Edinburgh Castle, Harry Potter, and Awesome Hats

So today we ventured back to the fabulous city of Edinburgh, I do recommend it to all of you if you ever get the chance. GREAT touristy stuff, lots of great food, and castles. Well, we started off our day in the castle, needless to say you do a lot of walking around outside and it wasn't the warmest of days, so that was a little bit of a bummer. But there were definitely tons of cool stuff inside. We saw the Scottish crown jewels...you couldn't take pictures in there so I had to take some mental snapshots of those. Important people back then wore some pretty snazzy stuff let me tell ya! I mean, here I thought our twirling outfits were covered in rhinestones...they just don't compare now. After taking some awesome photographs within areas of the castle (which might have been offensive to some onlookers), but hey when you have sweet life size fake people acting out some awesome historical events...you just have to seize the moment and jump in it with them! I mean you're only here once, right??

After that we went to an awesome little underground pub where I had some fish and chips again...I'm obsessed. There were about 15 tvs in this place and each one had on the Chelsea vs. Manchester City "football" game on. Man I've never been exposed to so much soccer in my life. I think my favorite parts are when they try and trip each other...it makes the game so much more exciting. But seriously, I think I might be actually starting to enjoy watching that sport....

Then, my favorite part of the day...we went to The Elephant House, which is where J.K. Rowling created the most awesome book series of ALL TIME. Yes. I was there. In my Gryffindor scarf and all. I will post a picture so you can see it and believe it. I looked awesome. I also had some awesome caramel apple pie there. I will most likely revisit this great little cafe.

I also purchased an entire purple scottish kilt outfit...kilt, sash, and hat. I just need my matching knee high socks and I'm set. It's pretty legit. I've totally got Halloween covered next fall now. I would put up a picture of it, but I have yet to put the whole outfit on together...so for now I will just put up the picture of me in the hat that I walked around in most of the day. Did I look like a tourist??? Not at all..come on...I was in that sweet Scottish hat. I totally fit in and looked solid.

Some things I learned:

- If I ever have a child and take him/her to a Scottish castle when he/she is around the age of 2 and put them in a backpack type thing to carry around...I'm definitely going to make sure their facing out instead of my back. I don't know, but we kinda figured that the kid had to have been mad that all day they had to stare at their dad's back. His ticket better have been free.

- Walking around in a Gryffindor scarf in Edinburgh all day is just as fun as it sounds.

- Walking around in a Scottish hat all day is even better than it sounds.

- I'm starting to love the bag pipes...especially when stores have on bagpipe cds that are playing contemporary American hits. LOVE IT.

- Don't buy 2 for 5 pound cds...they won't work. Why I didn't figure that out before the purchase...we'll never know.

- I love the candy here. Dang it.

- Everything I buy is purple. No seriously. I think I might have a problem.

Some Tatties and Television Drama

So I made mince and tatties today!! My first pretty much legit cooked meal ever...and it was a Scottish dish! It's basically some meat, gravy, onions, and then mashed potatoes (or tatties). It was actually REALLY good. I'm excited to make it for people back home :)

Well after a weeks full of classes, I can honestly say I enjoy them...and have no idea what to expect. I still can't tell if I actually need to read the material. Yeah they "suggest" or "encourage" it, but can I pass if I don't?? They should really let me know these things, I mean shoot I'm not here to study let's be honest! I'm here to travel! I basically need to know how much I can slack off and still get by. Goodness my father would be extremely upset with me for making that comment, so naturally I'm going to make that comment online where he can easily find it.

My classes are actually interesting, for each of my 3 classes, I have one lecture a week, one movie screening, and one seminar. So in my Television Drama seminar yesterday, (with the awesome older stereotypical British professor) we had to all introduce ourselves. Turns out, my professor has been to Kansas! And apparently he went to some seminars or conventions or something in Kansas. Then he went on to talk about how we were each going to sign up for a seminar to start off and lead once during the semester. He then went on to say that they do "this" back in the states, he then leaned over looked at me and said slightly chuckling, "so we should expect you to be really good at this!" And by this he means public speaking...starting off a seminar and leading a discussion. Is that just an American thing?? Either way, I can twirl in fron of 50,000 people, but make me open my mouth and project words in front of a room full of 12 people?? I want to throw up. I thought I was going to faint introducing myself and where I was from. But hey...it's all good ya wanna know why?? Because I get to talk about SOAP OPERAS...which we all know America has a great selection to choose from. So we'll see how that goes!

I also had my "induction" for the gym today. What I learned:

How to turn on a treadmill

How to make the treadmill go faster

How to turn off the treadmill

How to use the leg press

...need I go on?

Their gym actually is pretty cool....unbelievably small compared to the rec, but their equipment is really up to date and nice. AND I can rent a badminton court to practice baton! That was interesting trying to explain what I was wanting...but still, I'm glad I have a place to practice...if I feel the need to :) They really have so many sports facilities to use, it's pretty great. Tons of clubs too that are easy to get involved in. I joined the polo club! I have my first lesson next Wednesday... OH YES.

Tomorrow we're heading to Edinburgh again...such a great city...another busy weekend!

CHEERS!

FOAM PARTY

Well...I attended my first foam party last night. It was the party to end "freshers week". The only foam party's I've heard about are from my friends who did spring break in Mexico, so I knew I was in for a treat ha. Basically it is how it sounds...a foam party! The dance floor was covered in foam, the techno remixed music is crankin, and foam is being blasted out of these "foam guns" above everyone. It's great! There were also very many interesting sights and smells on the dance floor as well haha...I will just refrain from elaborating on that. Before I left, my roommates had said "don't drown in the foam"...little did I know they were actually serious. Oh my goodness, we literally couldn't breathe at one point ha. They literally just pour foam on you...and when you can't move and have foam in your mouth, up your nose, and in your eyes, it makes for a rather difficult time. But it was great!!! Definitely glad I went.

So I've been to all of my classes now..finally in the full swing of academic learning, oh it feels so great..haha. So the classes I'm in are quite interesting.

1. Reading Film and Television : Taught by two professors from England. The guy professor is awesome...has the classic British sense of humor and I love it. Basically we talk about films and TV and watch them. Not bad, eh?

2. Television Drama: Ok so imagine an older British professor dressed in all black talking in the calming yet sophisticated British accent to a group of students...yep that's my professor. Again, love the man. We're watching all British TV in this class so that should be interesting.

3. New Hollywood Cinema: This is taught by young looking man from England. He also seems really cool, sure knows his stuff...as well as his American history. It's so different learning about your culture from someone in a different culture. I'm really looking forward to this class actually, it's all really interesting and I am really interested to hear his perspective on everything. Again, we talk about films and watch them. LOVE IT.

Other than that, not much has occurred so not much else to say!

Some things I've learned:

~ The sweat pants, hoodie, and ball cap look to class..totally unacceptable here. Not sure I will be able to make through the semester. What I wear out for a nice evening dinner on the weekend..I have to wear to class now. Awesome.

~ Earlier I wasn't concerned about staying fit while over here considering I can't cook and everything's in smaller portions...but today I found an amazing place in their union that serves awesome home cooked food for a great price. Dang it, now I have to pay to join their gym.

~ The accent that has given me the hardest time in terms of trying to understand them...polish.

~ PB and J does not exist here...meaning they don't make it. It obviously exists if I make it, but they don't eat it here. They eat beans on toast.

~ I'm listening to JLS right now. The awesome boy band from England again. Yep. You're jealous.

Some William Wallace and British Academy Awards

So today we decided to head up to the Wallace Monument. It is really just right off our campus, but took a little bit to find it. Of course we assumed that since we could see it, we could easily find how to get up there. Wrong. But after some walking we eventually found it and headed up the steep hill to get there. It is really amazing! We went inside to look at the Wallace Sword and all the other interesting things they had in there. There was so much history to take in it was almost overwhelming! (Makes me wish I paid a bit more attention in history class back in highschool...) The views from the top of the monument were unreal! You could see for miles and it was just a perfect day to go...sunny and clear. Then we decided to take some awesome pictures in front of the monument. We started a trend for all the other foreigners that were there when we took our "jumping pictures" in front of it. Yep, we're just that cool.

I also just got done watching the British Academy Awards. It was obviously a lot like our Academy Awards except that "The Hurt Locker" won SOO many over AVATAR! Personally, I couldn't believe it. I was quite disappointed. I was sure James Cameron would win best director and that Avatar would win best film. Wrong again. Oh well, hopefully it runs away with all the wins at our Academy Awards. Kristen Stewart won Rising Star and of course was very awkward accepting her award. Prince William was there and presented and award...(that was lovely to watch I must say). I think the best part was when Mickey Rourke got up on stage and the first thing he said when he looked out was "Well, I can't see that far" and proceeded to read the prompter in a very awkward Mickey Rourke like way with one eye closed and leaning forward. Haha it was great.

This week will be my first full scheduled week. I finally have all my classes situated and will officially start all of them this week! I am very excited. I will be taking Reading Film and Television, New Hollywood Cinema, and Television Drama. For each class I have a separate screening where I watch some movie or tv show, and then a seminar. I think I can deal with that! So I'm really anxious to get all of that going finally!

Some random things I've experienced today:

- While asking a person on top of the Wallace Monument to take our picture, we said about three words and his friend goes "Oh, they're American". Great.

- Lays potato chips make "crisps" here and have some really really odd flavors such has "Turkey and Stuffing". Apparently they had a contest once to get a new flavor and some of the finalists were "Fish and Chips" and "Cajun Squirrel". My roommate said the Cajun Squirrel flavor was actually really good....

- Mountain Dew does not exist here, therefore Diet Mountain Dew does not exist here, therefore I am not sure I will make it. Soooo guess I'll be giving up mountain dew for lent! :)

- Lucky Charms (my favorite cereal) has been banned here. Reason??? They were worried about it being too unhealthy. Again, was I suprised? Not so much.

- I tried the Scotland "national drink" thing or their soda...it's called Irn Bru...it's actually pretty good! Doesn't take like anything I've had before but it's kinda fruity... on the can it says "Bru'd in Scotland to a secret recipe for over 100 years". Legit stuff I tell ya.

Edinburgh...

So today a group of us went to Edinburgh, and it was definitely a fun day! And of course the fun started before we even got there...trying to use the train. I definitely felt like Mr. Weasley in the Harry Potter films when he's trying to figure out how to get through the gate of the train station...yep. That was me today. But I eventually figured it out.

Edinburgh is definitely a beautiful city with some amazing architecture. It's got all the touristy shops you can imagine too...you can find a scottish flag or kilt every 3 stores. Of course we stopped by the Disney store where we just couldn't resist picking up a Mickey Mouse dressed in a kilt playing the bag pipes. I mean come on, that was a necessary buy for sure.

So since I still can't figure out how to watch any sort of tv on my computer here, I decided to purchase the British version of "The Office", which I hear is quite humorous so I hope that can entertain me for a while! Oh, and I couldn't resist buying my beloved "Alvin and the Chipmunks" movie. It was a bargain. 3 pounds. Enough said.

I feel like we did so much walking around Princes Street and the Royal Mile and yet I feel like we could spend a whole week walking around just those 2 streets and still not get to everything! The Royal Mile was my favorite I think. It definitely has an "old" feeling to it with the cobbled streets and old looking buildings and lots and lots of pubs. It is definitely a place I will be going back to explore some more!

Some more things I experienced this week:

- You have to pay to use the restroom at places...yes. Pay. I walked towards the sign only to come upon a gate that looks exactly like the one I walk through to get into our recreation center on campus back home. Never did I assume our rec complex and the rest room would use the same type of security set up.

- When people in Edinburgh ask whereabouts your from...don't stay Stirling...they won't believe you.

- The bagpipes are awesome...especially when two of them are playing harmony. I'm starting my hunt for the best bagpipe cd in Scotland.

- I saw some kilts that were more expensive than my prom dress...scratch that...more expensive than all my formal dresses from highschool combined. Who knew?

- I saw a Scottie dog today wearing a red plaid outfit. Totally Scotland. Love it.

- A little kid yelled "Charlie!" on the train yesterday and I had a tough time refraining from busting out laughing...

Alright, so about this "Silent Disco" or "Headphone" party I attended the other night...it was SO fun! K-State needs to plan these sort of events for their freshman...though the whole no drinking until you're 21 kind of ruins it all, considering the disco was held in Stirling's student union's very own night club. Basically we just went gave a deposit for the headphones, and everyone was just singing and dancing to two different D.J.'s. You could go on either channel...they love their Michael Jackson that's for sure! Also, heard some "Jump Around" which reminded me of our sporting events and they just really love techno. But it was really a lot of fun!

Other than that, nothing too exciting has happened other than I ate fish and chips today which was quite amazing. Oh and tonight I played pictionary with my flat mates....I'm not even good at that game in America. I think the best was when they drew the topics I had made up such as "Tool Academy", "Beer Fest", and "The Jonas Brothers". It was quite entertaining watching them draw those out.

Sort of a short one today but I did learn some new things once again:

- At some grocery stores you must insert a pound into a machine to get a shopping cart (I had thought some old lady was trying to rip me off by trying to make me pay her to take her cart from her)

- Apparently in the UK there's a song that people sing to memorize the colors of the rainbow?? (Or I just missed that day in class in elementary school...)

-I think it's impossible for Americans NOT to look like Americans in a foreign country. The backpack gives it away.

So...the past few days have been pretty interesting, finding my around and all. We made it down to their mall and basically shopped for a while at their "Pound Store" (basically our dollar tree)...which I never thought I'd love that place so much! I basically got everything there I needed. After, I bought an awesome cd at their store...a band called JLS. They're from England and are pretty big here right now. For any of you that know me well enough you will not be surprised when you hear them...just type in "JLS 'One Shot' music video on youtube. That will say it all :)

After that the mall's alarm system went off and some scottish automated voice said "This is an emergency" and no one would let anyone in their stores anymore so we had to leave and a firetruck came. Guess we'll never know what happened! We also went to this interesting store where they just had a bunch of catalogues you looked through, found what you wanted, then went and told the lady at the counter the number for it, and they gave you a ticket to wait for your order number to be called, then they gave it to you. Pretty cool, but also different.

Today we had a bus tour of Stirling and the surrounding areas. We went to Dunblane, saw their cathedral, to Stirling castle, and then to their municipal building. There, a young boy in a kilt playing the bag pipes greeted us as we walked in to meet the mayor or "provost". They had all sorts of little snacks for us inside this really nice room and people serving all sorts of alcohol to us in wine glasses, beer, wine, and even orange juice haha which of course I had. Our tour guide on the bus was pretty funny. He is a student at the University and Irish and said it was the "blind leading the blind" cause he hadn't been around in the city much in the past four years...awesome.

Some random things I've learned:

- buses here have seat belts...I almost asked if they were kidding when they said "buckle up" on the bus. I guess the like to be safe here in Scotland.

- The sink has 2 faucets, one hot, and one cold. So basically I have to decide when I'm washing my face whether or not I want to burn it off, or freeze it.

- I have yet to see any big awesome houses...they're all smaller and really close together. I've only seen some big castles.

- Our bus tour guide said not to try and capture the ducks in the "loch" on campus since supposedly some Chinese students were thrown out of campus for doing so one time...the tour guide then went on to say "They probably wanted to eat them." And then I thought "ummmm I don't think you can say that...especially since there's some on our bus"... haha. Yea, and people were worried about me saying something stupid!

- They seem to serve all food in smaller portions than I'm used to, and I wasn't the only one who noticed that. Again, should I be surprised??

SOO I made it to Scotland! I’ve been here about 3 days now and each day has been very very different. My flights were fine, except the 2 hour delay ON the plane before we took off for Scotland. I guess our antenna broke, and they needed to fix it otherwise, our radar would not function and we would get lost over the ocean…so I was definitely ok with waiting. I also loved that I could walk as fast as I wanted all over the airport and no one would be yelling at me from behind to slow down…

When I got to the University they basically handed me my key and sent me off to find my way to my little cottage in the woods. The first day was pretty rough I’m not gonna lie, I basically had no where to go and no one to go anywhere with and it was 1 in the afternoon and felt like 8 pm. My roommates are great, all from Scotland and are in their fourth years or just graduated. Liam, Kim, Claire, and Jaimie are their names. They’ve been extremely helpful with giving me shopping tips to where I need to visit.

The next day was better as I met some girls from America at our orientation stuff that started Sunday. I met 2 girls from UMASS, 1 from Kentucky (who hates KU which is awesome), 1 from Ohio (Indians fan, also great), and some from New Jersey and Minnesota (apparently the show Jersey Shore is a horrible representation of New Jersey people…who knew?? haha) That night I met some people from London and Scotland who we talked to for a while at the university’s bar in their union. They like a lot of American things really, the music and shows and such. I was asked if I own a gun….and that American football is confusing because they “stop and start all the time and it doesn’t make sense”. But they like baseball even though they don’t get it, but they love the atmosphere of eating and drinking beer haha. They actually did know what a baton twirler was and they had quite an excited reaction when they found out I was one (as they all made their own impression with their hands of what they thought it looked like haha)

Today went better as I got to meet even more people and learn more about the university, and tonight we’ve got some trivia quiz game thing at the bar so that might be fun! but I don’t want to blab too long so here’s some main points of things I learned.

- Diet coke has 1 calorie in it…(aka America lies to us)

- Automatic doors on campus do not open as you approach them

- Some guys don’t wear anything under their kilts because it is “F***in’ Roastin’ under there”.

- Everything seems to be in smaller portions at the grocery store…why does this not surprise me.

- Fanny does not mean what it does in America but here is a female reproductive body part…(to which my roommate said was quite taken aback when she was at Disney world and heard lots of moms talking about their “fanny packs”

- Just because I’m not driving does not mean it will not affect me…when looking for cars, you have to look in different directions for cars because while you might think it’s clear…it’s definitely not.

- -Stirling is a school known for its sports…”so there’s no reason for you not to be fit here”. (Thank you, I can only guess which students you were directing that towards)

That’s all I've got for now!