No Kids at Home, Chickens are Dead.

So, this weekend was my homestay which took place in a little village called Bassenthwaite. It was amazing, but before i delve into that i'll regale you with tales from my first week of classes.

Good news: I found my Pharmacology class. Bad news: Its basically an applied chemistry class. shoot me. i think im going to switch out of it (just as i did my molecular genetics course). I need something that will transfer as an upper division biology credit back to redlands, but is not terribly difficult or time consuming, is that really asking too much? Probably. I tried my first problem set this weekend and couldnt even get the first answer. So, hopefully i get that all figured out. And, like i said, i switched out of genetics for a much more reasonable class; Population and Community Ecology. Pretty simple. yay.

Lacrosse is going well. Still dont know what team's we have all made and still dont have a stick to call my own :(

We went out on Tuesday night (dont worry mom and dad, i only have one class on wednesdays and its 50 minutes long) and found a really good little place called Bar Kohl which serves fruity, frilly drinks and has the longest menu i've ever seen of shooters. I finally settled on an Appleberry cocktail and a Landmine shooter; first taste of absinthe- not too shabby.

Anyways, back to the homestay. I stayed with two other IFSA kids; Callie and Leo. Both are really great and we got along really well. There was never an awkward moment with our host parents Brian and Ann. They live on a pretty decent sized piece of land in the Lake District of England (Northwest). The closest "cities"-still pretty small- are Penrith and Carlisle. We drove about two and a half hours from Edinburgh to Penrith where we met our host families. From there we drove about 30 minutes to the small village of Bassenthwaite where Brian and Ann live. None of us had eaten since lunch so by our 9 o clock arrival at the house, we were pretty hungry. Of course, our new host parents had a huge meal prepared for us. Roasted chicken and baked potatoes and wine :) We stayed up until about 1130 talking and getting to know each other- even us IFSA kids did not really know each other at this point. The next morning we had a nice little breakfast of cereal, fruit, toast, and lots and lots of tea. After breakfast Brian and Ann took us on a hike up our first fell (hill); there are 214 fells in the lake district- all named and mapped. We kind of cheated though, there was a car park about 3/4 of the way up, so we walked up from there. It was gorgeous! We walked right by some sheep grazing on the fell. From the top, you could see the entire town of Keswick and at least two or three lakes. We got a nice couple to take a picture of our whole "family" and when i locate my camera cord i will share it with you all. From the fell, we drive about fifteen minutes to the Castlerigg Stone Circle- kind of like a mini Stonehenge. It is a beautiful place, the stones were strategically placed to mirror the surrounding fells. From what we were told, many big name poets, writers, and painters have drawn inspiration from that spot. From there we ventured into Keswick, this is probably the largest nearby town and where Brian and Ann's children went to school. They split off from us and let us adventure on our own. There were a lot of sportswear stores because everyone there is into 'fellwalking'-Northface and Patagonia galore! This made me feel like i was home- i even saw someone wearing a Seahawks jersey! haha. After buying a few postcards, we met up with Brian for lunch, as Ann was still shopping :) He treated us to the best fish and chips i have ever had- well, i guess its the only fish and chips i have ever had. I guess the most legitimate fish and chips meal comes in paper and you eat the chips with a little plastic or wooden fork; personally i just attacked it with my hands. So greasy and so good! we ate on the edge of Derwent Water, one of the lakes. People can rent paddle boats and row around the lake or take a boat tour around it, but that was kind of expensive and we were all nearing a food coma so we headed back to the house for tea and some studying. For the evening, Brian and Ann had dinner plans with some friends in Cockermouth- no joke. So we just walked around the town and ended up at a pub called the Black Bull- we each had a pint of locally brewed Jennings and had some really good conversation. We then grabbed some crappy Chinese food and met with Brian and Ann at the place they ate at. They werent quite finished so Callie, Leo, and I had a few more drinks and just hung out. The atmosphere at this place was really fun. We finally left around 1130. Callie, Leo, and I stayed up a little bit later chatting some more and eating Cadbury Flakes ( theyre supposed to go in ice cream, but if you know anything about me and chocolate... we ate them plain) and chatting. This morning we had the best English breakfast ever, complete with Cumberland sausage, a tower of toast, tea, and black pudding- which i did try. Black pudding is not as bad as the reputation it gets. It just tasted like dense sausage. I sort of enjoyed it. After breakfast Brian took us to the Aira Force waterfall. After that we headed back to Penrith to catch the buss back to Scotland, but not before another stop for tea- where Brian actually got a beer. The drinking culture in the UK is alive and well as we could see.

So, i know that this was a really interesting commentary of my homestay, but this is mainly so i can remember what happened, so much easier than keeping a diary.

Well, hopefully pictures will be uploaded shortly. Wish me luck in finding my camera cord and on my second week of classes!

CHEERS!

First days of Classes

So, ive been here in Edinburgh for almost two weeks, and only now does school actually start. Its weird to be back on the grind, these last few weeks have been crazy- sleeping in until noon unless registeration pulled me  out of bed at 7, trying a new (err well not really) pub every night. I have already had two lacrosse practices, well i guess they were tryouts but they dont feel that way.
I had my British Society class this morning and eberyone else and i spent the first 15 minutes of class just trying to find it. Of course they had changed not only the room, but the building as well, at the last minute. It is a mostly first year course, so today was spent going over university expectations and guidlines. The class was only 50 minutes which was quite refreshing- it felt like high school again. Then i went on a mission to Princes Street to find cleats for practice this evening annnnd i came home with a purse-typical.

My second class was a pretty huge fail. The start time and location has been different every time i looked at  them and after walking around for more than an hour i decided to call it quits and send an angry email to someone and figure out where the class actually is and try again on thursday. I then went and found cleats with the two other american girls who are also playing lacrosse. Now im going to eat and be totally antisocial and try to forget about missing my first pharmacology lecture.

CHEERS!

Reflections on my first week in the Auld Reekie

hey all,

i cant believe it has already been a week since i left home. Time has flown by, but the flight from SeaTac seems like it was years ago! I am all settled into my flat after a trip to IKEA, Pound Saver, and (of course) the Fresher's Week poster sale. I, obviously, had to get a poster version of the Beatles' Abbey Road cover, a map of the world so i can finally do the thing where you put pins in the places you've been, and a picture of the golden gate bridge to remind me of home (sort of).  My flatmates are all first years, meaning that they are 17 or 18, which is a little weird, but they are all really nice and easy to get along with. Two of them are from Dundee, which is about an hour away, and one is from north of Inverness, which is in the highlands. The fifth roommate is a 20-year old, first year from Norway. She's really fun to talk to and she loves talking to Americans because she studied abroad in Texas when she was in high school. Ive hung out with Suz and Barbara's flammates more than my own at this point though- one is from England (first year) and one is from Canada( third year, study abroad). But tonight im having people over to my place so that we can all get to know my flatmates as well.

The other night we went to a dance called a Ceilidh (pronounced: somewhere between Kay-lee and Keh-lay). It is a traditional Scottish dance that is coming back into style. It reminded me a lot of square dancing but very fast and the music was way better haha. There was a band- a guy playing the fiddle and a guy playing the flute. I wasnt going to try it until an orientation mentor dragged me out and tried to teach me- i probably made a fool of myself but i told him i was American and he understood. There was one dance that was a lot easier that i could manage- a lot of spinning around people haha. It was a great experience though.

Today has been the most eventful yet. I woke up at around 730 so that i could get ready in time to walk the 40 minute walk (ugh) down to the King's Buildings (Science and Engineering) for my program induction, basically they talked a little bit about the Bio department and then introduced us to our DoS (director of studies- pretty much like an academic advisor). We then each got to meet with our DoS (mine is actually American!) and matriculate (register for classes). My schedule does not look terrible; i only have to walk down to King's twice a week i think- although ill probably figure out how to take the shuttle once it starts to get cold. Today can not make up its mind about being sunny or rainy; it will rain for ten minutes pretty hard and then stop and be hot and sunny. I was afraid id have to walk back from my meetings in the rain (of course i didnt have a hood), but as soon as i stepped outside it was sunny and so warm i had to take my jacket off.

Here's my schedule:

British Society (1650-1880)- 10:00-10:50 MWTh
Pharmacology 3- 2:00-5:00 MTh
Molecular Genetics 3- Lecture: 9:00-9:50 TF, Lab: 10:00-12:00 TF

I am actually really excited to start classes (not just because we have/get to wear white lab coats in lab) because i really want to meet more Scottish people my age. Because it is Fresher's Week, we havent really met anyone our own age-especially anyone who we're going to see consistently.

Also today, my friend and i walked over to the gym-which is super big and super nice; the redlands gym is a dump compared to it. We got memberships; they were actually quite pricey but i keep forgetting that i probably wont want to run outside once it gets colder or if its raining. I almost went on a run for the first time since i left the states yesterday but they sideways rain deterred me- dang :) but the girl i got the membership with plays lacrosse at CMS and we both are going to try and play here- so we can be teammates before we return to California and become arch rivals again. The sports fair is tomorrow so hopefully we can get more information there.

well, im sure youre bored and ready to be done with this, and if you made it to this point without quitting i am very impressed.

CHEERS!

Here are a few pictures:

From the Ceilidh- Traditional Scottish Dance

PICTURES!

welp i found my camera cord so here are some highlights:



Royal Mile


View from my hotel window of Edinburgh Castle

Out at Biddy's (Suzie Me Katie)

A view of the city from Calton Hill

First Day in the UK

hello all,

so i have officially been gone from Tacoma for 24 whole hours! its crazy how fast that went. First i hopped on a 5 hour flight from SeaTac to Newark, caught a glimpse of the empire state building and the statue of liberty during our decent, and arrived in Newark for a 4 and a half hour layover. It wasnt too bad because i took the IFSA Butler group flight which gathered us all in a lounge to meet before we left. The next flight left Newark at 8pm local time (5pm west coast time) and got us into Edinburgh at 7 am local time (11pm west coast time), i was super excited to have a window seat because i'd gotten stuck with a middle from SeaTac, but i boarded to find out that there was actually no window in the row i was in...typical. When we landed the program chartered a bus to take all of us who took the group flight to the orientation hotel- everyone who is studying in Scotland has orientation in Edinburgh so there are quite a few of us here. The rooms were not set to be ready until 230 pm, meaning we had 8 hours to kill before we could shower, nap, or even change out of our gross airplane clothes. So a group of 7 other kids and i decided to explore a little bit, and explore we did. We walked up to Edinburgh Castle, down the Royal Mile, and pretty much everywhere else ( i even found the same hotel i staying in when i came here two years ago with band- still across the street from Erogenous Zone although it is now called Zone Eros). The architecture is so beautiful, everything is so old! i took some pictures, but i cannot seem to locate my camera cord to upload them, so hopefully i didnt leave that at home :( Also, we adventured to find phones and got a pretty good deal- its actually cheaper to call the US than it is the UK, which doesnt make any sense. we finally got to our room about an hour ago and i randomly got paired with one of the girls ive been walking around with all day. The view is awesome, we can see up to the castle from our window. We have a group dinner in two hours so i think im going to take a power nap so i can attempt to go out tonight to this pub across the street called Biddy's.

ill hopefully post pictures soon!

Tomorrow comes to take me away

so i havent even left for scotland (although i do depart in exactly 23 hours and 17 minutes...not that im counting) and i have stuff to share. 

yesterday i got back from the dave matthews concert at the gorge, let me tell you... absolutely epic. such a gorgeous place made even more gorgeous with the presence of all of my high school friends. if you havent experienced dave matthews at the gorge, definitely put it on your to do list. basically a huge tailgate party. everyone drinking and having a good time. i forget who said this but they said that dave matthews should win the nobel peace prize for getting all of these different kinds of people (Huskies, Cougars, AND Ducks) together without utter chaos ensuing. the concert itself was absolutely amazing, he played "stay or leave" AND "why i am" and even though i didnt get to hear "crash", i am pretty satisfied. and now to get all sentimental: i am always really happy that all of my best friends from high school still make the effort to put time aside to do things like this together. as some people drift apart from their high school friends once they leave for college (especially when that college is over 1,000 miles away from most of them) this group has held strong and i really appreciate that. This weekend is going to make it a little harder to leave.

buttt i am still really excited to get to edinburgh and meet the rest of the people from my program.

Now I have quite the interesting story for you all: So, i got back from the gorge yesterday and checked my email and i found out that i had to confirm my housing, so i log onto my account for university of edinburgh and start going through the steps or whatever and what do i stumble upon... the name of the tenant assigned to the housing is "Mr Blair Callaghan". welp, at the time i dont really think its too big of a deal because thats the only place that has come up so far, and does it really matter? wellll not until i mention it to my family and my lovely sister says "youre probably in an all guys flat" do i start to freak out. so i start thinking...and it is highly likely that what she said is true...i have only found one flatmate and he is definitely male and they did say that they normally allocate flats based on gender. shit! sharing a flat with 11 other girls would be one thing but 11 guys, im not so sure about that, my mom said that the good news is that my messy habits will be the norm.but i emailed my program director(who of course will be out of the office until tomorrow aka the day i leave for scotland!) and the housing people at the school who still havent responded. awesome. hopefully it all gets settled before i move in on the 11th.

welp, its time to get all nostalgic on my last run in tacoma until january. oh yeah, and i should probably start packing.