St. Andrews Photographs

I realized just now that the photos to Saint Andrews were not viewable. Why didn't anyone tell me? Anyhow, I fixed it and now you can access them by clicking below.

LINK TO ST. ANDREWS PHOTOS

Trainspotting

Happy Halloween everyone! It's not quite the same in Britain, but it's here. There are lots of parties tonight, all welcoming fancy dress (the British phrase for costumes) and I haven't yet decided whether or not I will indulge. I don't have a costume for one. And another, it just wouldn't be the same as home. Halloween was always such a blast at Penn - remember Tash's tinkerbell costume last year? Honestly, how could I top that? I may just go watch this film, it's supposed to be quite good, "Shaun of the Dead" - bit of a horror genre mocking flick, I think. Or maybe Pamela and I will go see "Saw"... she's been wanting to do that.

Anyway, my flatmate Pamela brought Trainspotting, the film, back from Fort William (she went home for fall break). It has been on our telly NON-STOP since then. It's quite ridiculous but such a BLOODY BRILLIANT FILM! It's amazing. The cinematography is unbelievable. Plus it's fun to watch now because it takes part mostly in Edinburgh so we're all like "oh that's the street *insert name of club/bar/pub/etc.* is on!" And don't even get me started on the soundtrack.... FANTAAAAAASTIC! It's been a Danny Boyle/Ewan McGregor-worshipping festival in the flat as of late. In short, in you have not yet seen this movie, do it immediately! Besides the hard drugs, it will give you a little bit of a glance into what my life is like (the accents, the city, etc.).

Note: Apologise for shameless use of British slang in this entry - watched a bit of Harry Potter last night and cannot help it.

Oh... and Begbie. BEGBIE!!!!

With God On Our Side

I'm in Edinburgh University's main library (which is nothing, NOTHING compared to the wonders of Van Pelt, or the Fine Arts, or even the Dental) and it is about 1:10 PM on Saturday. I've come to write my Celtic Civilisation essay, but I felt a little diary-like release might put me in a better mood to start with the academics (since I haven't really done any since I've arrived). I'm actually looking out of a window at a row of houses that look like they could easily be from the 19th century - with the stone and the multiple chimneys and the grey. There's a kirk (church) with a clock in the tower behind them which just adds to the old time aesthetic. It's quite nice, really. The trees are turning brilliant shades of gold here, as I'm sure they are in Pennsylvania. The sky is a creamy shade of grey and despite the lack of sun, there is pleasant weather outside. Overall, a perfect Edinburgh Saturday. And I'm stuck in the library.

No bother though. I will tell you one thing that's really been preying on my mind lately and that is the election which will take place in *gasp* three days. According to my BBC news source, Bush is still leading in the polls. For those of you from glorious Solanco High School, you will remember Matt Jackson, no? He randomly IMed me yesterday and we got talking about politics. For those who do not know, Matt is a marine and is presently stationed in Japan, although he said he will probably be going to Iraq shortly. He has already voted...for Bush. He had his reasons, and I suppose they were alright ones, but I obviously do not agree. He informed me that the military was pretty split down the middle about the election. I'm guessing that is how the entire country will be. It's quite nerve-wracking... sometimes while watching the news I get a large feeling of dread about the whole deal. I did my part though. I hope you all did yours. Note: I extremely encourage political commentary on this blog!

Oh, I forgot to mention the meaning of the title of this blog. The BBC is doing a lot of specials on America as of late, and one of them is about the moral stance and political history of George W. Bush and it's called "With God On Our Side". It looks intriguing really, and is supposed to examine how much using Christianity as a political platform affects a candidate's success.

I shouldn't write for too long, but I will try and at least start describing my trip to Ireland. Well, it turned out that practically every room in Dublin was booked on Saturday, so I had to find a way to get to Dublin on Sunday morning without neccessitating a room. The flights were no good and the railway was no help, so that left the bus. So I took a ridiculously long bus ride overnight to Dublin (including a ride on a very nice Irish ferry) and arrived extremely early in the morning. I wandered around to find my hostel, got there, dropped off my luggage, freshened up and went off to explore, all by myself.

I walked through Temple Bar in the early morning chill, through a deserted Trinity College and past a stunning Christ Church Cathedral. I found a place called Bewley's to have a very large, very delicious breakfast, bought a map and planned my day. It started with a trip to the Guinness Factory.

The Guinness Factory really was an enjoyable experience and I learned a lot about the process of making lager. You got to smell all the stages of brewing: the barley, the mash, the yeast. You learned about thelife and investments of Arthur Guinness - quite good ones. I found the section on advertising to be particularly interesting - did you know the Guinness Book of World Records was invented to settle bar disputes? And of course, there was a free pint at the end of the tour in their Gravity Bar, which is home to an almost 360 degree view of Dublin. It was perhaps the best thing I have ever tasted.

After the Guinness, I decided it was time for a walk. It was about noon and I ventured past the cathedral and past Dublin Castle. Dublin Castle has very strange opening hours, so I didn't go in, but it was a beautiful building from the outside. I went into a little cafe, for a muffin and some hot chocolate (I'm actually addicted to hot chocolate in autumn/winter) and then decided to visit Trinity College and see the Book of Kells, which is made all the more interesting as I have just studied Celtic art in Celtic Civ and the Book of Kells is supposed to be the last and most quintessential piece of Celtic art.

Once inside the Book of Kells display, you are led through a rather interesting maze of facts on Celtic art, the practice of script writing in monasteries, monastery life, Christian symbols and their meanings, etc. Plus you view a few lesser manuscripts. There are also some wonderful poems on the act of writing, written by monks, which are quite nice. Anyhow, it all leads up to the climatic viewing of the Books of Kells, which is extremely impressive in its artistic stylisation and massive amount of detail. Plus, the colors are extraordinary. I really enjoyed it.

After viewing the book, you then go into Trinity College's Old Library - which is really just as impressive. It is stacks and stacks of old, old books, alphabetised and all leather bound. On either side, there is a row of busts of famous philosophers, authors, doctors commissioned by the college many years ago. There was even a Dr. Gilbert, who I will have to look into the history of at a later time. Many of the others were more familiar names: Plato, Socrates, Jonathan Swift (Trinity Alum), etc. Down the center of the library was a collection of satirical cartoons which I really enjoyed - they were all about Napoleon! Oh, it was fantastic.

Afterwards I was feeling a bit restless, so I decided to go for a stroll in Saint Stephen's Green. What a magnificent, gorgeous piece of land. The colors of the trees, the ponds and the greenest grass you have ever seen. I stayed there for quite a while, just meandering.

It had started to drizzle, just a bit, by this time and I decided to stick it out anyway. I went for a walk in the Georgian section of Dublin and admired the architecture there. The rain had stopped and I proceeded to Temple Bar. There was a quite funny street comedian performing, his name was David McSavage, I believe and I stayed there and listened for a while. Then I proceeded back to the hostel for a proper shower.

After my shower, I headed out to find some food, took a long walk around Dublin (knowing this would probably be my last chance to do so) and then headed to Temple Bar (not the area this time, the actual bar) for a pint. It was a nice one and I met some rowdy Australians, but nothing too great. Besides, I was entirely knackered and wanted a bed more than you can imagine. So I headed back a bit early, met some nice people at the hostel and slept a beautiful sleep.

I'll stop there and resume with Monday morning and the beginning of my tour of Southern Ireland the next time I feel like writing. Until then,

M.

I Love Guinness.

Ok, I don't have a lot of time to write, although I promise to do so shortly. Ireland was absolutely FAAAAAAAAN-tastic. The scenery was unbelievable and I had a really good time. And a note, the Guinness tastes at least a million times better in Ireland. So much so that in the span of 4 days/3 nights, I drank 13 pints of Guinness (approx. 1.6 gallons) as well as a few shots of Irish whiskey, some Bailey's, some Murphy's (smooth, like) and had an Irish coffee. I was really trying to imitate the authentic Irish lifestyle. I think I did a pretty good job.

More details later, mates.

Ireland, Here I Come.

You lot were no help at all with Dublin. Oh well, I think I have a fairly good itinerary planned - Guinness Factory, Book of Kells, Castle, Museum, The Cobblestone pub... We'll see how it goes.

Anyhow, I'll be gone from tomorrow to Wednesday, so don't be expecting any updates. But when I comeback - I should have a mouthful (I will, after all, have kissed the Blarney Stone). Not sure if that is a proper metaphor, considering I have to type, but you all understand.

Have a lovely weekend - and fall break for those of you at Penn or Edinburgh!!!

Sigh.

"Oh no, here comes that sun again
That means another day without you my friend."

First Odd Dream of the Semester

Well, the first one that I remember, anyway. In my dream, I was Sean Connery's bodyguard and I had to protect him. There was also a Sean look-a-like who was supposed to stand in for Sean in case there was a situation where he would potentially be in danger, but the look-a-like was a rebel and wouldn't do a thing I told him to. I told him to go wave to fans, and he told me to fuck off and it was quite frustrating and the whole time, the real Sean Connery was very apathetic and almost seemed depressed. I had no idea what to do. So in my dream, it faded into another scene where I was in some crazy cobblestone basement with tennis courts and a full bar. Now, I waited in line for the bar for some time with my sister Becky and when I got there I order a Schmirnoff Ice Peach Lite - I remember this quite well - BUT THERE IS NO SUCH DRINK - but there should be...mmmmm.... Anyhow, I got my drink (because in my dream it existed) and watched all these little girls play tennis. My other sister Katie was there, but she was lying on the floor in a sleeping bag and refused to get up. Becky and I kept trying to get her to go play tennis, because for some reason we knew she could beat them but she wasn't having it. And that's when I woke up. Not terribly exciting, but still random. Please post your interpretations. =)

Simply Do Not Have The Time To Do This Blog Justice

Hiya! (Typical Scottish greeting) Well, as you can imagine, Liverpool was fantastic. An unremarkable city, but I WAS ON PENNY LANE!!! Haha, immense Beatles fan freakout. Actually it was terribly cool. We went to the Beatles Story Museum where I learned more than I ever expected to know about the Beatles, and then went on a great vintage bus for the Magical Mystery Tour, which took us to all the Beatles Liverpool hotspots. Then, on Sunday, we visited the docks and the Maritime Museum, which was far more interesting than it sounds. Overall, it was fantastic. I will probably detail this more later, assuming I find the time to do so.

Last night, we celebrated Lucy's 18th birthday by going to a club called Why Not? It was the usual debauchery, but a complete blast, as everyone was in the high spirits which only a special occasion can bring out. Took some pictures of this one.

I am going to go on a tour of southern Ireland next Monday-Wednesday (it's our fall break), but I will be spending Sunday in Dublin. Any suggestions for things to do (besides drink Guinness)? I'm sure there's plenty, but it's always good to get advice from friends.

On to the semi-exciting news, I have posted more pictures! Here are the ones of my trip to St. Andrews:
CLICK HERE

Note: These do not yet have proper captions, and although I tried my best to put them in chronological order, they are not. Will fix both these problems ASAP.

I'm A Terrible Blogger

I know, I know - I haven't blogged in days... but there are many reasons for this. 1) I have been quite busy, academically, socially and otherwise. 2) I've been extremely sick, thus staying in bed. 3) I've spent all my time on the internet searching for airfare for my darling little sister Becky so she can come see me. Note to everyone: Buying airplane tickets is a HUGE PAIN IN THE ASS!!!

Anyhow, I can't write now - still searching various travel websites.. but here's a little teaser about things I'm going to write about in the (hopefully) near future: My first game of Shagtag, the opening of the Scottish Parliament, and the awesome time I'm going to have in Liverpool this weekend!

Cheers, mates. M.

On Commenting

For those of you who are new to reading blogs, if you wish to comment, but don't wish to register (BECKY) then just click on "Post Anonymously". Also, in reference to something else I've written on my blog specifically aimed at my sister, I don't think that all bloggers are self-involved. It was just a discussion we had. Most people who blog are just either expressing themselves creatively or informing their friends of neat things or any of a number of perfectly respectable reasons for blogging. I know that using this medium makes it hard to interpret sarcasm, but I'm trying my best, so please don't get offended. =) Cheers.

Edinburgh Pictures

Photos link:
http://photos.yahoo.com/melindaupenn
Greyfriars Bobby full story link:
http://www.greyfriarsbobby.co.uk/story/story.html

First Adventure: St. Andrews

Ok, I am well aware that I have been letting the blog slip a bit, not updating regularly and what-not. For that I apologize, but I have been busy, so this should be a relatively interesting post. Plus, I have pictures!

So, I last wrote on Tuesday therefore I will start with Wednesday. I am fortunate enough not to have any classes at all on Wednesday and I had decided to get a bit of exercise in. I went to Holyrood Park in the morning (home to Arthur's Seat) which is quite a walk in itself (because I went to the main entrance, opposite the Palace of Holyroodhouse, where the queen chills when she's in Edinburgh) and then just started walking on random trails. Now, the park is full of craigs (typically used in the north, a craig is a form of the word "crag" meaning "A steep or precipitous rugged rock." Courtesy of the Oxford English Dictionary, www.oed.com) and these craigs have many trails on them. Here, in Britain, they do not call huffing and puffing up trails of dirt and rock "hiking", they call it "walking" - so do not be fooled when you are asked to do some walking, wear proper shoes. So after quite a bit of walking (approx. 2 hours) around various craigs in Holyrood Park, videotaping good views, and listening to The Smiths on my MP3 player, I decided to head back down to town, grab a bite to eat and then head off to a beginners fencing lesson. The first thing I learned is that fencing is much harder than it looks. For one thing, you must keep your knees bent at all times and your feet perpendicular to eachother. Also, the "on-guard" position consists of contorting your arm and wrist in a quite uncomfortable way. Then there's the lungeing (sp?). But it was quite fun, nevertheless, and I will be continuing it. Not to mention, one of the older members of the fencing squad was ridiculously good-looking.

Wednesday night I met up with Christina at a pub called The Abbey for dinner. We got gigantic cheese and bacon burgers (note: in the UK, bacon is more like ham), chips and salad, plus beer (of course) for approx. £3 each (not including beer). I adore pub food. Anyhow, we ate the monstrous meal and had noticed that the pub was really filling up. Not to mention the appearance of 4+ identical green and white striped shirts. Possessing the intuitive minds that we do, we finally deduced that we were in the midst of the start of a football game: Glasgow Celtic vs. Milan, as it were. We stayed for a good 20 minutes amid the drunken, rowdy crowd, and I must have heard the phrase "fer fuck's sake!" at least 45 times. It was quite an extraordinary experience and I definitely plan on going for another game, getting a proper table with a good view of the screen, and staying for the whole time.

Thursday, I had a ludicrous tutorial at 9 AM, followed by another at 10. Tutorials are like recitations, except attendance is required and it's where you really get graded. Really boring stuff though, and too early for me.

Thursday night I spent trying to get back all of my lost sleep from the night before (the girls had come back roaring drunk) as well as much of Friday morning. Speaking of Wednesday night, one of the girl's boyfriends has a little brother who came over quite late on Wednesday, when I was forced to get up and shut off the music, making the poor, pissed girls apologize all over themselves. His name was Nicky and upon finding out that I was American he proceeded to ask me the most hilarious questions, such as: "Do you live in a big house, like the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air?" "Do you live, like, in the ghetto?" (West Philly, yo) and my favorite, "So do you own chains? Big ones?" Apparently, because I'm American, I'm supposed to have a large collection of bling.

Friday night I went out with Nicole and Christina to the movies. We saw Wimbledon - ADORABLE - I need my own Paul Bettany. Before the movie, we had some ridiculously expensive cocktails and a very posh bar called The Slug and Lettuce. And after the movie, we headed to a bar/restaurant called Negociants, where I ate my first Sticky Toffee Pudding. It was like heaven in my mouth. Really. If you ever have the chance, eat it. Delicious.

Despite going to sleep after 4:30 AM, Saturday morning, I woke myself up at 8 to meet Christina and catch a bus to St. Andrews for the day. The bus ride was quite nice, and we got excellent views of the Firth of Forth and the Fife countryside - including green pastures with sheep and cows, quaint stone cottages, the sea, and fishing villages. It was incredibly picturesque. And that was just the ride!

St. Andrews is a small town, and I don't think I would've liked to have spent more than a day there (so glad I decided not to study abroad there, by the way), but it is incredibly beautiful and perfect. The weather was absolute shit in Edinburgh, but it was sunny and cool in St. Andrews. There were beaches, with kids and dogs playing in the sand. There was the cathedral and the castle. There was perfect stone houses covered in ivy with flowers on the windowsills. There was the golf course. It is picture perfect, no doubt about it.

We went first to St. Andrews Cathedral and the graveyard surrounding it. The graves were centuries-old and included some pretty famous people, including the philosopher Adam Ferguson - former professor and namesake for one of our university buildings. Typically, graveyards make me a bit uneasy, but I was just bowled over by the beauty of this one. I'll post pictures of it soon.

The remains of the cathedral were also quite breath-taking (due to the Reformation, everything medieval in St. Andrews consists of ruins - the cathedral, castle, etc.). We climbed to the top of St. Rules tower, which consitsed of extremely narrow and steep winding stairs - reminiscent of our trip to Prague and the Great South Tower there, remember girls? From the top, the views of the town and coastline were fantastic and there was a great, rough sea breeze.

After that, we headed to the medieval St. Andrews Castle. These were also ruins, but terribly gorgeous ones. The grass was so green (as it is in most of Scotland) and the sea an intense gray-blue - it made for excellent photographs. We climbed around the ruins, poked into old rooms, took loads of pictures, listened to history lessons from a ridiculously knowledgable staff, and marvelled at the beauty and age of it all. We also got to climb in very small mines / countermines used in the old days to try and infiltrate the castle / stop enemy forces. The history of the place is fantastic. Read about it here: http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/standrews/standrewscastle/.

After that, we walked along the coast, past the British Golf History Museum, the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, and the Old Course. We decided to play a round at the Himalayas Putting Green, right next to the Old Course, and just as immaculately manicured. St. Andrews is, after all, the home to the sport. Well, I am the first to admit that I am a terrible golfer (actually, not really a golfer at all, I've only putted and gone to the driving range a couple of times) and Christina is not great either (sorry hun, but you're not) so it was spectacular when the group of Scots behind us (two young attractive guys with what appeared to be their fathers) started to joke around with us. They were all terribly charming and quite good-natured, which was important because on some of the holes, we took as many as 7 strokes (not to mention the photographing and videotaping). I had been doing a bit of golfing with bags on my arms, and one of them remarked, "Oh, her handicap is just because of all those bags" to which I smiled and replied, "Yes, that must be it because usually I'm really good." It was loads of fun and definitely great to say that I did at least partial golfing in St. Andrews.

Speaking of the bags, they were filled with my first souvenir purchases since arriving in Scotland. I got a two things for myself, plus a few postcards. I bought a book on the rules of golf - which is fantastic and another thing, which some of you may figure out if I send you a letter. *wink* It was great because I have been searching for this mystery object for years, and I got to buy one in St. Andrews!

Anyhow, that's pretty much all that's been happening around here. I'll be spending today doing schoolwork (bah) and hopefully seeing Girl With A Pearl Earring tonight at the Film Society screening. Hope all is well at home.