The Scottish Highlands

Now for Sunday funday! We hopped on the bus at 8 and set off for Loch Ness. The fog hadn't really lifted since the day before, so I was really worried that the entire day would be a bust. The first two hours were as expected, and because the fog was so heavy we couldn't see Doune Castle as we passed it. I was really disappointed, because this is where most of the castle scenes in Monty Python and the Holy Grail were filmed. Sad day. Our first stop was at Trossachs Woolen Mill in Stirling, where we met Hamish the famous Highland cow. The next stop was at Black Mount Estate, which reminded me of an overlook at the Blue Ridge Parkway, sans the Blue Ridge Mountains and add a bagpipe player and some fog. As we drove farther north, the fog began to clear and we were granted with beautiful weather for the rest of the day. Things were looking up.

The Lowlands make up the bottom 1/3 of Scotland, but about 90% of the population live in a little strip in the narrowest part of the Lowlands. The other 2/3 of Scotland are the Higlands, which boasts some of the most beautiful scenery I've ever seen. While we drove through the Highlands and took in the deserted mountain scenery, our tour guide Nic played some traditional Gaelic music and told us some stories of the battles between old Scottish clans that used to live there. Scotland has a really dark history and it was really interesting to hear all about. We passed quite a few lochs (lakes) and snow-capped mountains (yay snow!) until finally arriving at Loch Ness.

For those of you who don't believe in a monster that lives in a lake in the middle of Scotland, let me give you a few reasons to open your mind: 1) The lake is big. Loch Ness is over 23 miles long, and at some points over 900 feet deep. If you were to drain Loch Ness and fill it with all the water in all the lakes in England AND Wales combined, it wouldn't even fill half of the basin. This is a huge loch we're talking about. It also has a very shallow euphotic depth, meaning that light doesn't penetrate deeper than 10 or 15 meters below the surface. 2) The fish are big. The boat we rode on had a sonar hooked up so that we could see all the fishies swimming around beneath us, as well as how deep it was. Massive eels and pike have been caught before. Sonar images show that there are some seriously huge animals swimming around down there. 3) The ocean is big. Loch Ness feeds into the North Sea, so fish are free to swim in and out of the Loch to feed/mate as they see fit. This family of creatures that Nessie belongs to could swim anywhere they wanted in the North Sea, and simply come to Loch Ness when they got hungry (yes, Nessie does have a family -- you don't think she'd still be alive and kicking after the first sighting in the 6th century, do you? It would make more sense for it to be a family of creatures that have been lasting from generation to generation). Unfortunately there were no Nessie sightings while were on our hour boat tour, but I'm still convinced that there's some sort of giant underwater creature who lives in Loch Ness :)

The ride back to Edinburgh was relaxing. The scenery was just as beautiful as the sweeping mountains of the Highlands, but it just wasn't as dramatic. We stopped at the Commando Memorial and saw the biggest mountain in the British Isles, Ben Nevis standing at 4,400 feet tall. It was pretty, but I laughed at the fact that I go to school at 3,333 feet elevation back home -- what's another 1,000 feet, especially when I've skied on the 14,000 feet-tall Grand Tetons in Wyoming? However I do consider myself lucky, because Nic told us that you can only see the peak 50 days out of the year due to low clouds, so we picked a really good day. The Scottish Highlands are unbelievably beautiful, and I would love to live out in the middle of nowhere like that. Being surrounded by such beautiful natural scenery definitely made me miss Boone.

We drove past the Dalwhinnie whiskey distillery, as well as the engineering marvel Forth Bridge. Our last stop was in a little town called Pitlochry, where we grabbed some chips (fries) to hold us over until we arrived back in Edinburgh. It was a tiny little town that had a lot of cute shops, but unfortunately none of them were open at 7 pm on a Sunday evening. One of the stores was a year-round Christmas shop that was counting down the days until Christmas (276 as of yesterday), which reminded me so much of my mom. We got back on the road and arrived in Edinburgh right at 8:00. Our bus back home didn't leave until 10:30, so Lily, Ash, and I got dinner at a TGI Fridays we found (definitely didn't know Fridays was an international chain). I must have slept a good bit on the 3-hour bus ride back to Newcastle because I don't remember much of it. A taxi from Newcastle finally put us back in Sunderland at 1:30 am. I unpacked my suitcase and crashed on my bed, while visions of bagpipes and mountains danced in my head. I officially love Scotland.

Edinburgh

Last week was uneventful for the most part, simply filled with shooting/developing/printing some portraits for my photography project that's due later this week. I also got all caught up on America's Next Top Model: British Invasion. This cycle, half of the girls are from the states and half of them are from the UK. I thing it's super cool and super ironic that I'm over here while it's on! Other than that there really wasn't anything too exciting during the week. This past weekend is definitely worth writing down though: my trip to Scotland.

I caught the metro to Newcastle, then the bus to Edinburgh after my workshop on Friday. Lily and Ash also had Friday classes, so we all rode up there together. The bus ride was long and slightly annoying, because there was a guy sitting beside me who insisted on telling me all about the different species of squirrels in Scotland, as well as the feeding habits of vultures and other useless bits of info (ex: the excrement from pigeons actually has a high enough acid concentration to burn through your clothes if you don't wash them soon). Needless to say, I was very thankful once we arrived in Edinburgh. We dropped our bags off at the hostel and grabbed dinner at an American-style pub called The Filling Station. By this time it was pretty late and we were all tired from the ride up there, so we took it easy Friday night in the hostel.

Saturday was spent exploring the city. We met up with the rest of our flatmates who were staying in a hostel down the street, and set off with absolutely no plan other than to explore. With a map in hand, we made our way up a big hill to the Edinburgh Castle, where we discovered an unattractive admission rate of £14. Although some other folks had recommended checking it out, none of our wallets felt like dishing out the quid just to go inside, so we moved on. In case you've never been to Scotland before, it really is filled with kilt wearers and bagpipe players. Everywhere. Edinburgh is a very touristy town so it would make sense that it was stereotypically Scottish, but I saw tons of other bagpipe players well outside of the city. These people take their heritage very seriously.

After checking out a few souvenir shops along the main road, we grabbed a cuppa at The Elephant House, which is where JK Rowling wrote the majority of her later Harry Potter books. I had talked to my art professors at App before I left and they all said that Edinburgh had a really great art scene, so I drug a few of my friends to the National Gallery. It housed a very impressive collection of Renaissance work, but I really don't care for the Renaissance that much. Of course I respect the talent of the artists, but all the paintings just look the same to me. I was more interested in the tiny Impressionist collection, which had a few paintings by Monet and Seurat. I hated how quiet the entire place was though -- my phone went off for about half a ring, and before I knew it one of the curators was headed towards me telling me to turn it off. No one spoke above a whisper, and it just wasn't a welcoming environment at all. Exit stage right.

There had been a heavy blanket of fog over the city since the morning, and it was just getting thicker and thicker as the hours passed. Some more walking led us to St. John's Episcopal Church. There wasn't anything too fancy about this church, but the fog made the graveyard surrounding the church particularly eerie. We then checked out the National Museum of Scotland, which was exponentially better than the Gallery in my opinion. The layout of the museum was a little confusing and maze-like, but I thought that it made exploring the museum even more enjoyable. There was an entire section dedicated to the evolution of communication, from light signals to Morse code to rotary phones and every other type of phone you could imagine. Another display case had a lot of models of old Scottish ships, so I snapped some photos to send to my padre (attn padre: maybe you can find a Bryce model of one somewhere, and then make another ocean scene based off old Scotland!). There were tons and tons of other interactive exhibitions and it was just a really fun place to be in. I could have easily spent the entire day there.

For dinner we ate at Frankenstein's, which was by far the coolest pub I've visited since I've been here. At the stroke of six oclock, all the lights went down and thunder/maniacal laughter filled the pub, and a mechanized Frankenstein emerged out of the wall lying down on a table. He sat up, looked around for a bit and, laid back down, and went back to his hole in the wall as the lights went back up. A Harry Potter tour after dinner wrapped up the evening. Because I'm not a Harry Potter fanatic, I had no idea that JK Rowling had written the entire series in Edinburgh. The tour guide took us to a few places of inspiration for Rowling, including the gravesite of Thomas Riddell and William McGonagall, as well as where Rowling's handprints in the cement marked her receipt of the Edinburgh Award in 2008. We knew we'd have to wake up super early for our bus tour the next morning (plus we lost an hour of sleep due to daylight saving's time), so we tried to get in bed at a decent hour.

Steven!!

Time is passing by so quickly. Now that I've gotten in the swing of classes, the days and weeks are flying by; this past week was no different. Words cannot express how happy I was to see Steven at the airport on Saturday evening. Although there were tons of other people waiting with me at the arrivals gate, I couldn't hold back the tears of bliss that kept streaming down my face as I felt the warmth, familiarity, and comfort of his embrace. We grabbed some coffee from Starbucks at the airport, he called home to let his family know he arrived safely, and we hopped on the metro back to Sunderland. And from that point, time was put on fast-forward until he flew back home.

On Sunday, we explored the city and did a LOT of walking. Throughout the entire week, the weather was near-perfect; it was by far the best weather we've had since I got here. Sunderland must have known Steven was coming, because it was in the mid 50s and 60s all week (thanks, God!). We went to the beach and Steven saw the North Sea for the first time. Swimming east for 400 miles would have put us in Denmark, or swimming northeast we'd land in Norway. We stayed in Sunderland, haha. There were a lot of people out on the beach enjoying the nice weather, and there was a cute little arcade where we found a couple 2-pence pieces in the payout slots of some machines. The jetty to was also open to the public so we were able to walk to the Roker Lighthouse and see it up close. By this time we had worked up a powerful appetite and we grabbed some lunch (or "dinner," as they call it) at Gregg's, which is a sandwich shop that practically has a store on every street corner. After approximately 6 miles of walking around town, I had a blister on my foot and Steven's back was hurting, so we went home and relaxed for a bit. For dinner (or "tea"), we grabbed some Chinese take away from Tak Yee down the street. Steven had transferred a lot of movies and shows to his laptop before he left, so we watched the second Jurassic Park movie before hitting the hay.

On Monday, we slept late and took it easy while our bodies healed up (it sounds like we're really lazy, but all that walking really takes it out of you!). I had bought a "mum's day" card for my madre (they celebrate Mother's Day on March 18) and Steven had just bought a birthday card for his mom, so we picked up some stamps from the office in town. The Museum and Winter Gardens were right down the street. The winter gardens are basically a giant greenhouse/rainforest thing in the middle of the city, and the museum highlighted a lot of local Sunderland history. We had a proper English tea at a pub called Yates, which consisted of fish and chips for Steven, and scampi and chips for myself.

Much to my surprise, Steven accompanied me to my classes on Tuesday (and by accompany, I mean hang out in the library for three hours while I sat through a couple lectures). Because we started portraiture in my photo class, I set up some flash units in the studio had Steven model for me (and by model, I mean sit there for two hours while I scratched my head and pushed some buttons on the flash units... he is SUCH a patient and loving boyfriend, I couldn't ask for more!). By the end of the photo shoot, I was frustrated and starting to get really hungry, so we had some burgers at the Cooper Rose, which is a pub in town. After watching some Mythbusters we went to sleep.

We woke up at a decent hour on Wednesday, so I cooked breakfast and we headed to Newcastle for the day. Because I had been to Newcastle once before, I had a pretty good idea of where to go and what to do in the city. We walked around the huuuuge shopping center Eldon Square at first, then we checked out St. Nicholas Cathedral. I had never been inside the Cathedral before, and this was the first one I had been in that allowed photography, so I was a happy camper. I then took Steven to the Castle Keep, where we were blessed with a great view and more great weather at the very top. We then walked across one of the many bridges that crosses the River Tyne to Gateshead, walked right back, and grabbed a quick bite to eat at Pizza Hut. Our legs were getting tired again by this point; it felt great to rest them on the metro ride back home. We had a date night at the Italian restaurant Roma (dressing up and eating by candlelight and all that cute stuff!), then came home and watched Jumper before calling it a night.

I developed the film from Tuesday first thing on Thursday, and it came out a lot better than I expected! Steven came with me to Ashburne again, so after class we caught the bus and hung out at St. Peters for a few hours until my next class. I cooked spaghetti and garlic bread for dinner, but I was really looking forward to that night: we had a triple-date planned to go bowling with a couple girls and their boyfriends from my photo class. With an average score of 80 or 90 per game, I don't consider myself a good bowler by any means. But somehow Steven and I managed to beat all of them (they joked that we weren't allowed to go bowling with them ever again, and the next time they invited us anywhere it would be to play an English game like cricket, haha). After the evening's festivities, we came back home, and Steven packed up his bags to catch a flight back home the next morning.

Friday came all too soon. I didn't want to wake up, I didn't want to go to the airport, I didn't want to see him go. But of course it had to happen, because Steven's spring break was drawing to a close and he had to go back to school. While I thought I had set my alarm early enough to give us plenty of time to get to the airport, we ended up being pretty rushed to check in, drop off his luggage, get his boarding passes, and get through security in time to board the plane. We said our goodbyes and I watched as he got lost in the crowd at security. I think the goodbyes were a little bit easier this time, but that could have been because it was so rushed. It didn't really hit me until the metro ride home that I wouldn't see him again for months. But if time keeps picking up speed and passing by like it has been, summer will be here soon enough and I'll be home.

- I realize why bikers wear leather: it's sooo windproof! It's been incredibly windy lately, but my leather jacket has held its own and kept me warm.
- Bacon here looks and tastes more like country ham, and the closet bacon-equivalent I've found are called rashers.

- Because English people spell some words differently, I have to change the language in Microsoft Word to British English when I write papers so that words like "labour" and "organisation" don't pop up with red squiggles.
- Orange juice is made out of oranges and apple juice is made out of apples; it would be natural to think that squash juice is made out of squashes. In reality, squash juice is actually a term for any fruit-flavored juice. I can't tell you how confused I was when I found this out.

Events Week

It's been quite a while since I've posted anything, but it's all because I have been swamped with work like no one's business. Last Sunday, Ash and I went to Newcastle for the day, where we found the Angel of The North and went to NCLC (the Hillsong church) with Joanna from CU afterwards. It was raining and snowing most of the day, so my boots got soaked and I walked around in a puddle all day, which was not very nice at all. I really liked the church, but taking the metro to Newcastle every Sunday could get really expensive.

After Newcastle, we all came back to Sunderland to kick of Events Week with CU, which is basically a week to get more people involved with the organization. At each event, there is a speaker who talks about Jesus for just a few minutes. It's designed so that everyone will be interested in coming to the events (coffee/open mic night, curry night, dance night, etc), but they'll be exposed to the Gospel as well. Sunday night, we all hung out at Starbucks and listened to a cute little acoustic band. I came home to a bunch of people partying in my kitchen, being loud and slamming doors. While they were only here for an hour or two, they left a really awful mess in the kitchen and didn't attempt to clean it up in the least. I was not a happy camper. I just didn't understand how someone could be so disrespectful of a space, especially knowing that it was someone else's home. Needless to say, it did get cleaned up eventually (as in a few days), but I'm really hoping it won't happen again.

Monday night was curry night with CU; Ash and I invited our friend Jeff (a guy from App) and he seemed rather interested in what the speaker had to say about who Jesus was, so that was pretty cool! Tuesday I just had classes and homework. In my photo class, the professor showed us how to use the two new cameras we would be working with throughout the portrait project: a Mamiya and a Hassleblad (Google them! They look really legit). Wednesday was spent thrifting with Sheldon (a girl from CU) and doing homework. The moon was really bright and really big and really beautiful that night, so I snapped a couple photos from my window. Thursday was another event with CU: a ceilidh! Pronounced "kay-lee," a ceilidh is a traditional Gaelic dance. There was a really good turnout and we drew a pretty big crowd of spectators. I had SUCH a good time dancing with everyone, even though I didn't know what was going on half the time :) On Friday I went to my management workshop and went to CU, then worked on an assignment that was due Friday night for my management class. We had to perform a strategic analysis of the external and internal environments surrounding a UK textile manufacturer (doesn't that sound like fun!). But thankfully it's done, because STEVEN COMES TOMORROW!!!

- "Curry" is not just an Indian spice like I had originally thought; it's actually an entire dish. For dinner on Monday we had what was properly called "a curry," which was like rice and chicken that had been cooked in a spicy sauce-type thing.

- Also, thrift stores are called charity shops because different charities run the stores. Whereas we only have franchise upon franchise of Goodwills and the occasional Salvation Army, they have heaps of thrift stores under different names of different charities. If you don't know what you're looking for then they can easily be passed by with names like: The British Heart Foundation, Oxfam, The Children's Society, Pawz For Thought, and Barnados.

- What we call dessert (a generic term), English people call pudding. And when we say pudding, English people don't know what we're talking about. Therefore: all pudding is pudding, but not all pudding is pudding.

Durham

The past few days have flown by. I spent about 9 hours in the studio and the darkroom on Wednesday getting my negatives enlarged and printed, then spent another 3 hours finishing up an accompanying research/process book to go with them. But praise Jesus I turned it in! I'm SO glad to be done with it, and I know that everyone else is too. Thursday after class, I hung out with Becky and Ash and my new friend Ellie; we cooked heaps of chili for dinner and made a string telephone out of old aluminum cans and yarn. I'd say it stretched around 50 feet from Becky's flat to ours, and even with our shoddy craftsmanship it surprisingly worked! Of course the sound quality wasn't superb, but it worked nonetheless! It's a shame it only lasted a few hours; sometime during the night a crowd of drunk people walked by and ripped the string in two... but it sure was fun while it lasted. Friday I did some grocery shopping after class, and then went to CU in the evening. Ash and I helped Becky out with the music -- it definitely feels good to help lead worship again! :)

Today we went to Durham, which was about an hour bus ride southeast of Sunderland. It was a pretty cute town, but I can definitely understand why it's been called a "York wannabe." We took a tour of the Durham Castle, which is actually the campus for Durham College. Yes, students actually live in the castle. Yes, I was extremely jealous of them. I mean, who can say that their address is "Durham Castle, Durham"? SO COOL. It was really interesting seeing such a mix of old architecture and new technology; a pool table and Xbox system in the lounge stood out like a sore thumb beside the original 11th-century chapel. I really wanted to see what some of the dorms looked like, but we weren't allowed to (I did attempt to go exploring some of the rooms, but a girl told me that I wasn't supposed to be there unless I was visiting someone... sad day). We also went to the Durham Cathedral, which was built in the late 10th and early 11th centuries. While we were there Ash and I took Holy Communion (with real wine!) with a group of other people, and sat through the daily Evensong service. The Durham Cathedral Choir sang quite a few songs for the service -- I wish I could explain how amazing it was, but the English language just can't do it justice. Sitting in a thousand year-old cathedral and listening to the the sounds of the choir bounce off the high ceilings and surround the entire place gave me goosebumps (if you want an idea of what it sounded like, check out this youtube video). It was definitely an experience I won't forget. After the service we explored the cathedral a little bit more, and found the courtyard where a few scenes in Harry Potter were filmed (way cool!). All in all Durham was a nice day trip: cute city, lots of good photo ops, and an amazing cathedral. Tomorrow we head back to Newcastle, where Ash and I will check out the Hillsong Church there with a couple girls from CU. I'm stoked!

- Back in the days of ye olde England, people would serve pineapples to guests as a sign of wealth and status. Because England was too cold to grow pineapples, they had to be imported from warmer climates, which was extremely pricey.
- There has been a giant rainbow light/projection/laser thing shooting across the sky for the past few days. I've learned it's kicking off the AV Festival, which is a month-long "international festival of art, technology, music and film." It'll officially cut off tomorrow night, but I would love to go see it up close.