Our time here in Scotland is drawing to a close and we’ve been doing a lot of reflection over these past couple weeks. One of the things that we have discovered about ourselves during this experience is something that may come as a shock to everyone back home…we’re not bloggers! So we apologize for to those of you who were looking forward to a well maintained and often updated blog – we have done the best we can and we hope that you accept this quick update of the past couple months as our sincere peace offering!
So we last left off when Drew’s mom was still here visiting and we had just gotten back from London. The weekend following London Drew, his mom and CarlyFaith headed up to the highlands for a four day trip with the students from the program here. Unfortunately I was on duty over the weekend so I was unable to go with them. They packed a lot into four days: Culloden battlefield, Fort William, Duone Castle, Urquhart Castle, Eilan Donan Castle, Glencoe, Isle of Skye, Inverness, Dewars Distillery and much more! It was over 1000 miles on a bus…I think Drew was pretty impressed at how well CarlyFaith handled the distance, given that all the adults on the bus were getting pretty antsy towards the end of the trip.
A few short days after Carla and CarlyFaith left, Kyle and Erin came to visit. It was really great to see them again. About halfway through their stay they went to Paris for a few days which ended up being perfect timing because it was the end of the semester for the program here and I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off. When Kyle and Erin returned from Paris things were a little more low key and we were able to spend more time with them. We hiked to the top of Arthur’s seat, toured Mary King’s Close and completed the Edinburgh Pub Crawl. Also during this time, Drew and I were visited by a friend/former supervisor of mine and her husband as they toured through Scotland. Unfortunately, they were only in the Edinburgh area for two days and, though they stayed at the house where we live, it was the last day of the program and we didn’t get to spend a lot of time together. Nonetheless we were able to go out for dinner in Edinburgh and catch up on all the River Falls gossip!!
After Kyle and Erin left Drew and I snagged some last minute, cheap flights to Krakow, Poland and flying back from Berlin and, once we were able to find some couchsurfers for our trip, we hit the road! We flew into Krakow late on a Thursday night, just in time to touch base with our couchsurfer, have him help us with our plans for the next day and then get to bed. We woke up bright and early on Friday and headed out to see the Auschwitz-Birkenau camps. After getting off the bus too early and having to walk a couple miles to the camps (with an extremely overfilled bladder) we finally arrived at the camp. We went first to the Birkenau camp that is very hard to describe. You look out into a field and just see rows upon rows of brick chimneys. The chimneys are all that remains of the wooden barracks that once stood at the site. After Birkenau we went to the Auschwitz camp that, unlike Birkenau, was made mostly of brick barracks so many of the building are still standing. Most of the buildings are used for different types of exhibits. I think I was most blown away by one room that, as you walk in, you discover an entire wall is a glass case full of human hair that was used from prisoners to make different types of textiles. Drew and I left the camps at a loss for words. We were both really glad that we had gone to see the camps that we have read so much about but struggle very much with trying to get our minds around what exactly happened at those camps.
After the camps we caught a bus back into Krakow city centre and met up with Damian, the guy we were staying with. We were catching a train out of Krakow that evening so he gave us a quick tour of the city. He brought us out to eat at a traditional Polish restaurant and ordered perogis which incidentally (along with the bread plate they were served on) ended up feeding us for much of the remainder of our trip. Traveling around Krakow with Damian was like traveling with our own personal photographer. Damian has a girlfriend and told us he can’t stand when they travel together and don’t have any pictures of the two of them…he was determined that we didn’t find ourselves in the same predicament! He pretty much took my camera off me and, every few meters, would stop us to take another picture. So Drew and I have about as many pictures of us together in Krakow as we do on our wedding day (okay, might be a bit of an exaggeration…). I really enjoyed Krakow, I thought the city had a great atmosphere and a lot of personality. Drew wasn’t as impressed by it but, hey, we were only there a day and then we were on our way to Prague!
So…first things first, Drew and I definitely recommend that you Czech out Prague! Okay, now that I got that out of my system…Prague really was an amazing city and was pretty much the reason why we had planned this quick, fly by the seat of our pants, trip (I didn’t make it to Prague when I was here as a student before and was determined to make it there this time around). We arrived in Prague in the early morning and were able to spend some time soaking up the city before there were too many people around. A little later in the day we took a free walking tour of the city (we’re obsessed with this company, New Europe, and their free walking tours…If ever you are in Europe you must check them out!). We were really impressed with Prague’s history, specifically in terms of its resistance to Soviet occupation. After the tour we spent a good day and a half just taking our time exploring the city. Along the way we found some great statues to take some silly pictures with and a sports bar where the tap was right at your table and kept track of how much beer you were pouring…Drew was quite impressed!
After two days in Prague we continued on our way to Berlin. Our train to Berlin was like nothing I have ever experienced. We were crammed into every possible crevice of the train and the windows wouldn’t open so we were all dripping sweat and miserably hot…it was such a relief to finally arrive in Berlin. Our first day in Berlin we took a (you guessed it!) free walking tour of the city (Berlin is actually home to the original free walking tour). One of the highlights of our walking tour was at the very beginning when our guide pointed out Berlin’s most expensive hotel, the same hotel that Michael Jackson hung a baby out the window of! Berlin is an absolutely amazing city with incredible resilience. 90% of the city was destroyed after World War II so it is almost impossible to find an old building. Yet Drew and I were lucky enough to be able to stay in a beautiful apartment that dated back before World War I with an amazing couchsurfer, Gabi. Gabi was the first “older” (not really that old…she was like my parents age) couchsurfer that Drew and I stayed with and we really enjoyed the experience. On our second night in Berlin she took us to a movie premiere for a film titled ‘Whiskey and Vodka.’ The movie was entirely in German so it was quite an interesting experience. Drew was able to pick up on parts of it and I was able to follow along. The food that was served at the premiere was also quite the cultural experience…we had our choice of pickled fish sandwiches or ground (raw) hamburger sandwiches…Drew and I were daring (well, I was daring…Drew eats anything) and tried both and enjoyed them very much. On our last night in Berlin we cooked a nice dinner with Gabi and her boyfriend, Helmut. Overall, Gabi was a great host…she let us stay in her bed while she stayed at her boyfriends and let us use her bikes to get around the city. When not hanging out with Gabi Drew and I just relaxed in the city. It was really warm and sunny during our stay so we took some time to soak up some sun in the park.
When we returned from Berlin we met our friends, Jim and Lauren, at the airport. Jim, a descendant of Scotland’s MacGregor clan had always wanted to visit Scotland and Lauren had always wanted to see London so they were able to work in both of their dreams in one trip! They stayed with us for a few days during which time we were able to climb Arthur’s Seat, again and do the Edinburgh Pub Crawl, again (hmmm…maybe we need to get more original things to do with our guests!) Anyway, it was really great to see both of them and we had a lot of fun while they were here.
The day before Jim and Lauren departed the new students for the Wisconsin in Scotland summer program arrived. There are only eighteen students in the group (compared to fifty-nine in the spring group) so it is a completely different feeling around the house. They are a really great group of students and we’ve really enjoyed getting to know them and spend time with them.
A couple of weekends ago we headed up to Milngavie (just north of Glasgow) for some authentic Scottish Highland Games. The games had a highland dancing competition, pipe band competition, battle reenactments, bmx bike shows, heavy events (think stereotypical giant Scotsman wearing a kilt and throwing a giant log as far as he can) and, the best part, the Haggis Hurling World Championship. Haggis is a traditional Scottish food and the tradition of haggis hurling comes for the days when wives used to have to toss lunch out to their husbands at work. Anyone could compete in the competition and I am proud to announce that Drew won third place in his age bracket (16 and over males)…he is the 3rd best haggis hurler in the entire WORLD!!! And, not to be undone, I should also tell you that I threw my haggis right behind Michelle McManus. That’s right, you have no idea who that is but she was the official ‘host’ of the games and she’s a pretty big deal here…winner of Britain’s Pop Idol so, basically, I was within a couple feet of Britain’s Kelly Clarkson!!!
This past weekend Drew, myself and Naomi (the assistant director of catering that I’ve been working with in my time here) headed up north for a final farewell to the highlands. We took a bus to Inverness on Thursday night and then, early Friday morning, headed up to the Orkney Islands off the northernmost tip of Scotland for a day tour. While on Orkney we got to see: Skapa Flow where boats full of oil have been anchored for two months waiting for oil prices to go up, the 5,000 year old settlement of Skara Brae, two sets of ancient standing stone circles and the ‘Churchill Barriers’ which are bridges connecting the islands but surrounded on both sides by sunken ships that, when the tide is low, rise out of the sea.
On Saturday morning we took a bus from Inverness to Fort William and, from Fort William, headed out on a 14 mile hike to Kinlochleven. The path we were hiking was the West Highland Way that connects Milngavie to Fort William in a 95 mile path. The path was absolutely beautiful as it wound through the mountains and glens…there were no roads around, no planes flying overhead, only sheep and, occasionally, other hikers. We took it slow (especially since we were all carrying our backpacks) and stopped plenty of times to fill up our water bottles from the fresh Scottish springs. It was an absolutely amazing experience and I wish we could do it again. On Sunday we really just took it easy in Kinlochleven…we did one more small hike up to Grey Mare’s Waterfall in Kinlochleven and spent the rest of the day hanging out at the loch until we had to come back to Dalkeith and back to work!
When we’re not traveling, working or hosting guests Drew and I have really just been trying to make the most of the rest of our time here. The weather has been absolutely amazing and, just last night, we had a bonfire with some of the students and when we finally came in from the fire at about 12:30 a.m. it was still light outside…it has stopped getting dark here, once the light starts dimming at one side of the horizon it starts getting bright at the next!
We’re also looking forward to our next (and last) big trip that we leave for on Saturday. We’ll be flying into Bologna, Italy and taking some time to explore Ravenna and Venice. From there we’ll be heading to Athens where we are taking a cruise of Greece and Turkey. After the cruise we head back to Italy to explore Rome and Vatican City and then we’ll be going back to Scotland for our last couple of days and then back to the states.
See you all in less than a month!!
Thursday, 25 June 2009
Wednesday, 17 June 2009
New Photo Website
New photo website http://picasaweb.google.com/kelseym1011/ we ran out of room at http://picasaweb.google.com/drewmclean2486/
Friday, 24 April 2009
London Calling
HELLO! SORRY ABOUT THE LACK OF BLOGS…THINGS HAVE BEEN PRETTY BUSY FOR DREW AND I BUT THEY ARE ALL DONE NOW! WE’VE POSTED THEM IN ORDER BUT THAT MEANS THAT YOU HAVE TO GO DOWN TO THE LAST BLOG POSTED BY DREW (ABOUT NEWCASTLE AND THE CRUISE) AND THEN READ UP TO GET THE CORRECT ORDER OF EVENTS. SORRY FOR ALL THE CONFUSION. OH YEAH, YOU MAY WANT TO GRAB A SNACK…THIS COULD TAKE A WHILE!
Drew’s mom and little sister came to visit us. They arrived on Wednesday…we took them out to eat on Wednesday night to celebrate Carla’s birthday. On Thursday Drew, Carla and CarlyFaith went into Edinburgh to see the castle and some other sites. On Friday morning we headed off to London for the weekend. On Friday night Drew and I went to the Wicked at the Apollo Victoria. We both really enjoyed the show so I was really glad that we went.
On Saturday we spent the entire day exploring all of London’s biggest sites. We saw Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Tower of London, the Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, Picadilly Circus, Hamley’s (Britain’s largest toy store), the Marble Arch, and Hyde Park where we got to see the Peter Pan statue (Carla was very *happy* that Drew had made her walk around half the park to find the statue), and Princess Diana memorial fountain. At Buckingham Palace we watched the beginning of the changing of the guards. Being that it is not high season yet they are only doing the changing of the guards every other day so it was incredibly busy (as I’m sure it always is). We were up at the very front of the group against the gates and, unfortunately, the people in front of us were very inconsiderate and kept shoving us back. Not really a problem except that Carla is pregnant and, understandably, wasn’t very thrilled about having these rude women constantly running into her belly. We stuck it out for a while but then decided that we’d had enough so we went to leave but, there was a huge crowd, so making our way through the crowd with CarlyFaith and the baby buggy was quite difficult. So, being crafty, Drew decided that the best way to get out of the crowd was to hoist the buggy over it. We took CarlyFaith out and Drew lifted the buggy high in the air, over everyone’s heads. Amazingly, the crowd parted so Carla, myself and CarlyFaith were able to follow pretty easily in his wake. We got to the outskirts of the crowd and Drew put the buggy on the ground, kind of dropping it helter skelter. There was a huge gasp from the people there who didn’t realize that there wasn’t a baby in the stroller. It was really hilarious, but I guess you probably had to be there!
We toured Westminster Abbey which was really neat because Drew and I had not gone into the Abbey the last time we were there. It was amazing to see all the tombs that were in the Abbey…I had no idea they had so many and so many famous people. After a full day of walking and discovering that most of London’s underground is not handicap accessible so getting really good at carrying the stroller up and down the stairs we headed back to the hostel for a nice quiet night in to relax and recuperate. We got some pizza and then headed down to the hostel’s hot tub…it was a great way to end our Saturday.
On Sunday we took a walking tour of London where we were able to see Wellington’s Arch, Green Park, Buckingham Palace, the house where Prince Charles lives, St. James’ Palace and much more. It was fun to be able to hear a little more of the history behind some of London’s most famous sites and hear some entertaining stories such as the various break-ins to Buckingham Palace. Overall, we had a really good weekend. It rained a little on Friday night when we first arrived but, other than that, it was clear and sunny the entire time…pretty unusual and spectacular for London!
Drew’s mom and little sister came to visit us. They arrived on Wednesday…we took them out to eat on Wednesday night to celebrate Carla’s birthday. On Thursday Drew, Carla and CarlyFaith went into Edinburgh to see the castle and some other sites. On Friday morning we headed off to London for the weekend. On Friday night Drew and I went to the Wicked at the Apollo Victoria. We both really enjoyed the show so I was really glad that we went.
On Saturday we spent the entire day exploring all of London’s biggest sites. We saw Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Tower of London, the Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, Picadilly Circus, Hamley’s (Britain’s largest toy store), the Marble Arch, and Hyde Park where we got to see the Peter Pan statue (Carla was very *happy* that Drew had made her walk around half the park to find the statue), and Princess Diana memorial fountain. At Buckingham Palace we watched the beginning of the changing of the guards. Being that it is not high season yet they are only doing the changing of the guards every other day so it was incredibly busy (as I’m sure it always is). We were up at the very front of the group against the gates and, unfortunately, the people in front of us were very inconsiderate and kept shoving us back. Not really a problem except that Carla is pregnant and, understandably, wasn’t very thrilled about having these rude women constantly running into her belly. We stuck it out for a while but then decided that we’d had enough so we went to leave but, there was a huge crowd, so making our way through the crowd with CarlyFaith and the baby buggy was quite difficult. So, being crafty, Drew decided that the best way to get out of the crowd was to hoist the buggy over it. We took CarlyFaith out and Drew lifted the buggy high in the air, over everyone’s heads. Amazingly, the crowd parted so Carla, myself and CarlyFaith were able to follow pretty easily in his wake. We got to the outskirts of the crowd and Drew put the buggy on the ground, kind of dropping it helter skelter. There was a huge gasp from the people there who didn’t realize that there wasn’t a baby in the stroller. It was really hilarious, but I guess you probably had to be there!
We toured Westminster Abbey which was really neat because Drew and I had not gone into the Abbey the last time we were there. It was amazing to see all the tombs that were in the Abbey…I had no idea they had so many and so many famous people. After a full day of walking and discovering that most of London’s underground is not handicap accessible so getting really good at carrying the stroller up and down the stairs we headed back to the hostel for a nice quiet night in to relax and recuperate. We got some pizza and then headed down to the hostel’s hot tub…it was a great way to end our Saturday.
On Sunday we took a walking tour of London where we were able to see Wellington’s Arch, Green Park, Buckingham Palace, the house where Prince Charles lives, St. James’ Palace and much more. It was fun to be able to hear a little more of the history behind some of London’s most famous sites and hear some entertaining stories such as the various break-ins to Buckingham Palace. Overall, we had a really good weekend. It rained a little on Friday night when we first arrived but, other than that, it was clear and sunny the entire time…pretty unusual and spectacular for London!
Alnwick Castle and Northumberland
The weekend following spring break was another busy weekend. On Thursday night we went to the local pub for quiz night. We had the help of a couple of Brits on our team so we were actually able to win! On Friday we went to the Musselburgh race course with a group of students from the house. Musselburgh is a coastal town not too far from Dalkeith and they have a horse racing track there. Having never been to a horse race before we weren’t really sure what to expect. A few of the students placed some bets and some were even successful. Eventually, though, the students just resigned to betting between themselves, using food as their currency! They were betting each other apples, digestive biscuits, and spaghetti-o’s and one student in particular was making out with quite a stash of food! Drew and I opted to just sit back and watch the races without betting which I guess takes some of the excitement out of it. It was definitely a new experience and I’m glad that we went.
The following day we headed to Northumberland in northern England to stay at Alnwick Castle. We took a group of 31 people with us…the group was composed of students, some of their family members who were visiting and some members of the staff. I had planning the trip for quite some time and was really looking forward to taking the students on a trip that I had put so much time into. Alnwick Castle has a study abroad program much like the one here at Dalkeith. Students from St. Cloud State University stay at the castle and take classes for the semester. Drew and I’s friend Niki actually studied with this program for a semester so we were excited to see where she had spent her time as well. Most of the students signed up for the trip because Alnwick Castle is actually used as Hogwart’s School of Witchcraft in the Harry Pottery movies. The castle has also been used in many other films and, apparently, there is a huge movie that is being filmed there this summer. In order to get to the castle we had to take a train from Edinburgh to a small station outside of Alnwick. Unfortunately, the stop for the Alnmouth station that we wanted to get off on was never announced on the train and by the time we realized our stop was approaching we didn’t have a lot of time to warn students to start gathering their belongings. The train pulled up to the station, stopped and Drew and I hopped off the train and pushed students to do the same. Unfortunately, a group of 31 people doesn’t always move too fast and only five students made it off the train before the doors shut. I yelled down the platform to the attendant that we had a group of 30+ people on the train and that the doors needed to be opened back up before the train could leave. He refused to let the group off the train and waved the train out of the station so I stood there on the platform and watched as the train sped off with all the students inside, looking out at me, wondering what had happened and what they were supposed to do. Thankfully the program provides students with mobile phones so I was able to communicate with those still on board the train and direct them as to what their next step should be. They got to ride the train all the way to Newcastle where they were able to get spots on a train back to Alnmouth free of charge because, apparently, this problem happens all the time. Eventually the remaining members of our group made it back to the station, got off the train successfully then caught the bus to Alnwick and enjoyed the rest of the day at the castle.
We were able to take a tour of the castle that had just opened for public tours a few days earlier. The Duke of Northumberland still lives at the castle so, as the tour guides remind you, it is still very much a family home. It is so hard to tour a building like that and think of it as a family home. To me, a family home is comfy…I think of my parent’s house where the walls have dings and scratches from years of carrying hockey bags up the stairs. Instead, this family home had silk wallpaper…no dings there, stuffed dogs and knick knacks that were so expensive I would be afraid to ever touch them. The only indications of a family living there are a few family pictures here and there. I really wish we were able to see the rooms that the family actually spend most their time in to see if you get more of a homey feel from them. Anyway, what we did see of the castle was pretty amazing and really neat to see. After exploring the castle and taking a tour of the grounds as well as a tour of the movie-making surrounding the castle. We then headed to the Alnwick Gardens on the property of the castle. The Gardens are very extensive and have one of the largest poison gardens in the whole world where the plants can actually kill you. There is also a huge fountain that does different water shows throughout the day. Drew and I had a lot of fun rediscovering our inner child in the bamboo maze. It was a pretty dense bamboo forest and Drew kept running away from me to hide. I would chase after him, giggling (it was really mature). I was pretty embarrassed when I turned a corner, in the middle of a giggling fit, and almost ran over a little thirteen year old boy. Then it just became hilarious as the little boy decided that he wanted to join in on our game and took off chasing Drew through the maze. I was laughing too hard and had to stop running but I think the boy eventually caught Drew and Drew and I decided we should stop creating such a ruckus in the bamboo maze.
The next morning we hit the road again and headed first to the small village of Seahouses on the coast in northern England and, from there, we took a cruise around the Farne Islands. On the cruise we were able to see tons of grey seals, puffins and lots of seabirds. We were also able to spend an hour on an island that is a protected seabird sanctuary. After our cruise we went to Holy Island/Lindisfarne Island. It is a tidal island so there is absolutely no access to it when the tide is in. We went right after the tide had gone out so it was pretty busy because everyone had been waiting to get to it. On the island we were able to visit the Lindisfarne Priory which is where St. Cuthbert served as priory and it has many ties to the introduction of Christianity to this part of the world. After our time on Lindisfarne we were on our way back to Dalkeith. For the students our return marked the beginning of a crazy couple of weeks with lots of schoolwork and final papers due. For me, our return marked the beginning of a crazy couple of weeks since my supervisor, Patty, was back in Minnesota on holiday for two weeks. Things around the house were very busy but the house was still standing when she got back so it all worked out!
The following day we headed to Northumberland in northern England to stay at Alnwick Castle. We took a group of 31 people with us…the group was composed of students, some of their family members who were visiting and some members of the staff. I had planning the trip for quite some time and was really looking forward to taking the students on a trip that I had put so much time into. Alnwick Castle has a study abroad program much like the one here at Dalkeith. Students from St. Cloud State University stay at the castle and take classes for the semester. Drew and I’s friend Niki actually studied with this program for a semester so we were excited to see where she had spent her time as well. Most of the students signed up for the trip because Alnwick Castle is actually used as Hogwart’s School of Witchcraft in the Harry Pottery movies. The castle has also been used in many other films and, apparently, there is a huge movie that is being filmed there this summer. In order to get to the castle we had to take a train from Edinburgh to a small station outside of Alnwick. Unfortunately, the stop for the Alnmouth station that we wanted to get off on was never announced on the train and by the time we realized our stop was approaching we didn’t have a lot of time to warn students to start gathering their belongings. The train pulled up to the station, stopped and Drew and I hopped off the train and pushed students to do the same. Unfortunately, a group of 31 people doesn’t always move too fast and only five students made it off the train before the doors shut. I yelled down the platform to the attendant that we had a group of 30+ people on the train and that the doors needed to be opened back up before the train could leave. He refused to let the group off the train and waved the train out of the station so I stood there on the platform and watched as the train sped off with all the students inside, looking out at me, wondering what had happened and what they were supposed to do. Thankfully the program provides students with mobile phones so I was able to communicate with those still on board the train and direct them as to what their next step should be. They got to ride the train all the way to Newcastle where they were able to get spots on a train back to Alnmouth free of charge because, apparently, this problem happens all the time. Eventually the remaining members of our group made it back to the station, got off the train successfully then caught the bus to Alnwick and enjoyed the rest of the day at the castle.
We were able to take a tour of the castle that had just opened for public tours a few days earlier. The Duke of Northumberland still lives at the castle so, as the tour guides remind you, it is still very much a family home. It is so hard to tour a building like that and think of it as a family home. To me, a family home is comfy…I think of my parent’s house where the walls have dings and scratches from years of carrying hockey bags up the stairs. Instead, this family home had silk wallpaper…no dings there, stuffed dogs and knick knacks that were so expensive I would be afraid to ever touch them. The only indications of a family living there are a few family pictures here and there. I really wish we were able to see the rooms that the family actually spend most their time in to see if you get more of a homey feel from them. Anyway, what we did see of the castle was pretty amazing and really neat to see. After exploring the castle and taking a tour of the grounds as well as a tour of the movie-making surrounding the castle. We then headed to the Alnwick Gardens on the property of the castle. The Gardens are very extensive and have one of the largest poison gardens in the whole world where the plants can actually kill you. There is also a huge fountain that does different water shows throughout the day. Drew and I had a lot of fun rediscovering our inner child in the bamboo maze. It was a pretty dense bamboo forest and Drew kept running away from me to hide. I would chase after him, giggling (it was really mature). I was pretty embarrassed when I turned a corner, in the middle of a giggling fit, and almost ran over a little thirteen year old boy. Then it just became hilarious as the little boy decided that he wanted to join in on our game and took off chasing Drew through the maze. I was laughing too hard and had to stop running but I think the boy eventually caught Drew and Drew and I decided we should stop creating such a ruckus in the bamboo maze.
The next morning we hit the road again and headed first to the small village of Seahouses on the coast in northern England and, from there, we took a cruise around the Farne Islands. On the cruise we were able to see tons of grey seals, puffins and lots of seabirds. We were also able to spend an hour on an island that is a protected seabird sanctuary. After our cruise we went to Holy Island/Lindisfarne Island. It is a tidal island so there is absolutely no access to it when the tide is in. We went right after the tide had gone out so it was pretty busy because everyone had been waiting to get to it. On the island we were able to visit the Lindisfarne Priory which is where St. Cuthbert served as priory and it has many ties to the introduction of Christianity to this part of the world. After our time on Lindisfarne we were on our way back to Dalkeith. For the students our return marked the beginning of a crazy couple of weeks with lots of schoolwork and final papers due. For me, our return marked the beginning of a crazy couple of weeks since my supervisor, Patty, was back in Minnesota on holiday for two weeks. Things around the house were very busy but the house was still standing when she got back so it all worked out!
Wales and the Lakes District
So we took the chunnel from Paris to London, pretty much just to say that we rode a train underneath the English Channel! We arrived in London at St Pancras station, walked a few blocks to Euston station in central London to pick up our rental car. After we finally found the car rental place (a tiny shack hidden in a corner on a random floor of the parking garage) we picked up our car. We had asked for the cheapest car we could get that came in an automatic. We were expecting a tiny Nissan Micra like we had in Ireland but they pulled up in a Mercedes…yikes! I told Drew that he was absolutely not able to get in any accidents with this rental because we definitely couldn’t afford the replacement fees on a Mercedes!! So we headed off on our grand adventure up to Scotland but first we had to make our way through rush hour traffic in London at 5:00 p.m. on a Friday! After two hours of driving and only getting lost twice we were finally out of London. We drove to Bath, found a place to park and walked around the city. It was late by the time we got there and everything was closed so we just admired it from the outside. We went to the Bath cathedral which was absolutely amazing from the outside and I’m sure just as beautiful inside. We also went to the Roman baths, the oldest and most intact baths in all of Britain. Our original plan was to spend the night in Bath, spend some time seeing the sties in the morning and then head on to Wales but we were feeling pretty tired from our week of non-stop traveling so we decided to shorten our journey a little by continuing on to Wales that same evening. We entered Wales, drove through the capital city of Cardiff and then, about a half hour outside of the city found a rest stop, parked and ‘slept’ for the evening. The car was freezing so it wasn’t the most comfortable night of sleep but it was better than nothing. At about 6:00 a.m. the next morning we got back on the road and continued on our way up through Wales. It was still about four hours until anything opened so we just enjoyed the scenery, driving up through a national park. Once businesses started opening we found a gas station, spent fifteen minutes trying to figure out how to open the gas tank and bought ourselves a UK roadmap. We drove through the rest of Wales, enjoying the northwest corner of the country where you drive out of Wales and into England, then back into Wales a few miles later, then back into England a few miles later, back to Wales, and then, finally, back in England for good.
Once we were in England we headed straight for the Lakes District. It was about midday at this point and was turning out to be a really nice day. Lots of people had really recommended that we go to the Lake District which is why we planned it as part of our trip. Thankfully it completely lived up to the hype and was the perfect end to our trip. We made plenty of stops to do some short hiking in the hills; we went to Beatrix Potter’s house and an ancient stone circle. The roads were extremely narrow and there were plenty of parts where we had to pull to the side of the road so another car could pass. After spending our entire afternoon in the Lakes District, soaking up the beautiful scenery, we continued on our way back up to Scotland. Just south of the Scottish border we stopped at Hadrian’s wall…the ancient northern border of the Roman empire. Even though the wall was very hard to find it was really cool when we finally made it there. It is neat to think about how long the wall has been standing there and to think about exactly what it represents.
We arrived back in Dalkeith late on Saturday night and went immediately to bed. After a good night’s rest in a real bed we took our Mercedes and drove to the coast in North Berwick. We spent some time climbing out on the rocks and just enjoying the sea. I never get tired of spending time on the coast and I think living in such close proximity to the coast will be one of the things I will miss the most about living here.
Once we were in England we headed straight for the Lakes District. It was about midday at this point and was turning out to be a really nice day. Lots of people had really recommended that we go to the Lake District which is why we planned it as part of our trip. Thankfully it completely lived up to the hype and was the perfect end to our trip. We made plenty of stops to do some short hiking in the hills; we went to Beatrix Potter’s house and an ancient stone circle. The roads were extremely narrow and there were plenty of parts where we had to pull to the side of the road so another car could pass. After spending our entire afternoon in the Lakes District, soaking up the beautiful scenery, we continued on our way back up to Scotland. Just south of the Scottish border we stopped at Hadrian’s wall…the ancient northern border of the Roman empire. Even though the wall was very hard to find it was really cool when we finally made it there. It is neat to think about how long the wall has been standing there and to think about exactly what it represents.
We arrived back in Dalkeith late on Saturday night and went immediately to bed. After a good night’s rest in a real bed we took our Mercedes and drove to the coast in North Berwick. We spent some time climbing out on the rocks and just enjoying the sea. I never get tired of spending time on the coast and I think living in such close proximity to the coast will be one of the things I will miss the most about living here.
Paris
After a short train ride we arrived in Paris, armed with directions to get to the station where our couchsurfing host would pick us up. Unfortunately, our host forgot to include the minor (actually major) detail that there are two trains with the same name as the one she told us to take…one of the trains goes to the station we needed and one (of course, the one we took) splits off to another track right before the station we needed. So, as we were riding the train, expecting our stop to be next we were terrified to arrive at a completely different station. We immediately realized what happened and hopped off the train to figure out our next move before heading any further in the wrong direction. We couldn’t figure out how to get back to the station that we needed and weren’t able to get in touch with our couchsurfing host. We tried to ask for some help with our minimal French but unfortunately were unable to find anyone who could speak any English to help us. Finally we were able to find a man who worked at the station who knew another man that worked there that spoke English. The man was able to get in touch with our host and explain our situation to her. At this point it was getting to be pretty late at night and Drew and I were feeling horrible that we were being such an inconvenience to our host. The man at the station helped explain to us how to get back on the train in the opposite direction to get back to the station we needed. We were about to get back on the train when we, thankfully, decided to try to get in touch with our host ourselves. We called and her boyfriend answered the phone as our host was driving on her way to pick us up at the station…we would have really felt awful if they had shown up at the station only to have us not be there! Isabelle (our host) and her boyfriend picked us up, brought us back to the house and introduced us to their roommates. Their roommates were incredibly friendly and wanted to hear all about our travels. We talked for a while and then, being late, we all headed off to bed.
The next day we woke up bright and early so we could get a full day of exploring Paris. We headed first to the Louvre where the lines weren’t nearly as long as we had expected. We saw the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo as well as many other amazing pieces of art. The museum is absolutely huge and you could easily spend an entire day exploring it. We spent our entire morning there and by the time we left we had probably only seen about a quarter of its collection. After the Louvre we headed to Notre Dame to try to find Quasimodo. Before we actually went into the cathedral we made some lunch outside on a park bench and spent some time people watching while enjoying our lunch. It was at this time that we came into contact with one of the most annoying aspects of Paris: its beggars. We were approached by a young woman who asked if we spoke English, upon answering yes she proceeded to open up a postcard she was holding. On the postcard it was written that she was a Kurdish refugee who was living in Paris with her mother and brother. Her brother had leukemia and she wanted some money. We told her no but she was extremely persistent and begged us for money. We finally got her to leave us alone and we looked around and realized there was a whole swarm of them. They were all dressed similarly (like stereotypical refugees) and all had postcards…amazingly they all spoke very good English as well! Every tourist attraction and train station that we went to following Notre Dame we would find a swarm of beggars with their postcards so we got pretty good at saying that we didn’t speak English and just avoiding them altogether! It was extremely frustrating to me as I can only imagine that there are plenty of people in Paris who are in genuine need of help…I have never seen such an organized, widespread begging operation in any other place I have ever visited! Anyway, back to Notre Dame…the cathedral was absolutely amazing inside. I think Drew finally understood why I enjoy churches so much…I am always in awe of how much work and beauty has gone into these older churches.
From the Notre Dame we headed off to Arc de Triomphe which was much larger than I could have ever imagined. Standing at the Arc, in the middle of a five lane roundabout I couldn’t help but laugh just thinking of National Lampoon’s European Vacation and just driving round and round…I don’t know how anyone can navigate that roundabout! After the Arc we headed off to Paris’ most famous tourist attraction…the Eiffel Tower! The one thing that Drew really wanted to do and always mentioned when we were planning this trip was to climb the Eiffel Tower so, being the windiest day ever we decided we’d give it a shot! You’re only allowed to climb to the second viewing platform (668 steps) and then, if you want to continue to the top, you have to take an elevator. As thrilling as the climb was I was definitely glad that you weren’t allowed to hike up past the second viewing platform because, being exposed to the open wind at any point higher than that probably would have blown us straight off! So we took the elevator all the way to the top and had some great views of the city. The viewing platform at the top is completely enclosed in an open cage thing so you can’t be blown off. Nonetheless it was scary walking around the top because there was one side completely blocked from the wind so it was completely still and calm but as you walked around to the other side you walked straight into a brick wall of wind…you literally had to lean forward with most of your body weight just to keep walking. We eventually made it back to the bottom and continued on our way! We’d had a pretty full day so we didn’t stay in the city centre much longer before heading back to our host’s house. Unfortunately Isabelle still hadn’t explained the two different trains to us so we took the wrong one again which made our journey back much longer than we had anticipated.
On our second day in Paris we spent the morning at Versailles Palace, considered to be one of the grandest palaces in the entire world. The detail inside of the palace was amazing and again, like the Louvre, you could easily spend an entire day there. Every single room that you went in was elaborately decorated…it never ceases to amaze me that people actually live in such grandeur. Drew and I’s favorite room was the hall of mirrors which is an incredibly long hall with mirrored walls and tons of crystal chandeliers. It is so incredibly regal and amazing. After Versailles we headed back into Paris to see some more of its sites. I really wanted to see Moulin Rouge (really just to get a picture) and we spent most of the afternoon looking for it. While trying to find it we stumbled upon an absolutely beautiful basilica and, on our way up to it, we were hounded by some of Paris’ wonderful street salesmen. Basically what these salesmen do is give you something (in this case they were giving out string bracelets) and then, once you take it, tell you have to pay for it. You find them in a lot of big cities so Drew and I knew what they were up to and just walked through the bunch of them, ignoring their offers of bracelets. However, being Paris where everyone seems to be an aggressive capitalist, one of them grabbed me by the hand and refused to let go. He told me that he really liked Americans and really wanted me to take the bracelet. I kept telling him no thanks, I really wasn’t interested, etc., etc. but he absolutely would not let go! Drew finally had to grab my other hand and begin pulling me in the opposite direction. I was yanked back and forth between the two until Drew succeeded in pulling me away. We made our way up to the basilica and were able to get a really great view of the city through the smog. We made our way back down the hill and finally found Moulin Rouge, got our pictures and continued on our way. We then headed to the Pantheon and then spent some time wandering around and waited for it to get dark so that we could see the Eiffel tower at night. We found the second, smaller, Statue of Liberty that France kept for itself after giving the larger one to the United States. Seeing the Eiffel tower at night was really neat. It is all lit up and looks really cool!
Our last day in Paris was really just a half day because we were leaving in the early afternoon. We headed to the train station we were leaving from first thing in the morning, dropped off our suitcases and tried to avoid drawing attention to ourselves because the station was full of guards carrying huge semi-automatic rifles. We did some more wandering around the city trying to find the entrance to the catacombs. Unfortunately, we were never able to find it so we weren’t able to see the catacombs. We headed back to the train station and, fortunately, got there early because it took us at least a half hour to get through customs. We had to sit off to the side and got questioned about exactly what we were doing in the United Kingdom and why we were there so long. The customs man had to call Patty, my supervisor at the program, to ensure that I was legit and, after she vouched for me, we were able to get through and board our train about five minutes before it left the station.
One of the most rewarding parts of our stay in Paris was our couchsurfing experience. In particular, two roommates of our hosts were so friendly and felt more like our hosts than our actual hosts. Drew and I have really enjoyed couchsurfing so far because it provides you with an extra insight into the culture you are experiencing. We were both greeted with kisses on the cheeks and, I have to admit, it really caught me off guard when we first met our hosts because it is so different from anything we would normally experience but by the end of our stay it was natural and comfortable and I enjoyed being able to experience these small mannerisms of French culture. It was also helpful to have people readily available to help us with our French pronunciations and explain things that we had seen throughout the day. It was also nice to be able to chat and learn more about French culture. These two particular roommates were both not from Paris (and actually the place we were staying was Ris Orangis…a half hour to hour train ride outside of Paris) and had pretty strong opinions concerning Parisians. After our first day out exploring they asked us if we had had any problems with the rude Parisians. We answered that we hadn’t and they were relieved because they felt that many Parisians are rude and think they are better than everyone else. I thought this was very interesting because it is, unfortunately, a stereotype that you often hear applied to the entire country of France. Our hosts (actually, the two roommates of the hosts) wanted to cook a traditional French dinner for us and take us out on Friday night to meet some of their friends and experience the Parisian nightlife…unfortunately, we were leaving Paris on Friday afternoon so we weren’t able to spend this extra time with them but they welcomed us back whenever we get the chance so we just might have to take them up on their offer!
The next day we woke up bright and early so we could get a full day of exploring Paris. We headed first to the Louvre where the lines weren’t nearly as long as we had expected. We saw the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo as well as many other amazing pieces of art. The museum is absolutely huge and you could easily spend an entire day exploring it. We spent our entire morning there and by the time we left we had probably only seen about a quarter of its collection. After the Louvre we headed to Notre Dame to try to find Quasimodo. Before we actually went into the cathedral we made some lunch outside on a park bench and spent some time people watching while enjoying our lunch. It was at this time that we came into contact with one of the most annoying aspects of Paris: its beggars. We were approached by a young woman who asked if we spoke English, upon answering yes she proceeded to open up a postcard she was holding. On the postcard it was written that she was a Kurdish refugee who was living in Paris with her mother and brother. Her brother had leukemia and she wanted some money. We told her no but she was extremely persistent and begged us for money. We finally got her to leave us alone and we looked around and realized there was a whole swarm of them. They were all dressed similarly (like stereotypical refugees) and all had postcards…amazingly they all spoke very good English as well! Every tourist attraction and train station that we went to following Notre Dame we would find a swarm of beggars with their postcards so we got pretty good at saying that we didn’t speak English and just avoiding them altogether! It was extremely frustrating to me as I can only imagine that there are plenty of people in Paris who are in genuine need of help…I have never seen such an organized, widespread begging operation in any other place I have ever visited! Anyway, back to Notre Dame…the cathedral was absolutely amazing inside. I think Drew finally understood why I enjoy churches so much…I am always in awe of how much work and beauty has gone into these older churches.
From the Notre Dame we headed off to Arc de Triomphe which was much larger than I could have ever imagined. Standing at the Arc, in the middle of a five lane roundabout I couldn’t help but laugh just thinking of National Lampoon’s European Vacation and just driving round and round…I don’t know how anyone can navigate that roundabout! After the Arc we headed off to Paris’ most famous tourist attraction…the Eiffel Tower! The one thing that Drew really wanted to do and always mentioned when we were planning this trip was to climb the Eiffel Tower so, being the windiest day ever we decided we’d give it a shot! You’re only allowed to climb to the second viewing platform (668 steps) and then, if you want to continue to the top, you have to take an elevator. As thrilling as the climb was I was definitely glad that you weren’t allowed to hike up past the second viewing platform because, being exposed to the open wind at any point higher than that probably would have blown us straight off! So we took the elevator all the way to the top and had some great views of the city. The viewing platform at the top is completely enclosed in an open cage thing so you can’t be blown off. Nonetheless it was scary walking around the top because there was one side completely blocked from the wind so it was completely still and calm but as you walked around to the other side you walked straight into a brick wall of wind…you literally had to lean forward with most of your body weight just to keep walking. We eventually made it back to the bottom and continued on our way! We’d had a pretty full day so we didn’t stay in the city centre much longer before heading back to our host’s house. Unfortunately Isabelle still hadn’t explained the two different trains to us so we took the wrong one again which made our journey back much longer than we had anticipated.
On our second day in Paris we spent the morning at Versailles Palace, considered to be one of the grandest palaces in the entire world. The detail inside of the palace was amazing and again, like the Louvre, you could easily spend an entire day there. Every single room that you went in was elaborately decorated…it never ceases to amaze me that people actually live in such grandeur. Drew and I’s favorite room was the hall of mirrors which is an incredibly long hall with mirrored walls and tons of crystal chandeliers. It is so incredibly regal and amazing. After Versailles we headed back into Paris to see some more of its sites. I really wanted to see Moulin Rouge (really just to get a picture) and we spent most of the afternoon looking for it. While trying to find it we stumbled upon an absolutely beautiful basilica and, on our way up to it, we were hounded by some of Paris’ wonderful street salesmen. Basically what these salesmen do is give you something (in this case they were giving out string bracelets) and then, once you take it, tell you have to pay for it. You find them in a lot of big cities so Drew and I knew what they were up to and just walked through the bunch of them, ignoring their offers of bracelets. However, being Paris where everyone seems to be an aggressive capitalist, one of them grabbed me by the hand and refused to let go. He told me that he really liked Americans and really wanted me to take the bracelet. I kept telling him no thanks, I really wasn’t interested, etc., etc. but he absolutely would not let go! Drew finally had to grab my other hand and begin pulling me in the opposite direction. I was yanked back and forth between the two until Drew succeeded in pulling me away. We made our way up to the basilica and were able to get a really great view of the city through the smog. We made our way back down the hill and finally found Moulin Rouge, got our pictures and continued on our way. We then headed to the Pantheon and then spent some time wandering around and waited for it to get dark so that we could see the Eiffel tower at night. We found the second, smaller, Statue of Liberty that France kept for itself after giving the larger one to the United States. Seeing the Eiffel tower at night was really neat. It is all lit up and looks really cool!
Our last day in Paris was really just a half day because we were leaving in the early afternoon. We headed to the train station we were leaving from first thing in the morning, dropped off our suitcases and tried to avoid drawing attention to ourselves because the station was full of guards carrying huge semi-automatic rifles. We did some more wandering around the city trying to find the entrance to the catacombs. Unfortunately, we were never able to find it so we weren’t able to see the catacombs. We headed back to the train station and, fortunately, got there early because it took us at least a half hour to get through customs. We had to sit off to the side and got questioned about exactly what we were doing in the United Kingdom and why we were there so long. The customs man had to call Patty, my supervisor at the program, to ensure that I was legit and, after she vouched for me, we were able to get through and board our train about five minutes before it left the station.
One of the most rewarding parts of our stay in Paris was our couchsurfing experience. In particular, two roommates of our hosts were so friendly and felt more like our hosts than our actual hosts. Drew and I have really enjoyed couchsurfing so far because it provides you with an extra insight into the culture you are experiencing. We were both greeted with kisses on the cheeks and, I have to admit, it really caught me off guard when we first met our hosts because it is so different from anything we would normally experience but by the end of our stay it was natural and comfortable and I enjoyed being able to experience these small mannerisms of French culture. It was also helpful to have people readily available to help us with our French pronunciations and explain things that we had seen throughout the day. It was also nice to be able to chat and learn more about French culture. These two particular roommates were both not from Paris (and actually the place we were staying was Ris Orangis…a half hour to hour train ride outside of Paris) and had pretty strong opinions concerning Parisians. After our first day out exploring they asked us if we had had any problems with the rude Parisians. We answered that we hadn’t and they were relieved because they felt that many Parisians are rude and think they are better than everyone else. I thought this was very interesting because it is, unfortunately, a stereotype that you often hear applied to the entire country of France. Our hosts (actually, the two roommates of the hosts) wanted to cook a traditional French dinner for us and take us out on Friday night to meet some of their friends and experience the Parisian nightlife…unfortunately, we were leaving Paris on Friday afternoon so we weren’t able to spend this extra time with them but they welcomed us back whenever we get the chance so we just might have to take them up on their offer!
Brussels
We arrived in Brussels and phoned our couchsurfing host, Ernest. He explained that he would meet us at the train station so we waited, a bit nervously, not knowing quite what to expect. Ernest showed up and walked us back to his flat (it was pouring rain outside), playing tour guide along the way and pointing out various sites along the way. We dropped our bags at the flat and, as the night was still young, Ernest insisted that we head to a local pub to pick up a drink. Ernest is actually from the Netherlands, but is currently doing an internship with Cargill in Brussels. He studied abroad at Michigan State so he is pretty familiar with the United States. We had an excellent chat at the pub and really enjoyed getting to know one another. After a drink at that pub, Ernest decided he wanted to take us to another. We got outside and it had stopped raining so Ernest was really great and took us on a short tour of the city. He brought us to the main square and explained the meaning of the statues on all the buildings (the statues are pointing at one another as to who is the father of the baby inside one of the female statue’s bulging belly). Then he took us to see the Manneken Pis, the most famous statue in Brussels. After Manneken Pis we headed into what is considered the tourist part of town. It is one long street of restaurants but every single restaurant is pretty much the same thing and they are very aggressive about getting you to eat in their restaurant. As we walked down the street every single restaurant’s workers called out to us to come eat in their restaurant…they would follow you as you walked down the street trying to convince you that you needed to eat there. Ernest just laughed and explained that we weren’t hungry but they were still persistent! We finally arrived at our destination, a pub known as Delirium that holds the Guinness Book of World Records for having the most beers available in a bar. You enter the bar and pick up a menu which is about an inch thick full of beers from all around the world. Ernest finally had to just pick a beer because Drew was so completely lost in what he referred to as ‘the Beer Bible’. Drew and I were extremely tired after our drink at the Delirium Bar so we headed back to the flat to catch some shut eye as we had to be up bright and early the next day.
The next morning we woke up and headed off to explore the beautiful city of Brussels. Ernest left us with a few suggestions of what to do with our day and, among them, was to visit Atomium. Atomium is a giant statue from the 1958 World’s Fair and it is located on the outskirts of Brussels. It was neat to see and very futuristic…it reminded me of something you would see at Disney’s Epcot. After Atomium we headed back into the city. We spent some more time in the central square just soaking in the amazing architecture, went back to the Manneken Pis who was dressed up in a cute little outfit to advertise Unicef, headed off to a park to enjoy some of the limited sunshine of the day and explored some of the various aspects of the European Parliament located in Brussels. Because the EU is headquartered in Brussels, the city has a very unique feel to it…most people who live in Brussels are not actually Belgian but are living there from elsewhere in Europe. We also found the Royal Palace in our wanderings around the city which was absolutely beautiful. An interesting note about the streets in Brussels…they’re set up on a circular pattern so when I say we were wandering the streets we were literally wandering the streets! We learned pretty quickly that we shouldn’t try to do anything in the city without first consulting our map! We also took some time in Brussels to take advantage of their delicacies…Belgian waffles, Belgian fries and, of course, Belgian chocolate!
Later in the day, after all of our exploring, we were once again back at the train station and on our way to Paris!
The next morning we woke up and headed off to explore the beautiful city of Brussels. Ernest left us with a few suggestions of what to do with our day and, among them, was to visit Atomium. Atomium is a giant statue from the 1958 World’s Fair and it is located on the outskirts of Brussels. It was neat to see and very futuristic…it reminded me of something you would see at Disney’s Epcot. After Atomium we headed back into the city. We spent some more time in the central square just soaking in the amazing architecture, went back to the Manneken Pis who was dressed up in a cute little outfit to advertise Unicef, headed off to a park to enjoy some of the limited sunshine of the day and explored some of the various aspects of the European Parliament located in Brussels. Because the EU is headquartered in Brussels, the city has a very unique feel to it…most people who live in Brussels are not actually Belgian but are living there from elsewhere in Europe. We also found the Royal Palace in our wanderings around the city which was absolutely beautiful. An interesting note about the streets in Brussels…they’re set up on a circular pattern so when I say we were wandering the streets we were literally wandering the streets! We learned pretty quickly that we shouldn’t try to do anything in the city without first consulting our map! We also took some time in Brussels to take advantage of their delicacies…Belgian waffles, Belgian fries and, of course, Belgian chocolate!
Later in the day, after all of our exploring, we were once again back at the train station and on our way to Paris!
Picking up where we left off...In Amsterdam
Sorry we kind of left you hanging on the last blog! As Drew mentioned, we arrived in Amsterdam early Saturday morning (of our spring break trip). We checked into our hostel and headed out to explore the city for the day. We spent most of the first day just wandering the streets lining the canals and the main city centre. We went to the sex museum because we were told that it was the thing to see in Amsterdam…it was interesting but not as great as all the hype, unless you’re really into pornography from the 19th century!
Our second day in Amsterdam was a full day of being tourists…absolutely wonderful. Drew decided that we should start our day off at the zoo so we headed to Artis Zoo in the centre of Amsterdam and spent some time with the animals! We were able to catch the feeding times for the seals and the crocodiles although we couldn’t see anything that was happening with the crocodile because it was so crowded. After the zoo we headed off to the Heineken Experience to learn all about the way that Heineken beer is brewed. It was a really neat brewery…they have a ‘ride’ where you get brewed as a Heineken beer which is pretty fun. Then, afterwards, they allow you to sample some Heineken and teach you the true art of drinking it. Not being a beer drinker myself, I’m not sure I got the most out of the taste testing. At the same time, I’m not one to pass up something free so after three free Heineken’s at the brewery we headed back into the city for a giggly (on my part) afternoon. After checking out the small garden at the Rijkmuseum we headed to Max Epstein for live, outdoor, giant chess. We sat and watched the chess match for a while (it was pretty intense) and then set off again to continue our day’s adventures. We were in search of the narrowest house in Amsterdam and ended up getting terribly lost in our attempt to find it. We eventually found the house…it’s hard to believe how narrow it actually was! In our wanderings throughout the city we discovered many different parts of Amsterdam’s red light district. Apparently, the red light district is fast disappearing; just last year about a third of the windows were shut down because the women working them were found to be illegal immigrants. Later that evening we went to the Anne Frank museum which was incredibly moving. It is the actual building that Anne Frank and her family hid out in during World War II…it was hard to imagine the life that the Frank family must have lived while cooped up in that house. After the Anne Frank museum and on our way back to the hostel we stopped off at this little amusement park thing. Our intention was really just to get some neat pictures but we were lucky enough to meet the number one rapper in Holland! I can’t even remember his name but he explained to us that he had the number one song on Holland radio at the time…something about ‘shake that booty’(??). Ended up not buying his CD (even though he was offering us quite the bargain)…probably kick myself for that one later when he’s excepting his grammy!!
Our last day in Amsterdam was pretty crummy weather. We spent the majority of our day (we only had a half day in Amsterdam) doing a free walking tour of the city. The particular tour company that we went with is really cool and they have tours in cities all over Europe. The tour is completely free so they’re just working for tips which means you always get a really interesting, entertaining tour. We had a great guide from New York who shared the history of Amsterdam with us, mixing in plenty of humor along the way. One of the sites that she pointed out along our tour and really recommended returning to was the Cannabis College and, you guessed it, it was free so, after the tour, we headed back to learn some more about one of the most famous parts of Amsterdam’s culture. We learned all about the double standards of the Netherland’s laws regarding cannabis…you’re allowed to possess it but not grow it, etc. We also learned all about growing cannabis…you know, just the basic life survival skills! After Cannabis College we headed back to the train station and were on our way to Brussels!
Our second day in Amsterdam was a full day of being tourists…absolutely wonderful. Drew decided that we should start our day off at the zoo so we headed to Artis Zoo in the centre of Amsterdam and spent some time with the animals! We were able to catch the feeding times for the seals and the crocodiles although we couldn’t see anything that was happening with the crocodile because it was so crowded. After the zoo we headed off to the Heineken Experience to learn all about the way that Heineken beer is brewed. It was a really neat brewery…they have a ‘ride’ where you get brewed as a Heineken beer which is pretty fun. Then, afterwards, they allow you to sample some Heineken and teach you the true art of drinking it. Not being a beer drinker myself, I’m not sure I got the most out of the taste testing. At the same time, I’m not one to pass up something free so after three free Heineken’s at the brewery we headed back into the city for a giggly (on my part) afternoon. After checking out the small garden at the Rijkmuseum we headed to Max Epstein for live, outdoor, giant chess. We sat and watched the chess match for a while (it was pretty intense) and then set off again to continue our day’s adventures. We were in search of the narrowest house in Amsterdam and ended up getting terribly lost in our attempt to find it. We eventually found the house…it’s hard to believe how narrow it actually was! In our wanderings throughout the city we discovered many different parts of Amsterdam’s red light district. Apparently, the red light district is fast disappearing; just last year about a third of the windows were shut down because the women working them were found to be illegal immigrants. Later that evening we went to the Anne Frank museum which was incredibly moving. It is the actual building that Anne Frank and her family hid out in during World War II…it was hard to imagine the life that the Frank family must have lived while cooped up in that house. After the Anne Frank museum and on our way back to the hostel we stopped off at this little amusement park thing. Our intention was really just to get some neat pictures but we were lucky enough to meet the number one rapper in Holland! I can’t even remember his name but he explained to us that he had the number one song on Holland radio at the time…something about ‘shake that booty’(??). Ended up not buying his CD (even though he was offering us quite the bargain)…probably kick myself for that one later when he’s excepting his grammy!!
Our last day in Amsterdam was pretty crummy weather. We spent the majority of our day (we only had a half day in Amsterdam) doing a free walking tour of the city. The particular tour company that we went with is really cool and they have tours in cities all over Europe. The tour is completely free so they’re just working for tips which means you always get a really interesting, entertaining tour. We had a great guide from New York who shared the history of Amsterdam with us, mixing in plenty of humor along the way. One of the sites that she pointed out along our tour and really recommended returning to was the Cannabis College and, you guessed it, it was free so, after the tour, we headed back to learn some more about one of the most famous parts of Amsterdam’s culture. We learned all about the double standards of the Netherland’s laws regarding cannabis…you’re allowed to possess it but not grow it, etc. We also learned all about growing cannabis…you know, just the basic life survival skills! After Cannabis College we headed back to the train station and were on our way to Brussels!
Tuesday, 7 April 2009
Newcastle and the Cruise
First of all I would like to apologize for how long this took us to update our blog. We will be writing a series of blogs to cut down on the length of what it would be if we wrote about all of spring break in one blog.
On Thursday night we stayed in Newcastle on someones couch. His name was Derek and he was an amazing host. We arrived around 8:30pm and he met us at the train station. We stopped by a pool hall in the City Center and had a few drinks and played a couple of games of pool. It was fun because he had some different rules. When you scratch the your opponent gets two shots no matter whether you make one on the first shot or not. Also if you completely miss your balls you get three free shots. It was a lot of fun seeing a local pub that Kels and I would never of thought to go into. We got back to Derek's around 11:00 and then we stayed up and just talked for awhile.
The next morning we went into Newcastle City Center and just walked around. It was a very interesting city. I didn't reailze how big of a ctiy it was. After walking around for awhile we went to a free art museum that had contemporary art. You want to talk about some weird art. They had movies of people smoking for 8 minutes in a countinuous loop. Kels enjoyed it but I just thought it was a little boring. It was free so who cares.
We went back to Derek's to collect our stuff then headed out to the cruise ship. That was an interesting walk. We had to take a train to the small city that the cruise set off from and when we got there we followed the signs for the Ferry. Apparently it was the Passenger Ferry that got them across the river. We got there and then asked how to get to the Cruise ship and they said it was a little ways away. So we started to hoof it. By this time we only had about 30 minutes to get onto the ship before they stop checking people in. Pretty much we ran the whole way there. Finally when we got to the main enterance we saw all the poepl just leisurly walking up to the building where you check in. After all the running and panixing we found out that there wasn't any reason to be in a rush. There were about 200 people still in line to check in and the boat wasn't going to leave without all of them.
When we made it onto the ship we went down to our room and just rested for a little while. We headed up to the main deck to find where I could find a beer. We got there and the beer was 5.50 Euro, which is about $8. Kind of rediculous but when are we ever going to take a cruise to amsterdam again. So kels and I had a few drinks and watched a dancing show. After that was done we went to a more quit bar and sat and listened to a live band. Actually it was just one guy with an interesting accent trying to sing all of these american covers. It was a lot of fun and we were finally comfortable and on our way to Amsterdam.
We docked around 9:00am on Saturday morning. That was also interesting because we didn't realize we needed to pay for a bus into Amsterdam. We should have done a little more research but that wouldn't have been as much fun. We went up to the guy selling tickets asked how much it was and he said 16 pounds for both of us. I reached into my pockets and realized I didn't have any money. So we went off to find an ATM. Nothing in the docking station and they told us there wasn't one anywhere. So now we were trapped. No way to get back into the ship and no way to get into Amsterdam. I didn't know what happened to all of my money. I just figured I got pick pocketed but Kels will tell you more about that in this video.....
So that was our Crusie and now we are in Amsterdam......
On Thursday night we stayed in Newcastle on someones couch. His name was Derek and he was an amazing host. We arrived around 8:30pm and he met us at the train station. We stopped by a pool hall in the City Center and had a few drinks and played a couple of games of pool. It was fun because he had some different rules. When you scratch the your opponent gets two shots no matter whether you make one on the first shot or not. Also if you completely miss your balls you get three free shots. It was a lot of fun seeing a local pub that Kels and I would never of thought to go into. We got back to Derek's around 11:00 and then we stayed up and just talked for awhile.
The next morning we went into Newcastle City Center and just walked around. It was a very interesting city. I didn't reailze how big of a ctiy it was. After walking around for awhile we went to a free art museum that had contemporary art. You want to talk about some weird art. They had movies of people smoking for 8 minutes in a countinuous loop. Kels enjoyed it but I just thought it was a little boring. It was free so who cares.
We went back to Derek's to collect our stuff then headed out to the cruise ship. That was an interesting walk. We had to take a train to the small city that the cruise set off from and when we got there we followed the signs for the Ferry. Apparently it was the Passenger Ferry that got them across the river. We got there and then asked how to get to the Cruise ship and they said it was a little ways away. So we started to hoof it. By this time we only had about 30 minutes to get onto the ship before they stop checking people in. Pretty much we ran the whole way there. Finally when we got to the main enterance we saw all the poepl just leisurly walking up to the building where you check in. After all the running and panixing we found out that there wasn't any reason to be in a rush. There were about 200 people still in line to check in and the boat wasn't going to leave without all of them.
When we made it onto the ship we went down to our room and just rested for a little while. We headed up to the main deck to find where I could find a beer. We got there and the beer was 5.50 Euro, which is about $8. Kind of rediculous but when are we ever going to take a cruise to amsterdam again. So kels and I had a few drinks and watched a dancing show. After that was done we went to a more quit bar and sat and listened to a live band. Actually it was just one guy with an interesting accent trying to sing all of these american covers. It was a lot of fun and we were finally comfortable and on our way to Amsterdam.
We docked around 9:00am on Saturday morning. That was also interesting because we didn't realize we needed to pay for a bus into Amsterdam. We should have done a little more research but that wouldn't have been as much fun. We went up to the guy selling tickets asked how much it was and he said 16 pounds for both of us. I reached into my pockets and realized I didn't have any money. So we went off to find an ATM. Nothing in the docking station and they told us there wasn't one anywhere. So now we were trapped. No way to get back into the ship and no way to get into Amsterdam. I didn't know what happened to all of my money. I just figured I got pick pocketed but Kels will tell you more about that in this video.....
So that was our Crusie and now we are in Amsterdam......
Thursday, 19 March 2009
Eight-legged Freaks
Well, Drew had said that I would fill everyone in a little more on what exactly we saw in Freetown Christiana in Copenhagen and, as promised, here goes. For any of you who have been to the Haight Ashbury neighborhood in San Francisco you will have a bit of an idea of what the Freetown Christiana is like. Christiana was an old military base of sorts that was abandoned. After its abandonment by the military the homeless and different squatters of sorts started to move into the area. They settled it and eventually earned a semi-legal status of their own sort of community. The buildings are covered in graffitied murals that are extremely political in nature. When you first walk into the area it is really like walking into a different world. There were vendors at different stands and other folks just standing around in common areas. There were fires burning in barrels and signs everywhere that warned against taking photos. These signs are an echo back to the free cannabis trade that used to occur in the Freetown. Though cannabis was never legal in Copenhagen, many did not mind keeping the cannabis trade contained in the Freetown area. The Freetown area had its own community standards against any drugs harder than cannabis and, throughout the entire city of Copenhagen, there was very little in the way of hard drugs. Since the open trade has been shut down (in 2004) there has been an explosion of hard drugs on the streets of Copenhagen. One of the most interesting things that we saw in the Freetown was a sign as you leave that informs you that “You are now entering the EU”…and it does, indeed, feel as though you are stepping outside of the EU when you are in the Freetown.
Alright, so I have some very exciting news for everyone. As many of you already know I have ‘suffered’ many years from an absolutely debilitating fear of spiders. It is an absolutely ridiculous fear but, nonetheless, has left me in tears or paralyzed with fear more times than I actually care to admit. Anyway, I was looking at a brochure for a local tourist attraction; Butterfly & Insect World and noticed that they had something called Spider Phobia workshops. I gave the place a call and made an appointment so this past Thursday I headed out there in hopes of coming to grips with my ridiculous fear. Kevin, the man who was helping me, met up with me about a half hour before the handling sessions at Butterfly World. He showed me around the different exhibits that they had and was very gentle when bringing me to look at the cases with different spiders in them. It was nice to have someone helping me who was so understanding and considerate of my fear. After the handling session (where Drew and I held a millipede and a python!) Kevin pulled me aside for a little one on one time with Abbey Sue. Abbey Sue is a rose tarantula. Kevin worked me up to holding her, very slowly. First he started by allowing just one of her legs to touch me while he coaxed her from one of his hands to another, then he let her leg rest on my hand, then we had two legs touch, then we had her first legs touch, then she walked across my hand on the way to his and, finally, I held her. I was even okay when she moved a little while I was holding her. I discovered that I really was okay with holding a tarantula because they are such a slow moving spider. I also discovered that they are an incredibly primitive spider and can be killed just by dropping them a few feet. So, after I got comfortable with Abbey Sue we moved on to the real challenge: a common house spider. Really, I must clarify that this “common” house spider was HUGE (probably close to 1-1 ½ inches in diameter…very leggy). I have rarely seen something like it in my home but I’m glad it was so big because it really was frightening. We put the spider in a Rubbermaid container and Kevin manipulated his movement. It was incredibly nerve-wracking for me and Kevin was very patient in reminding me to keep breathing and stay calm. After a while of Kevin manipulating the spider’s movement he put me in charge of it. With a long stick I was required to push the spider around and get used to it’s quick, jerky movements. This was honestly one of the scariest things I have ever done but, after a while, I realized that the spider (almost completely blind) had no idea I was coming until I actually touched it. I had to work to get the spider on a flat part of the bin as it was full of ridges and, once there, place a plastic cup over the spider. Once the plastic cup was placed there I would slide a piece of laminated cardstock underneath and lift the spider, still in the cup, out of the box. This is a method that I can now use to remove spiders from my home. I practiced this technique about five times until it was closing time at Butterfly World and Kevin had to kick me out. This session was so incredibly fulfilling for me I can’t even explain but it felt good to finally realize that I am able to control my fear of spiders. I still hope that I never have a house spider like the one I practiced with crawling on me but, if I did, I know I would survive! Plus, Kevin equipped me with my very own plastic cup and slider so I can continue to catch spiders all on my own!
The rest of our weekend was very nice. We had a house trip with students on Friday to the Scottish borders region. We went first to the Bowhill house which is where the Duke of Buccleuch (the Duke who owns the house we stay in) currently lives. It is just one of his many properties (he is the largest private landowner in Europe with more wealth than the Queen) and it was magnificent. It is crazy to walk through a “family home” and see the same paintings hanging on the walls that you see in textbooks. We also saw a model for the renovation that was intended for the house we currently live in. Had the renovation actually happened our house would be at least four times its current size and I’m guessing we wouldn’t be living here! After the Bowhill house we went to Melrose Abbey where the heart of Robert the Bruce was buried after it was brought back from the crusades. We ended the day with a stop off at Scott’s view, a magnificent viewpoint over the Border’s landscape and one of Sir Walter Scott’s favorite places (thus the name).
On Sunday we led a group of students up Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh. Arthurs Seat is an extinct volcanic ridge with great views of the city. It is a good challenge to get up the ridge but very rewarding once you make it to the top. Drew, as always, chose the hardest way up and the hardest way down and ended up coming down about half of it on his butt.
We had a nice St. Patrick’s Day. After a hearty meal of Irish stew, Irish soda bread, Irish gingersnaps and green punch back at the house we headed into Edinburgh to celebrate at one of our favorite Irish pubs here. Many of the students were a little more hardcore and actually flew to Dublin for the day to celebrate…I don’t ever remember being that crazy when I was a student here but I guess times are changing!
It seems as though spring has finally arrived in Scotland and it is glorious! We head off on spring break tomorrow. I’m not sure we’ll be able to update along the way so I’m sure our next blog will be incredibly long!!
Tuesday, 3 March 2009
Sweden and Denmark!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Copenhagen had Mountain Dew at the 7/11)
Well I have so much to say I dont know where to begin...... Sweden and Denmark were awesome. The most exciting thing about the weekend was I found my personal Holy Grail, Mountain Dew in Europe. I know that is a very small thing to be so excited about but I was think I had to go 6 months without it and when I found it I got really excited.While we were in Sweden we did a lot of site seeing. The Hostel we stayed in was a boat and we had some nice fews of the river in which Stockholm was built around. One of the things I didn't realize until we got there is Stockholm was a city of islands. I believe there are around 40 different islands in the city of Stockholm.
We started the day off by getting onto a 'Hop on and hop off bus'. We took the bus all around the city listening to the audio tour and figuring out where we wanted to go. Once we got around we decided to get of and go to the Vasa Museum which had a boat that was built and sunk in the 1600s. It was made of wood and when they finished making it they found out they didn't build it right. Once it hit rough seas it capsized and sunk. It wasn't until the 1960s that it was discovered and salvaged. It was under water for so long that they have to regulate the temperature and humidity inside the museum so the boat doesn't fall apart.
That was really interesting and if you want to see more pictures of the boat you can go to http://picasaweb.google.com/drewmclean2486/SwedenAndDenmark#. That is also where all of out pictures from this trip are.We also went to the Scandinavian Zoo that is in Stockholm. The zoo had animals that all were found somewhere in Scandinavia (Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Denmark). There were Grey Wolfs, Grey Seals, Elk (known to us as Moose), Grizzlies, Otters, and many other little animals. My favorite was the cute little otters because when we got to there area the two of them were showing off for the crowd and squirming around on their back. I really wish we would have gone to the zoo in the summer bacause when we were there all of the Grizzlies were hibernating.
That night we went to Fridays for dinner and got yelled at by the waitress. Aparently if you were going to only order appetizers you had to sit in the bar area. We told the hostess that we were only going to order apps and she sat us in that section. The waitress told us about the rule and said "just so you know for the next time". Kels and I looked at eachother and laughed. "The next time", if we ever make it back there I think the least of our worries will be where to sit in Fridays.
That night we took a night train to Copenhagen, Denmark. That was another interesting night of sleep. First we slept on a boat now we were sleeping in a sleeper car on a train. That sounds a lot better then it actuall was. Kels and I had the top bunks of a room that was about the size of a closest and had two sets of three layer bunk beds. Inbetween the bunk beds there was about 2 feet of walking space and a tiny ladder to get up to the top on. Between the top bunk and the ceiling there was about 3 feet above the top of the bed.
Once we made it to Copenhagen at 8 am Sunday morning we had to go into the 7/11 to ask the cashier how to call numbers here in Denmark. We had gotten Thomas' (the guy we couch surfed with) phone number and neither Kels nor I could figure out how to call him to let him know we made it. Once we got a hold of him he came and met us in a square outside his house. The first thing he said when we met him was he had 3 czech girls at his place getting ready. He had them couch surfing the night before and it sounds like they partied hard because Thomas told us on the way to his house he was still stoned. Which I dont know if thats what he ment literally or if that is just an expression for people in Denmark to say they are still drunk. Anyway, we got to his place dropped his stuff of and headed of into a full day of walking. Being Sunday a lot of the museums and stuff were closed so we just walked around the city.We walked into this area called Christiana and it was the creepiest place I had ever been. We felt like we were in the movie Hostel. Kels will write more about the history of Christiana and what it reall was, in the next blog.
After a full day of walking and seeing the Little Mermaid sculpture we went back to Thomas' flat and hung out watching tv, eating pizza, and drinking beer for the rest of the night. We got up in the morning and caught the first train to Billund , which was where our flight departed from, and we saw the first ever LegoLand. Now when you look at the pictures keep in mind we were on a moving bus and it was hard to get good pictures while moving.
The last thing I would like to point out is inside the Billund Airport they had these booths inwhich you could smoke in and it would ventilate outside. It was pretty cool. I've never seen anything like it.
Well that was our weekend in a bottle and I hope you will go chech out our pictures on picsaweb and also I hope all is well back home.
We Miss You All
Kels and Drew
Tuesday, 17 February 2009
Wild weather and other excitement
Things are really starting to move here at Dalkeith house. I can’t believe how quickly the time flies. The weather here in Scotland has certainly been keeping us on our toes. I remember telling Drew that it rarely snows in Scotland and, when it does, it doesn’t actually stay on the ground long before melting. Apparently, I was wrong. This winter has been the snowiest UK winter in the last 23 years. I was watching the news and they were reporting on the snowstorms…the UK is definitely not used to this much snow and it’s evident in the fact that there have been over 50,000 calls into law enforcement agencies to report people throwing snowballs! Also, the UK has run out of salt for the roadways so it has been forced to dip into the salt supply at the table salt company, British Salt. The snow has cleared up now, except for on the hilltops, and the temperature has actually started to rise. We’ll see how long it lasts but we’re enjoying it for now! This past Friday we had our first house trip with the students. We spent the day in St. Andrews which is one of my favorite places in the whole world. St. Andrews is notoriously windy but, amazingly enough, we were blessed with a sunny, calm and warm day. On a personal level it was a great day…Drew and I had fun climbing the 158 spiral steps to the top of Rules Tower at St. Andrews Cathedral and climbing through the abandoned mines of St. Andrews Castle. We also spent some time at the Old Course but mainly we spent our day on the shores of the North Sea, either rock climbing or just relaxing. On a professional level the day was also a success. It was my first official trip with the students and they all enjoyed themselves a great deal. It was so rewarding to hear how much fun they had and I was happy that they enjoyed St. Andrews as much as I do.
On Saturday Drew and I got out of the house and enjoyed the day together. It was a nice, relaxed evening in Edinburgh and we went to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button which just came out here. As we waited for the last bus back to Dalkeith from Edinburgh we were greeted by a large group of lively students from the program who were out celebrating Saturday night in their own way. Needless to say our bus ride back was full of entertainment! What a romantic Valentine’s Day…
Drew and I got our first extended weekend (at the end of February) booked and we are pretty excited about it. We’re going to Sweden (where our hostel is a boat!) and Denmark but you’ll hear all about that when we get back.
Drew and I are taking cooking classes here at the house. Last week we made shortbread and bannocks, last night we made pastry and sponge cake and next week we’ll move on to casseroles and stews. We definitely get a lot of food out of the deal (we made four pies last night) so I imagine we’ll become pretty popular around the house because we’ve been giving most of it away. It has been fun so far but Drew is definitely threatened by my presence in the kitchen. My pies turned out much nicer than Drew’s which is unfortunate for him as he has enjoyed the last few years of endlessly picking on my less than stellar kitchen skills. As for me, I’ll celebrate my kitchen victories when I can and blog about it so the whole world can know!!!
Tonight I’ll be heading in to Edinburgh to see the Vagina Monologues with some students from the program. I’ve heard good reviews of the show so I’m excited to see it. I invited Drew to attend with us and the suggestion alone was too disturbing…he will be doing something manly tonight!
Well, that’s it for now, hope everything is going well back in the states…we miss you all!
Monday, 9 February 2009
Students, travels, and more
Lately Kels and I haven't done too much when it comes to getting out and traveling but we have done a lot of stuff around the house. Kels has been working a lot and getting to know all of the students. I have done my fair share of just walking around the house trying to find stuff to do. I have got a chance to get to know some of the students even though after a week and a half I still could probably only name about 10 of them. Most of them I have enjoyed spending time with and I like taking on the role of being the navigator or travel expert even though I dont know that much about traveling in Europe. Kels and I have started planning some of our extended weekend trips and I am really excited to go on some of the trips we are planning. So far we haven't had any difinitive decisions on where we are going to do but we have talked about going on a Italy, Switzerland, France, and Wales trip. That will be our Spring break probably. Then instead of a Paris/Amsterdam trip at the end we are going to do Amsterdam Germany and Easter Europe trip endin in Greece and flying back to Edinburgh a couple of days before we have to come back home.
I have been out on the town with the students a few times. We went on a pub crawl and I was the supposed tour guide even though we got lost on our way to one of the pubs. It was a lot of fun getting lost and most of the students didn't mind. There were a few that complained about all of the walking but I tried to pull them out of their shell and let them know they will have to do a lot more walking if they are planning on seeing a lot of Europe.
Last Sunday the students had to do a scavenger hunt in Edinburgh. When they got back most of them again complained about all of the walking. I over heard some conversations that it was the stupidest thing they have ever done. I interjected the point that they were not supposed to take it so serious and it was meant to just be a way of getting them out into Edinburgh and figuring out how to get around on their own. Most of them agreeded that it helped a lot with that but they didn't need to make it so in depth. Whatever, I cant wait to see how some of them travel Europe. They are all going to run out of money because they are going to take a cab everywhere rather then just walk.
Enough ranting about the students. It has been fun having more people around the house. It's not so lonely anymore. I know i have kels but in a house that has probably over 50 rooms and huge main areas it gets a little lonley walking around and never running into anyone even if you just say Hi as you walk by them in the hall. Last Saturday all of us went into Edinburgh and got to go into the castle for free. Some of the perks of being with a big group. I forgot how amazing the castle was. On our way into Edinburgh Kels and I figured out our camera broke so now we have to find a place to fix it or buy a new one. We both we really bummed because we didn't get to take any pics at the castle but I'm sure some of the people that are coming to visit want to see the castle so we will have it fixed by then and put up some pictures then.
After the castle Kels Naomi and I went to dinner to pass the time before we went on a haunted graveyard tour. We had a group of about 20 students and us. About 40 other people joined so we had about 60 people in a tomb at the end that wasn't much bigger then a bedroom. The cool thing about the tomb was that there was a proven poltergeist in there. I didn't have any encounters but one of the students said she felt someone squeeze her side and there was no one next to her. The Makenzie Poltergeist is what they call it and the tour we went on has had over 1000 physical encounters, 20 of which a person flat out pass out in front of everyone. I was sort of hoping that I would get some proof that there was something there but I didn't feel a thing. Oh well, I guess I'll have to wait for the Grey Lady, which is a ghost they say haunts the house we are staying in.
This weekend is a trip to St. Andrews with all of the students and it will be nice to get out of the house and go somewhere other then Edinburgh. Anyway, I hope all is well back home and I apologize for not having any pictures or video but wel will get the camera fix and then we will start taking more pictures so we can show you what we are doing.
I have been out on the town with the students a few times. We went on a pub crawl and I was the supposed tour guide even though we got lost on our way to one of the pubs. It was a lot of fun getting lost and most of the students didn't mind. There were a few that complained about all of the walking but I tried to pull them out of their shell and let them know they will have to do a lot more walking if they are planning on seeing a lot of Europe.
Last Sunday the students had to do a scavenger hunt in Edinburgh. When they got back most of them again complained about all of the walking. I over heard some conversations that it was the stupidest thing they have ever done. I interjected the point that they were not supposed to take it so serious and it was meant to just be a way of getting them out into Edinburgh and figuring out how to get around on their own. Most of them agreeded that it helped a lot with that but they didn't need to make it so in depth. Whatever, I cant wait to see how some of them travel Europe. They are all going to run out of money because they are going to take a cab everywhere rather then just walk.
Enough ranting about the students. It has been fun having more people around the house. It's not so lonely anymore. I know i have kels but in a house that has probably over 50 rooms and huge main areas it gets a little lonley walking around and never running into anyone even if you just say Hi as you walk by them in the hall. Last Saturday all of us went into Edinburgh and got to go into the castle for free. Some of the perks of being with a big group. I forgot how amazing the castle was. On our way into Edinburgh Kels and I figured out our camera broke so now we have to find a place to fix it or buy a new one. We both we really bummed because we didn't get to take any pics at the castle but I'm sure some of the people that are coming to visit want to see the castle so we will have it fixed by then and put up some pictures then.
After the castle Kels Naomi and I went to dinner to pass the time before we went on a haunted graveyard tour. We had a group of about 20 students and us. About 40 other people joined so we had about 60 people in a tomb at the end that wasn't much bigger then a bedroom. The cool thing about the tomb was that there was a proven poltergeist in there. I didn't have any encounters but one of the students said she felt someone squeeze her side and there was no one next to her. The Makenzie Poltergeist is what they call it and the tour we went on has had over 1000 physical encounters, 20 of which a person flat out pass out in front of everyone. I was sort of hoping that I would get some proof that there was something there but I didn't feel a thing. Oh well, I guess I'll have to wait for the Grey Lady, which is a ghost they say haunts the house we are staying in.
This weekend is a trip to St. Andrews with all of the students and it will be nice to get out of the house and go somewhere other then Edinburgh. Anyway, I hope all is well back home and I apologize for not having any pictures or video but wel will get the camera fix and then we will start taking more pictures so we can show you what we are doing.
Monday, 26 January 2009
Look at me now!!!!!
As most of you may know I haven't shaved since Kels and I's wedding and I was starting to get pretty bushy. I have bad news for those of you that liked it (and good news for those of you that didn't). I SHAVED!!!! It started when I hated how long my hair was so Kelsey shaved my head and my beard looked like crap once my hair was so short. So I trimmed it pretty short. I thought that I was only going to trim a little but as I trimmed it still looked prettey bad so I went really short.
Enough about my beard onto what I have done since the last post that I wrote. I have spent alot of time in Edinburgh. I have gone to Camera Obscura which is a place where they have a parascope type thing that gives you a 360 up by the degree view of Edinburgh from the castle. It also has a lot of paintings and pictures that are optical illusions. It actually was a lot of fun
Another thing I did while I was in Edinburgh was a whiskey tour. You walk around a building and a tour guide shows you how Scotch Whiskey is made. You find out the difference between single malt and a blend. The best part is at the end you get a shot of Single Malt and a Blend and you also get a free Scotch glass. I found out that I am not much of a scotch guy so I wont be going to the pub and ordering a scotch with a water back anytime soon.
Kels, Naomi, and I went into Edinburgh the Friday after kels was done with student teaching and celebrated. That was a lot of fun and I think all of us forgot how strong drinks are over here. We each only had a few but we had a great time (if you know what I mean).
A few weeks ago I took a long bus ride up to a castle in Dirlenton called, wierdly enough, Dirlenton Castle. It was a lot better on paper then it was actually seeing it. It has a huge garden that no flowers are blooming in at this time of the year and the castle was only a ruin castle. It was still fun nonetheless. So far I have gotten lost a few times and this trip was probably the worst. I went to traveline.com and looked up how to get to the castle but genious me didn't write down what buses I had to take. I made it to the castle just fine but I got off the bus where I thought the website told me to and found out I couldn't find a bus that connected from there to Dalkeith. So stuck in the town of Wallyford I decided to start hoofing it. That was a 4km walk. I made it to the next town and found a bus that would take me back to Dalkeith but it was a 45 minute wait and I was already half way back to the house so I said 'well I walked this far I might as well walk the reat of the way.' So about an hour and a half later I finally got back and told everyone about my awesome adventure. It ended being a really good day, between seeing a castle and seeing a lot of the rural scenery that I walked through.
This past weekend Kels and I flew over to Ireland for the weekend. The best way to get around in the part of Ireland that me and kels went was by car. That was a very interesting experience. I dont know what was worse driving on the left side of the road or the driver side of the car being on the right side of the car. If you check out some of the video I posted you will see I was a little nervous about it and check out how small the roads are. In one of the videos we show a semi that almost hits the side median (for lack of a better word) everytime a car has to pass in the opposite direction. Once we arrived at the hostel we were staying at we headed out for the Cliffs Of Moher. They were amazing and you know how they say a picture worth a thousand words these pictures of the cliffs don't do them justice. I remember reading somthing about the cliffs are 650 feet above the Atlantic. I tell you what I never thought that 650 feet could be so scary. As most of you could guess there were signs that say dont pass but I did, but not without getting yelled at by Kelsey. I have a few pictures from the ledge of the cliff but I will have to show you all when I get home that in the pictures I actuall have pictures of many birds lying down at the bottom by the ocean. You cant see them unless you zoom in on the pictures on the camera.
All in all I have had a few fun weeks and it has been fun traveling with Kels whenever she can get a moment away from work. I plan on doing better about updating our blog but Kels and I have been and are going to be busier then a one legged man in an ass kicking contest. (I read that in my books and have been waiting a week to be able to use it.)
Ok when you watch this video I want you to realize I just found out I can do a bunch of fun stuff to our videos in a program on out computer. So last night I spent about 2 hours on this, most of which was exploring the program.
Wednesday, 21 January 2009
Just a quick update
We know, we know, we have fallen very behind in our blogging. I guess we have a lot to update you on. I have finished my student teaching here. I was able to do some actual teaching in a variety of classes and got some very interesting questions about life in America such as “is everyone fat”, “why do you like ‘thick’ girls like Paris Hilton”, “do you live on a farm”, “is going to New York City like going into Edinburgh” and “are there palm trees everywhere in America?” It feels so good to be done with my teaching and getting a good start to my job here.
The house is starting to fill up now. Our resident director of academics and his wife have arrived along with both of our faculty members and in just over a week 59 students will arrive to begin their semester in Scotland. It will be very nice to see the house filled and full of life again!
Since our last blog we have had quite a few adventures. Last Friday Drew, Naomi and myself celebrated my last night of student teaching with a night out in the Grassmarket area of Edinburgh. We went to a few different pubs and just had a really great time being carefree. The following evening we went to Rosewell for a traditional Ceilidh (pronounced Kay-lee) dance. Ceilidh is much like square dancing with a little bit of irish jig mixed in. We were by far the youngest people at the dance and felt like the guests of honor. People were offering to buy us drinks, give us rides home and were pulling us out onto the dance floor every time the music began. Drew was very apprehensive about the whole evening but really enjoyed himself once he got dancing. We looked like absolute fools because we had no idea what we were doing and, as most of you already know, we’re terrible dancers to begin with! On Sunday, Drew and I went into Edinburgh and tested out a scavenger hunt that the students will be completing when they arrive. It was fun to revisit some parts of the city that I hadn’t yet been back to.
Drew and I have both been spending a lot of time catching up on our reading. It has been so nice to be able to have some free time to actually be able to sit down and read. I’m including some pictures of our bedroom because I’ve had a few requests to see where we’re living.
Last night we gathered to watch Obama’s inauguration with the others in the house. It was interesting to watch it with the British commentary…the Brits certainly love to place extra emphasis on his middle name! This weekend Drew and I will be traveling to Shannon County, Ireland for a quick weekend getaway…more on that later!
Friday, 9 January 2009
This and that...
Hello! I just finished my first week of student teaching here in Scotland. I was just observing classes in the social studies department this week and will begin teaching in a variety of classes next week. The social studies department is composed of history, geography and religious, moral and philosophical courses. Education in Scotland is much different than back in the states because students are only required to attend school until the age of 16. The last two years of school are optional and more concentrated in specific subject areas, like declaring a major in college. It is interesting, to say the least but I have enjoyed it thus far.
The weather this week has been pretty cool and overcast. It has struck me how far north we are because it is dark when I go to school in the morning and dark when I come back in the afternoon…I am looking forward to this summer when we’ll be experiencing really long days!
Drew has had an exciting week. Yesterday he spent the day in Edinburgh investigating the Royal Mile and Calton Hill and taking some great pictures. He fell asleep on the bus ride home, missed the stop in Dalkeith so he got to ride all the way to Gorebridge (hour or more on the bus) where the bus turned around to come back to Dalkeith. Today he ventured out to explore the grounds of the Dalkeith estate and spent a good 3 ½ hours getting lost on the 800 acres of the estate…it sounds silly but, really, the best thing to do on the grounds here is to walk around, get lost, and try to find your way back. It sounds like he found some pretty cool things that I didn’t know were on the grounds so I am looking forward to going out hiking with him in the near future to try to find them again! Tomorrow we will be heading up to Perth for a little sightseeing.
Drew and I have become swept up in one of Britain’s favorite addictions – Big Brother. Celebrity Big Brother is airing right now with Latoya Jackson, Coolio, Vern (mini-me from Austin Powers) and a bunch of other British celebrities. It started last Friday, airs every night at 9:00 p.m. and the first elimination is tonight…it is so cheesy especially for someone like me who hates reality TV but, sadly, we’re hooked!
The economy here is much like the economy back home. I was shocked when I first arrived in Dalkeith to see many of the shops, including Sam’s pub – a favorite drinking establishment for Dalkeith students, out of business. All Woolworth’s shops across the UK have completely gone out of business as well. Edinburgh, being a hub of European banking has really felt the effects of the “credit crunch”. It seems as though everyone is talking about the credit crunch and, though it’s dismal to realize that the economy is crappy everywhere, I guess Drew and I are benefitting from a better exchange rate!
Well, I hope everything is going well back home…we miss you all!
The weather this week has been pretty cool and overcast. It has struck me how far north we are because it is dark when I go to school in the morning and dark when I come back in the afternoon…I am looking forward to this summer when we’ll be experiencing really long days!
Drew has had an exciting week. Yesterday he spent the day in Edinburgh investigating the Royal Mile and Calton Hill and taking some great pictures. He fell asleep on the bus ride home, missed the stop in Dalkeith so he got to ride all the way to Gorebridge (hour or more on the bus) where the bus turned around to come back to Dalkeith. Today he ventured out to explore the grounds of the Dalkeith estate and spent a good 3 ½ hours getting lost on the 800 acres of the estate…it sounds silly but, really, the best thing to do on the grounds here is to walk around, get lost, and try to find your way back. It sounds like he found some pretty cool things that I didn’t know were on the grounds so I am looking forward to going out hiking with him in the near future to try to find them again! Tomorrow we will be heading up to Perth for a little sightseeing.
Drew and I have become swept up in one of Britain’s favorite addictions – Big Brother. Celebrity Big Brother is airing right now with Latoya Jackson, Coolio, Vern (mini-me from Austin Powers) and a bunch of other British celebrities. It started last Friday, airs every night at 9:00 p.m. and the first elimination is tonight…it is so cheesy especially for someone like me who hates reality TV but, sadly, we’re hooked!
The economy here is much like the economy back home. I was shocked when I first arrived in Dalkeith to see many of the shops, including Sam’s pub – a favorite drinking establishment for Dalkeith students, out of business. All Woolworth’s shops across the UK have completely gone out of business as well. Edinburgh, being a hub of European banking has really felt the effects of the “credit crunch”. It seems as though everyone is talking about the credit crunch and, though it’s dismal to realize that the economy is crappy everywhere, I guess Drew and I are benefitting from a better exchange rate!
Well, I hope everything is going well back home…we miss you all!
Monday, 5 January 2009
Poor Vikings
Last night I went out to a pub in Dalkeith and watched the first half of the game. Since the pub closed at 11pm I could not finish the game. I woke up this morning and the first thing I did was went downstairs to the library to get online to see how the Vikings did. I really wish I would have seen a different result but as most of you probably already know the Vikings lost. This does actually make my life a little easier just because I dont have to find a place that will be open at 2am to watch the next one. Enough about the Vikings.... Today Kels is doing some more training and tomorrow she starts her 2 weeks of student teaching at a school only about a mile away. I have some good and bad news from back home in Lino Lakes. Since most people ask for the bad news first I will do that. In the past few days my mom had to make the difficult decision to put our dog Hunter down. She hadn't gotten up, eaten or drank anything in two days. It makes me sad that I wont be able to go home and be greeted by here as I walk in the door (or when she finally hears that i am there). Oh well, on the the good news, my mom found out that she is having another baby. Can you believe it 6 kids. I personally think she is crazy. Any more than 3 would make me go crazy but good for here for being strong and the bravest person i know.
So with getting multiple request I am finally going to post all of the photos and video we have taken since we arrived in New York. Thats one thing I didn't tell too many people is during our lay over in New York me and kels went down to Times Square and had a wonderful romantic dinner at McDonalds in the middle of down town. So yeah that was fun and take a look at all of our pics and videos.
To see our pics you need to go to this website: http://picasaweb.google.com/drewmclean2486/
Here are all of our videos so far:
So with getting multiple request I am finally going to post all of the photos and video we have taken since we arrived in New York. Thats one thing I didn't tell too many people is during our lay over in New York me and kels went down to Times Square and had a wonderful romantic dinner at McDonalds in the middle of down town. So yeah that was fun and take a look at all of our pics and videos.
To see our pics you need to go to this website: http://picasaweb.google.com/drewmclean2486/
Here are all of our videos so far:
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