Goodbye, Scotland!

Apologies for the two hastily written blogs before this. Since landing in Edinburgh, the EngSem team has been on hyperdrive. Places to go, things to do, all that jazz. Last night was our last night in Edinburgh, and we ended it with an intrepid night hike to the top of Arthur's Seat. We didn't know about that until Wednesday morning. It was on the schedule, but it only said "Speed of Light." It ended up being part of the Edinburgh International Festival, and we were part audience, part participant in the show.

Firstly, we donned our coats (for it rained BUCKETS yesterday) and were handed glowing staffs that blinked whenever they struck the ground. You can imagine the epic Gandalf jokes we made ("YOU SHALL NOT PASS!!"). Secondly, we went out with guides to the top of the summit, which was a two and a half hour hike. Runners dressed in TRON suits (OK, they called them "light suits", but they were basically TRON suits) ran up and down Arthur's Seat in formation in the dark. It was pretty cool, actually, especially once we hiked up to the summit:

Edinburgh from Arthur's Seat at night.

   Once we reached the plateau before the summit we started hearing strange ringing noises. At first we were confused (I thought it was an ambulance down below), but then we realized that our staffs were "singing." It was part of the performance. Then once we reached the summit (a pretty treacherous hike up slippery rocks) we unscrewed the part of the staffs that blinked and connected them to a device on the highest point of the summit, making a modern "cairn."

 Then we got back to the hotel at 1am and had to get up early to go to the Lake District (not in Scotland). Other things happened as well. Brittany and I had lunch at The Elephant House, where J.K Rowling wrote part of Harry Potter (it has an excellent view of the Edinburgh Castle from one of the windowseats, which supposedly inspired Hogwarts). The bathrooms are full of handwritten messages to Rowling and quotations from Potterheads. 

Today we rode to the Lake District, where William Wordsworth and Beatrix Potter lived. On the way we stopped by Gretna Green. What is that? Two words: GUNSHOT MARRIAGES. English couples used to hop over the border to Scotland to bypass marriage laws requiring couples to be 21 and have parental consent. Then we stopped by a stone circle and took pictures of the English countryside. 

Now if you excuse me, I have 15 chapters of Wuthering Heights to read by tomorrow morning.

Last Day in Edinburgh

Scotland is much different than I expected.

As some of you know, Scotland is technically its own country even though it's part of the United Kingdom. One thing I never realized is that Scotland has its own currency. The system is the same, but the money looks different (the coins are heavier, the bills have different artwork). Sometimes the accent is so thick that I can't understand, but then I have to wonder how much they have to pay attention to understand me. 

Monday, August 27 was the last day of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, so we watched a couple of shows. Chris and Cheri took us to this play called "Hangman", and my reaction: bewilderment. It's one of those experimental "physical theatre" shows with non-linear (and at times nonsensical) vignettes that aren't suppose to mean anything. Again, there was an attempt to interact with the audience (during an auction during one of the scenes, the only time the actors spoke).
Last night we watched a 4-hour Theatre du Solei production. IT WAS ALL IN FRENCH. They projected English "supertitles" for us to read. I must admit that I nodded off once or twice because it was so freaking long. The play was about people on a boat filming a movie, and we got to see how world-events (WWI) changed the way they filmed their movie. I'm not certain if they were critiquing communism or advocating it. Hm.
Today is our last day in Edinburgh, then we're moving to the Lake District. After class today I'm going to find the Elephant House, one of the places where J.K Rowling wrote Harry Potter. Then perhaps take a tour of the Edinburgh castle, depending on how much homework I have after class today. 

Hello From Scotland

After a long flight to Edinburgh (with an adventure at customs, which an agent held Brittany back at the border for... silly reasons??). Eventually, it got to the point where the agent called Chris and we ended up almost missing our connection. The British Asian connection guy was really nice and called the airplane for us, and despite the fact that the flight was held back a bit we made it to Edinburgh on time.
We didn't sleep much, but went right into things once we checked in with Chris and Cheri. We walked around Edinburgh and got handed a million flyers. The street performers are NUTS. A man in a thong juggled machetes. There also seems to be a trend for street performers to heckle people as part of their skits.
We watched a very strange play about the author of Alice in Wonderland last night, where the actors were two feet away from us. They involved us in the adventures of "Outland," and the actress brought to whole group to tears of laughter when she involved Evan (who had a pretty big role!). Today I have to get some mundane things done, but later we'll be watching One Man Star Wars in a giant plastic cow!

Two Weeks!

As summer comes to an end, so England Semester looms over my head. Annoying all-student emails have returned, most of which I must ignore because I will be abroad.
I'll admit it: I'm going to miss being on campus. I'm going to miss the dorm life, the movie nights, the TV marathons. I'm going to miss my friends who are staying. Not to mention missing Chelsea and Molly's 21st birthday shenanigans.
For the next two weeks I'll be packing, messing with international travel stuff, and communicating with my travel abroad team. I'll be blogging about my travel as often as I can, depending on when the Internet will be available. I received an email two days ago from Chris that we're not really gonna have Internet when we're chilling with the monks in Northern Ireland for three weeks. Oh, the humanity!
Given that there are two weeks left after this week for preparing, perhaps I should introduce the players of the game (aside from moi):
 Cheri: Professor of English literature and Gender studies. She is the leader of this expedition. I had her once before for British Literature After 1700. She's a closet Doctor Who fan. Will be my Dickens, Literary Pilgrimage and Victorian Lit prof.
Chris: Adjunct Professor of Philosophy, hubby of Cheri. I discovered quite by accident that he's a fan of HETALIA. OF ALL THINGS. He thinks it's a clever show that accurately portrays modern European relations. He's in charge of Literary Pilgrimage as well as British/Irish Culture and Politics. I actually don't know him as well as Cheri, but he seems pretty chill.
Brittany: is my travel buddy (and was my roommate last year). A strange combo of English/Biology double major.
THERE ARE MANY OTHERS: As I get to know people I'll introduce them along the way. We're a pretty small group of people (albeit with a TON of estrogen), and I'm sure we'll all know each other by the first two weeks.
I need to practice writing on this blogger. I was too lazy to figure out how wordpress works, but this will suffice. Pictures will be up once we start doing stuff in Scotland.