The Country Mouse visits the Town Mouse
Don't laugh, but Edinburgh has softened me. Imagine: a city where you can walk (pretty much) anywhere, not only because the distance is short enough, but also because it's safe enough! I have never felt so small-town as when I went to visit Erin in London last weekend.
The weekend started out well-- I went to ceilidh class on Thursday night, then ran straight to the bus station for the eight-hour ride (unfortunately, they had turned off our personal lights, so I had to finish Kidnapped by ambient light, which was a challenge). I arrived in London around 7am on Friday-- surprisingly refreshed and ready for the day, though the coffee helped ("white coffee" here-- when just specifying "with milk" isn't cool enough). I hung out at the station, and Erin (the angel that she is) made her way over to collect me at that ungodly hour. We got me a weekend Tube pass and I was all set to be overwhelmed by the sheer amount of people.
I dropped my things off at her place, and we set off adventuring. We started in Hyde Park, strolling around-- the leaves were all yellow, the grass was still green, and the pigeons were too jaded to fly away when I ran at them. We had a run-in with some magical squirrels of magic, who, after years of being fed, climbed up our legs and ate M&Ms out of our hands. We then walked up and down the same street trying to find Herrods before finally giving up and taking the bus. Herrods is the same breed as Jenners-- super expensive and high-class in every way. There is an entire section of Christmas things, including a pet store-- kittens and bunnies (sadly no puppies) within the store! Rooms of chocolates and seafood and butchers better than any grocery store could hope to be (we had some of their salmon sandwiches and we in heaven). Then we decided to catch Casino Royale at one of the massive cinemas, since, hey, we're in Britain after all. Without giving an entire review, the movie was incredible, and Daniel Craig was perhaps the best Bond ever. We spent the entire Tube ride home waxing poetic about our love for him. Then it was a dinner in, chilling with some TV and girl time to round out the day.
Saturday I got up early to attempt to buy some discounted tickets for a West End show. I navigated the Tube by myself, even got to be third in line for the choice kiosk, before being informed, five minutes before they opened (after a 45 minute wait with a book and the cold wind) that they had no tickets for my first choice show for that night. On to another kiosk, with a significantly longer line, but I finally obtained tickets for Avenue Q that night. I returned triumphant. Then Erin took me around to the markets: Camden, Portobello (and yes, we sang the song from Bedknobs and Broomsticks there). Street musicians with cute dogs and antique shops abounded, the sort of place where I would like to go back early in the morning and spent hours wandering around. We stopped by Erin's favorite tea shop, and then headed home for some food before I had my show.
If you haven't heard of Avenue Q, it's a musical with puppets-- the cute twist is that it's a Sesame Street aesthetic, but addressing adult issues, like sex and purpose in life. So yes, it was funny, but it actually managed to pull off some surprisingly poignant scenes, considering that it was a puppet singing about wasting time on love. I thought it was just fantastic, despite the horrible balcony seats.
On Sunday, I got up early again, and made a pilgrimage to Westminster, the geek in me wanting to read Wordsworth's poem in the morning. I failed when I arrived to discover that I had lost my copy of the poem. But I wandered the area still, the bridge, Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey. It was rather nice in the morning, peaceful despite the already-noisy traffic. I arrived back in time for us to leave to catch the Changing of the Guard. (Thank god for Erin's college student knowledge of the city! She always knew where to stand for the best view, best picture) So we saw that, Buckingham, took the traditional picture with a guard.
On the way to the Tower, we stopped by a pub for lunch-- bangers and mash with Guinness-- though I got carded (do I look seventeen??), and then she dropped me off for my tourist fun. The guided tours, given by the Beefeaters, are highly amusing, and then there's the halls of weapons, architecture, the Bloody Tower, and Crown Jewels to ogle at. Then it was home again, some more downtime.
Monday it was up (slightly) early to go to the Tate Modern. Great galleries of modern stuff-- some great Dalis-- and exhibits on surrealism and dream, though not particularly organised well. The highlight, however, was the installation. It was SLIDES. As in, the playground ones. There was one from each level-- and there are five levels to that museum! (Though we only rode the ones from the third and fifth.) It was a blast, you got canvas to slide down on, and a protective helmet on the fifth-level one, though they flew off halfway down. It was the most fun I've had in a museum-- god bless art!
Then we quickly crossed off the other things on my list: Paddington station (only because we learned a Scottish country dance tangentially related to the bear, and I felt I had to pop in), Trafalgar Square (it's hard to climb those lions when it's wet and rainy!), and of course ogling all the Christmas lights. Then it was home again, and after some down time, I departed, caught my bus and ended up home in time for a shower before my class.
Now I've got Shauna and Emily here, but that's going to be another matter entirely.
Parents' Week-- as if it were still a Uni-organized event
Well, that was exciting.
The parents arrived early on Friday (that's two Fridays ago, actually). It was good to see them, really it was.
The definite highlight of them being there was Saturday, when we bussed it down to Lauder, to see Thirlestane, the clan Maitland's (of which my grandma is a part) castle. On the bus ride down, my mother regressed into a teenage girl, and insisted on taking a picture of me and my dad-- on the bus. Oh, the excitement. Then we weren't sure where in Lauder to get off, so we took the first stop, which was a bit of a mistake. The woman in the gas station told us to walk to the first left turn in the town. Of course, there are none! An entire town with no left turns off the main street-- that is, until we're practically walking back into the countryside, and, to the left, we espy a rather grand-looking building. The castle! Now, our left turn is even further down the road, and then backtracks going up to the castle. However, as far as super-long driveways go, it was beautiful-- passing by lots of fields, and a paddock-- in which I made a horsey friend (well, at least an acquaintance who tolerated me stroking his nose despite my lack of treats. The castle is rather impressive-- a massive central part, with two large wings going off on either side. It was closed for the season, but since we were related, and willing to pay for a private tour, we were the exception. It was cold and windy, and we waffled around a bit before the caretaker found us and let us in the (quite impressive) front doors.
Inside, Ian (the caretaker/main administrator) introduced us to Douglas, our tour guide (it turns out that he is retired, and does these tours because he WANTS to.) We started in the entrance room, which was wonderfully full of weapons-- a few Scottish longswords, but lots of exotics from military tours, including what looked like a couple crossbows-- which Douglas informed us were actually used to shoot rocks for hunting.
We then went through various lower rooms-- a billiards room (according to Douglas, "billiards was more of a ladies game, and from the records, it appears they were better than the men-- most likely because the men were usually drunk"), a photography room (including loads of antique cameras), library (Douglas talked on about how mostly they just liked the look of books, they didn't actually read them. There were hundreds of books about Parliamentary debates, but I had to look hard for the poetry.), and a room with the family Bible (it was, I kid you not, larger than my torso, written in Old English, but convenient: "At least you wouldn't have to be in the same room to make out the words.").
Then upstairs! Up the only clockwise spiral staircase in the castle (mostly, spiral staircases are anti-clockwise. The clockwise ones are thought to have perhaps been used as an advantage for left-handed swordsmen (that's you and me, Andy)-- but of course, no one's sure.) Upstairs they had the more impressive rooms-- most of the ceilings had extensive plasterwork (one thing the castle's famous for)-- wreaths, flowers, even eagles, literal statues coming out of the ceiling (apparently horsehair was an important ingredient in helping this all keep its shape). There was the Duke's room, with the usual massive bed, though this one wasn't original to the castle-- apparently a woman had quite recently sent it to the castle with a note: "I found this in my attic, please take it." Also a room in which they think Bonnie Prince Charles stayed. A music room, a drawing room. The usual opulence.
Then, Douglas opened up a bit of wall, to a staircase up, with the caution-- "stay close, and don't wander off." The reason? The ceiling may fall on our heads. We got to walk around the upper levels then-- dusty rooms in bad need of renovation, filled with piles of old stuff-- typewriters, shoes, boxes, rocks (which appealed to my dad, at least). There was one with a huge hole in the wall, leading to a giant cavity, which Douglas pointed out as the reason most people thought that these castles had secret passages-- when in reality it was just sloppy remodeling with walls covering over bits of rooms. There was also a room deeper in this mess which had its own ghost-- though, supposedly, it didn't come out when it was too cold (which it was-- did I mention the cold? No central heat. Douglas had shown up for the tour in a hat and gloves, which he joked was never a good sign). We went up to the top floor, where the servants' rooms were-- you could actually see where all the bell pulls led to-- more floor missing parts, narrow hallways, and such.
Finally we made our way back down to the normal floors-- a hall of portraits, and the nursery section, with toys you could play with! Finally down again to the main floor, with quick stops in the laundry room and kitchen. Then we shook hands with Ian, and he told us to feel free to wander the grounds a bit, which we did. There was a large lawn/garden area behind the castle, which was beautiful. We took some nice pictures, looked over the low wall in the back (there was a steep drop off behind it, for defensive purposes, to see the enemy coming-- though despite the massively thick walls, the design for defense, the castle had never been attacked, since apparently they were THAT powerful.)
Finally it was cold enough for us to ponder the trek back to town-- though fortunately Ian gave us a lift. We killed some time in the town, though there's not much to do in Lauder. Finally we got the bus back. My parents being all tuckered out, we watched some X factor with kebab, and then I headed out to a ceilidh (which was rather fun.
The parents and I spent the rest of their week with more subdued activities-- Mom and I went to Jenner's, we walked the Royal Mile a few times, I showed them campus. We went to the National Galleries as well-- a day well spent. We started in the normal one, the usual old paintings (good, but nothing that struck me with any real force, and some rather poor exhibition of them). Then we moved along to the second half, a more contemporary take, but a bit too new-- pretty experimental stuff. Then, we moved along to the Dean Gallery-- more modern stuff, but way out in the boonies (think cab or shuttle far). The usual stuff was there-- Magritte, Miro, Picasso, Duchamp. In small quantities, but still a couple recognizable ones. Upstairs was an exhibit of Scottish modern paintings-- now, there were some real stunning pieces there. Finally we emerged, and discovered we had about 45 minutes to kill before the next shuttle. This was the perfect opportunity to take advantage of the huge lawn behind the museum, a significant portion of which was covered in perfect yellow leaves. After, my parents complimented my cartwheel abilities.
After that, the day was not over! For it was Bonfire Night (aka Guy Fawkes Day) and we had plans with the flatmates to go to the top of Arthur's Seat and watch the city-wide explosions. Hiking up there was probably not a good idea in the dark, of course (and sadly, the parents left us halfway up). But we made it to the very top, and huddled together in the gale-force winds. We managed to light some sparklers after maybe 15 minutes of attempts, but it was worth it. Finally we tried the way down (it was even more dark, of course), and ended up coming down the wrong side-- way North, instead of the West side. So there was a nice walk through the city before grabbing Papa John's and having a nice girl's night dinner together.
The parents' last day, we went to Holyroodhouse Palace (you know, where the queen stays when she's here. Of course). It was rather fun-- we amused ourselves with the audio tour, were sufficiently in awe of the Abbey ruins adjoining the palace. And thus the parents were gone. It was fun, and I was very happy to see them, and we had lots of good long talks, there was a nice dinner with my dad.
In other news, not so much-- essay due tomorrow, which I believe is done, Chocsoc meeting, the usual.
One more thing-- if you're reading this, I'm more likely than not going to get you a Christmas present/souvenir from Scotland. The season is upon us, so if anyone has any specific requests, let me know asap. Otherwise all you get is canned haggis.
Halloween: not just a single day anymore!
Last week, after recovering from the Cadbury outing, was started with a lunch out with a girl from my poetry class on Tuesday-- if this doesn't seem like anything exciting, I will explain that I typically don't make friends in any of my classes. I'm not sure why-- but in general, I don't hang out with people I have classes with. So it's rather nice to have finally made a connection in a class. We've made it a weekly thing, so yesterday we went to a cafe called Chocolate Soup. It has perhaps the best hot chocolate in existence, not to mention massive cups of it.
On Wednesday, New Scotland had a Halloween ceilidh. It was the usual loads of fun, dancing to live music and even sandwiches! Lots of dancing and silly conversations ensued. After, us hardcore late-stayers helped the band carry the equipment to their car because-- big surprise-- it was raining. And I mean a proper rain. It was actually rather lovely-- after about ten feet into my walk home, I realized there was no way I would be even close to dry, so I managed to amuse myself singing and jumping in all the puddles, which netted me the admiration of some random guy, the only other person walking out that late. Very cool.
Thursday I had ceilidh class-- two nights in a row may be fun, but it is definitely too much. Oh well. I'd do it all again.
It was a pretty stressful weekend, actually-- the application for the advanced English class I need to take was due on Friday, after short notice, so I had to put that together, and then I had an essay for Scottish History due on Monday (now, all my classes are pass/fail, and this is technically a Fresher's level class, but that didn't make me stress out and less).
Fortunately, I was also busy with Halloween preparations! Now, mom had the brilliant idea, before I left, that I could go as Kaylee (from Firefly). This seemed like a great idea, especially when I met one of the gamers who had been planning on going as Jayne anyway-- I already had part of my crew! But the costume itself was an adventure: first I had many many attempts to find a jumpsuit at any of the thrift stores in the area. (A side story: In the States, we have Goodwill. Red, White, and Blue. And so on. Here, they name the stores after the charity they support-- so it's normal to say things like "I'm going to go check out cancer research today," or "Let's stop by pets without vets and see what they have." But no one really refers to them by name, since there's a couple blocks on South Clerk that have, between them, maybe seven of these stores. So people tend to just go down the line, walking into every single one. On my expeditions, I would keep running into the same people at every store. The line then ends at Armstrong's, a proper vintage store, which is rather amazing. It was here, of all places, I finally found my ugly-as-sin jumpsuit.)
Anyway-- I had a jumpsuit, and dyed my hair (temporarily!) darker. Then it also seemed like a good idea to try to alter the ugly-as-sin jumpsuit. Unfortunately, I have neither seam ripper nor sewing machine. So, when I post pictures, keep in mind that everything I did (sleeves off, legs widened, waist and hips and torso and some legs taken in, and a bit of an attached belt), I did with a pocketknife and a needle and thread. So be duly impressed. So last night, I was finally able to enjoy the fruits of my labors-- we all got ready (Dorothy, an evil angel, and a devil) and hung out and ran around the city a bit (but not too much, surprisingly) and had loads of fun. Truly, a great holiday.
And now, it's workworkwork to try to get ahead in school things, and later on I get to sign up for USC classes! (So far, it looks like Poetry, Fiction, Contemporary Poetry, and Classical Arabian Literature in Translation-- guess which is the one I'm taking to fill a requirement?)
