way continuing to Northumberland to Alnwick.  We were shown to our rooms.  I was actually staying in a part of the keep.  Soooooo awesome.  Very Harry Potter.  None of the internal scenes were filmed there, but the learning to fly and explanation of Quidditch scenes were filmed there so I got to see the patch of grass that Sean Biggerstaff wrestled a bludger on.  I was happy.  Also in there is this Knight school where you can dress up in very poorly made clothes, get your picture taken being knighted, beheaded, in the stocks, etc.  There's also a funhouse kind of deal with smoke and mirrors and a monster at the end, encouraging you to be chivalrous.  Very cute.  We went on a bus tour of Alnwick in a very old bus that apparently is the only one of its kind.  I don't remember what, but it was.  We then had a little Alnwick history lesson by one of the professors at the St. Cloud program there.  Basically St. Cloud has a program at Alnwick just like UWRF does at Dalkeith.  Christine was one of the professors.  We got to learn all about the palace and the Percys.  Dinner happened soon and right afterwards I went to bed, which was most desperately needed.

Today we hopped in the bus and went to Warkworth castle, the most in tact ruin I've seen.  Most of the keep was still in tact so it was really good to see... for once.  Yes, Alnwick is still lived in and complete, but the interiors more closely resemble that of a Renaissance palace.  Soon, however, it started to snow... then hail... not pleasant.  Ann-Marie and I ducked into Topsy Turvy, a nice tea shop, for lunch.  I had a very nice potato and leek soup with hot chocolate and Ann-Marie and I split a chocolate fudge cake for dessert.  We then hopped on the bus with the intent to going on to another castle or two, but the bus driver was nervous about the snow and ice so we headed back to Alnwick for an hour and then hopped on the bus and came back to the Palace.

I'm kinda tired and kind of in mood for a movie...  let's see how the night will unfold.

More when I have it!

-Meredith

PS:  Select pictures from the weekend are here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2005800&l=003ca&id=157300234

Okay, so I know this is a few days late, but whoooooooa!

We had the punch party after the football match (Scotland tied with Croatia) and... just ask me about it and I can tell you all the head shaving good times we had.

The next morning, for better or worse, we headed out off of Skye to Glen Coe.  We stopped off at Eilean Donan castle for a photo op and cartwheeling fun.  On the way to the hike of the day we stopped at other various sites to see pretty things like mountains and war monuments.  We saw Ben Nevis, the tallest mountain in Scotland.  I saw various spots where movies were filmed- like where they filmed Hagrid's hut scenes in Harry Potter and various spots where they filmed Highlander and Rob Roy.  Awesomeness to be sure.

Our hike for the day was to the Lost Valley where the MacDonalds hid from the Campbells.  It was a 45 minute or so hike to this spot which was very beautiful.  There were little waterfalls and the like on the way up with freshly melted snow and Emily and I, in our thirst, drank it and it's the best water I've ever had.  It even beats Fiji water.  Not bad, eh?  It was amazing.  I feel very accomplished after hiking so much in the past week.

On our way to Oban afterwards, I saw the Castle Aaaaaaaaagh from Monty Python and the Holy Graile.  Oh yes.  It rocked.  We didn't really get to go out and check it out... since it's in the middle of a lake.... but it was awesome and I have pictures.  That night I enjoyed a well-deserved PB&J sandwich.

The last day was spent mostly in the bus from Oban back to Edinburgh.  We saw a stone that marked the burial procession path or something like that for Scottish kings, baby hairy coos (SO ADORABLE!), lots of lambs, and we made a stop at St. Conan's kirk.  Funny story about this place.  This guy built it for his mom since the trip was proving a little too taxing for her.  Now, he really didn't know what he was doing architecturally and there are Gothic elements to it, pieces that make it look like a castle, a little cloister... very peculiar little building.  Cold and leaky too.  Very odd.   But cool at the same time.

Afterwards we went to Drover's Inn, a 303 year old pub.  Delicious food.  I ate Haggis and liked it!  Hah!  So there!  I didn't eat a lot, but Amelie didn't want to finish it and I was still hungry after my food.  We played around with the taxidermy stuff- they had a stuffed two headed lamb!  Yikes! 

Then we went to go visit Hamish the hairy coo.  Hamish, during the mad cow deal, was slated to be killed since they killed a lot of healthy animals as well.  However, some group saved him and you can get up close to him, feed him, pet him... he's awesome.

On the way to Stirling, we saw the other castle in Monty Python- the one the French are in and they shot every internal scene in, apparently.  Awesome.  Unfortunately I couldn't get a good picture of it.  *tear*

We drove past Stirling Castle and went to the Wallace Monument.  Doug told us all things that, at least I, already knew about Robert the Bruce and all that stuff.  I proved to be a Miss Smartypants... again....  He asked if 1066 meant anything to anyone so I raised my hand.  And then he asked about the Domesday book and I had to raise my hand again.  Ooops.  We saw the Braveheart statue... not impressive... went up to the Wallace Monument on the hill and looked at it... yep...  Not too terribly exciting.

Then it was an hour's drive to Edinburgh and a bus ride home.  Woot.  Emily and I *were* going to get gussied up and head back into town to hang out at the pub but we were too tired and headed to bed early... wait... I stayed up late posting pictures.

Here are the pictures:
Day 1- http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2005766&l=420f7&id=157300234
Day 2- http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2005767&l=4eec5&id=157300234
Day 3- http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2005768&l=e2557&id=157300234
Day 4- http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2005769&l=43fb9&id=157300234
Day 5- http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2005770&l=e91a6&id=157300234

Since I'm typing I might as well continue.  Yesterday Emily and I, oddly not sick of each other, headed out to Ocean Terminal to see 27 Dresses which was really fun.  I liked it a lot.  We wandered around the mall but both of us were starting to feel under the weather.  We ran into Meghan, her mom, Kayla and Larissa on our way back and went to dinner with them to Justin Lees where I ate myself to nausea.  I came home to lie down and realised I really didn't feel well and proceeded to have a terrible stinging head ache and sore throat.  I slept terribly last night because of it and this morning was kindly informed by Novia and Ali that I was moaning in my sleep.  Oops.  Don't I feel sheepish now?  At least I have a good excuse.  After an ibuprofen this morning I feel much better though.  I woke up pretty sweaty and really warm.  I should be better in the next couple days.

If you'll excuse me, I have a letter to write.

More when I have it!

-Meredith

Okay, so I've been on my trip for three days (more or less) insofar and have just had the chance to sit down and type and type and type.

Everything started on Monday with a quite pleasant trip with Emily, my house companion, to Edinburgh on the bus at I don't even want to think about it in the morning.  We found the MacBackpackers hostel very quickly and sat in the very nice lounge for about 45 minutes while waiting for others to get there.

Soon we all hop on the bus and drive to the other MacBackpackers hostel over under the castle to pick up the bulk of our companions and off we went.  Our guide's name is Doug who is on his first tour back after spending a couple months as a ski instructor in the Alps.  We went to a few places on the first day of varying historic interest, which made me quite pleased indeed.  I saw Dunsinine and Birnham Wood... Oh yeah... Macbeth....  right next to both of those is Dunkeld which has a nice little cathedral that I took some pictures of (pictures will be uploaded once this whole extravaganza is over).  Emily and I walked along the river Tay and met a nice little cat who let me pet her.

Back on the bus,  and we drove to Killiecrankie where the only truly successful battle of the Highlanders took place in the beginning of the Jacobite rebellions in the late 1600s, early 1700s.  We stopped off at a distillery to get some whisky and this adventure ended a lot better than my first.  Doug told us how to actually drink it and, even though I still need to acquire a taste for it, I didn't almost die like the first time at the Caledonian dinner.  We then went on to an old barracks that I already forget the name of.  We took pictures, great views. 

We then went to a nice place called Clava Cairns, a veeeeeeery old pagan site that no one knows what actually happened there save on the solstice the sun comes in perfectly through these two doors.  We haven't a clue.  Emily and I guessed it was a nightclub.  We then went to Culloden where the last stand of the Jacobites against the English happened and the Highlanders were just slaughtered.  Very sad.  It was kind of cool to stand there, being a fan of the Outlander series, to stand there and think about it.  Definitely something to think about if you know the story which I may edit this and give it in full accounts.

Then was Loch Ness... *the* loch.  A good handful of our bus, Emily and myself included, got changed into swimsuits or whatever, and went for a swim.  Context: Very very very cold.  Outside.  The loch isn't much better... colder even.  So here we are, freezing on the banks and we get Shanni, this kind of annoying Chinese girl, to take our picture jumping in.  Now this ended up not so much being a jump in, but a step, step, your body says "SCREW YOU!" and you fall face first into the water.  We were completely submerged!  In Loch Ness!  When we got up and out, I was making some odd noises trying to get oxygen back into my lungs, almost screaming because I can't breathe but not screaming because of that lack of oxygen.  Regardless, I got back on the shore, fighting my body to get it into my coat, my feet, which I can't feel at all, into my shoes to get back to the toilet to change into my real clothes.  AAAAAAAH!!!  But hey... I went swimming... more or less... with Nessie.

We then hopped to the hostel in Inverness, I managed to fight my hair which wanted to turn into a dread locked mess.  Emily and I had McDonalds for dinner and we went to Hootenany's for a nice glass of water and we quite enjoyed ourselves.  The Australians and New Zealanders instigated a fund raising for, in the toilet, is a... well... the only way to describe it is a sex shop machine.  Vibrators, and the like, as well as a blow up sheep... with orifice.  *cough*  Several of us pitched in for the six pounds and bought it.  Her name is Pamela and she is a wonderful companion.  We went to sleep.

Yesterday we got up and our first stop was at this gorge... waterfall... bit.  Doug used this as a setting to describe the Picts and we all stood over this huge waterfall.  Absolutely gorgeous!  It looked like Guinness because of all the peat in it.  We then went up north towards Ullapool, saw some beautiful mountains and had DELICIOUS fish and chips for lunch.

Corrieshalloch Gorge.  Another moment where you're next to death.  It is veeeeeeeery deep.  We also had a nice snowball fight all around it and Emily made a friend for Pamela- Tito the Snowman.  He met a tragic demise after much... pleasantries... as it were, as Doug ran him over with the bus.  Lots more beautiful sights and we made it to Skye.  We hung out at the pub (King Haakon), played some pool... or some similar game... and unfortunately Pamela was played with a little too rough and suffered a tear in her right hind leg.

After some sleep, she was managed to be repared, but lost the leg and has it taped onto her... non- inflated.  While this was happening, we went all over the place.  We saw some beautiful mountains and were blessed with faerie magic.  There was this stream (pictures will be forthcoming) where if you dip your face in it, you will be blessed with youth.  So Emily and I did that.  Later on we went to another cool spot where there's a waterfall.  If you hold your head under it, for each second you hold it there, seven years of good sex.  I figured I'd jumped in Loch Ness and dipped my face in water, why not?  It's just another thing to add to the list.  Then it was Portree for lunch.  Here's where it gets fuzzy.  We took a great big hike up a mountain and had some more incredible views... and then went sledding.  Save there really wasn't much snow.  So it was mud sledding.  Emily went down and had a quite incredible run.  We went to a pub in Uig, enjoyed some more pool, and hopped on the bus again to head to a Faerie Glen.  No lie!  It was fantastic!  There were three rules: 1) no whistling- faeries hate whistling 2)don't leave anything iron- faeries hate iron 3) and don't take anything away.  I walked barefoot on a faerie glen.  I'm so happy.

Tonight is a punch party after a soccer (sorry, football) match, which I think I'll skip.

I'm hungry so I'll head back and have some PB&J for dinner.

More when I have it!

-Meredith

PS:  I think I'm liking Panic At The Disco's new album.  Not their usual stuff, but not too bad!

The weekend was, as stated, stressful in the emotional sense of things, which prevented productivity.  Ali, Emily and I made tentative plans to head into Edinburgh and see the botanical garden as well as the zoo.  Neither happened. 

On Friday I needed to get out of the house and be by myself so I went to the movies again and saw The Other Boleyn Girl, which was okay.  I enjoyed it enough.  Going in and of itself is an experience.  I hopped the bus into Edinburgh with the intent of walking around.  As time went on, and I was standing in The Works buying post cards and some souvenirs for some friends, I didn't want to be out and about, so I decided to hop the 22 into Ocean Terminal to wander around the mall for a little while and catch the movie.  Seeing the movie is interesting.  First they show commercials of all sorts for about fifteen minutes- car commercials and the like.  What they also show, at least once, are these creepy speed limit ads from the government (these commercials are rated, by the by and these are rated 12 up).  When I went to see The Accidental Husband with Emily, it was this little girl slumped up against a tree, dead and pale, with things like blood dripping from her ear going in reverse and then her arms come out a little, the bones crunching back into place and she skids forward to the point where she's alive again, all the while this voice of a little girl going "If you hit me at thirty, there's an 80 percent chance I'll die" and other morbid comments like that.  For the one for the next movie, it was a split screen with a guy on the left, talking to his wife on the phone (she's on the right) while he's driving a car and while she's talking, he gets into a car accident and dies (the whole thing being shown on the screen) and she's just going "James?  James?  James?"  CREEPY!!!!!  In other news, the movie was okay and the costuming was beautiful.

Saturday I had a nice lie in, of course, and didn't go to Edinburgh, but did wander around Dalkeith with Ali for a while, getting food for lunch and the like.  When we got back home, we went downstairs and I introduced many people to the wonders of Dead Again (AMAZING movie) and spent the rest of the afternoon moseying around pretty much.  I got a fish cakes supper and that was mighty tasty and cheaper than a fish supper so I will have to keep that in mind.

Today I slept in... again... checked email, had lunch, ended up chatting with Annmarie and Lauren and we ended up going downstairs and watching The Slipper and the Rose, another amazing movie, and headed upstairs to get ready for the ceilidh.

A ceilidh, for those who don't know, is a kind of social dance (similar to square dancing) of a more Scottish folk nature.  It used to be the prime spot for getting boyfriends and such.  It still does that but not so much any more with discos and night clubs.  Regardless, it is a house tradition to have one.  We were taught all the dances and I was oddly reminded of SCA dances, which I am missing terribly.  I am considering going to Meghan and asking if I can lead a mini dance session for those who want to, including Horse's, Toss the Wench and Saltarello (my personal favorite).  It was a host family event so Jim and Wilma were there and we danced all over the place, Amanda and I taking turns with Jim as our partner.  I can't name any of the dances, but it didn't last more than an hour.  At the end, Jim and Wilma gave us Lindt chocolate hollow bunnies for Easter (mine is missing most of his head and I took my meds so he will soon be no more) and told us to just call if we need anything.

My brain is in a tizzy so I will leave for now and try to sort this all out.

More when I have it!

-Meredith

A nice relaxing week at Dalkeith House, to say the very least.

Monday was pleasantly dull with a nice lie in and a nicely drizzly day.  This was what was supposed to be the remnants of a huge storm on the coast with 100 mph winds that resulted in a steady drizzle all day.  I was, however, quite pleased with that.  The thing about Scottish weather is the fact that it changes its mind every few minutes and can't decide on being pleasant, sunny and warm or being completely miserable.  Henceforth, it was refreshing to have a day of miserable weather because, at the very least, it was constant.

Tuesday started with the internship and a staff meeting.  The directorate that the department I work under hasn't had a director for the past couple years.  The previous director left for health reasons and planned to come back but ended up staying out permanently so they just recently hired a new director, Sally.  This meeting was their regular monthly meeting but usually they didn't have formal introductions of everyone.  This was very helpful not only to Sally but me as well.  Sally turned to me (she was sitting next to me) and asked me my name and I felt very special.  Steve, the head of Learning and Programs, started out with "We have some new faces and some very new faces, who are you?"  Of course, I had met Steve, but only briefly a few weeks prior.  Jenni stepped up and went "You've met her already!" and he suddenly remembered who I was and we all had a laugh.  Everyone around the table introduced themselves to Sally and talked about their different projects for different exhibits at the different museums and such and finally it came around to me and I went "I'm Meredith and I'm Jenni's intern." which got a laugh from the rest of the table.  I told them that I was here until May and I'd be going back to the states.  At that point, Sally said "Ah, I thought I detected a bit of an accent," which made me feel great.  It's a bit of a compliment to not be pegged as an American by sight.  I still glow a little bit with pride when I think about it.  Everyone that needed to made their presentations and I found out a bit about a staff survey taken last year which was cool... I have the papers in my room somewhere.  After the meeting there was only about half an hour, so I went home, stopped at a Baguette Express for a bacon and mozzarella panini (yum!) and went to class for the Scottish Cultural Colloquium.  This was actually taught by our professor's husband, Alexander Bell, all about Scotland's government and I learned some very interesting about Scotland's moves for independence and the current political world.  I liked it.  Again, I found marital humor here since he had a little post it from Victoria (our American professor) and he was a touch of a comedian, taking it out and muttering as if reading to himself "Get... off... your lazy... butt... and...  Oh yes, here we are." and proceeded to take care of class business.  Afterwards was Gothic Novel which started with Alex  giving us a test on Jekyll and Hyde and then dinner, which Ali and I were pleased to find a great storm blowing outside.  We were excited because we were to watch Frederic Marsh's version of Jekyll and Hyde and what better situation to watch it in than in a storm?  However, as is the case with Scottish weather, the storm stopped and we watched it simply in the dark of a gloomy house.  I watched Secondhand Lions and went to bed after reading out loud a chapter of Dracula and taking a pleasant shower.

Today featured a lovely lie in which lasted until about ten thirty and then picked back up ten minutes later with another lie in for another hour.  I checked my email, went to lunch, had a not very exciting class on Romanticism and Transcendentalism and then wrote my SCC journal.  I sent that in to Victoria (my professor) and worked on transcribing my blocking notes for Gone Fishing into my director's copy for the production at OMHS.  Dinner happened and then I hopped on the bus into Edinburgh with Emily to go and take advantage of a wonderful deal at the cinema to go see The Accidental Husband, which was not nearly as funny as it promised to be, but still quite enjoyable.  It was a nice movie that we didn't have to think about and is extremely dangerous to our health but who cares?  We then hopped the bus to get home and met with this interesting girl called Siobhan, 17, who was a very pleasant drunk on her way home from quite a few hours of drinking.  She pointed out different places, talked about her niece, gave us tips on where to go and what to do, liked our accents and was really quite pleasant.  My only fear is that she might fall asleep on the bus and even though she told us to tell her top stop talking if she was bothering us, I rather hoped she would keep talking if only to make sure we knew she was safe and still alive.  On the whole though, she was quite pleasant and very chatty. 

I just got in, it's midnight and time for sleep for I have internship in the morning.  Friday seems to be looking like laundry day and Saturday will be exploring the city with at the very least Emily and hopefully Ali.  We hope to wander the botanic gardens and the zoo!

More when I have it!

-Meredith

Okay, a few things happened in the past couple days.

Firstly, yesterday we went to St. Andrew's!  Yay!  The day started again at around 7:30 with breakfast and a hop on the bus at 8:30.  We drove for something like two hours to the beautiful city.  We all got out of the bus and the bulk of us wandered around the shore for a little while on the gorgeous day.  I ran into my roommates Hillary and Ali and I walked with them (hiked, rather) to the Botanic Gardens.  Nothing was really in bloom, but the greenhouses were beautiful!  I got a lot of Ophelia-esque pictures around the tropical flowers.  My lens kept fogging up so I had to borrow Hillary's lens cloth.

We then wandered around the town for a little while, popping in and out of patisseries and seeing many many gorgeous men.  They need to make men like that down here in Edinburgh!  I was chatting with Ali while in a shop and she said "Just standing here in the past minute, I have seen ten cute guys walk past!" At that moment, one more walked by and I went "Eleven!"  It was really funny... lovely city....

For pictures of this part of the excursion, check here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2005637&l=03932&id=157300234

Regardless, we popped into a British Heart Foundation charity shop and found some interesting pieces to add to Ali's costume for the party that night, which I will explain in detail later.  I also was very bad and picked up the first Indiana Jones movie on tape to add to the house's collection since I couldn't find it the day before hand.  Ali and I will be watching it in the movie room tonight.  I am excited.

Afterwards, we met up with our compatriots at the cathedral, now in ruins.  I felt a little bad walking on graves... but there was no other way to get around the site!  There were some good tombstones though....  We got to go up into the tower which was huge and I have no pictures of the view, but a video of it.  It was VERY windy and I had to fight the wind the whole time so be warned if and when you get to see it.

After that we headed to the castle where Liz and I teamed up once again to take some awesome pictures.  The weather then started to turn sour.  Within a matter of moments, the wind was blowing and hail was falling and we had to take shelter inside one of the structures.  We then bolted across the way to the mine and followed that.  Apparently battles were fought there.  Cool, no?

Sodden, we all wandered back to the bus in our own way and went home.  Pics are here:http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2005638&l=90fa9&id=157300234

I promptly changed into my pajamas and attempted to take a nap, but the part spirit is infectious....

Ali and Hillary promptly started dressing for the "Ridiculously Good Looking" house party in which everyone had to wear something ridiculous.  Hillary wore some of the grocery bags from Lidl... so she wore a Lidl dress...  ><  The punishment.  Regardless, Ali wore this blue somethingorother skirt that she pulled up over her chest and wore a shawl her friend made her and put her hair up ridiculously.  Catie was a vision in sequins and Novia went as SuperNova, which ended up being a lot more evil than she meant to but still awesome.  Me?  I ended up as a kind of fairy thing.  I wore my maroon pants, my pink and black houndstooth and lace tank top with one of my black over shirts on and I wrapped my scarf from Stace around my ponytail which I made into tiny braids all over the place and for good measure stuck some wings on.  To top it off, I did this crazy purple make up on the upper half of my face so it ended up being this fairy/creepy/punk with a touch of Jack Sparrow thrown in.  It looked cool regardless.

The party itself was okay.  It was a great excuse for all of us to get dressed up and take pictures.  The music was okay except whenever a really good song came on they switched it.  I was also dead tired and hungry since I didn't nap like I wanted to and skipped making myself dinner.  The night ended for me when Colton, for the group picture, ran in and stopped, spilling beer down my back and after the group picture Joe spilled his beer in front of me, getting some on my front.  That, my dears, is when we call it a night.

I changed, hopped online for about fifteen minutes to download my pictures and went to bed.  I just uploaded them here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2005639&l=48e4c&id=157300234

This morning, I got up pleasantly around 11:30, made myself some lunch and prepped to go to the theatre (Edinburgh Playhouse) to see a 60s musical called Shout!  It wasn't whelming to be sure, but for 9 pounds it was okay.  Meghan, Novia and I went and sat up in the balcony where we actually had a good view of the place.  The theatre's all red on the inside and very nice.  They play itself was about three girls from Northern England who go to London to try to make it in 1960.  They have their bouts with love and such, one gets pregnant....  The cast is only 7 people- one guy and six girls.  It was basically a tribute to the 60s, starting with "Downtown" and ending with a medley of songs including, of course, "Shout."  I really can't remember anything really fantastic about it.  I thought there were too many songs and not enough dialog... not enough plot, basically.  I have to say though, the funniest part was where there was a scene where they take a vacation to Spain and the one guy plays this character I think called Tommy T who basically acts as the voice for the magazine and gives summaries of the years as they pass.  His costume is mostly the same, but this particular time he hopped on stage with a sun hat, towel, socks and sandals and a tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiny bathing suit.  No one was paying attention to what he was saying because everyone was cat calling him the whole time he was on stage.  Poor guy, just trying to get through his lines.

After the play, Novia, Meghan and I headed home, I reheated my lunch leftovers and now here I am, having happy laptop time, waiting for an appropriate time to go watch Indiana Jones, which all of my roommates and I were singing the theme of this morning... afternoon... whenever we got up.

More when I have it!

-Meredith

PS:  Congrats to Chris and Tanya!!!!!!!!!!!

SO!  I went to Dublin this past weekend as some of you may have heard!

Here's the story about it.

Thursday (the 28th) started at five in the morning.  Barb, one of the professors' wife, arranged for two taxis to come and pick the 8 AM flight crew up to head to the airport since most buses do not run that early.  We got to the airport without event and hopped on the plane to Dublin.  We were in the air a grand total of about 45 minutes and poof, we're in Dublin.

We get on a bus and head into the city and start to try to find our hostel... which took a great while....  Pretty much every way that we could turn, we turned the exact opposite way and went down that way for several minutes until we had realised we had gone the wrong way.  We then turned around, took a few steps in the right direction and promptly went the wrong way... again.

Regardless, we finally found the hostel and dropped off our stuff.  While most folk headed out to the Guinness factory, I took a well needed nap.  I slept for a couple hours, grabbed my Dublin tourist map and headed out.  I was pleased to discover we were in the heart of the Medieval part of the city.  Just a stone's throw away was the Dublinia exhibit about medieval Ireland.  Not too terribly exciting, aside from a nice human skeleton.  Fortunately, with an added price, I got to go straight into Christ Church Cathedral, located and connected right next door, across the street. 

Pictures up until this part of the story can be found here: http://johnsonstatecollege.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2005591&l=fecd4&id=157300234

The cathedral was neat to walk around, especially with all the stained glass.  One of my favorite finds was a window in the image of St. Cuthbert.  Any of my wonderful Medieval Europe compatriots must know my excitement.  Check out the pics.  They rock.  I also got to wander around the crypt inside, probably the oldest structure in Dublin.  That was amazing.  I couldn't get a lot of pictures, but it was nice.

The pictures I *do* have, however, are located here:  http://johnsonstatecollege.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2005596&l=bcea5&id=157300234

Then I decided to wander around just a touch more since I had a fair amount of time left and went to Dublin Castle....  Okay, it doesn't look like a castle any more... most of it is gone and in its place a lovely Victorian building, which I found out from my tour guide Oirlaith (Or-la), was the seat of British power in Ireland up until the revolution in the earlier part of the 20th century.  We wandered around the building, learned some stuff about Victorian life, but then got to see the ruins of the castle itself.  Ooooooh.

Only one of the towers of the castle still exists today and is currently occupied by the police head quarters.  However, below one of the buildings next door is the ruin of another one of the towers, which used to house the gunpowder... and ammunition... up until a fire spread to that part and BOOM, no more tower.  However, parts of the tower still exist.  I got to wander around, see the mote, etc.  Tres cool.  See it here: http://johnsonstatecollege.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2005598&l=fea94&id=157300234

We soon got assembled and went to dinner at this nice Italian restaurant with the compatriots who didn't get on the morning flight (Marshall, his wife Gretchen and our classmate Adam), I had some lovely gnocchi and we almost promptly went home and went to bed.

The next day started early with breakfast at the hostel (toast with butter and jam and orange juice) and we headed out to Trinity College for ...  wait for it... THE BOOK OF KELLS!!!!!  The Book of Kells wasn't as exciting as I had hoped, but the info on it was amazing and I was mocked for almost pressing my face into the glass in attempts to see it closer.  I'm a History major,  Sue me.  The best part, I thought, was the library.  I want one.  Just all around BEAUTIFUL and amazing and it was just *wistful sigh*.  We didn't get to take any pictures, which was highly disappointing.

Afterwards we went to the Museum of Ireland which wasn't too terribly exciting either.  Very sterile and may I just ask *why* every single museum has an exhibit on Ancient Egypt?  I mean, I'm in the museum, wandering around artifacts of the Vikings and the Celts and gold hordes and all this other stuff and all of a sudden, there's a sign tucked into the back of the medieval Ireland exhibit pointing to this little practical closet with a couple mummies and sarcophagi in it.  I mean COME ON!

I then wandered around the tourist shops for a little while before meeting back up with my group to hop on a hop-on-hop-off bus tour with a wonderful guide to get to Kilmainham Gaol (Jail) on the other side of town.  This was built in the early 1800s I believe and incarcerated the men of the Easter Rising in 1916.  It was interesting and once we got to the Victorian part was actually a beautiful building.

We got to go out to the work and exercise yards and we got to the Stone Breaker's yard.  That was very interesting.  See, the walls are high and there are no windows.  This is where they would execute people, most importantly, the men of the Easter Rising.  On the right hand side they have a black cross on the place where they would kill the men.  On the left hand side is another cross where they shot James Connolly, who ended up being the last one killed.  His case is interesting since, days beforehand, he was shot in the ankle and contracted gangrene so he was too sick to stand or to even make it to the other side of the yard so they tied him to a chair and shot him there.  That incensed the Irish and he was the last one killed in that time frame.

Now, on this tour were a set of people who really didn't speak English that well, or if they did they just didn't.  Regardless, they did something that even made us Americans cringed.  They walked over to this cross in honor of James Connolly and touched it, started to play with it, wobbling it around!  The look on Anthony the tour guide's face was just  sheer terror.  It's like yeah, I might have gone over and peered at it with my hands firmly in my pockets, but you don't TOUCH it!  I felt so bad for that guy.

We stopped off in the museum for a little while afterwards where I got a book that I'm excited to read about the women revolutionaries (it's called "Guns and Chiffon").  Novia, Katie and I all picked up a copy and are excited to read it.

Photos from the day are here: http://johnsonstatecollege.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2005599&l=e2c19&id=157300234

I got some Chinese for dinner and headed out on the Literary Pub Crawl which was extremely entertaining.  It was a man and a woman who would do excerpts from Irish literary history from a condensed version of "Waiting for ..." I don't remember but it's a silly little play about nothing.  Seriously!  We stood in the middle of Trinity College and talked about Oscar Wilde, went off to another spot (the old St. Andrews Church which is now the Tourism centre)  and ended the night out in front of where we started.  Everyone went off in the direction of the last pub, but I was cold and tired so Emily, Kelly and I headed back to the hostel.

The night went interestingly once Betty and Novia got back.  Novia had too much to drink and spent the better part of the night moaning and screaming, vomiting once over the edge of her bed.  Bless Katie's heart for taking care of her.

The next morning we didn't have anything to do until about noon so Novia and I hopped on the bus tour again (our ticket was still valid) and took the entire tour which was fun.  The guy who did it wasn't as funny as the first guy, but he did have his moments.

For example, when we drove past the Guinness factory, he let the people off and on and once he pulled out into the street, he started weaving the bus back and forth across this tiiiiiiiiiiiiiny road (I've said before that these guys have amazing amounts of skill... seriously), he was singing and slurring his words and he said "This is what the tour would have been like about twelve hours ago."  He kept this up for a good long while and it was hilarious!

We then met up with Marshall and hiked all around the city to get to the James Joyce Centre, basically a house dedicated to the Irish author.  I didn't find it too terribly interesting, but I haven't read any of his stuff.  We went on a walking tour around the city as per his book of short stories called "The Dubliners."  Our tour guide was actually an American from New York who went to Middlebury College in Vermont!  Small world, eh?

We went out and ate at the Brazen Head pub, dating from 1198, the oldest pub in Dublin.  I had some Irish Stew with Novia and we headed back to the hostel for a lovely nap.

I almost didn't get out of bed but after some thinking decided to head on out with everyone else to the pubs with Marshall and Gretchen and it was a blast!  It was cool to get together as a group and have a couple drinks.  The first place we stopped off at was a place called Pavda I think and it was a vodka bar.  I had a delicious vodka and lemonade (7Up actually.  They just call it lemonade for some odd reason) and we sat in the back with the professor and his wife and their friend and it was just a good time.  We then all went out on mass and headed to Stag's Head over in Temple Bar (the night club area) and we had some drinks there.  Marshall, our professor, is such a sweet guy.  He was all excited to buy us drinks (which are EXPENSIVE in Europe) and was only too happy to buy me a Bailey's.  Oh, it was lovely.  There wasn't much standing room in the pub so we went up to the smoking area and stood there and chatted forever.  It was great.

Pretty soon Marshall, Gretchen and Tabitha (their friend) headed out to another pub on their own and then to Tabitha's hostel and home again.  The rest of us- Novia, Joe, Betty, Emily, Kelly and I- headed out to find another pub.  Most importantly for me was to find an ATM to get money for the bus.

Funny story.  Joe and I both needed money so we tried pretty much every convenience store we could.  We found a promising one and my ears perk up because they hear something familiar.  I look up and on the TV screen is the video for "Nine in the Afternoon" by Panic at the Disco!!!!!!  Joe says "No luck.  It's out of service" and I was like "Aw!  But this place is perfect!"  I wanted to stand there and watch the rest of the video but Joe was moving along.  I was sad.

We finally found a pub but I was really tired and so were Emily and Kelly so we decided to pop back home, leaving Joe, Novia and Betty on their own.  We found our way back without incident and crawled pleasantly back into bed.

Photos from the day are here: http://johnsonstatecollege.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2005600&l=e118d&id=157300234

The next morning was early again.  We hopped on the Air Coach, which was quite classy... and SEVEN Euros.... and hopped on the plane without incident.

It was very reassuring to get home to Edinburgh, around things we recognize.  It's cool how this place is becoming my home.  I could just space on the bus and get off when I needed to.  I knew exactly where I was going and loved it.  I'm really settled here and maybe it took a weekend away to realise that.

I love it over here and am surprised that it's already a third of the way through!  Gasp!

Well, regardless, this weekend I'll go to St. Andrews for the day, which will be fun and I'll have the weekend proper to do what I please which will probably be getting into Edinburgh and seeing all the different museums that I haven't seen and try to conquer the National Museum once again!  But let's not get our hopes up.  I plan to get to the castle this weekend, which would be great.

Oh, and there's a church to St. Cuthbert that I just might have to check out.

Well, more when I have it!

-Meredith

It's been a few days *gasp!* and they haven't been that exciting, but I suppose I'll clue y'all in on what I've been up to!

Friday was a class field trip for the Scottish Culture Colloquium to the Writer's Museum in Edinburgh most importantly to check out the Robert Lewis Stevenson display (of Treasure Island and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde fame) since we are reading the latter for class.  We wandered around the city on another one of these windy Scottish days, to be sure.  We went into St. Giles' cathedral (where there is a bronze almost life size relief of Stevenson) and when we got outside it was raining.  We mucked around the city for a little while longer, visiting Greyfriar's Kirk, seeing the statue of Bobby and seeing part of the field that was used for the Covenanters to keep their Protestant bad-selves locked up.

Now, I have to tell the story of Greyfriar's Bobby.  There was an old policeman in Edinburgh who would go on rounds, accompanied by his faithful dog Bobby.  After a few years, the policeman died and was buried in Greyfriar's cemetery, next to the church.  Bobby was so dedicated that every single day, he went and laid down on his master's grave... for fourteen years until he died himself.  Adorable, no?  In fact, right across the street from the kirkyard is a statue of Bobby.

After our field trip (which finished around noon) we were wet and quite chilled so a few of my friends and I headed to Greyfriar's Bobby's Pub, reportedly the place that fed Bobby during his fourteen year vigil.  We had a delicious lunch with *delicious* juice.  I need to find me some of that stuff.  I highly recommend it.  J2O I think it's called.

Regardless, we then wandered around the National Museum for a little while until I got tired and headed home on my lonesome... not without stopping at the something like fifty charity shops along Nichol's Street.  Here's the thing about Scotland and I suppose the UK.  They have charity shops, which are basically thrift stores, but they're dedicated to a specific cause like UK cancer research or pets in need of vets or homeless shelters or any other kind of cause like that.  I found some very inexpensive originally very expensive clothes for heading out to pubs and the like so I can't wait for a chance to wear them out.

Saturday I stayed at the Palace for the simple fear of being blown into the Firth of Forth.  I spent the day amicably with Ned, my faithful laptop friend and managed to block the whole of "Gone Fishing" which, god willing and the crick don't rise, I will be directing when I get back in May.

Sunday was a bit more eventful.  I actually got up before noon... at ten to be exact, had a touch of lunch and headed into Edinburgh with Emily to see "The Hysterical History of Scotland" at the National Museum which ended up being quite enjoyable... and free.  Always a good thing.  It was a two person show- a man and a woman- both wearing kilts and Scotland t-shirts and they did a nice run through of Scottish history starting around the time of the Picts and ending in the modern day.  There were some interesting parts, none of which come to mind as invariably happens, but some I can remember were some slight American bashing, which was hilarious, since we were likely the only Americans in the audience, and a Q&A with Dolly the cloned sheep, who is actually stuffed and *in* the National Museum.

Afterwards we headed to the National Gallery and wandered around, gaining a preliminary run through of the place.  I highly recommend it.  Beautiful in there.  We wandered around Prince's Street for a little while, including the mall, which was quite pleasant.  We then hopped on the bus and came back home.

Yesterday (Monday) I had classes... oh so very exciting.

Today I had more internship.  Apparently the tech folks don't have my computer account finished yet so I couldn't do any of the work Jenni needed me to do so she sent me out to take a couple tours of the place.  See, they don't have a whole National Museum completely encompassing tour.  Originally it started as the Royal Museum and then they had the History museum next to it but they were both connected and then a few years ago they combined to make the National Museum of Scotland but they didn't update the road signs....  Yeah....  So if you go to the National Museum and want to have one comprehensive tour of the whole thing... it doesn't exist.  No lie.  You can have intro tours of either building but you can't have a complete tour.  They also have collections tours that take you around specific things....  But it was still nice to get to wander around the museum.  They're going to be closing the Royal Museum section (or at least most of it) to make it more user friendly (putting in lifts and escalators and better access to different exhibits and such) but it will be closed for three years so I'm kinda glad I'm an intern now (they close it in April).  I had lunch in the cafe and ended up stalking people again.

And as I was standing and staring at Dolly go round and round on her pedestal and watched people poke at interactive boards, I had a bit of a thought....  See, the gallery I was in is called Connect, full of interactive touch screens and robots and such.  But as I was watching over everyone, I saw grown adults standing and reading these non-interactive description boards (like the one at Dolly that simply explains that the stuffed sheep rotating in front of you is the actual Dolly or the space ship just below me) and they would actually push the icons on these boards.  No lie.  I saw three people do this.  Standing there, poking at plastic, thinking it's going to change!  There *has* to be a way to have museums make money and not become, as my tour guide this morning stated, a theme park.  I mean, the interactive stuff makes sense for the technology part.  But in the plans I have seen, there are more of these in development....  It's a puzzling and saddening idea to me.

But on to happier notes, I have discovered that all rainbows start in Scotland.  It's true.  I saw two rainbows this weekend and they didn't end, but they definitely started in Scotland.  Good to know.

Dogs are so much better behaved in the UK.  I have no idea what it is, but they don't run up and jump all over you or even come over and sniff you!  They just kinda walk past, look up, give you a "Hi.  I'm a dog" kind of look and then go on their merry way.  It's a nice thing for me since most of you know of my skittish feeling around dogs to have them not come up to me is a nice thing, especially with all the dogs running around the place with families.

I have booked my spring break- a five day MacBackpackers tour of the highlands so that should be most enjoyable.  This weekend I'll be in Dublin so I don't know when I'll get to chat this weekend so at the latest I'll tell all about it on Monday.  I actually realised that for the rest of the semester I only have one or two weekends completely free.  Granted, I'm not going completely away all of these weekends- some house trips and the like- but still.

Hm.  I think I will go off and have more happy laptop time.

If you want to see my pictures from the weekend, here's the link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2005558&l=114db&id=157300234

More when I have it!

-Meredith

The day was actually better than expected!

I left about quarter to nine, almost got his by a car (I forgot to look left again before I crossed.... ><) for the bus stop and got there just as my bus was coming in.  The driver kinda looked like Ringo Starr.  Imagine!

I got off at my stop and walked up the street.  Now, the day wasn't very cold, but boy was it windy!  I had to struggle at some points to keep on my feet and almost got knocked down a couple times.  Must work on that.

I found the staff entrance with little issue and the help of the guys at the loading dock.  I was signed in and given a visitor's pass and soon Jenni came to meet me.  I had my picture taken for my badge which I'll get in a couple days and she gave me another visitor's pass that gets me into all the restricted areas.  I'll even get my own set of keys to the mezzanine where the office is.  Cool, no?

Once I got into the office I had to fill out some paperwork and got my amazing name tag.  I was very happy.  We went through some irritating things that we have to go through with everyone so I patiently sat as she read me the risks of my job.  I think the riskiest part is that I might slip on the marble when it rains.  Silly.

I got to meet other people in the department which already escapes me, but the people were cool.  I met Fiona who's actually leaving today to go on maternity leave, but I also met her replacement Scott who seems cool.  I met a lot of other people too, but I can't remember.  Duh.

After an informal tour, Jenni let me eat lunch where I was kindly pointed in the right direction by other staff and had a little bit of a chat with a an older gent, whom I didn't get his name.  I wandered around the museum for a little while before heading back to the office where Jenni and I went over some of the assignments I might do while working for her.

The problem here and the reason I was worried is that the job was originally created for someone else for me to help on.  She ended up going to another museum so here I am in Visitor Studies and not in the curatorial department.

However, my first assignment give me hope.

In May, they will be putting up an exhibit on the Tlicho people of Canada.  There has been a bit of a argument between Jenni and the person in charge of the production of the exhibit.  The write ups that Jenni and the curator worked on were criticised for being too specific and not general enough for the intended adult audience.  My assignment was to look at these write ups and note any changes I would make, things that seem irrelevant and highlight words for the glossary they intended to do.

So I took out my red pen and went to work.  It actually wasn't difficult to understand at all.  There were some words I wasn't familiar with and some I could figure out and some that I knew but wasn't sure other people would, so I highlighted them.  There were some passages that I rewrote in the margins to make it flow better, took some things out, rearranged other bits, etc.

When Jenni got back from her meeting and went over it, she let me in on what was being discussed between her and her colleague and when she let me in on what this other person wanted to do, I went "Aw, she wants to kiddify it!"  Jenni liked that term and wrote it down.  I find it a little bit amusing that something I said is going to be used in an official meeting for a special exhibit at the National Museum of Scotland.  Just saying.  Jenni liked my work and I'm glad I proved my worth on the first time through.

My next task was to stalk the museum visitors.

Heh heh.

One of the things that Visitor Studies does is see how to make the projects and the things in the museum attractive to the public.  You can do this with surveys and any number of things, but stalking seems to be what I did today.

What I had to do was stand around in the particular hall and check to see how long families took at different exhibits.  A lot of the ones were already done so I was left with the ones that no one in particular goes and looks at.  One of the ways to do this is to stand around in the gallery on the ground level and try to inconspicuously time people with a stop watch.  I didn't like this so I headed up a level and watched from above.  Perhaps more creepy, but hey, I could see a lot more from up there.

As I was standing there, the gent from lunch came by and we had a nice conversation about how the kids always go for the interactive shiny stuff and don't look at things like this space ship in the corner or the 17th century train engine right below us.  Granted, I like playing with the stuff too and intend to do so this weekend, but I still like to look at the old stuff too.

I then hopped on the bus (still trying to not fall over.  It was harder this time) and headed home.  I came home to a seemingly empty house, but found people quickly.

So today was a successful day, I thought.  I learned a lot and think that I'll really enjoy my placement here at the National Museum.

In other news, I finished the scenario for the OMHS kids to work on and put on when I get back and am working on the staging for it.  I am very excited.

Well, off to go play around and spend some brain cells for a while!

More when I have it,

-Meredith

It is 8:30 AM, making it about half an hour before I have to leave for my internship... I might have leave earlier.  Who knows?

Regardless, I start today at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.  Talk about prestigious.  I'm wearing my suit pants and my Old Navy white with speckles of color sweater and will probably wear my heels since, ironically, they don't hurt my feet.  Odd, no?

I get to use the staff entrance, which will be all cool.  I'll get my tours and introduction today, have my picture taken for my security badge and all that fun stuff.  I'm really kinda excited.

I'm also tired.  This is one of the earliest days of the week for me... actually having to get up is interesting.  Usually I sleep in until at least 10 whereas in this case, I have to be at the museum at 10.

I really hope I do well.  I'm a little nervous about the kinds of work they're going to have me do.  I really wanted to work with history... not museum PR....  Well, we'll see how it goes. 

See, I'll be working at the museum in a transitional time.  A whole wing- the older one in the Victorian part of the building- is closing in April for renovations and basically to make the room more user friendly.  Right now it's a beautiful atrium kind of deal with stair cases and light coming in from the ceiling... but the problem is all the stairs.  They only have one lift and it doesn't go to all the floors so the exhibits on the upper floors aren't looked at nearly as much.  It's a beautiful building and I think they're going to keep as much of the look as they can, but they need to update it so more people can see it.

Regardless, I think I'll go do my hair now and head out early.  I have my iPod and wonderful songs on it to listen to so I won't be bored during my bus ride.

More when I have it, most likely tonight!

-Meredith

I had an AMAZING birthday.  Quite possibly the best ever.

I woke up around 11 or so and ended up laying in bed and chatting with my fellow lie-inner, Ali, who sleeps next to me.  We had a wonderful chat about stuff and junk and stuff and my roommates started coming in from classes and wishing me happy birthday.  It was a nice relaxed kind of thing.  I soon got out of bed and got dressed and headed over into the Ballroom to do some work... theoretically....  It was more like sifting through my inbox and running around Facebook seeing everything people had written on my wall.  I got a wonderful surprise for my birthday- one of my good friends wrote me a song that I have been listening to constantly because it is pretty much just delicious jam all around.  I then had class and a test (gr.) and hung out on the internet for most of the afternoon.  That afternoon, I made dinner reservations at a place just off the Royal Mile called Shaws.  Here's the story with that:

Novia had planned when we were going out and I got to decide where.  Did you know that typing in "places to eat royal mile edinburgh" will get you some amazing results?  After a lot of browsing, I found Shaws.  The menu wasn't as expensive as other places so I thought this was awesome, so I make my first domestic call to make these reservations.  I get this nice lady on the phone named Jules, who told me that the restaurant has been closing early because it's been rather slow lately.  I was very sad.  She then asked how many people the reservation was for and I explained that it was Novia and my birthday and we were expecting 10 people.  She said that she'd call the chef and see what she could do!  A couple hours later, she called back and said that the chef had agreed to come in!  Just for us!  The whole restaurant was going to be open for us!  Talk about feeling special!

As the afternoon wore on and we took stock of who was coming, we started to feel bad... only four of us could go!  We called the restaurant and told them of it and apologized and we felt really really bad.  They said it was okay, though and while we were sitting there a couple more groups came in, so we didn't feel quite as bad, but it was a little bit of a cool feeling having a whole restaurant open just for us.  I had a lovely steak with a *delicious* fudge cake and home made ice cream!  Oh, so very very good.

We then popped on the bus to head back to Dalkeith for drinks at Sam's.  I actually ended up only buying one of my drinks that night which was kinda fun.  Everyone was hell bent on getting me completely wasted, an idea that I was not very keen on.  I ended up staying out much longer than I wanted to and was so tired I just wanted to go home and sleep, so towards the end the night was a little sour, but not enough to diminish the greatness of the day.

I stayed up until about 3:30 watching some of French Kiss in the movie room, had a few sips of champagne and headed blissfully off to my bed.

Unfortunately I was woken up at 8 or so this morning by a fire alarm.  *NOT* a pleasant way to wake up.

Well, I want to take this moment to thank Mom, Dad, Stace, Eric and Grammy for the emails, Mom, Hillary and Ali, Ben, Novia and Kayla for the money, lillies, song and Irish Cream and of course the 35 (!!!!) people who wrote on my facebook wall!  It really was the best birthday I could have hoped for in a place where I have only known people for two weeks and I am away from all my close friends and family.

Much love, and more when I have it,

-Meredith

PS:  Here are the few pictures from the night: http://johnsonstatecollege.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2005513&l=87559&id=157300234

Today was a very low key day. 

It started around 10:30 or so when I woke up.  I got dressed and headed into Dalkeith to get some things for my host family.  See, we were suggested to bring things to the family as gifts, etc.  I didn't think of bringing anything Vermont-like with me from the States so I settled on getting a nice bouquet of flowers.  Nice idea, right?

Well, I waited until today to get them... Sunday.  Scotland is the place where every single shop closes around 6 or so.  Furthermore, most of the stores are closed on Sunday, including all the nice flower shops.  Bummer.

So I was walking around and decided that I could make some kind of desert!  Great idea!  I walk into Lidls and lo and behold, they have nothing I need to make a trifle or anything.  Gr.

So I ended up getting a couple of these raspberry and cream sandwich cakes for 69p a piece and a nice potted flower.

I had a lovely peanut butter and nutella sandwich for lunch and kinda hung around my room until 3 when Jim and Wilma picked Adam, Amanda and myself up.  This is the first time I had met Wilma since she was away visiting with University folk last weekend.  She is a very nice person.

We took a nice drive around Musselburgh, where they live which is only a stone's throw away from the Palace.  It's a nice harbor town that I must explore some day when it's warmer out, even though it was a lovely day today.

We went to their place, a nice Victorian house with a nice addition on to the back, and had some biscuits and drinks before the storm came- their son Alasdair, his wife Catherine and their three children Max, Angus and Bea, aged 7, 3 and 1.  Needless to say, I got a huge baby fix!  We had dinner and they kindly toasted my birthday and put a candle in one of the cakes I had brought.  It was a very nice thing to have for my birthday since I'm missing a lot of people just now.

We got back a few minutes ago and I think I'll spend another night in, probably reading or something of the sort... maybe watch a movie.

But for some things I have learned:

1)  It is very hard to be a pedestrian.  Looking right and left before you cross the street don't work any more.  You have to look left then right.
2) 20 foot high ceilings combined with heaters that suck lead to very cold feet while on the laptop
3) A "quid" is a pound.
4) Heels on cobblestones is a difficult but possible feat
5) Teenagers here are pretty much the same everywhere
6) Always bring a coat and scarf and gloves are a good idea.
7) Contact with friends from home is a necessity
8) Nothing can't be solved with a good deep breath
9) Pretending to know where you're going is pretty much the same as knowing
10)  Rotaries have replaced traffic lights.  Instead of waiting for a traffic light, you pop into the rotary and basically fling yourself in the right direction.  There are some intersections, but that's only because they didn't have enough space for the rotary.
11)  Buses drive *really* close to each other.
12)  The roads are really narrow.  Like, seriously.  Most of these roads- main roads- are very narrow and it's amazing that buses don't crash into people, cars or buildings.  Completely ridiculous.

I know I came up with some good ones but I don't remember them.  I'll post when I remember.

More when I have it!

-Meredith

I have conquered Edinburgh!

See, Edinburgh is an interesting city.  I mean, you walk through these old narrow streets with period buildings all around you, interspersed with new buildings and shop fronts and every once in a while, you look between a couple buildings or just up the street and you see something from a completely different time.  A time far removed from busses and undergrounds, cars and souvenir shops.  You see a castle or a river or the best part, Arthur's Seat.

Arthur's Seat is an extinct volcano situated over the city at the height of 823 feet and, contrary to the wikipedia site, it is NOT an easy climb.

Okay, maybe it's an easy climb when it's warmer, there isn't any wind and the ground is dry, but it sure is a test of endurance.  All the trails are these tiny bits and most of them if you step the wrong way, you find yourself, again, face to face with DEATH.  This makes it the third time in just over a week!

I managed to make it up with little incident, and it really is beautiful up there.  You can see the Lothians, the city, the castle, everything.  the pictures are here: http://johnsonstatecollege.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2005496&l=c2790&id=157300234

Getting back down was slightly difficult.  I fell twice and one of the times got a great big mud splotch on my butt and almost sprained both of my wrists.  Not pleasant.  I got a nice cup of hot chocolate and headed home, regardless.  I was dead tired when I got home today, though, so I took a nap.

In short, today I did accomplish something, ya know?  I got to the top of Arthur's Seat and look down over everything.  Yes, nothing exactly huge, but something important to me.  I was planning to relax for the rest of the night and seem to be accomplishing that very well.

Tomorrow I will be hanging out with Jim and Wilma, my host parents and having dinner, so that should be nice.  I plan on wearing my new sweater.

More when I have it,

-Meredith

Today was another house trip, this time to more central lowlands to Linlithgow and New Lanark.

Let's start with Linlithgow, shall we?

Linlithgow is the place where Mary Queen of Scots was born!  Imagine that!!!!!  It's a beautiful palace on a river... I don't know the name.  We wandered around, taking some fantastic pictures, even though it was rather cold.  It was another great place to explore, but not as fun as Tantallon.  It still pretty much rocked out hardcore and was a blast to run around.  It did get repetitive because, unlike Tantallon, a lot of the castle was still in tact, which meant there was more to see, which meant that there were more great big empty halls to run through and it got a little monotonous, especially where the spiral staircases were involved.  We ended up getting kinda dizzy. @.@

The view from the highest tower was, however, quite spectacular and rather enjoyable!  The palace is something like five storeys so it was a little scary to look down and all your friends are waaaaaaaaaay down there and little tiny miniatures!  I hadn't eaten much for breakfast and was running through the castle kinda quickly since I was shaking from lack of blood sugar so I had a nice grilled cheese sandwich at lunch in a little cafe just down the street.  I did, however, stop by the gift shop and bought... Moniack Mead.  I kinda want to try it and it wasn't too terribly priced, so I bought it and will probably try some later this week or sometime next week... or keep it until I come back to the States and share it there.  Who knows?!

Regardless, we hopped back on the bus and headed to New Lanark.

New Lanark is a place that was a kind of social experiment.  It started as a basic mill town on the river Clyde and it processed/spun cotton for weaving.  Children (starting at the age of 6) were used a lot in the labor force but were also given lessons and became educated while they worked 13 hour days.  Fun, no?  A fellow by the name of Robert Owen came along and decided that these people needed to have things other than just education and employment and took over the mills in the late 18th century.  He restricted the age in which kids could work to upwards of 10 and provided health care, food, lodgings, education, anything they could need to the people he employed, including sick pay.  In fact, his model for how to treat employees and the structure for the whole mill became the way it was done in the US... and there are a lot of parallels to Hopedale.  Imagine!  It's pretty gosh darn awesome.

The tour guide was a very nice Scottish gentleman who joked around with us and was very nice.  At the end of the tour, he thanked us and said that we're a pride to our country, which was nice to hear.  There were a lot of cool things, including the fact that they made the Harry Potter sweaters that they all wore in the movies (the v-necked sweaters... keep an eye out for them) and a lot of other just neat stuff.  There was a rooftop garden/observatory... just a whole bunch of awesome stuff.

I have the pictures from Linlithgow here- http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2005486&l=3a9b8&id=157300234   and here    http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2005488&l=e0dc2&id=157300234   and the pictures from New Lanark are here http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2005489&l=42f57&id=157300234

Enjoy and I'll post more when I have it!

-Meredith

Happy Caledonian dinner day!  You guessed it, I am avoiding the fact that it's Valentine's Day, aside from me wholeheartedly wishing everyone a good day today.  I just don't like the day.

So I slept until about 11 and moseyed around for the better part of the day.  I did my house chore after lunch and quickly afterward  hopped out to town with Ali and Hillary to head to PaperLace where they bought things to make valentines with and Ali made me a wonderful card which I am sure to keep for ages because it is just that inside jokey and whatnot.  We stayed out for a nice while and started to get ready for the Caledonian dinner.

A little explanation is needed.

There's a poet from Scotland called Robert Burns or Rabbie Burns as he is lovingly known here.  He wrote a whole bunch of things and was quite the celebrity in his day.  The piece of work most everyone is familiar with of his is "Auld Lang Syne" which is traditionally sung at New Years'.  Regardless, one of the poems he wrote was actually an ode to haggis, proclaiming it a poor man's food and whatnot.  So, once he died, his friends would get together and have a Rabbie Burns supper of haggis, neeps (turnips) and tatties (potatoes).  It originally started as the group of friends but since then has become a grand Scottish tradition, held on the 25th of January, which was about 6 days before we showed up.  So the tradition was moved to today and we had dinner with great pomp and circumstance.

It's odd because I actually straightened my hair.  Anyone who knows me knows that I rarely let a heat source near my hair and the closest I come to high maintenance is brushing my hair and maybe sticking some gel into it so the natural wavyness stays for the rest of the day.  But hey, I'll try anything once.  It actually looked really nice and I might do it again.  However, we all know how I have a tendency to run late, so let's see how this works out.  I also pretty much wore my interview outfit so I looked all snazzy and I have realised that that particular shade of purple makes my eyes look really green.  I must keep this in mind.

We all sat down at the wonderfully decked out dining room and the haggis was piped in (seriously, bagpipes were involved), Henry holding it high.  It is not a pretty thing to look at.  It seriously is a stuffed stomach.  Not pretty at all.  Bob Stewart, the coordinator of the host family program and a native of Dalkeith, read the ode to haggis by the great Mr. Burns.  Let me explain something as well.  We toast the haggis with a "wee dram" of whiskey.  Now, this I was excited for.  I thought I might enjoy whiskey and this was a perfect time to try it and try it I did.  And I coughed and hacked all over the place, along with half the population of the room.  It was actually quite funny.  The toast was called, silence and then everyone starts coughing.  Whiskey truly has a nice flavor to it, but god does it burn!

After a few words on how the evening was going to run, we got our dinner which was surprisingly delicious- Henry is an amazing chef.  We didn't have haggis straight, but it was stuffed into a chicken breast and roasted in the oven with a stag's breath sauce- basically a whiskey cream sauce.  We also got "bashed neeps" and "chappit tatties" and a skirlie tomato, which I didn't try, which is a half tomato stuffed with oats, drippings and onion broth.  It was really really good.

After we had had a chance to have our dinner, Bob and Moe, one of the directors and his wife, stood up to do the address to the ladies.  More explanation:  Rabbie Burns was a ladies man.  Seriously.  Lots of his poems were addressed to the ladies and a tradition of the meal is to have an address to the ladies and the ladies' response.  Bob seems to be a touch modest because apparently a lot of Burns' stuff for the ladies is *very* raunchy and he wasn't comfortable with reciting it, so he and Moe wrote their own version to the ladies of Dalkeith house and it was very entertaining.

We then got our desert, a lovely whiskey/cream/raspberry/oat/shortbread combination which, unfortunately was disagreeing with my stomach, but I would really have loved to eat all of it.

However, I was tired and the haggis was upsetting my stomach, so I retired a little early to write this.

Tomorrow we'll be off on a house trip again to go Castle exploring so expect a lot of great pictures tomorrow night from my wild, whirlwind adventures!

I think I'll go with Ali to watch Sleepless in Seattle, which I have never seen.

More when I have it and I wish everyone a happy Valentine's day!

-Meredith

So I was supposed to have my interview on Thursday?  Right....

At dinner on Monday, Moe came up to me and apparently, Jenni, the woman I was to interview with, has last minute training she has to go to on Thursday and can't do the interview then.  The solution?!?!?!

I did it today at 2!

So here's how my day went.  It started with an abnormally early rise and a hop on the bus with Liz to hang out in Edinburgh, go shopping, etc.  We popped into H&M and found some awesome clothes on sale and, judging by what everyone was saying about their interviews, I decided my suit would not do and bought a pair of pants and nice sweater to wear (I have plenty of camisoles).  I also decided that my black wind breaker and my sweater just aren't going to do for hopping around Edinburgh (the need to be chic is ever present) so I found a lovely black corduroy jacket on sale and bought that too.

We wandered around for a little bit on Prince's street, wandered around The Works, a souvenir shop where I found some gifts for people... one especially for the Kali Rugo folks... and I popped into Superdrug to get a top up for my mobile.

We then wandered over to the Royal Mile to look at the tourist shops and to go to Ness, a trendy shop with a lot of plaid in pretty colors- a plaid shop for girls, basically.  I also asked the nice lady at the counter where the National Museum was since I knew it was in the area but really should know exactly where it is so I can, ya know, find it for the interview later that day.  As it turns out it was just a block or so away and right next to a bus stop... well, by right next to I mean easily navigable. 

Liz and I ate lunch at O'Brien's and hopped back on the bus home.  I promptly changed, actually used a flat iron on my fringe (bangs mean something COMPLETELY different over here so I'm trying to remember to change it)... very uncharacteristic..., put on make up... even foundation!  and threw on my heels and promptly headed out.  You know, the more I walk on those cobblestones in the heels, I think the better I get.  Not to mention, I ended up wearing the heels for 6 hours or so and while sore, my feet don't hurt nearly as much as they did last Thursday, so I think this is a good thing... not to mention, I find a strange joy in wearing those shoes.

Anyway, the bus took longer than I expected and I had hoped to get to the museum about 15 minutes early but ended up getting there right on time if not a couple minutes late.  To make things worse, I went in the wrong entrance.  See, the museum is set up interestingly.  There is the original Victorian structure with, in very specific gold lettering "Royal Museum" on it.  Not "National Museum," but "Royal Museum."  Hence the confusion.  The woman at the desk, however, was very kind and nice enough to point me in the right direction.

I quickly met up with Jenni and Debbie.  Jenni's my direct supervisor and Debbie is the director of volunteer services, so I'll be working with Jenni for the next few months.  A lot of things went in one ear and out the other because for some reason I just wasn't focusing, but I gather I'll be doing some writing kinds of work and stuff on a computer mostly.  It isn't exactly what I was hoping for, but I think I'll be doing a great big mish mosh of stuff anyway so who knows what kind of stuff I'll be doing in the future?  Regardless, having the National Museum of Scotland on my resume will pretty much be impressive, no matter what I do there.

I think I get excited about the perks, more than anything else, the possessions, rather.  For example, being staff at the museum gets me a name tag!  Anyone who knows how excited I was when I got my name tag for Admissions knows how much this means awesome.  I'll also get a security badge with a NMS lanyard of awesome.  This badge will actually get me into all the museums in Edinburgh and if I play my cards right (read: lie), I can get into the castle for free too!  And I get to use the staff entrance.  I find this awesome.

By the time my interview finished, it was 3 pm.  This poses a problem since I have class at 3!  Fortunately, Bob had emailed Victoria Amador, my professor, saying I would be late, if not missing class.  The bus adventure seriously took an hour and I only barely made it to Gothic Novel on time... which is the class after the one at 3.  She completely understood.

Oh, and may I just say that I *love* my professor?  She has the same kind of humor that Catie and Allie have and she, seriously, in class today made the statement that she's not trying to offend anyone with anything she says in class.  She's just a gay man trapped in a straight woman's body and it's in her nature.  Now, I had told my roommate Ali about Catie and Allie and myself and she just looked at me and smiled.  Jane Eyre is an interesting book. I'm enjoying the story and am looking forward to reading more.

Novia and I have made plans for our birthday!  We're going to get all gussied up and go into Edinburgh for dinner on the Royal Mile and then come back to Dalkeith to Sam's where we'll probably meet everyone else who doesn't come with us at dinner for drinks, which is turning out to be pretty much everyone, but we're the only ones that count on Monday.  One pound vodka slushies here I come!  See, we can't paint the town red on our birthday because it's Monday and she has class and I have my internship so being hungover will be bad.  It looks like it'll be a good birthday!  *yay!*

Well, I'm just being silly now, so...

More when I have it!

-Meredith

I went on a 4 mile hike along the coast of Scotland.  Awesome, no?  I started my day pretty early with a quick couple pieces of toast and a hop onto the bus for our first House Trip to St. Abbs and then to Tantallon castle.  We saw some breathtaking views of the coast- the cliffs, the North Sea, etc.  Just beautiful country.  There were lots and lots of sheep, which was pretty darn cool.  Lots of ups and downs, lots of water, some slippy parts that were moderately dangerous and a lot of the time I was hiking next to huge drops and crevices that could easily kill.  I took a couple videos so I plan to have them edited and on YouTube.  Links will be posted.  The hike really took the wind out of me!  It was so ridiculously steep, lots of ups and downs and even though I wrapped my ankle, my foot started to hurt because it was wrapped up!  I took it off a little bit in and it has been actually very pleasant for the better part of the day.  The odd thing was the weather- it was actually warm!  I wore my long sleeved JSC shirt as well as my lambswool sweater and my wind breaker, including scarf and beret but was oddly warm and had to drape my coat and scarf over my bag so I didn't overheat.  I made the mistake of not bringing water, but Betty is *always* prepared so I begged her for some.  It was delicious.  Here's the link to the album for that part- http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2005452&l=2a57b&id=157300234

We sat at the little coffee shop for lunch and even though I brought a peanut butter and nutella sandwich, I still wanted something heartier so I got some potato and leek soup which was absolutely delicious!  We all got ice cream bars, wonderfully tasty as well.  My Lactase still hasn't come in, but Novia found some lactose medicine in the closet- just enough to get by.  It was wonderful.  I grabbed a pill, took it, had my ice cream, enjoyed that overmuch and didn't suffer!  YES!

After lunch we hopped on the bus and rode for about half an hour to Tantallon castle.  Can I just say AWESOME?!?!?!?!?  See, while we were at St. Abbs having lunch, the mist came in and everything got cold.  Very strange, but I was very glad for my extra layers at that point.  I was very upset since I started taking pictures and my camera promptly died.  I had brought extra batteries, BUT I had left them all the way back at the bus!  I was ticked, but I tagged around with Liz and we took some ridiculously awesome pictures.  Like, seriously.  It's on facebook.  The castle was just awesome.  We spent about 2 1/2 hours there but I could have easily spent another two or three hours there as well.  As Liz put it "It's a playground for big kids!"  Here are the pictures!  http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2005453&l=335d2&id=157300234

I did visit the gift shop and spent about 30 dollars which, all things considering, isn't too terribly bad.  I bought some toffee (I was curious), a Tantallon official souvenir guide and a beautiful necklace- sterling silver celtic knot with an amethyst in the middle.  It is my treat for me.

That being said, we came home and I have been taking the rest of the day easy.  I have classes again tomorrow and would love to chat with folks from back home.

It was a fantastic day and a wonderful cure for apathy.

More when I have it!

-Meredith

I'm in a state of undisclosed "blah" today.  I had to get up early (I'm getting up early on the weekends and sleeping in on my class days... hmmm.) because I had to prep for the Host Family Reception, which was where I met my host family... that is... I met the guy of the couple- Jim.  His wife Wilma is off this weekend visiting with her University friends so she wasn't able to make it.  Adam is my "host sibling" as it were and Amanda was added since one of her host parents died last week (eek!).  We didn't do anything terribly exciting.  We drove around Mid- and EastLothian, looking at the countryside, seeing cows and sheep.  We drove around a couple castles- Dalhousie is cool- they have falconry so we got to see falcons just kinda sitting there.  It was neat.  We also drove out to a nice vantage point at a farm and looked out at the Firth of Forth, that is the body of water that connects to the North Sea that Edinburgh is on.

We then drove to Musselburgh, where Jim lives, to go to his house to watch the Scotland v. Wales rugby match.  We made a quick stop off at the bakery to get "Scottish Pies" or something- mince meat pies.  Those were tasty.  We got to his house- a lovely Victorian house with an addition in the back and a lovely yard as well.  We promptly watched Scotland lose.  They need better strategy... and to be faster.

I have discovered that rugby isn't nearly as hard for me to watch as American football is.  For one thing, BBC has no commercials.  As a result, there are no commercial breaks.  The timer doesn't stop for anything except a 10 minute half time and injuries.  Anything other than that and they keep moving.  That means that instead of four hour minimum game that only has an hour on the clock, an hour and a half game lasts (stay with me now) an hour and a half!  None of this "run 10 yards, stop, re group, analyze, go to commercial, come back, recap, do it all over again" crap back in the states.

I also learned today that Scotland uses an interesting mesh of imperial and metric measurements.  For example, packaged foods and liquids- pretty much anything that can be bought in a store- is in the metric system- litres, grams, etc.  However, distance, weight of people, speed, etc. is in imperial- feet, pounds, miles per hour, etc.  It's kinda cool.  Kinda hard to figure out.  For example, cooking directions are in metric, so when I had to have a half litre of water to make my noodles last night, I put in way too much water and had to boil it forever to get the sauce to thicken.  ><

Last night I had my first chippy, that is a fish and chips take away supper.  It was okay.  The fish was more... how shall I say this... specific... than I like my fish but it actually didn't taste bad, so I might have more later.  Who knows?

My feet still hurt from my excursion on Thursday and did not like my heels this morning for the reception.  It was funny, however, when I put on my tights.  One note: the pair I brought was my dance tights because I didn't want to worry about easily putting a run in them.  These tights are also convertible, so they have holes in the bottom.  I was adjusting something when my roommate Ali looked over and went "What the heck's wrong with your tights?!"  It was fun to explain.

Uhm... yah....

Tomorrow we head to St. Abbs and Tantallon Castle out on the coast so I should have some amazing shots tomorrow.

OH!  I also have a date and time for my interview!  Thursday at 10:30.  I'm kinda nervous because they want Moe to be there.  Insofar most of the people, when they went to their interviews it was "Hi, nice to meet you, when can you start?"  I really hope I get this internship.  I think it's the best way for me to mesh into the culture and meet people and stuff like that.  Not to mention it screams "RESUME BUILDER!"  Grr.  I don't even know what I'm doing for the internship!  I hope it's something with people....

*sigh*  Well I think it's about time to shove off or somesuch nonsense.  I hope next weekend to actually get to explore Edinburgh.  Let's see how that turns out.

More when I have it!

-Meredith