Adventure to Edinburgh and Playing Catch-Up

Wyoming being stoked that we got to the top of Dumyat - 418m


The following 2 pictures are of a local castle... 5 points or a gold star to the first person (not at Stirling) who can tell me why this castle is famous!!!

Bagpiper infront of the Scott monument

St. Giles Cathedral Edinburgh... Currently a Church of Scotland assembly, Wyoming and I went to mass there on Sunday

Self explanatory I hope... not the only interestingly named establishment in town

Edinburgh Castle in the sunset. Absolutly beautiful

The ruins of the Holyrood Palace Abbey

Sen No Kai guys, picking on a Sen No Kai girl at the pub quiz

Ok I have done a ton since I have last written anything. Which would be part of the reason I have not written in quite some time. Last Tuesday I had the first practical (lab) for my soils course. And UW Range students... as terrifying as this may sound.... I have found Munn in a younger woman's body.... be afraid, be very afraid. Other then that it went quite well. Didn't even get too muddy.

Wednesday after class Minnesota, Wisconsin, Wyoming, and I went to a castle (once again I will tell you the name of it and more about it after I see if anyone can identify it). But anyways to date it is the favorite castle I have been to. Although Stirling and Edinburgh are massive and amazing castles, they have become too much of a tourist attraction. They are more like a museum, that happens to be contained within castle walls, and people are everywhere. At this other castle, first of all they are preserving it as much as they can as a castle. All the secret passage ways and everything are still intact because they have only used it as a castle. Never has it been a POW holding building (Edinburgh) or soldier barracks (Stirling). Has simply remained a castle, and other then our group, there was maybe 5 other people on the grounds. It was amazing.

Thursday's adventures started out a little earlier than intended. After baking cookies for the International Society food night that would be taking place later, and going to class, Wyoming and I headed to the train station to figure out things for this weekend. We decided it seemed silly to go to town for something so simple, so we got on a random bus and decided to see where it went. The answer.... the last stop was middle of nowhere Bannockburn... luckily we got back in time for the food night. By the way chocolate chip cookies can be made with no measuring devices what so ever.

Saturday and Sunday were spent in Edinburgh, which I must say was amazing. I also must say I have had my official lesson in how to pronounce the name of this town, which apparently I have always done incorrectly. We went to the Scott's Monument, Edinburgh Castle, the Royal Mile, St. Gile's Cathedral which was originally built in the 1100's and rebuilt in the 1500's, and went to the National Museum of Scotland (free by the way) as well as a lot of wondering around before Wyoming and I said goodbye to the rest of the group which went home Saturday. After spending a night in a hostel (its an entirely different world and heaven for people watcher's), Wyoming and I continued on to attend mass at St Gile's, tour the Palace of Holyrood House and Abbey (this is the palace where the Queen stays when in Scotland), the Queen's Gallery (think art), and get completly side tracked by a street magician, before having a horribly scenic route home. Between Edinburgh and the international food night, I have officially had Haggis. And no, you probably dont want to know what that is.

Today was my first practical for my other environmental science class, at which I found out I am in much need of better weather proof gear for this country, and had my first Scottish plant ID excersize. (To put it mildly, I failed).

But anyways, I must be getting along better. I have had more then one person ask me directions, and the street magician accused Wyoming and I of being locals (best compliment we have had in a while). The rain seems to have returned, I am horribly behind on reading, and I dont think anything else is really new. I would love to hear from you guys, even if you dont know anything about the "mystery" castle. I am slowly aquiring post cards they will be mailed eventually, and I do know my address now if anyone would like it. I think that is all for now.

Oops

Ok looking at how things posted I apparently still cant get my picture captions to turn out correctly.... sooooooo after Dunblane Cathedral, just move the caption down till it seems to match the picture. Sorry guys, I am trying

First Classes and Adventures

Me and Wyoming in front of theRobert the Bruce statue on the International Student sight seeing trip.




















Inside Dunblane Cathedral

Ok we are going to try this starting in the bottom left and going clockwise, Wisconsin, Minnisota, Georgia, Me, Germany, Hungary, Wyoming, and believe it or not Scotland, at the international society pub crawl

Ummm South Africa, Sweden, and China at IS pub crawl

France and 2 Scottish flatmates

Ok this is why I need a different system. There are at least 5 English people in this picture, a few that I dont know nationalities for, 1 France, and Wyoming. At the Fencing Clup pub crawl.

Starting in bottom left and going clockwise, Georgia, Wyoming, Kansas, Wisconsin, Minnesota, at the cafeteria in Thistles Shopping Center.

Ok Wyoming and I had just gotten done at the shopping center buying Wellies (Galloshes, rain boots, whatever) .... and so the sun came out for the first time in a week... France, Her, and I were so excited we took a picture of our shadows. But we do now have a general idea of orientation.

France and Wyoming on a wall at Stirling Castle

Ok, I think I am getting the hang at how this thing works and therefore have a much easier system for posting pictures, so you may actually se me do it more often. Anyways, there was a sight seeing tour for international students on Wednesday, that was a down and dirty, 3 hour several stop sort of deal, nothing real in depth. For things like the Dunblane Castle and Bannochburn battle field it may well be sufficient. For Stirling Castle, it was not.

Courses started Thursday. I already have a list of things I need to look up term wise. The international politics although it may be the simplest course I have, is going to be several hours a week on what kind of a president the US has, and what lovely international faux pas he has made. The soils course could be interesting, apparently England, Ireland, and Scotland all have seperate soil classification systems, and none of them match the American one. But after I asked some questions of her after class she started mentioning in the next lecture "and I think this is what it is in the American system" so she is obviously willing to work with me. I do have a minor course conflict. Any time i have a practical on Mondays it will conflict with my Politics course. However, the only other module I am approved for is worse, soooooo i was pretty much told to miss the lecture since "lectures are not compulsary at this Uni."

In sad news, the one flat mate who really spent time with me, Spain, has left Uni.... very long story, but regardless I trust 2 of my other flat mates less than I did to begin with, and my buddy who would have breakfast with me and share food and dishes with me is gone.

Thursday night was the International Society meeting followed by a pub crawl. It was fun. They once again handed us sheets to get signatures on. You know, the "find a person who has done this, or has this, or is this, or can do this" sort of paper. They gave us those at the meet and greet on Tuesday, I just kind of gave up on it. This time however, Wyoming and I were bound and determined to get it finished, and it paid off, we got little medals, she won 3rd place, and I won second... woohoo Wyoming!!!

Wednesday night was the first fencing practice. It was kind of fun to see that Lefties, as well as Sabrists are thought of the same way here as at home. They have intense warm ups, and practices. They set their box up every single practice. However, I finally decided I might have a prayer of holding my own when none of their returning fencers could remember what Balestra or Patinando were and I could. However, we have since covered some skills that I have never heard of. Friday I was late, and they had their newbies suit up right before I got there, so I did some basic blade work and that was about it. I didnt mind horribly since Wednesdays practice still had me swearing about the horrendous amount of stairs in this country. I have also already scored brownie points, because as a study abroad student, not only did I come to practice, but I brought Wyoming with me, and she has never fenced before, so I am still recruiting. FYI Wyoming fencers as of right now she intends to keep fencing once back in Wyoming, however, she is studying in Hawaii next semester.

Fridays practice was followed by their pub crawl (yes everything is followed by a pub crawl best as I can tell). This was fun, it was me and Wyoming's first chance at going out with a lot of natives. Most of whom, however, turned out to not be native, but were atleast British. And after hours of getting told how we ruin the English language, what they think of our president, the fact that we talk funny, the fact that we are American, (non of which do we disagree with)... they decided to start doing something about it. So at midnight we had fish and chips from a proper fish and chip shop .... an Italian carryout place.... however apparently the chain has some of the best fish and chips in Scotland. This was followed by being introduced to a British comedian, Lee Evans. This lasted until 3 or so in the morning. Which made getting up for the next day's adventures rather difficult.

Our planned 10 am adventure didn't even get us into town until 11 this morning. However, Wyoming and I now have Wellies. We have really seen Stirling Castle, we are starting to form our plans for the following weekends. Edinborough was going to be this coming weekend, but we have spent all week comparing everything to Mary Poppins, and we saw a flyer saying there is a performance of Mary Poppins in October, so we are putting off Edinborough until then. So, we plan to go to Glasgow next weekend. Would anyone like to join us?

Mud and wine

OK first things first. I have officially met the other Wyoming student, it only took us 4 days. Apparently I had been blazing a trail, she said she kept meeting people who would say "really I met another person from Wyoming" to which she would reply "Where is she and what does she look like?" Anyways she seems to be a very sweet person, and we went out last night after the international shindig.

I have a bank account, I am registered with a doctor and a dentist. The registering with the doctor and the following health check was REALLY interesting. Coming from a country with abstinence only sex education running rampant, this country is very startling. First off nearly every freebie bag you get from different campus organizations includes free condoms. Then you go in for this health check, where they first off tell you just fyi that every woman in this country at the age of 20 gets a card telling them to go in for an exam. Yeah our boys sign up for the draft their girls do that. Then they all but give you a prescription for birth control "just in case" and then they give you tons of condoms. Its kind of crazy.

In other random news. the cheese isle has me stunned I had no idea there were that many versions of cheddar cheese. I can still understand the non english nationality students better then the locals, and their fire alarm sound is very startling. Monday morning while I was making breakfast the cleaning crew came flying in out of no where, started telling me bout what was getting cleaned and then informed me we were responsible for taking the "rubbish" to the "bins" down stairs and did we need any more black bags.... and then they were gone as quick as they came. And when it was all over all I could think of was how they all kind of reminded me of the cheer bleach commercial.

I have been going out. Sorry, Brandon, I didn't make it to a club yet. I was supposed to on Monday but plans went awry, so after a very entertaining bus ride where some very inebriated Scotsmen got the entire bus to sing wheels on the bus (it was kind of comforting to know that this country had that song), Minnesota and I ended up at a pub, with like 14 other international students from like 4 or 5 countries, which although fun, was not quite what we were planning on. Last night started with an international shindig where I met people from US, Mexico, Canada, South Africa, Japan, China, India, Sweden, France, Spain, Czech Republic, Austria, Germany, Taiwan, um I am sure I am missing some countries. And then in addition to that we got to meet the Principle (president) of the University SHE is a very nice woman. As well as the Provost (Mayor) of Stirling. This man used to play in a band and has been to the United States. He is a very fun guy to talk to. But then a whole bunch of us girls, I think we had both of us Wyomingites and then 4 other countries went to one of the Campus bars for cider.

The other adventure I will share with you is the adventure Minnesota, Wisconsin, and I had up to the Wallace Monument (think William Wallace and Braveheart), on probably the rainiest day so far this year. There is a free shuttle that takes you up. So we took it. Then decided we would walk down, however rather than take the road and risk getting run over by the crazy bus driver, we took some paths down, some very muddy very sloppy paths. Then when we got to the bottom and ended up at an unknown highway, it was decided (i was out numbered) that we would walk back up rather than get lost following the road.... Needless to say we were nearly late to an international session, but showed up soaking wet and muddy as anything. It was great. Now for me to add the pictures.... hmmmm... I still need to work on the condensing thing as well...

A view of my dorm building, I am top floor clear on the right hand side.

A view of town on the way to the Wallace Monument

The Wallace Monument.

Minnesota and Wisconsin on our trek down the mountain

The girls at the bar, France, Germany, Wyoming, and Czech Republic

Pictures to go with previous post

Lady with the hat

Room - "Objects in mirror may be larger then they appear

Random Path

The Loch on Campus

Flying into the sunrise, and separated by a common language

I am sorry in advance to those of you who are not adept at switching subjects easily. As many of you know, I type exactly as I speak, and those of you who do not know this are soon to find this out. I would be attaching pictures already as well, however, one of my current problems is that I cannot seem to get my laptop connected to the Uni's service, nor can I seem to get the same error message twice in a row to get help on it. So I am currently in a 24 hour computer lab that I all but was led to, typing on a UK keyboard that is just different enough to drive you crazy. (think shift key, return key, @ symbol etc) Lastly, those of you who are actually writers (Brandon).... I hope I don't make you cringe

The first strikingly odd thing about my trip here is that it was raining in Cheyenne, and Denver, and Philadelphia, and Glasgow, AND Stirling... which begs the question, is the sun shining anywhere in the world?

I have decided that any airline that does not offer at least a free pop if not a snack as well on flights should come with a disclaimer of such information prior to ticket price. Also, if said airline chooses not to serve anything on domestic flights, it should not expect similarly trained flight crew to be able to deliver meal service properly sight unseen. Lastly, any airline that charges for headphone purchase, AND makes personal headphones insufficient, must be gunning for passenger dissent, especially after 5 hours in the air without so much as a free glass of water, and over an hour spinning in circles for a holding pattern. (Can you tell my flight to Philly went well?) Flight company on that leg was rather pleasant though, this range nerd/daughter of an engineer can think of worse company than an engineer for Lockheed Martin, and his wife who is an environmental chemist for BOR/DOI contamination reclamation stuff.

However, as the flight from Philly to Glasgow proved, it is in fact possible to look at an entire boarding area full of people and have a premonition of who you will be spending quality time with for the next 6 hours.... this time it happened to be a lady who looked like one of the witches off of the movie Hocus Pocus, complete with funny hat and all (trust me i have a picture) who spent the entire preboarding time just being absolutely horridly cranky on the phone. Luckily for me at least she can sleep on the plane.

While i was awake and staring out the window as usual I saw something fairly amazing...due to the direction and timing of the flight... I got to see us flying into the sunrise... it went from pitch dark and stars to full sun up in like 20-30 minutes. It was beautiful.

Now on my arrival, customs was a breeze, i think Canada might be tougher to get into now... then the trip on the bus was fairly uneventful once we all found it. Now once we were dropped off that was another story, i still haven't figured out exactly what my 1/5/1 polwarth house all means but the 5... yeah means 5th floor... and the stairs are like bad horror movie stairs... and 1 key unlocks 3 doors that you have to lock and unlock each time you go through them. Lets just say it was not quite what I pictured on living arrangements. But once I got my self, the gentleman from Michigan, and the girl from Italy all squared away it was off to my next mission.

I was supposed to figure out how to catch the bus, to get to a set of off campus apartments, to meet a student from Kansas, so that we could go try and get a phone squared away. This resulted in me asking at least 10 people for help, finally getting to the place, not finding her there, and then wandering the streets of Stirling alone till i found a phone shop, and then sitting on the stoop trying to operate it ... this was about the point I really questioned what on earth I am doing here, and why I thought I could pull this off. Then on this random street in a random part of town, the person i was supposed to meet up with found me. So now we have phones, we have food, we can at least catch a bus, whether or not we end up in the right place or not. We thought we had Internet figured out, but obviously not.

On random notes... for people who speak supposedly the same language.... you would never guess it... I am doing better then my Kansas friend... and have been doing some translating... but everyone and a while you just have to say "come again?" in that way that you are certain that English was not the language coming out of their mouth. And it has happened more then once that i will ask a question and these folks give me that deer in the headlights look like i never said a word of what i asked in English.... It is odd that even among the Americans i have met,all I have to say is that I'm from Wyoming and I may as well be from another country... I have thus far met one "flat mate" and i must say HE seems and looks and sounds quite nice...
Language oddity of the day ... rather than "how's my driving? ####" you will see "wisely driven? ####" .... and going around corners in the left hand lane still terrifies me


So yeah that is a probably way to extensive update, but i would love to hear from you guys if you want my # just ask, its actually cheaper for me to make US calls right now than anything else... they apparently even when i get net working they don't "support" skype... but yeah here in one piece have a place to sleep, at least some food (thank you subway), a lot lost, and a lot overwhelmed but overall I am here. :)