I'm BAAACK

Wow, what a trip. Our little journey to the North was so much fun but also exhausting. Between 10 hour bus rides and miles of hiking in the city and in the country, you gotta believe I was tired. But it was a great trip, full of lots of fun moments and amazing sights. This is probably going to be a long post, so brace yourself. It was, after all, 5 days away from Cambridge.

WEDNESDAY (June 30)
- Left at the buttcrack of dawn for our looong bus ride up North. Stopped in the quaint little city of Richmond for lunch, where one of our TAs recommended the Turf Hotel for the best fish and chips around. He was right, they were absolutely finger-licking, malt-vinegary delicious. The only funny thing was that the fish part of it was one large whole piece of fish versus little fried bits. But oh man was it good.
- After several more hours on the bus, we stopped at Hadrian's Wall, the Roman-era wall spanning from ocean to ocean built by the empire to keep out the barbaric, invading, faces painted with blue, skirt-wearing, underwear-deficient Scots (I think this is relatively accurate, correct me if I'm wrong, Mo). The countryside was a beautiful lush green and the wall was amazing. It's always hard for me to believe that I'm in the midst of ancient things in times like that.
- Last stop before Edinburgh: had dinner at Dryburgh Abbey and Hotel, 4 star place. Delicious gourmet dinner complete with strawberries and cream and tea. Didn't get a chance to investigate the abbey ruins because we had to go.
- Arrived at University of Edinburgh, Pollock Halls, our home away from home. Very nice clean place. Explored the campus and town a bit, then crashed.

THURSDAY
- Had a morning guided tour of Edinburgh called "Saints and Sinners" led by professional actors. Useful and informative, though a little cheesy. Got a general overview of the city, mostly focusing on the Royal Mile (the road connecting Edinburgh Castle and Holyrood Palace, where the Queen stays when she is in Scotland).
- Was mostly brain-dead and still exhausted from our traveling so I went shopping with Jeanne Marie and Rachel. We were looking for authentic Scottish wool/cashmere sweaters and found lots...but of course they were really expensive (like £60 expensive). Oh well.
- The only stimulating thing we did that day after the tour was look at Giles Cathedral. Very beautiful (but not as amazing as Glasgow Cathedral, which I'll get to later). Highlight of Giles was the newer side chapel where they have these famous carvings of bagpipe playing angels.
- We decided that the weather in Edinburgh (and probably the rest of Britain too) is BIPOLAR. Overcast all day, then sudden heavy rain, followed by sun, then more heavy rain. At one point it was pouring heavy rain while the sun was fully shining. ARRGH. Guess that's Britain for you. You can tell it happens a lot because the locals just walk around getting soaked and they don't care. Only the tourists frantically pull out their umbrellas.
- Met up with our program for a drinks reception at the Playfair Library of the University. Breathtaking library with an ornate ceiling and classical architecture.
- Went off with a bunch of the people I've come to hang out with and found The Elephant House, the cafe where J.K. Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book. It was so much fun to be there, it was a very cute and hip cafe, elephant stuff everywhere, and the servers were very friendly. We stayed for several hours and I had two pots of tea while we played Texas Hold Em with M&Ms as money. Lots of good conversation and a fun game, and a few of us ended up buying shirts from the cafe. We put them on and the waiters teased us, telling us to get off our butts and help clean the tables. It was such a welcoming atmosphere and we completely felt like locals. Also had great music playing, some of the best music I've ever heard. It was a group called Arabian Moustache, a group consisting of a Greek, a Swede, a guy from England and a guy from Edinburgh playing an accordion, an electric violin, an upright bass, and a guitar. Amazing music!
- Despite being exhausted, ended up staying up late with my buddies just catching up and waxing philosophical. To make a long story short, we stayed up late enough to find out that the sun indeed does rise at 3AM. It was weird! And the sun doesn't set completely until midnight, which really messes with your sense of time.

FRIDAY
-Woke up early to hike up to Arthur's Seat, an extinct volcano, with a group of people from our program. It was the most beautiful and fun hike I've ever done. The steps and rocks to climb, flowers, the city views, and the lush greenery, WOW. Took a million pictures, which of course you can see in my album, and the weather was perfect: sunny with a breeze, quite refreshing. It felt like we were in the Swiss Alps, like in The Sound of Music, and I even took a few Julie-Andrews-Dancing-In-The-Mountains shots. Yeah, I know I'm dumb.
- Decided to use our free day to take a day trip into Glasgow. It was 50 minutes by train, and the Scottish rail system is quite impressive. It was so efficient and clean, the scenery from my window was gorgeous, and if you have a group of 4 or more you get a 50% discount. It only cost me $4 to go to Glasgow!
-We wandered Glasgow for the afternoon - very urban city, sometimes looked like any old typical city, but the Glasgow Cathedral made it spectacular. Stunning Gothic architecture, intricate stained glass, cavernous chapels, and a really creepy crypt. My favorite was the Adam and Eve stained glass window in the Nave of the cathedral, haven't seen that subject on stained glass before. I wanted to take more pictures by my batteries died and I forgot to bring spares, and the closest place to buy new ones was far away. I bought postcards to make up for it. Of all the cathedrals I've seen I like this one the best so far.
- Visited a cool museum, St. Mungo's Religious Life Museum, which owns Salvador Dali's famous Crucifixion of Christ painting and lots of other cool religious art, including some complex and colorful Muslim abstract paintings.
- Walking back towards the city centre, we saw some awesome street performers. There was a young man jamming on his bagpipe with two African drummers, the coolest street performers ever (sorry Santa Cruz kids, it even rivals the guy who sings the blues on Pacific, "I ain't got no dough to buy a burrito"). I've never heard a bagpipe played so awesomely.
- Went out for dinner with Jeanne Marie when everyone else decided to go clubbing (yeah...not my scene) and met lots of very friendly locals, including Hannah, a girl whose parents were born in San Jose and moved to Edinburgh, where she was born, and Gino, the very friendly guy at the Turkish Kebab place we ate. Lots of fun.

SATURDAY
- Chose to go on the trip to the Highlands instead of staying in Edinburgh for the G8 Protest after lots of deliberation. I wish I could have done both, but I ultimately chose the Highlands because Dr. Dawson was taking us hiking on one of his favorite trails, which I knew I would probably never be able to go back to by myself. Traveled for 3 hours to get to The Trossachs, a beautiful region of forest, ferns, rocks, and bogs.
- On the way there we stopped in a quaint little town called Callendar to buy things for lunch and JM and I found a local bakery called The Scotch Oven that had dirt-cheap and amazingly filling and delicious food. I got a steak pie and a chicken and mushroom pie for £1 each, and would have bought out the whole bakery if I could have. Everything looked so good.
- Finally arrived at the place in the Trossachs we were to hike at...I can't remember the name of the nature preserve itself, but the lake we were hiking next to was called Loch Catrine. It was a challenging, calf and thigh burning hike, but absolutely surreal and stunning (sorry if my vocabulary has been redundant...the experiences I've been having are too great for words to describe). It started gradual but we eventually hit the huge hill/mountain we climbed up. It was such an adventure and I swear it looked like Jurassic Park (you can look at my pictures and tell me what you think). Idyllic lake and breathtaking views the higher we got up the mountain. Lots of muddy bogs, however, and I stepped on what looked like firm land and ended up sinking into the bog up to my knees. It was hilarious and digusting, but once my shoes and feet were muddy I didn't care about being careful anymore.
- After hiking for 2 1/2 hours to reach the top, I enjoyed my steak pie and a delicious black currant drink called Ribena I've been drinking every chance I get since I found out about it. I just sat on a rock and ate and admired the nature around me. Very peaceful and satisfying. Too full to eat the chicken and mushroom pie, which I saved for dinner.
- Climbing down was very difficult and precarious but also an adventure (the mountain was really steep). I was verrrrry muddy by the time we got back, it was great. I felt seriously hardcore and in touch with nature.
- Got back to Edinburgh by 7PM and took JM, Scott, and Rimma with me to The Meadows to survey the aftermath of the protest. Heard from the people who stayed that it was a lot of fun and completely peaceful. Most of the protesters were gone except for some hippies and stoners hanging out in the park, but there were still tons of police around. Not quite sure what my opinion of the protest is yet. It made me a little angry when I found out that the organizers had been selling merchandise such as t shirts and trousers with the protest slogan on it ("MakePovertyHistory") when it was supposed to be an anti-capitalism march. Right. But I'm still reading up on it, so I'll get back to you when I form an opinion.
- Packed and crashed.

SUNDAY
-Left early again to get back to Cambridge. Only one stop this time, at Fountains Abbey for lunch. We spent an hour or two there exploring the abbey ruins and the surrounding ornamental lakes. It was a very beautiful place, apparently the largest and most complete medieval abbey ruins in all of europe. It was a beautiful day again and so we just walked around, stretched, took a lot of pictures, etc.
- Got back to Cambridge and wanted to just go to sleep but was convinced by my buddies to come with them to a jazz bar called The Elm Tree. I'm glad I went; I took some class reading with me and sat outside (inside was really smoky, I keep forgetting it's okay to smoke inside here) with Rachel reading and listening to the jazz. Very relaxing, and I got work done too.

And today I had class at 9AM, where we talked about Jane Austen's Emma (or "Emmer", as my teacher with a thick British accent says) and HOLY COW our midterms are next Wednesday. This class is moving quite quickly.

Tonight we have "Empire Day" celebrations. I thought it was a real British holiday but Dr. Dawson explained to us that they are throwing this celebration just for us. It's supposed to be a 4th of July celebration, but they are calling it "Empire Day" in honor of the Brits losing their American colonies. They said they would try not to act too bitter at the celebration. Har har har, those funny Brits.

OH last thing! Guess who I ran into today, finally?! Jason Sposeto! I was coming into Pembroke from town and he was walking out and we sort of both stopped in our tracks with our jaws dropped. Then we both got super excited and hugged and asked all kinds of questions, it was the craziest meeting! It's so strange to run into someone you know from home in a different country. I mean, I knew he was coming but I didn't know when he would be here, and it was amazing that we happened to run into each other that way. He showed me where he was living (basically across the street from me...across from his flat is a plaque identifying the flat where Charles Darwin lived for a year. Wow) and I showed him where I was living so that we could find each other again. I'm so glad he's here, we said we'd go running together which is great because I hadn't been able to find anyone to run with. Most of the people here are from So Cal and only like to run on treadmills and ellipticals. Boo. I like being outside. His EAP program is supposed to be at our Empire Day Celebrations tonight, so hopefully we'll hang out later. How exciting to have an old friend here!

Hope everyone is having a great 4th of July. Blow up a firecracker for me or something, please, and eat some BBQ in my honor. Love and miss you all! Jo