I've been enjoying a wide array of visitors for the past week. I've really enjoyed showing people the city and getting a chance to do the toursity things I hadn't previously done. It's also been really fun having my flatmates and friends here meet people from other parts of my life.
First, Jacob, a friend from Brandeis, came from Copenhagen, where he is studying abroad for the semester. They have a THREE WEEK fall break on his program (he's at an international program), so he's spending much of his time in the UK. With Jacob, I, for the first time, entered one of the many 'authentic Scottish' stores on the Royal Mile. We climbed up Arthur's Seat where we nearly fell off the top due to wind, ate delicious Indian food, and visited the parliament. I took him to my favorite little coffee shop to get some work done, showed him the Elephant House (where J.K. Rowling wrote parts of Harry Potter--very exciting), and ate fish & chips. My flatmates had a great time with him and I think he equally enjoyed the Darroch 3/3 experience--tea with every meal and a fun time experimenting with food.
A side note, let me tell you about the Royal Mile. It's probably the #1 tourist location for those looking for a stereotypical Scotland experience. A road filled with kilt stores and cashmere stores and places that serve haggis. At the top of the road is where the castle lies. And you know, that's all there is to Scotland...(:
Jacob left Tuesday and Mom came on Thursday. When she arrived, we walked around a bit on the Royal Mile and purchased some lovely cashmere scarves. Then she took my flatmates(+Monica) and I out for sushi which was delicious and fun for all involved. Friday, we went to the Palace and the Queen's Gallery. After a bit more touristy shopping, we went out for dinner at a nice little Scottish restaurant. The weather on both Friday and Saturday, for the first time, was rather unpleasant. Saturday it unfortunately rained non-stop. During which we took a bus trip to Loch Lomond and the Stirling Castle with a few other stops in between. We took a cruise on the Loch in an enclosed boat, luckily, because it poured the whole time. Stirling Castle was great, and we tried to spend as much time inside as possible. That evening, we had dinner with my flat mate Frankie and her family who were in for the weekend. Said goodbye after dinner, and picked up Seth from the airport shuttle!
Like I said, nonstop visitors. Seth is studying abroad in London, so is pretty familiar with the UK experience. As such, we attempted to make his time here uniquely Scottish. I think we did a pretty good job. On Sunday, Seth's first stop was to purchase a tartan hat complete with a pom on top and matching scarf...both of which he wore all day. We went up the Walter Scott monument and got amazing views of the city. We visited the castle (after getting a bit lost...), and it was actually cool to see two castles back-to-back like such. In Stiring castle, we had learned that their restoration of the Great Hall was based on that of the Edinburgh Castle. Sure enough, after entering the Great Hall in the Edinburgh Castle, it was strikingly similar. We climbed up Arthur's Seat just as dusk was falling and by the time we got up faced an incredibly windy and beautifully lit Edinburgh. Went out for good dinner and came back to the flat for tea.
Missy & Sarah arrive on Thursday, I cannot wait! Until then--I'll be getting ahead on my work...spending lots of time in my favorites Black Medicine Coffee Company and BeanScene switching between tea and hot chocolate. Sounds good to me.
Ready for something pretty profound? Here goes it: It's funny how no matter where I am, I am the same person. (wow.)
I'm in Scotland where people speak in different accents and eat sheep's stomach, but I still have a messy room. And I still like to lay on the couch with my friends and watch a movie instead of going to the pub. And I still spend hours on my computer instead of doing my homework. Hi, my name is Jackie and I'm pretty consistent.
In other news, I tried sheep's stomach. It's called haggis, it's a Scottish DELICACY. For reals. It was pretty decent, tasted like meat... They also eat sheep's blood--called black pudding. I haven't tried that yet, don't know if I will.
We really like to find differences in our pronunciations, vocabulary, and foods here in Darroch 3/3. Earlier this week, Fatti and I had our flatmates try a variety of peanut butter inspired combinations.
1. Peanut Butter and Jelly (or, Jam, as they call it)
2. Peanut Butter and Apples
3. Peanut Butter and Bananas
4. Cream Cheese (or, just "Philadelphia") and Jelly
Jill is the best at these games because as much as she loves America (my lovely Scottish flatmate is more in touch with US pop culture than I ever have been and can often be found singing the theme song for "the OC"), she is very stubborn in her ways. The idea of peanut butter with jam could not make less sense. And a bagel with anything other than butter or jam? Why would you do that? Crazy Americans...
Some of my favorite pronunciations include:
- con-trahhhh-vuh-see (controversy)
- oregon(like the state)-o (oregano)
- bahhh-sil (basil)
- gahr-idge (garage)
- gray-im (graham)
Some vocabulary of amusement:
BRITISH / AMERICAN
jelly / jell-o
jam / jelly
pudding / dessert
(i have tried numerous times, in vain, to attempt to explain what american pudding is)
tea time / dinner time
(jill calls it "t time")
to hoover / to vacuum
queue / line
(one can "Q-jump")
kirby clips / bobby pins
trainers / sneakers
physio / trainer
course / major
(ie, what's your course? = what's your major?)
till / cash register
A cupboard is a closet in the hallway or just a cupboard, a wardrobe is a closet for clothes, a corridor is a hallway. A car-park is a parking lot, a tack-board is a bulletin board, and a jumper is a sweater. But only a specific kind of sweater...I still don't quite understand the differentiation. We'd rather be anything than a Chav or NED--which are some what socially acceptable terms for "white trash." The word "piss" or "pissed" can be used in more ways than one could possibly imagine.
They also eat pancakes for dessert. We made an American breakfast on Thursday consisting of eggs, pancakes, and french toast. It was delightful.
Okay, now I am going to go work on a handwriting recognition program for my AI class. Ack...
My WONDERFUL flatmatesFrom the left -- Fatinha , Jill, Me, Franke & Jessie below
I can't believe a week has passed since the last entry. Not because of any specific events, I am just confused by time at the moment. This is going to be a long one, feel free to skip around/just look at pictures.
This weekend, I went on a trip to Inverness. We saw so many things that it's hard to remember and comprehend it all. But, more than anything, we spent time on the bus. Which, after returning home a few hours ago, makes me feel pretty unaccomplished and stir-crazy. Monica kept commenting on the fact that it felt like we were in high school. And I agree, though perhaps for sightly different reasons. It was irritatingly organized at times and out of our control, but at the same time, efficient and got us to see a lot. On Friday we left at 8am and went to Scone Palace (pronounced Scoon) where the coronation of the Scottish kings once occurred. Now, the Earl of Mansfield lives there.
From there we went to see some sheep and some sheep-herding dogs. It was a pretty cool display...the Shepard was able to make different sounds with whistling to communicate with the dog who would then change its path of travel, causing the sheep to change as well. It's crazy how well those dogs are trained, they all recognize up to 27 different whistles.
They were border collies, which doesn't really mean much to me, but the Shepard was a pretty big fan, clearly. He sheared a sheep for us, which was pretty cool. Video Below...
We had lunch in a small town whose name I forget at a cute little place called "Happy Haggis," which made me smile. In the afternoon we visited the Glenvilet distillery. Dearest readers, you know me well enough to deduce that whisky is most likely not my favorite thing. It was interesting, but the smell was making me pretty sick to my stomach. I tasted it and felt equally as unhappy. Danielle and I were excited to see a ginormous distiller and understand how it works after so many Organic Chem labs involving the very same device, in miniature form, of course. So, there you have it, Jackie visits distillery and is more interested by distiller than alcohol. Oh, life... That evening was pretty uneventful. Inverness was not such a hopping town. I hung out with my lovely friends, and went to a pub with a band that was playing too loudly. And we had a good time.
Sunday (aka today) was jam-packed. And yet, we still managed to spend a good six hours on the bus. Woke up early and went to the site of the Battle of Culloden, a battle that took place in 1746, the last battle on British soil! It was between the government and the Highlanders. There were Scottish people on both sides. For those who don't know, Scotland has been a part of the UK since 1707. This battle was over restoring the Stuarts to the British monarchy. They lost, and lots of wonderful Scottish things like kilts and bagpipes were outlawed. Pretty unfortunate. It was interesting to hear them explain the red coat's war tactics because it's something I've heard so many times in US History class. First row shoots, ducks and reloads while second row shoots, ducks and reloads while third row shoots...etc. Basically this is what I've always been told lost them the Revolutionary War. And won them this battle.
Following this we took a boat ride on Loch Ness. I met Nessie. We're now best friends; it's official. It was a beautiful boat ride.
Monica & Me
Nessie Spotting!
Castle from the Boat
Brandeis in Scotland! Look at us go!
Monica & Danielle
Me & Fatinha (flatmate!)
All in all, a fun trip. I lived in a room with 5 girls, saw lots of fun things, and took lots of silly pictures. Here's a look on the map where we went.
As the title presents, I am really beginning to feel as though I am living here; it's great. Right now, I'm sitting in the library next to Monica and we're doing work (mostly). I have a groove. I wake up in the morning and I know where I am and I have things to look forward to. And, I'm feeling good too--I've been going to the gym a lot and cooking lots of delicious food and going to class and enjoying the people I spend my time with. And I'm enjoying just spending time with them. Which also means I'm not doing so much touristy stuff, but it's okay because I have a lot of visitors coming soon with whom I can catch up on that. The next few weekends are as follows: Inverness, Jacob coming from Copenhagen, Mom coming, Missy & Sarah coming, then lastly, I am possibly going to York (not sure though, doesn't seem that exciting). I'm looking into planning a trip to London and maybe somewhere else--exploring cheap flights for various weekends to random places! Kind of an exciting idea...Monica and I are thinking of going somewhere together.
My classes are going well, I'm pretty intimidated by one of my CS classes (Artificial Intelligence Practical) and the assignment I've been presented with--it's going to take a lot of time to even begin to understand. The other CS class, Databases, I really like. I just really like databases, so having a class in which I learn about why and how they are used is great.
No big plans for this week yet, need to make headway in my two CS assignments, one of which is due the following week. We're going to have a break fast at my flat and eat bagels and lox and the like on Thursday. I should maybe start taking more pictures... Bye for now!
A week or so ago a few fellow Jews on IFSA and I decided that we needed to have a proper Rosh Hashanah meal and share it with our flatmates. So, we did just that. We took a bus out to the BIG grocery store on the outskirts of the city to find that tiny little 5-ft section with Jewish food options and got ready to celebrate! I made matzoh ball soup, kugel, jewish apple cake, and challah. Danielle made brisket, carrot simmis, and rugelach. So on Monday evening, 13 people sat around a table, learned about Rosh Hashanah, and ate lots of delicious food!
Shana Tova! Have a wonderful & sweet new year.
I occasionally get "woof"-ed at as a casual reminder that my blog needs updating. So thanks for that, Evan...
This weekend was meant to be my homestay. I had been placed with another girl from Butler in a home in Edinburgh because they ran out of places to send us outside of the city. So eight of us were here. I was kind of disappointed, but was still hoping for the best because it could still be fun to meet a family. I'm not entirely sure of how the homestay was introduced to the families with whom we were placed because it was presented to us as a cultural experience for us and the family. An opportunity for the exchange of knowledge and ways of life. Of course, Edinburgh is a highly developed Western city, so I wasn't quite sure how much "culture" I'd get to experience, but it could still be nice. The woman with which I stayed was very kind and the house was nice, but we didn't spend so much time with her. She made us meals and I had a comfortable place to sleep, but there wasn't much dialogue. She treated it more like a lodging--like we were renting a room in her home. When we arrived at her house she asked if we had plans for the evening; we were confused because we thought that the homestay was our plan for the evening. I ended up watching Annie with my roommate; we sang along. Saturday we were taken on a bus to Glasgow by the "group coordinator," a lady named Francis who seemed to love being able to get to know all of us. That was nice. Glasgow was cool, but we only spent about 3 hours there. Went to a museum then to a shop that she wanted to check out. And then we got back on the bus and came back to Edinburgh for what was supposed to be a free night & next day. There didn't seem to be any purpose in staying in the house for another night when I was only a few miles from my own flat, so we asked if we could leave that night, and did just that.
I have a bit of a cold now, which is kind of unpleasant, but tomorrow evening is Erev Rosh Hashanah, which will be nice. A girl from Brandeis & I planned an elaborate meal in which we will share some of our Jewish love with our flatmates & friends. I'm excited, and have been cooking for a few days! It's funny how unfamiliar the food is to the other Americans and Brits alike. How do you describe matzoh balls and kugel and rugelach is to someone who has never had it? Make it!
Nearing the end of Day 2 of Classes. Which means yesterday was Day 1. Let me begin with stating that I love the first day of classes, it's fun and exciting and makes me all together thrilled about getting into new things. Yesterday, I went to four classes, only two of which I was registered for, because one of the great things about being in college is having the ability to choose in what way I'd like to learn. I'll go through the day with my thoughts:
9am: Health & Society
I was excited for this class as soon as I saw its description back in January/February. It seemed intriguing because the society in which health was being discussed was decidedly different from my own in one large way: the National Health Service. The NHS is the UK's health service that is publicly funded. So this class has two major parts: discussing the sociological impacts of health and then discussing the role of the NHS. Sounds like exactly what I wanted. I'm excited. Though, I must admit, a bit skeptical of this sociological stuff. It's pretty easy to find that I'm writing the same thing in my notes with different words. But I'm trying to have an open mind. The reading was more interesting than the lecture, which seemed to just be a repetition of "health is comprised of ones physical, mental, and social well-being, it is not just the absence/presence of illness." Yeah, I got it the first time, thanks...what? There's a lot of factors that contribute to health? Oh, I didn't know....etc
12pm: Scottish Literature
I went in skeptical and came out pleased. The lecturer was great and really interesting, but, it turns out he was the lecturer for English Lit--not Scottish Lit. The classes meet together for the first two days of the week and separately for the last meeting. In just one lecture, though, he brought a lot of interesting thoughts to mind mostly through the discussion of the transition into a literate society from one almost entirely dependent on spoken word. As much as I enjoyed what he had to say, it made me nervous to think about how much reading I would have that I wouldn't necessarily enjoy (or would be a large effort to make myself enjoy) and could see myself falling behind.
4pm: Scottish Ethnology
Ethnology is the study of culture and its origins, it's similar to anthropology. I was pretty much bored within 5 minutes after entering the class. It wasn't even a proper lecture, but the professor was not very intriguing and spent a good amount of time talking about rules. I got a copy of the course syllabus and nothing was interesting to me. Boooo
5pm: Science & Society
Firstly, there is a class with this exact title being offered at Brandeis next semester. But, the professor had me hooked and interested and thinking all sorts of things that I like to think. So I'm doing it here. I'm interested in the fact that there is very little pressure for people to be math and science literate. And it's not necessarily the public's fault because the layout of early science classes (at least those I experienced) is not designed for the majority of people. It's monotonous information.
In case it wasn't clear enough, I chose Health & Society and Science & Society. Which makes me feel awfully silly, but they really aren't very similar. I'll be looking at two different topics for similar things. Lots of sociology, which I haven't taken before. We'll see how it goes...Still have two CS classes!
