Pubs & Proteins

2010-05-06T09:11:00.000-07:00

For an American interpretation of UK election coverage, click here.

That is all.

Happy Election Day!

P.S. My first reaction upon watching this was "70p bus fare? Where the HELL can you ride a bus for 70p?"

P.P.S. In some places in the UK, pubs are being used as polling places. Somehow this just doesn't sound like a good idea...

P.P.P.S. Finals are scary

2010-05-02T09:15:00.000-07:00

Hi kids,
Europe is awesome, but finals suck like a giant hoover hell-bent on inhaling all of the fun and keeping it all for itself. I'd come up with a better metaphor but right now the only words I can think involve the suffixes "phage" or "ase". Basically because finals suck the fun out of everything (and the brain from my head), I'll just have to condense my spring break into a game of Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego.

That is all.

P.S. FUCK VOLCANOES!

Semester Abroad Part II (Part II)

2010-02-16T08:52:00.000-08:00

The USA has Mardi Gras. The UK has Pancake Day.

The UK also has Robbie Burns night, which my friends and I celebrated by cooking an entire backpack full of haggis (cooked without the backpack, obviously), and reading poetry by Robert Burns (such as the famous poem he wrote to a haggis. This guy is widely loved and adored throughout the country).

The next day was Australia Day. Since I live with people from all over the world we celebrated that with more food and a giant inflatable crocodile.

Tonight will be a mix of Lithuanian food (for Lithuanian independence day) and pancakes. This will probably culminate in watching the Olympics. Winter Olympic coverage in the UK follows the same basic formula for every sport. They profile the athlete(s) who are from the UK, and follow them until they are disqualified in one of the preliminary rounds, and then they continue to follow the competition into the final rounds just for the hell of it because theres fuck-all else to do.

At least its not like the last summer Olympics which I watched in Spain. Coverage was entirely focused on the sports Spain was good at (read: tennis, basketball, and sometimes fencint...ALL THE TIME).

However the Olympics has been in conflict with the Six Nations rugby competition. This is a tournament between Englad, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France, and Italy. The Scottish team never does well, and is usually in competition with Italy for the team which comes in dead last. Though Scotland is so used to losing at this point that the Scottish fans are at least good-humored about the whole thing. The English, on the other hand, see losing as a national tragedy. Though when teams beat Scotland they celebrate by doing things like getting drunk and driving a golf cart down the highway.

Since we are on the topic of sports, lets discuss the Superbowl. Yes, they do broadcast it live here. But they broadcast it without the Superbowl ads. This is probably the reason that American football has never really taken off anywhere else. That and watching the Superbowl at 12:30 at night while asking someone to "please pass the crisps" just feels...strange.

Well thats the news in Sports. I'm off to eat pancakes.

Semester Abroad Part II

2010-02-14T16:34:00.000-08:00

Hiya

Yup. I'm still here in Edinburgh.

Actually I had several friends prophesying my neglect to return home. Usually with the words "you are going to Scotland and never coming back!"

Apparently "never" is May 31st.

So I'm really only extending my stay by 5 months and 10 days. But who's counting?

Of course, this meant having to get my visa extended, as well. This was an epic process which involved mailing my application (including my passport...which I have now been without since December) to the UK border agency so that they could decide whether or not I am actually here as a part of a diabolical plot to steal their socialized health care. Apparently they've decided that I'm good enough for their country, because last week I had to go to a local biometrics center to be photographed and fingerprinted. The closest of these centers was in Glasgow.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Glaswegian reputation, this sums it up quite nicely. As does this. Its basically like any other not-quite-large city; it appears to be populated solely by people who work in offices and people who are incredibly trashy. Though I do have to say that it is a nice city and I wouldn't mind going back there sometime. Which is good because I've traveled all over the UK due to my aforementioned lack of passport and the associated restrictions.

Yup. I've not been allowed to leave the UK since December.

Its actually not as bad as it sounds. One of my friends from home kept demanding to know why I wasn't coming back. She came to stay with me over the holiday break, and we traveled around the UK seeing everything from the Highlands to London. She met my friends and my housemates (the people I live with and I have become this strange little family made up of people from all over the world; USA, England, Scotland, Australia, Lithuania, Russia, Austria...).

She now knows why I wanted to stay longer. She loves it here so much that she is coming back to visit me during her spring break. Hopefully by then I'll have my passport back by then.

Otherwise things here have been hectic. I'll write more about the events of the semester when it isn't 1:15 AM the morning of a 9AM lecture.

2009-12-06T07:49:00.000-08:00

Hoo boy.

So, events of the previous month (in list form for the sake of brevity):

1) I've decided to extend my stay here for another semester. Its just so lovely here, and I'm not quite ready to go back to my old life just yet. Even though I miss everyone at home a lot, there is still so much more that I want to do here-so many places to explore and events to take part in...
On that note, I just scheduled my return flight home which is now scheduled for May 31st. It sounds like its so far away, but when its actually here I'll be wondering where all the time went.

2) Classes are now over, and I've turned in all of my assignments. Now all I need to worry about are the three exams (which are each worth 70% of my class grade....I do not like this system) which for me are on the 10th, the 14th, and the 16th.

3) Guy Fawkes Day in Edinburgh: People go up to Arthurs' Seat (a hill which was formerly an active volcano) and set off fireworks. Climbing a mountain feels so much more epic when fire is raining down on you from the sky. Remember, Remember the fifth of November...

4) My housemates and I spent last Sunday making Thanksgiving dinner. We here in Edinburgh are so good at procrastination we even put off Thanksgiving for three days. I was the only one willing to prepare the turkey. Ironic because I was the only vegetarian in the room. Appropriate because I was also the only biologist. The turkey became my science experiment, for I am my father's daughter. For those of you who haven't heard stories of my father's impromptu anatomy lessons at Red Lobster, just imagine teaching your children about muscle movement and circulation on a platter of seafood. You get the idea.

5) Friday was our house Christmas party, which involved a lot of food and dancing, and my one housemate who is from El Salvador giving everyone a Salsa lesson.

6) Basically its been a week of food and parties at my house. Except now finals are here and everybody is living in their rooms or at the library, studying.

Speaking of, thats probably what I should be doing...

2009-11-01T03:45:00.000-08:00

Not gonna lie, this place is making me a little afraid to think outside of the box.

For example, for my reproductive biology class we have to choose an essay topic and write a paper within that topic. My topic is "Odour and Pheromone Signaling in Reproduction." I want the focus of this paper to be an investigation of a body of research linking pheromone signaling and the onset of anorexia nervosa. While that would probably be fine at Hampshire, I'm not so sure about here, because technically that isn't reproduction.

Another big difference between schools in America and the UK is that in America you are evaluated on a lot more. Here, there are no small assignments. Everything you turn in is worth at least 15% of your grade, and in some cases your final exam can be worth 70-80% of your final grade. Its great for the first month of classes when nothing is due, but then all of a sudden late October hits and its just constant deadlines. In the past week, I turned in three major assignments, and have two more due by Wednesday.

Its also difficult because I'm taking third year courses in a system with which I'm not entirely familiar. When they say things like "brief summary" for lab writeups, I have no way of knowing what exactly that means, while my peers who have been working in this system for two years now do.

That being said, I do still love it here. Having to miss Hampshire Halloween was maybe the first time that I got slightly nostalgic for home, but otherwise I'm having a great time (I mean, aside from all the work).

2009-10-27T15:00:00.000-07:00

I think there is some unwritten law that says that if you are running a Hostel, you are automatically obligated to paint the rooms disgusting colors and put cheesy murals in the common areas.

Anyway, as I've been traveling I reached the following conclusion:
There is a fine line between being a tourist and being a traveler. Being a tourist means going to places like London (where I went last weekend) and taking lots of pictures like these:

Yes, thats all well and good. The buildings have historical value, the feel of the streets is something you cannot get from a photograph or Google Map. Seeing things for yourself is good, but I have to say that the best part of any of my travels has got to be the people I've met. Mostly travelers themselves, they always have an interesting story to tell, or else they leave you with a good story to tell (apparently if I'm ever in Copenhagen I have a place to stay with some people who love Metallica and America's Next Top Model). But buildings are buildings. I saw where they buried Queen Elizabeth I, I crossed the London Bridge, walked down Fleet Street, visited Picadilly Circus, and rambled through St. James's Park. Hell, I even got to go into the engine room controlling the mechanism that raises and lowers the Tower Bridge.

(Dad, this one's for you)

Really, though, buildings are buildings. People are far more interesting (and far more difficult to photograph) .

As I am still reeling from the last couple of days, I think I should go to bed now.

2009-10-12T15:32:00.000-07:00

Ok, I haven't been the best about updating. But really, there is too much going on all the time.

For example, last weekend I decided to put off doing my homework and instead went to Ireland with a friend for the weekend. We flew into Dublin on Saturday morning, and spent the day wandering around Dublin, which is just like Boston only with fewer Irish people.

We walked around for the day checking out the museums (BOG PEOPLE! SO MANY BOG MUMMIES!) and seeing the Book of Kells (and proceeding to get lost in Trinity College...eventually we just gave up and watched the rugby practice). In the evening there was a big soccer game between Ireland and Italy, and so my friend and I went to a pub to watch it. Ever been in Boston during a Red Sox game? Yeah, it was just like that. Except everyone was wearing green, not red.

On Sunday we took a day trip across the country. We stopped in Limerick for a little while and hung out by the banks of the River Shannon.
Before driving out to Blarney to check out the Blarney Castle.
Afterward we drove back to Dublin and flew back to Edinburgh just in time to go to classes today.

As far as classes go, the transition to a new school was actually pretty easy. Because of the Five College Consortium I was already familiar with adjusting to campuses and academic systems of other colleges, so settling in here was just like settling into a few classes at UMass. I say UMass because the class sizes are about the same. So far the main differences I've noticed are the incredible lack of assignments (we are expected to keep up with reading and course material, but ultimately the only things that get graded for each class are a couple of lab write ups, a paper, and the final exam), and lack of familiarity with primary literature and lab technique (I had to teach people in a third year honors course how to use a pipet). However, the theory that these classes present is fairly challenging, so I'm not completely wasting my time here.

So when I'm not in class or hanging out with the people here I'm off doing things like climbing Arthur's Seat,

and taking day trips to places like Stirling

and Cairnpapple Hill (For more info on what exactly that is see http://www.cyberscotia.com/cairnpapple/)
Coming up in the next couple of weeks:
Touring a brewery
Traveling to London
Couresework (?)

I'll try to be better about posting. It'll be easier than telling everyone the same story individually. However that would make too much sense and therefore I probably won't do it.

I'll take the high road

2009-09-21T11:42:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I tagged along on a Mountaineering Club trip to Glen Clova, which is about two hours' drive from Edinburgh, just north of Dundee. As I haven't really been hiking since high school I stuck with the shortest walk they offered (the options were short walk, long walk, or rock climbing).

We started off easy

Of course stopping every once in a while along the trail for a photo opp:
About 2/3 of the way up the hill we stopped by a loch to eat lunch.
At this point, our guide offered us the opportunity to turn back (some members of the group were getting tired) or to keep going. I figured that since I was already practically there, I might as well go to the top. Why not?

Well we turned a corner and there it was. The trail suddenly turned into a 75 degree slope which was being blasted by winds that can reach up to 70 MPH. Great. Now, mind you, I am an experienced snowboarder, so I know steep slopes and windy peaks. But, holy god. I started to climb but lost my breath and kept having to stop. Unfortunately, because of the wind, we couldn't stop because that would have meant risking losing feeling in our extremities (thus making it difficult to get back down). So I was forced, Leonidas-like, up the edge of the peak (anyone who has seen the movie 300 should be thinking of the scene where he goes to the oracle right about now).

I'm sure it wasn't as dramatic as all that. But I like to think it was.

Anyway, we finally reached the summit.
And gazed down upon the same loch where we had eaten lunch.
And for all of the hell in reaching the top, the views were absolutely worth it.
All in all I'm glad that I went. However, I don't think I'll be going again any time soon. Still, I win.

Aside from that, orientation week is over and classes start tomorrow. This will prove an adventure all its own as some of my classes have meeting locations and times described as:

"Lectures are held on Tuesday and Friday mornings, normally in the Anatomy Lecture Theatre, BMTO (with the exception of weeks 1 & 2). During weeks 1 and 2 the lectures will be held in the McEwan Hall on Tuesdays and Lecture Theatre 3, Appleton Tower on Fridays. Lecture times will vary and the timetable should be checked. (Most lectures will last approximately 50 minutes and start at 09.00, 10.00 or 11.10.)"

So, basically, I'm never going to know where or when my classes are. This will be fun. It will be like a scavenger hunt throughout the city.

2009-09-18T09:02:00.000-07:00

Last night my friend and I went to a Ceilidh (pronounced KAYLEE), which is a traditional style of Scottish dance (similar to contra dancing). It looks like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXmnP38EAow

and is a lot of fun. I think I might join the Ceilidh Club they have here.

Anyway, at the dance we met some people who invited us to join them at a nearby pub. We all sat down around a big table and all of a sudden one of the guys we were with pulled out a set of bagpipes and began to play. This lead to me asking lots of questions about the pipes, which he and a friend of his (who is a lot like Bera if Bera were Scottish) were gracious enough to answer. So, now I know how the bagpipes work. I now also know dances with titles such as "The Flying Scotsman."

More later. Now for some microwaveable Indian food.

Edit: Deep fried Mars bars. They sound like a good idea at the time, but I think my liver just up and quit on me. This probably won't stop me from trying the deep fried pizza, or the pizza with mayo on it. There is a reason heart disease is prevalent amongst the Scots. Good thing I live about a half hour walk away from the main campus so I'll have lots of opportunities to walk it off.

2009-09-16T17:20:00.000-07:00

For some reason the internet at my house seems to not be working consistently for anyone except me. Except for some reason, my internet is in Spanish. I am currently looking at Google España. I feel like I'm stealing wireless from Spain or something.

Anyway, I moved into the house where I'll be living for the semester last Saturday. I say "house" because it is in a residential neighborhood and the building is a bunch of houses which are sectioned off on the second and third floors but which are all connected on the first floor. This means that I share a bathroom with four other people, but I share a kitchen and laundry facilities with forty other people. Its not so bad, though, because kitchens are gigantic and we all have our own cabinet and refrigerator shelf and everything.

The room is a single and it is pretty big. It even has a sink. In the room.
Yeah, I thought it was weird at first. Really its just bloody convenient. I think Hampshire should install some in Dakin. Except they would be disgusting after about two seconds. Thats the other thing; apparently the cleaning ladies come INTO MY ROOM every Thursday to clean the linens and sink. How they got cleaning ladies to dare venture into college dorms I will never know, but I salute those brave women.

On top of that they test the fire alarms to make sure they work. This means that every Tuesday at 11 AM the fire alarms in my house go off for about thirty seconds. Luckily, this will happen while I'm in class, anyway.

Speaking of which, I've made up my schedule for the semester. Right now I'm scheduled to take Pharmacology, The Structures and Functions of Proteins, and Reproductive Biology. We'll see what that list looks like after add/drop.

Regardless, classes start next Tuesday. In the meantime the University has been holding "Freshers Week" which is just like every other freshman orientation, only since it is a large University and since they are Scottish there are a lot of activities and a lot of booze. Mostly I've been touring the city and museums (there are so many...I never thought I could get sick of museums but I hope I won't see another museum again any time soon) and various other historic sites by day, and touring the pubs at night.

I checked out Edinburgh Castle when I first got here because it was right across the street from the hostel I stayed at before Uni housing opened up.
This was the view from the front door of the hostel. I was literally living on a mountain across the street from a castle built on top of a dead volcano. It is the birthplace of King James VI (James I of England) who was born in a closet. Well...ok...a room comprable in size to a closet.
That photo was taken from a corner of the room. It really is that tiny.

I also checked out the National Museum of Scotland, where I saw Dolly the sheep.

Along with that, I toured the underground vaults beneath South Bridge, and explored the Surgeon's Museum.

Its getting more and more difficult to think of myself as a tourist, because I've met so few actual Scottish people. I'm beginning to think that they were a myth created by the government to sell kilts to tourists. That'll probably change once classes start, though. It is nice, however, living amongst international students. I've been hanging out with people from Italy, Australia, Botswana, Poland, Switzerland, Germany, England, Spain, France...and America. There are lots of Americans here. I do live with a couple of Scottish students, though, one of whom is bilingual and can speak both English and Gaelic fluently.

As close as Scotland may seem to home, however, some things will always be different.

Anyway, all of the running around has left me exhausted. Most of my classes will be in the science buildings and so I chose to live there instead of closer to the city center, and so now on average I walk easily ten miles a day. This afternoon I was physically incapable of standing up. I'll update with more later, but for now I need sleep.

Still alive, but not quite doing Science yet...

2009-09-10T02:18:00.000-07:00

DELTA RUNS LINUX!

Ok, you know those touch screen things they have on some planes that let you watch a movie or see the flight stats or whatever? Well the boot screens on the ones on my flight had Tux on them.

It almost made up for the three hour wait we had on the tarmac on the way to JFK. Apparently everything got messed up because Obama flew in to New York, and his VIP status put everything to a halt. Mussolini made the trains run on time, and Obama made me glad my mother booked me with a five hour layover at JFK. Yes, mom. Once again, you win. I have yet to be in dire need of a towel, though.

Anyway, I happened to run into some other exchange students at JFK, and so we were talking about going to Scotland, and this lovely older couple started trying to tell us that the stereotypes just weren't true.

Then the boarding agent said that the flight was headed to Edinburgh, Great Britain and all hell broke loose.

But anyway, back to stereotypes.
As the plane circled the airport at Edinburg I saw the following:
Green. Lots of green.
Cars driving on the other side of the road.
Sheep. Lots of sheep.
Golf Courses.

In that order.

Shortly thereafter I heard the first music that I had heard since landing. It was the cab driver's cell phone. His ringtone was the song that they play at the end of Trainspotting. Thats when I knew that my life had come full circle and that I had entered the twilight Zone. The Twilight Zone has a lot of Volgswagens, by the way.
[Note: Mom, if you are reading this; DO NOT WATCH TRAINSPOTTING UNTIL I GET HOME! IT WILL ONLY CAUSE YOU UNNECESSARY WORRY!]

Anyway, I'm here. I'm staying at a hostel until University housing opens up on Saturday. And since my body thinks its still dawn but the sun says its almost noon, I can't really get my brain to function. I should go off in search of soap...

EDIT: I just realized that I am sitting next to "The Beer Fridge"
This hostel has a fridge just for beer. Apparently beer had been taking up too much space in the kitchen fridge, so they needed another one.

Going to Scotland, BRB

2009-09-09T04:53:00.000-07:00

Apparently I almost just tried to waltz through airport security with a knife in my carry on.
Remember, kids, check to make sure that your bags are empty before filling them up again.

Anyway, I'm currently preoccupied with minimizing the volume of the things I'm taking with me (storage space at the hostel where I'll be staying for the next couple of days seems limited). Meanwhile, my mother seems intent on maximizing this volume (I keep trying to tell her that while I will encounter a significant number of people who sound like Arthur Dent, this is still not the Hitchhiker's Guide and I do not, in fact, need to bring a towel with me at all times).

I'm leaving in a couple of hours, and I'll be arriving in Scotland around 9 AM local time tomorrow morning.

Have fun. Be safe. See you when I see you.

This is a test....this is only a test...

2009-08-27T19:46:00.000-07:00

I know I've set this up incredibly early. Two weeks before my plane is even set to take off and I'm here getting everything set for the upcoming semester. It just seemed like a good idea to set this up while it was on my mind.

In two weeks I will be flying to Edinburgh (following a five-hour layover in JFK because somehow its cheaper that way?) and living in a hostel for a couple of days until the University of Edinburgh opens its student housing.Then I'll have a week of orientation (referred to as "Fresher's Week") and then my classes will start.

I'm really excited to get going now that I basically have everything all set up. I am a little wary, however, given the fact that I have recently concluded that British children are some of the creepiest things on the planet. They are also some of the cutest. How that happened I have no intention of exploring further, but if I happen upon an answer then I'll be sure to let you know.

For now I'm home in Albany occupying myself with packing (what do you mean I can only take what I can carry?) and making sure everything is in order (the visa application was hell. I will not burden you with the rant), and seeing my friends off to their respective colleges (I won't see most of them until after Christmas, and some I...don't know when I'll get to see them again...Teresa and Justine I'm looking at you two!).

This entry is somewhat dry. But what do you say in a travel blog before you've started traveling? You see the conundrum.