I'm Trying Not to Be Sick and Edinburgh is Still Amazing

So I'm currently propped up in my bed (ignoring my slightly sore throat) but enjoying the fact that today (Wednesday) I have no classes at all. That's right. And none on Thursday either. And just one 50 minute one on Friday. I'm in a gloating mood. Anyway, you may be wondering if I ever go to class here, but let me assure you that I do, although it is hardly a statistically significant percentage (have you ever noticed that if you make mention of something being statistically significant with a science person around, particularly psychology, they start laughing uproariously? It has taken me a long time to understand that because things being statistically significant is so...significant...amongst science people that when mentioned in everyday conversation they think it's the funniest thing they've ever heard. Like the mug that all science people seem to know about stating, "I am statistically significant." I still don't think that it is funny.) Anyway, yes, I don't have many classes (because two of them meet only once a week) but I do complete massive quantities of reading every week if that's of comfort to you. I didn't come to Scotland to do nothing. So with my free time I generally enjoy running in Holyrood Park, going on little hikes up Arthur's Seat, drinking tea, planning weekend excursions, going to EUCU events (Edinburgh University Christian Union) and cooking for the people in my flat.

Speaking of weekend excursions, I went to Loch Ness this past weekend with Friederike and Frank from my flat, as well as a guy named Toma that I know from Richmond. We took the bus to a little town called Dunnadrochit (I may have spelled this wrong) where we went on a quite epic many-hour long walk/hike that involved scrambling down some massive wooded-hillsides in the general direction of the Loch which, surprisingly, we did reach. It was raining for about 62% of the time, but that meant that when it wasn't raining there were soooo many beautiful rainbows everywhere. It was AMAZING. Plus, rain never dampens my joy anymore (sorry about the painful pun) because it's always raining or threatening of it so if you let it ruin your fun you would live a rather dull life here. But yes, that walk was so beautiful.





And NO, I did not see Nessie. Though Sylvie was hoping very sincerely. She's read a book about it. You should bring it up with her sometime. Really.

Among other trips that we hope to take are a visit to St. Andrews (we're thinking about next Wednesday), a weekend trip to Glencoe with our friend Brittany (this weekend), and a weekend trip to the Isle of Skye in a few weeks as a flat (meaning Friederike and Frank would come.)

Speaking of flatmates, Fredi just came in and asked me if I wanted porridge for breakfast...mmm...someone is always cooking something here and I love it. I also love how Scottish porridge is...so appropriate.

Speaking of Scottish things, last night with dinner we all tried some of the darkest Ale I think it is possible to make. I felt as if I had eaten a piece of fermented bread drenched with very, very bitter chocolate. This may sound nice to you (I don't judge) but I didn't care for it too much. Two sips of it made me feel fuller than eating my dinner had. But I'm trying to be adventurous with consuming "traditional Scottish" things even though they often sound unappealing to me. Like haggis. We'll see if I ever manage to eat some. But I suppose I'll have to because Sylvie informed me last night that she won't let me leave Scotland until I try some.

Amongst other things that Sylvie and I have been doing in attempts to make ourselves as cultured as our flatmates are learning to salsa dance, I am trying to pick up Russian from Fredi (who speaks 6 languages or so), and we are taking a group excursion to see a Picasso exhibit later today. So don't worry, these clumsy, loud Americans are attempting to keep up with the sophisticated, bored-with-culture-because-its-so-"done" Europeans. If that last bit didn't make sense to you that's ok. I'm not sure that I understand what I was trying to say either. (This is my attempt at being self-reflexive.)

Alrighty then, I think that the porridge is ready so I'm off.

Cheers!! (Such an odd phrase, for the record. Nothing worse than wanting a heartfelt thank-you and getting a "cheers" instead. What does it mean???)

ireland part two!

pues. may i just say, the blogging world has my respect... havin enough trouble as it is just centering text and things this is crazy! hence, (and this is sylvie here) my posts will be rather to the point. plus, it's close to midnight here and after netting about 50 walked and 30 biked miles in the last 4 days i'm a tad wiped (that's not even an exaggeration folks).

so. DOOLIN!!!!! the town that has my heart. when i read online that this was the "traditional music capital of ireland" and the hostel i wanted to stay in had a host who "will be happy to share his archaeological knowledge of the area with all guests" i was won over, and it FAR exceeded expectations.

we stayed in doolin for 2 wonderful nights. there are only like 50 people in the whole town! it's right on the west coast of ireland and indeed has some lovely music. the first day we went to the Cliffs of Moher, probably the most well known scenic part of Ireland, and for good reason! gah, beauty!! we hiked about a mile around, so i have a bajillion pics, but check em out on Facebook.

after the Cliffs we thought the day couldn't get more lovely but hey it sure did... oh wait forgot to mention we realized there was no bus to take us back from the cliffs so we ended up trekking 6 miles back to Doolin. we met a fellow US traveler Kyrie and ended up hanging out with her for the rest of the week! so back at the hostel, our wonderful landlord Mattie took us on a "walking tour" of the wilds of Doolin, aka most wonderful, historical and gorgeous tour of my LIFE! he named every flower, pointed out every burial and cave, gave us eras worth of history and took us around a plethora of archaeological sites that he discovered himself. we ended with half an hour of watching the sunset over the atlantic. it was glorious.

oh, mattie also drove us into these wilds at breakneck speeds in an old cart! the roller coaster of doolin!! it sealed the experience. unforgettable :)

day 2: we attempted, and succeeded, at something i may or may not do again in my future. we biked over the entire mountainous peninsula (i had ridden a bike about once in the last 7 years). that is, we walked up some of the steeper hills, and coasted down the 8 mile downhill stretch :) haha. it was an 8 hr excursion, stopping in 3 or 4 towns and one castle! yes, castle! of course it said no tourists but, banking confidently in our American suavity we walked on through the gate, aaaand got invited in for tea. ah yes, those Americans. ;) this castle was inhabited by cromwell's premier general during his semi-takeover/destruction of scotland.

the views on this bike trip were truly breathtaking--the green pastoral landscapes of Ireland you hear about are spot on--fold after fold of mossy terrain with sheep, cattle, and castles nestled between. after makin it back from this epic journey, we decided to go on a short "2 km" walk to see another castle, ha that ended up being probably 6 miles of good hard walking but SO WORTH IT! we found a way around the gate (again haha) and climbed to the top of beautiful, nearly-intact Ballinalacken Castle in the setting sun.

let's just say we slept quite soundly that night after all these adventures. aah! this post is so long! whoops. i guess our final stop, Dingle, will have to wait. stay tuned--very cool things to come.

Dublin and Galway City

Well I know that I said that nothing would be written before we got to Scotland, but Sylvie and I are just sitting here in a hostel in Dingle, Ireland sipping tea and I thought that I'd write a post early about our doings here on the "Emerald Isle." We arrived in Dublin last Tuesday morning and went to see the Dublin castle, the Irish Writer's Museum, the Book of Kells and Trinity University.

right before dinner it cleared up :)

It was a rather rainy, drizzly day, but that's pretty much what I thought Ireland would be like so I wasn't terribly disappointed (it may be preparing us for three months of the same in Scotland, after all.) Probably our favorite site, though, was the old library at Trinity. It was pretty much my and Sylvie's dream because we're such book nerds. Songs from Beauty and the Beast kept going through my head...you know...because of that scene when Belle sees that huge library in the Beast's castle...but I digress. The library was beautiful and the Book of Kells was very impressive.


We walked around the Temple Bar area and ended up eating dinner there. Later that evening we went to a pub that had live music and Irish step dancing, which was AMAZING! Pretty much Riverdance jr. Sylvie and I decided to be very Irish and have Guinness and an Irish coffee. We technically split both, but I must say that I managed to drink about three-quarters of the Guinness. It was a feat for me because I'm not really a beer person. On the way out this nice elderly Irish man grinned at me and thanked me, and I'm still wondering if it's because he thought that I looked like the kind of person who wouldn't be able to drink three-quarters of a pint of Guinness and was pleasantly surprised. I'll never know I suppose. Our initial plant was to go to the Temple Bar area after this, but we were both very tired (we had been up almost the whole night before on the plane) so we ended up just heading back to bed at the hostel.
River Liffy-center of Dublin. gorious after-shower light!

The next morning we took the bus to Galway City, which was very beautiful and quite artsy. There were tons of pubs (as there are everywhere in Ireland) and little shops etc. Upon arrival Sylvie and I went on a beautiful walk along the Galway Bay for a few hours. We went back to the hostel and then decided to go on yet another walk to search for something we saw on a map labeled "Cromwells Fort." This sounded historical and cool, plus there was a little castle icon next to it so of course we had to find it. Truth be told, this was more Sylvie's excursion than mine, but I never say no to a nice walk so I was game. We wandered about for quite some time along the docks trying to find a good way to walk along the coast to this fort, and we ended up in such scenic locations as a scrap metal heap and a parking lot. Eventually we found our way around these beautiful things and to a bridge which we believed led to the fort. When we found the bridge, however, we were under it so we had the pleasure of scrambling up a little hill and climbing over a fence rather than taking the long way and staying on the road. Sylvie and I are definitely "off the path" kinds of people. We finally got to the fort after a rather long walk, only to see that it was fenced off with barbed wire and seems to be in use as a military fort for the Irish army. We stood there bewildered for a little while and attracted some attention to ourselves so some military guy opened the gate and asked what we were doing (very nicely, though, I must add.) I explained about how we were tourists and we saw the little castle icon on the map so we thought that the fort was a tourist attraction. I'm pretty sure that he was amused. Anyway, after our delightful trip to the military fort and scrap metal heap we went back to our hostel because we were, again, exhausted. I must say, though, that despite the various humorous turns our walking excursion took, the views were beautiful the whole way. We had a great time. The next morning we woke up and took the bus to Doolin, which Sylvie will tell about.

Ok, that's it for now! Sylvie and I are planning to walk to the oldest still-fully-standing Christian church in the world tomorrow! Needless to say, I am excited.

We're Goin' to Scotland!!

As hopefully all of you know, Sylvie and I are studying abroad at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland this fall semester. I have high hopes for us actually using this blog to let people know what we've been up to, and maybe even post pictures from our travels. You will notice that the blog is registered to me, but I may try to entice Sylvie to be an occasional poster so that you can read both of our impressions about Scotland and wherever else we go. If you are reading this I assume that I (or Sylvie) sent you the email link to our blog. Feel free to pass on the internet address to people who ACTUALLY KNOW me and/or Sylvie. And by this I mean people that we KNOW we know, not people who know who we are but we've never heard of in our lives. :-) You get the idea.

We will be arriving in Scotland on the 14th of September, so there won't be any posts until sometime after that. Also, if you try to reach us by calling our cell phones you won't be able to because they will be turned off. Email is the way to go (or Skype, if you have it.)

Thanks for checking up on us, and we would appreciate prayer that our time abroad would be safe and an opportunity to grow in reliance upon God and His perfect provision.