Semester's End

Last day of school today. I just finished my last final. I have one paper I need to write tonight and email to my teacher tomorrow, but otherwise I'm done with this semester. The end-of-term tea party and the paper, and then I'm free...

Anyway, playing catch-up again.

Sarah and I slept in in Olso and didn't leave the hostel until nearly 11, but after spending the night before in the airport, we rather needed the sleep. I had my leftover pizza for lunch, and then we headed back to City Hall and the fjord, because we wanted to take a ferry over to the Norwegian Folk Museum. We were supposed to buy our tickets on the ferry, but we accidentally avoided paying by sitting on the deck outside. We didn't realize until the way back that the guy checking/selling tickets only did it inside, because we sat inside the way back. Except at that point we didn't have enough cash for a ticket, of any denomination (they would have accepted Euros or pounds), we just had credit cards. And the ferry people ran the ferry continuously and couldn't wait for us to go find an ATM, so...we used the ferry for free. We would have been willing to pay, but you know, I can't say I'm sorry we ended up not having to.

The Folk Museum was pretty cool (and paying for a ticket in was where I used the last of my cash). It was an open-air museum, with Norwegian buildings ranging from several decades old to about eight hundred years, the church. In one of the houses they were making traditional lefse, which is a sort of slightly sweet flatbread. Sarah told me I had to try it, so I did, and it was really good. Sarah also told me that around the end of November/beginning of December, PLU (her school, and also in Tacoma) hosts this kind of fair thing and people come who make traditional lefse, so I think when that comes around I'm going to go to PLU and get some.

Sarah has a Norwegian friend named Even who came to Oslo at two to spend time with her and show us around. He took us to the opera house, which I wouldn't have thought of going to, but it was really interesting. Not a traditional building at all -- it sort of reminds me of the Scottish Parliament, but mostly in the sense that what seems like it should be an old traditional building is instead really interesting modern architecture. The roof of the opera house in Oslo was this long slope, so we just walked up the roof to the top and looked out on the fjord again, which was quite cool.

After that we took a tram to the sculpture park, which was...interesting. It was very pretty scenery, and a beautiful day, but all the statues were of people, and all of them were naked, and not even in sculpture sections of museums have I been surrounded by that many fake naked people. For the most part they did not come across as sexual despite the nudity, but I really don't think I have any way of describing them without it sounding sexual, so I think I'll refrain and just show the pictures I took.

That was really about all we could think of to do for Oslo, so it's a good thing we were only there for two days. The three of us just ended up going back to the main shopping street of Karl Johans Gate and finding a nice spot by one of the fountains to sit around and chat. I ate the last of the food I brought, and then we took the bus back to the airport of Rygge, where we spent the next ten hours.

I got even less sleep on Saturday night than I did Thursday, though we got to the airport in enough time for me to have gotten more. It just took me a long time to get so tired that I could fall asleep even there. Also, around two in the morning this girl and her friend from Turkey came in, and we just started chatting about being students traveling. I enjoyed that, even if it meant even less sleep.

I was up at five, which was not fun, and on the plane not long after six. What was nice, though, was that all the scheduled passangers got on quickly and so we were able to leave early, and get back into London half an hour before scheduled. We were then able to catch an earlier bus back to Baker Street, and therefore I managed to get home by ten, rather than eleven. I started laundry, and then I took a nap.

The election here has finally resolved itself. David Cameron of the Conservatives as new Prime Minister, and Nick Clegg of the Liberal Democrats as Deputy Prime Minister, with a Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition, the first coalition in decades. It's too bad I'm about to leave, because this would be fascinating to watch play out first hand -- men of two different parties as PM and Deputy PM! Especially considering they're the right-wing and the further-left-wing parties! I'm going to have to keep up with what's going on when I go home, because this is just too interesting. I got to watch Gordon Brown give his resignation speech live, and go to see the Queen and recommend she ask David Cameron to form a government, and dude this was just so cool.

I got my final papers done in enough time for me to spend two evenings this week seeing shows. Last night I saw Avenue Q, which was awesome. Absolutely hilarious. I think it was pretty obvious who the Americans in the audience were, though, because there were some things we laughed at that most of the people there didn't. In the final song, they started listing things that were "only for now", and I was amused when one of the things they listed was Gordon Brown. This was the first show where that was not applicable, because it was last night that he resigned. Still, I very much enjoyed the show, even if it was in London and not New York. I just hope it's not too prophetic, because this time next year I'll have a BA in English...

My finals are done, now, though, and almost all of my preparations for Europe. I have booked all of my hostels, and have also added up how much all of the hostels will cost me. What's left over in my bank account will be used on food, inner city transport, and seat reservations on trains (I may not have to pay for a ticket, but I still will need reservations for many trains, but plain reservations are a lot cheaper than tickets), and of course souvenirs. I've got one suitcase packed, then tonight I'll pack up a box to send home, probably by sea because that's cheaper and I don't really need it to get there sooner than the three weeks or so it'll probably take. Then I can do the last packing, because on Saturday I leave with friends for Cardiff, and only on Monday will I leave the UK.

I...don't want to think about it right now. I've been making all these plans for Europe, but trying not to think about the reality of actually being there. I mean, I'm looking forward to it, but it means the end of my big semester abroad. I'll confront the reality later. For now I still want to pretend I don't have to leave in just a few days. Sigh.

Busy Week

This has honestly been my first chance to update since Monday.  Wow, my week has been full.

Saturday was Brighton, which was lovely.  Weather reports warned that it was supposed to rain, and it did...for the first half hour.  After that it was sunny for the rest of the time we were there.

The train ride on the way down might have been the best, and also the geekiest, train ride I've ever had.  It's only an hour to Brighton from London, but my friends and I passed the time playing Shakespeare and Fantasy Twenty Questions.  And for Fantasy Twenty Questions the sources we focused on were Harry Potter, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and Narnia, so I kicked serious ass.  On the way home we added Disney to the mix, and I kicked ass at that too.

My Novels teacher lives in Brighton, and she said she'd show us around, so we met her and her excitable Dalmatian puppy (she couldn't get a dog-sitter) at the train station and she gave us a tour.  We followed the May Day Parade for a bit, and then she showed us the Royal Pavilion, the sumptious Indian/Oriental-style palace where George the Prince Regent kept his unofficial wife, apparently.

From there we hit the beach.  It had been raining, but seriously, once we got to the beach, the rain stopped.  It was awesome.  The beach was very rocky and not sandy, so it was not as comfortable to lie on, but we still spent quite a bit of time there.  There was also a carousel on the beach, which four of the five of us decided we had to go on -- we were the only adults there unaccompanied by children. :p  I enjoyed it, though.

We went to lunch at Brighton Pier, and I had fish and chips.  The very first time I've had fish and chips since coming to England, too -- and also the last.  It wasn't...bad, but it didn't have much taste, even when I added vinegar.  But at least I've finally had it, and it was by the seaside, too, so I'm satisfied.

After lunch we went shopping.  Well, I window-shopped.  Some of the others bought stuff, but there was nothing I wanted that would fit me, so I didn't get anything.  We also just walked around and listened to the street performers, but I think the main attractions of Brighton are the beach/seaside and the shopping.  We were done with the shopping, so we went back to the beach for awhile.

We went to a pub for dinner, and I have chicken tikki masala with naan.  It is a mark of how good Indian food is in Britain that I could order it at a pub, of all places, and still have it be very good.  One of the others ordered a whiskey and coke, and we got onto the subject of whiskey, and I somehow managed to be the expert on the subject there.  (Well, maybe it's not too surprising, since I was the only one there over 21.)  This made me want whiskey, so I ordered some, and I actually prefer my whiskey neat rather than mixed with something.  But the others were curious about the taste of plain whiskey, so I let them have small sips.  One made a rather hilarious face, but another actually spat it out.  What a waste of good whiskey! :p

After dinner we went home.  I went to bed, and actually slept very well.  I'd been getting an ear infection, which, after the horrible one of last year, made me very nervous.  I was going to try and see a doctor just in case, but then it just started going away on its own, which was a big relief.

Sunday and Monday I just spent on classes and homework.  Three papers due next week, and three finals.  Gah.  I really prefer having either a final paper or a final exam, not both, especially when the final exam is essay questions.  Oh well, though, since I think I'm pretty well prepared for the tests at least.  I still have two essays to finish.

On Tuesday the entire program went to see Macbeth at the Globe.  The Globe!  Macbeth!  I hadn't been looking forward to standing for three hours, but it wasn't as bad as I'd been anticipating.  I enjoyed the performance.  Some of the others didn't like some of the choices the director made, but I hadn't minded.  I was right in the front, almost in the center, and I just really enjoyed the experience.

Wednesday was spent on classes, figuring out some stuff for Europe (oh, Mom and Dad -- I got the Eurail pass), and writing one of the essays.  I finished the essay Thursday morning, so I didn't really have time for the changing of the guard or the national history museum, so I'm going to try for those next week.  The changing of the guard I especially want to see.  Anyway, I think I've got my exact dates for Europe figured out, for when I'll be in each city and when I'd be better off taking sleeper trains and so on, so that's a relief.  I think on Monday I'll try to make hostel reservations.

Thursday I spent on finishing the essay and doing research for another, then class, and then a show.  Sarah and I were going to spend the night in the airport before our flight to Oslo this morning, because trying to get there in the morning would have been such a hassle.  But we had to leave pretty late, because Sarah had to see Midsummer Night's Dream for the Shakespeare class, and I decided that since she had to see a show, I might as well use the time to see one as well.  I did Billy Elliot again, just because I love it.  Wow, do I love it.  I'm definitely going to try and see the movie when I get home.

Yesterday was also election day in Britain (it looks like the Tories got the most seats but there's a hung parliament, which means they only got a plurality, not an outright majority).  Martin had told us that there'd be broadcasting of election results in Trafalgar Square and against Big Ben, so after my show was over I went to Parliament Square, but there was no broadcasting.  I met Sarah there, and we decided to check out Trafalgar Square, but there was likewise no broadcasting.  It made me very sad, because I'd wanted to watch it, and thought it would have been so cool to see it in Trafalgar Square or against Big Ben.

We had to take an hour-long bus ride to get to Stansted Airport, and Sarah made reservations for one in the morning, because she wanted to make sure we had enough time to get to the coach stop.  I understand that, but I wish she'd gone for the midnight time slot, because we found the bus stop by then, and then had nothing to do.  Things close so early in London -- there were no pubs or bars open or anything.  We basically had to wait outside in the cold for an hour, and I was tired by that point, so I was trying to sleep on a hard wood bench, but it wasn't working out too well because I was so cold.

We made it to Stansted by two, but check-in and security weren't open then, so we passed the night on a hard cold floor in the lobby area.  I drowsed for three hours, but that was about it.

I woke up by about five-thirty and we checked in and went through security, but we still had another couple hours to kill before we even found out what gate we were, so I went on my computer, but not on the internet because I would have had to pay.  We finally made it to the airplane and I dozed some more on the flight.  It was thankfully only about two hours.  That was the first time I've flown since coming over here, and I don't like it any more than I ever have.  I'm really not looking forward to the flight home from Paris.

We had to take another hour-long bus to get from the airport in Rygge to Oslo, but we got to our hostel at about one.  I'd brought some food for my lunches for both days (definitely a good idea, now that I've seen how expensive food is here), so I ate lunch and went on the computer for a bit while we waited for check-in to open.  Then we checked in, dropped our bags off in our room, and went out to explore Oslo.

We'd decided on an easy day today, because both of us were exhausted (honestly, I'm surprised I've managed this long).  We wandered around the shopping area nearby, and I got a European plug adaptor.  From there we went up one of the main streets towards the royal palace, seeing sights such as the Domkirk (church), the University of Oslo, the National Theatre, the Hard Rock Cafe Oslo, the parliament building, and just some great pedestrian areas.  We took some pictures of the palace when we got there, but there wasn't really much else we could do, so we stopped in for a drink at the Hard Rock Cafe and then moved on to look at the fjord.

Right by the fjord, at least the part we went to, was an old fortress and castle, so we explored that a bit.  The castle was closed by then, so we didn't go in, but we actually saw rather a lot of the fortress grounds, and got some great pictures, and saw some guards in funny uniforms standing and marching around, so that was cool.

Sarah had brought food for her dinners, but I really only had room in my backpack for lunches, so I went to find dinner.  Wow, things are expensive here.  Much more so than England and even Ireland.  I really hope that the rest of my visit to Europe has prices more similar to England than to Norway, where a medium pizza cost almost thirty dollars and a glass of pepsi almost six.  But the good thing about getting pizza is that I now have leftovers, so I can have leftover pizza for lunch tomorrow, eat the food I'd brought for dinner, and then not have to pay more.

We came back to the hostel after dinner, since both of us are quite tired, though Sarah more than me.  So now I'm online, have finally had time to properly update this thing, and will probably go to bed in a few hours.  It's nine-thirty here, but it's still light out!  Considering how far north we are, I would have figured it would have gotten dark already, but apparently not.

Anyway.  Tomorrow we're going to take a ferry across the fjord to the Norwegian Folk Museum, meet one of Sarah's Norwegian friends who will show us around more, and then go back to the airport in the evening to spend the night there for a six-fifty flight Sunday morning.  Hopefully I'll be able to sleep better at Rygge airport than Stansted.

Happy St. George's Day!

The past week or so has not been excessively interesting, except for weekends and the volcano in Iceland.  

The Iceland volcano, which I'm not even going to try to spell or pronounce, has been more applicable than just reading about it in the papers.  Martin, our program director and teacher of one of our classes, had to go to Portland, OR two weeks ago for some AHA conference.  He was supposed to be back this past week, but...volcano.  So he got stuck in Portland, we had no class on Monday, and had to get a substitute in on Wednesday to talk to us about Britain's political parties and the leaders' debate from last week.  We're not sure when Martin will be back, but it should be by Tuesday, at least.

Last Thursday I saw Wicked!  That was one of the shows I'd really been wanting to see, and it was really good.  I did like Billy Elliot better, but I'm definitely glad I got the chance to see Wicked as well.  It also made me want to watch The Wizard of Oz again, and maybe read the book at some point.

Last weekend I met two friends from the internet, one for dinner on Friday, and one, a closer friend, I met in London on Saturday and then went to Southampton, where she lives, on Sunday.  She'd warned me that Southampton wasn't very interesting, and it really wasn't, but I saw bits of Southampton castle scattered around (it's in ruins and the town grew up around it), and she showed me her university, and it was just really nice to get out of London and visit a friend in a nice, non-touristy English seaside town.  I found it very enjoyable, even if we did spend a lot of time sprawled on grass talking.

On Thursday I watched the second leaders' debate with my host mum.  These debates are between the leaders of the three main political parties, Labour, Conservative, and Liberal Democrats, the men who would be Prime Minister if their party gets the majority.  Gordon Brown of Labour is PM now, but what's sort of funny is that his main rival, David Cameron of the Conservatives, pushed for televised debates because he's young, photogenic, and speaks well; he thought he'd do especially well compared to Gordon Brown.  Well, he did -- but I reckon he didn't account for Nick Clegg of the Liberal Democrats, who have been a minority party for the past century and are unexpectedly being a force in this election.  Nick Clegg is also young and photogenic, and he speaks even better than David Cameron, so the general consensus is that he's won the past two debates (there's one more), giving his party a big boost.  I guess that one backfired in David Cameron's face. :p  I'm really loving being here for the British election.  It's so interesting!

Anyway, this weekend was, of course, Stratford-upon-Avon, for Shakespeare's birthday weekend and also St. George's Day (St. George is England's patron saint, so it's a bit of a holiday).  We got into Stratford yesterday, which was Shakespeare's actual birthday, and checked into our B&Bs, which were so much better than hostels.  Too bad I can't afford to do B&Bs for the rest of my time in Europe, but oh well, hostels are fine.

First we went to Holy Trinity Church to see Shakespeare's grave, and then we went to see Shakespeare's Birthplace.  Normally people are not allowed to take pictures inside the house, but because it was his birthday, we were allowed to, so I got some pictures of the house.  They were also giving out free samples of mead in the garden, and that was pretty good.  I'd never had mead before.

Stratford was, by the way, particularly gorgeous.  Friday was warm and completely cloudless, and all the Shakespeare houses we visited had big gardens, and wow the flowers were beautiful.  Tulips and daffodils and lavender and sweet pea and more flowers I couldn't even begin to name.  Spring in England is gorgeous, and Stratford is particularly picturesque.  Absolutely wonderful.

After Shakespeare's birthdplace, we went to New Place, which is the last house he bought and the one in which he died, so we went from his birth to his death in about half an hour.  But apparently the original house he bought was demolished around a century later and another house built very close to it, so when we were there they'd actually dug up half the garden as an archeological site.

We had free time after that until our play that evening, so we went for dinner at The Dirty Duck, which is the pub where the RSC likes to eat.  Which reminds me, we passed that pub on our way to Shakespeare's birthplace, and right as we were passing, actors playing Helena and Demetrius from Midsummer Night's Dream burst out the door to do their first scene in the woods together.  Random unexpected Shakespeare for the win!  We stayed until they finished their scene.

After dinner, we walked by the Avon for a bit, then went to the theatre.  It had a gift shop, so I browsed a bit, then saw the most perfect tote bag.  It's Shakespeare as a tube map.  There are different lines of, for instance, lovers, and villains, and fathers and daughters, with character names as different stops, and there are different intersections and clever services.  Like Ophelia offers riverboat services and Richard III has disabled access.  Such an awesome tote bag, and very much a souvenir of both Stratford and London, so I got it.

The play we saw was King Lear, which was really good.  We had front row seats, so we could see very well (even at some of the points I didn't necessarily want to see so well, like when Lear stripped down to almost his underwear).  Great play.  I've heard random bits of the story but had never actually seen it or read it before, so I'm glad I finally have.

This morning we really only had one thing on the schedule, visiting Anne Hathaway's cottage.  That is one play with another set of absolutely beautiful gardens.  In the garden they also had a gigantic birthday card for Shakespeare, which I both signed and got a picture of.  Inside the cottage we were sadly not allowed to take pictures, even though it was still the birthday weekend, but it was still quite interesting.  Tour guides gave us little lectures about what life would have been like for the Hathaways in Tudor England.

We had free time after Anne Hathaway's cottage, so most of us went to see the birthday parade.  That was pretty awesome.  We got a good spot near the end at the Holy Trinity Church, and saw a very long line of schoolboys carrying flowers for the grave, and a marching band, lots of random groups dressed in period clothing, and this group of middle-aged men dancing with bells strapped around their shins and waving handkerchiefs in their hands.  Really great stuff.

It was another gorgeous day, so after the parade we just sprawled on the grass in a park by the Avon and caught some sun.  Got a cheap lunch at Sainsbury's and just drowsed in the park, because Stratford is really quite small and we'd already done what there really was to do.  I stopped by the church again to get some pictures of Shakespeare's grave covered in flowers, but no one else in my group came with me.  I'm not sure why.  You can go to Stratford any day of the year and get a picture of Shakespeare's grave, but only on one weekend can you get it covered in flowers, so I'm pleased about having that.

Now I'm back in London.  I'd been going to go back to Oxford tomorrow, but the person I was going with said she can't afford it right now, and we made tentative plans for next Sunday, when we hope she can afford it.  And I don't want to go by myself, since I want to get a punt on the Isis or the Cherwell and that's not really something I can do by myself, so I hope she will be able to go or there's not much more point in me going back unless I can find someone else to go with me who wants to punt down the river.

I've made some tentative plans for next weekend.  Friday I want to do Dover and Canterbury, to see the white cliffs of Dover and Dover beach (mostly because of the poem) and I think it would be awesome to catch an Evensong in the Canterbury Cathedral.  Saturday I'm going to go to Brighton, because there's a festival starting there and also one of my teachers lives there and said she'll give us a little tour.  Sunday is either Oxford or free.

Tomorrow is unexpectedly free and my weekends from now on are going to be pretty busy, so I think tomorrow I'm going to try and get ahead on schoolwork.  With the added bonus of not spending any money!  Always a good thing.

Northern Ireland

Before I get to the spring break stuff, catch-up for the rest of the week:

The House of Commons was...boring.  This depressed me very much.  It was Budget Day -- I wanted people yelling and insulting each other!  But I guess we should have gone earlier for that.  Martin wanted us to meet at 3:00, and we got into the House of Commons at about 3:30 (I got some good pictures of Westminster Hall on the way), but by then there were only about ten MPs still there (there are 646 MPs total), droning on in stultifying speeches lasting fifteen or twenty minutes about economy stuff I didn't have the background to understand.  Very disappointing.  Still, at least I've been to the Houses of Parliament.

Thursday was the last day of classes before break, and I just had one test.  I had an essay due Friday (though he said he wasn't going to start looking at them until Monday, meaning we basically had until then to email them to him), but I finished that in the free time I had before my test, meaning I got in all three essays early.  Go me!  I think I did well on the test, too.  Oh!  I also had a test/quiz in my history class, but that was like forty multiple-choice questions.  There were about eight questions I wasn't sure about, but everyone finished the quiz so quickly that he went over the answers in class, and I ended up getting 100%.  Again, go me!

Anyway, now on to spring break!  My first train was at 9:10, but thankfully the closest tube station (which isn't actually the London Underground, but the Overground, which means I've now been on every single tube line), the one actually within walking distance, had the train that went straight to my train station.  It's much easier not having to change lines.

My first train had free wifi, but while my computer could find the signal, there was some sort of security issue I didn't know how to fix, so no internet on the train.  Which was just as well, because I started getting queasy just looking at the words on my screen while trying to fix the problem.  Bloody motion sickness.  It's the most inconvenient thing ever.  Since I can't read, my iPod is my lifeline.

I made it to Holyhead, where my ferry left.  The first Welsh town we went through was called Rhyl, and I knew it was Welsh not only from the name, but from the signs using Welsh as well as English.  Wales is the only UK country I've seen actively trying to hold onto its language like that -- I'd really only seen Scottish Gaelic at the Scottish Parliament, and I haven't really seen Irish Gaelic in Northern Ireland at all.  (Republic of Ireland, yes -- Northern Ireland, no.)

I'm not sure what I'd been expecting out of the ferry, but it was fancier than whatever expectations I'd had.  My ticket had a seat reservation on it, so I assumed we'd have assigned seats, and so on.  I did not actually find any such seat, but I did grab a couch so I could stretch out, and did not miss the lack of assigned seat.  Before the ferry left, I got a couple pictures of Holyhead from the ferry, and when I go back from Dublin, I'll probably get a couple pictures of that as well.

I could not read on the ferry either -- even looking at my itinerary was making me queasy.  I just listened to music and did a bit of wandering -- the ferry had a cinema with two theaters, a family entertainment center, a shop, two bar/lounges, and a cafe, plus cabins and car decks.  I appreciated it much more than flying.

What I did not appreciate was the delay when we docked.  The ferry was supposed to get into Dublin at 5:30, which is why I booked my train to Belfast for 7:00 -- plenty of time, I thought.  I did get to the train on time, but no thanks to the ferry.  First the pedestrian gangway broke down and they had to get a shuttle on board to get us off, and then the bus that was supposed to take us to Bus Arus (bus station) and Connolly Station (train station, where I needed to go), waited around for nothing to happen.  I finally got off the ferry at about 6:15, the bus left around 6:35, my train wanted me to be on the train twenty minutes before departure, and I didn't even have my ticket yet, I had to pick it up at the station.  Thankfully the bus got us there quickly, and it did not take me long to pick up my ticket, so I did make my train, but it was closer than I liked, and I did not have time to pick up dinner.  The dining car didn't have much of a selection (just those kind of sandwiches with all the butter, ugh), so I figured I'd just wait until Belfast.

I got to Belfast all right, but by then I was tired and decided to take a cab rather than walk the half-hour walk googlemaps told me it would be to my hostel.  It ended up being like a five minute drive, so the cab was pretty cheap.  I checked into my hostel, put my stuff down in my room, then went out to hunt down the elusive dinner.  I wandered around Belfast City Center (just a few minutes' walk away from my hostel) for a bit, then finally found a place to eat.  Belfast City Hall, by the way, is actually quite pretty at night.  It's lit up a bit and there's the Belfast Wheel (a ferris wheel -- what is it with the UK and having ferris wheels near their government buildings?) right next to it, which was also lit up.  I got a picture of that tonight.

I decided to take my shower and go to bed fairly early, around eleven, because I was very tired.  I slept fine, but when I got up I was glad that I habitually take showers at night, because apparently in the morning the shower became more of a trickle, and people were complaining about how they couldn't get any water.

I signed up for a tour to the Giant's Causeway today, which was absolutely wonderful.  The Giant's Causeway, of course, but also the tour in general, because it did so much more than just the Causeway.  We stopped for first a photo op at Carrickfergus Castle, had another one at Carnlough, then the Causeway, then another photo at Dunluce Castle, then fifteen minutes for the shop at Bushmills Whiskey Distillery, and finally the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge.

The tour guide was great.  He talked pretty much continually when we were on the bus from when the bus left around 9:30 to when we were finally done with Carrick-a-Rede at 5:30, pointing out landmarks, other things of note, general history, and anything else pertinent.  Ireland apparently has a high concentration of castles, because I counted eight we drove past or stopped by just on our coastal road.  Also, North Atlantic salmon are almost extinct, the rope bridge was first built 350 years ago, people once taught school in a small limestone cave not far past Glenarm, and Winston Churchill used to own the Londonderry Arms hotel in Carnlough.  And these are only the facts I can remember off the top of my head.

He gave us about two hours at the Causeway, including lunch, and I needed pretty much the full hour and a half left after lunch to see everything on the entire hike.  There was lots of climbing up and down cliffs and rocks, and I don't generally enjoy hiking and climbing all the much, but I had a great time.  It was gorgeous scenery, and I got so many pictures.  It's also just generally very impressive.

I also got several pictures at Carrick-a-Rede, which was less impressive but still had lovely scenery.  You had to pay five pounds to go across the rope bridge, and I didn't want to, so I satisfied myself with just taking pictures of it.  It was another long walk to get there, with several sharpish inclines and climbing, but all the walking and stuff from this trip so far must be getting me in better shape, because I handled today much better than I would have a year ago.  And I've actually grown to enjoy the walking.  I'm going to try and do more of it when I get home.  (I can hear Mom's "Finally!" from here. :p)

We got back to the hostel at about seven, after more free history about Belfast -- our hostel is apparently in the Cathedral District, and is just down the street from St. Ann's Cathedral, which has the biggest Celtic Cross in all Ireland.  I booked a Black Cab Tour of Belfast for tomorrow morning, went out to have dinner, and then decided to come down to the lobby (which has couches and chairs much more comfortable than in my room) to spend some time online before I go to bed.

There's apparently a rave going on tonight, I was informed by some of the people dressed in the most eye-catchingly bright clothes I've ever seen.  There have been so many people dressed similarly tromping through the lobby in the past hour.  Neon tights and bike shorts, paint-splattered coveralls, floofy skirts (on both men and women), creative socks...it's pretty crazy.  And apparently the theme song for my travels is Journey's Don't Stop Believing, because I've heard that song every single day I've spent outside London, either on my iPod or sung by random people around me, this time by some of the people going to the rave.  It's actually pretty awesome, because I like that song, but we'll see how I feel about it at the end of my trip.

It's only been the first proper day of my trip and I'm having such a great time.  I can't wait for the rest of the week!

I've been having a good but busy week so far.  On Saturday I was feeling sick so I did nothing, but on Sunday, London was having its St. Patrick's Day celebrations, so I went into town for that.  There was a parade at Piccadilly Circus, and I enjoyed most of it, though I think I had a better time last year, when I was in the St. Patrick's Day parade in Spokane, as part of the Young Democrats delegation.  It's a lot more of a thrill being in a parade rather than just watching one, even if London is inherently more exciting than Spokane. XD

There were also performances going on in Trafalgar Square, so after the parade was over I walked over there.  It was absolutely packed.  Trafalgar Square is pretty big, but it was seriously packed, so it just looked like a sea of people.  I did manage to get a spot where I could sit at a good, fairly close angle to the stage.  I didn't watch everything, because I was still feeling sorta sick, but I listened to a couple different guys singing old Irish songs in both English and Irish.  A school orchestra played some traditional Irish music, and a dance school did some Irish dancing.  Pretty cool.

On Monday my 19th and 20th Century British Novels teacher took us out on a Dickens Walk -- she showed us places like the church where Dickens' parents were married, some places he lived, and several of the places mentioned in Great Expectations.  That was really cool.  When we were in the Temple area, she took us to Middle Temple Hall as well, where Twelfth Night had been performed in Shakespeare's day.

Our walking tour ended pretty close to St. Paul's Cathedral, which I very much appreciated, because Monday was when Maddy arrived and she was staying near St. Paul's.  I haven't seen Maddy since this summer, when I went to Davis to visit her after the Green Day concert in Sacramento.  I took her to Soho for dinner -- we had Indian, and it was actually really good.  I've had better naan, but I got this dish called honey chicken, and it was so good.  Anyway, after dinner I did a bit of playing tour guide, showing her Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus, and then we went to this pub I like for pear cider and to sit and chat for a while.

Yesterday morning I met her at Leicester Square again, because she wanted to see Billy Elliot while she was here, and I was completely fine with seeing it again, even just a few days after the first time.  After that I did more of the tour guide thing, since from there we walked to Trafalgar Square and then to Westminster Abbey.  I pointed out the theatre where I saw The Caretaker a couple weeks ago, and where St. James's Park was, and Downing Street, and the statue of Abraham Lincoln in Westminster Square, and felt sort of weird for even beginning to know this city.

So we went to Westminster Abbey, and wow, I really wished we were allowed to take photographs.  Especially of the graves of Mary Tudor, Queen Elizabeth, and Mary Queen of Scots, and especially of the poets' corner.  Unsurprisingly, the poets' corner was my favorite part.

When we were done at the Abbey, Maddy wanted to see Westminster Bridge, so we walked by the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben and I told her some of the things I've been learning about the British political system.  She got some pictures of Big Ben and the London Eye (which we've decided we're going on tomorrow, whoo!), and then we walked back to Trafalgar Square, where we split up, because she wanted to go to the National Gallery and I had to get to class.

We met up again for dinner, and then we saw Billy Elliot.  This time we were seated upstairs, but I enjoyed it just as much as I did on Friday.  It was interesting to see it from a slightly different perspective, because this time I could see their feet, and now I'm even more impressed with these kids' tap skills than I was before.  There were also a few things I noticed this time that I hadn't last time, so I guess it's true that every time you see a show you get something new out of it.  Anyway, I still loved it, it was completely worthwhile, and this time I bought a program as a souvenir.

Maddy and I did not meet up today because she was going to spend it with her cousin, but I had plenty to occupy myself with.  Our class schedule was rearranged a bit, and one of my classes canceled, because Martin wanted us to see the London Mayor's Question Time today.  We went to City Hall, which is across the Thames from the Tower of London in an extremely interesting juxtaposition of ancient castle and modern glass building, and listened as the Mayor answered questions put to him by his assembly of concerns brought to them by their constituents.

I found it really interesting, if very different from American politics, because it seems to me that American politicians try to be somewhat more diplomatic than British ones.    American politicians will be insulting, but indirectly so.  British politicians will just insult you to your face.  It was actually rather hilarious.  Some of my classmates wrote down their favorite insults, but I didn't have the foresight, and so I don't remember the best ones now.

It was still just plain interesting to watch, though.  I was sitting next to someone who is a PoliSci major, so we were taking notes and having a conversation through our notes on our thoughts on what was going on.  We did decide that the Mayor is not a very good debater because he spent his time interrupting people (even those from his own party), and most of the time when he responded to questions from the Opposition, he'd do it through straw man and ad hominem arguments.  I wasn't very impressed with him, though I did enjoy the session in general.

I only had one class this afternoon, thanks to the canceled class, which meant that I was done at 2:30, which is the earliest I've every been done.  I put my time to good use, however, and am now almost done with all the preparation for Ireland.  I have my transportation from London to Dublin and back, from Dublin to Belfast and back, my hostels in Dublin, and my tour.  The only things I have left to do are book my hostel for Belfast, but Maddy was just there and was going to give me information for the hostel where she stayed, and figure out how to get to the Giant's Causeway.  I think I saw that I can take a bus from Belfast, but I'm going to have to double check that.

Today I also got my ticket for Star Wars in Concert, for the day after I get back from Ireland, which happens to be Easter Sunday.  I'm going with another girl from the program, and she got our tickets so I'm going to have to pay her back, but I am so excited for this.  We got the cheapest tickets so pretty far seats, but I'll still be able to hear the music and see what's on the screen, and it's Star Wars in Concert in the O2 Arena.  This is going to be so awesome.

I just came home after I finished booking Ireland stuff, so I'm not going out on St. Patrick's Day, but I'm fine with that.  It's nice to have some downtime in the middle of a busy week.  Tomorrow Maddy and I are doing the London Eye and the Imperial War Museum, then I have class, and then a show.  Then on Friday we're going to Bath and Stonehenge.  Saturday and Sunday are also going to be busy, if in a different way, because I have three papers due next week and I'm going to try and get them all done this weekend so I can get some feedback from my teachers before they're properly due.

The week after next is midterm break.  I'm almost halfway done.  How did that happen?

Back from Scotland

So last night we got back from Scotland.  I would have posted last night, but internet was being worse than usual (blinking out after only a few seconds rather than a few minutes) and I was tired.  But I slept a lot last night and am now waiting for a text from some people I was planning on seeing Alice in Wonderland with later today, so now I attempt to chronicle my trip to Scotland.

Well, really the first thing to talk about is Tuesday night, because I saw Twelfth Night.  I'm not in the Shakespeare class, but I got an extra ticket, and I'm so glad I did, because it was an awesome performance.  Very funny; I definitely enjoyed it.  But we got out pretty late, so it was almost midnight when we got back home.  Considering we had to be at King's Cross at 7:45 the next day, meaning getting up no later than 6:15 thanks to the commute, it wasn't much fun, but I was fine.  Martin kept telling us to just sleep for a couple hours on the train, but once I'm awake, I'm awake, and I'm not going to be able to go back to sleep until the afternoon at the earliest.  Thankfully, though, less than six hours was still enough for me to stay awake the whole day.

I like trains so much better than flying.  So much.  I still didn't want to chance reading, but I had enough to occupy me, and I had so much more leg room, and it just felt smoother...I hate flying.  Thank God I got the Eurail pass so I can take trains across Europe and not fly.

The weather was miserable the entire time we were there.  It was snowing when we got out of the station, and that sucked, because we walked from the station to the hostel, and I'd lost one of my gloves and hadn't yet had the chance to replace them, so there I was, carrying an increasingly-heavy bag (or so it seemed) with freezing wet hands for twenty minutes in an unfamiliar city with my glasses getting wet and slush sliding around under my feet.

Edinburgh is a very hilly city.  Lots of inclines, not that much level ground.  I did not enjoy that, though there were only a couple times it was bad, when we had to climb things particularly steep.  The first of those horrible climbs was right after we dropped our stuff off at the hostel, because our first stop was the Castle of Edinburgh, which happens to be at the top of a tall hill.  There was a set of stairs that was particularly brutal, and that no one liked, so it wasn't just me.  But I managed them, and all the way up the rest of the hill to the castle.

I do want to say, though, that on the way we passed a street performer who was playing bagpipes and wearing a kilt.  Disappointly, I did not see many men wearing kilts, but one of the ones I did see was also playing bagpipes.  Hah!  That was awesome.

The castle was very cool.  It was still sorta snowy and very cloudy, so we didn't have the view we would have had on a clear day, but it was still a nice view.  We could see pretty much all of Edinburgh, which is an interesting combination of very old (like the castle, part of which dates back to the 1100s), to the old-but-not-as-much (like all the Victorian buildings), to the pretending-to-be-old (like all the buildings in the style of ancient Greece), to the startlingly-modern (like the Parliament building).  Very strange juxtaposition.  London also has that juxtaposition of very old and quite modern, but it tends to have the very old things clustered together, and likewise the very modern, whereas in Edinburgh it all seemed a mish-mash.

Anyway, the castle.  I wandered all over and saw St. Margaret's chapel, which is the oldest thing there (the one built around the 1100s), and the Great Hall, and the War Veterans' Memorial (for the Scots who died in the world wars), and the Scottish Crown Jewels, and the room where King James the VI and I was born.  We had audio tour guides, but I was so busy looking at things that I was only half paying attention to mine.

When we were done at the castle, we walked to the National Gallery.  It was cool, I suppose.  I never was much of one for art museums.  There were some pretty things, but I was not sad that we only had about an hour to look around until it closed.

We had a few hours of free time until dinner (which the hostel provided for us), but most of the people in the group wanted to take a nap.  I still felt awake, but I didn't want to go out by myself after dark in an unfamiliar city in the snow, so I just stayed in my room and read for awhile.  It was not a bad room, but it had bunkbeds and I was too slow, so I had to have top bunk.  It was also an extraordinarily creaky bunk, so I couldn't get into it, out of it, or move around in it without it creaking like hell.

After dinner we had the night to ourselves.  I just went out with a group of people to a pub, but I had a good time.  I did not drink that much, and we just spent the entire time talking and trading stories in a fairly quiet pub, which is what I like best in a bar experience.  Being there to socialize, not to get drunk.  I also discovered that one of the girls is a big fan of Doctor Who, and another thinks Final Fantasy VII is the greatest video game in the world, so I had plenty to talk about.

The next day we went to the High Kirk of St. Giles, which is also known as St. Giles' Cathedral and has at a couple of points actually been a cathedral, but it isn't properly anymore, it's the high kirk.  We had a tour of that, and I found it quite impressive, but I usually do for really old churches.  The window above the entrance had only been replaced a couple decades ago (actually, the stained glass windows in the kirk were all Victorian; in the Middle Ages and Early Modern periods, the kirk had clear glass), but it's called the Robert Burns window because the scenes in it relate to Robert Burns, which I found very cool.

After St. Giles, we went to the Museum of Scotland.  On our way, we passed a place called The Elephant House, which had a big sign in the window advertising itself as the birthplace of Harry Potter -- the cafe where JK Rowling thought up Harry Potter.

The museum was interesting.  It was huge, and we didn't have a lot of time scheduled for it, so we couldn't see that much.  There were seven floors, from the basement and the pre-history of Scotland to modern Scotland on the sixth floor, and the rooftop terrace with yet another awesome view of Edinburgh.  So much to look at.

After the museum we ate lunch, and I have a new favorite sandwich with an actual story behind it.  See, the hostel packed lunches for us, which was very nice -- or would have been, had the sandwiches not been covered in butter.  Seriously.  I had two half sandwiches, one of ham and one of tuna, and I like both of those on their own, but both ham and tuna were thin layers of meat surrounded by think layers of butter.  There was maybe two or three times as much butter as meat.

I don't even like butter as a thin layer spread on bread.  I'm sure these sandwiches could have looked less appetizing, but I really don't want to imagine how.  We had free time that afternoon and Martin was organizing an optional trip to Linlithgow Palace that I wanted to go on, so I just ate my apple and chips and figured I'd picked up something else on the way to Linlithgow.

Linlithgow Palace, the birthplace of Mary Queen of Scots, is about a fifteen minute train ride away from Edinburgh, so we went back to the train station, and there I found My Sandwich.  Ham and mozzarella on a baguette, cold.  Normally I'm not much for cheese on my sandwiches, but that's cheddar and swiss and so on, and I do like mozzarella cheese on pizza, so I thought I'd try it.

Oh my God that was so good.  Ham and mozzarella on baguette.  I am so remembering this.  I bought another one for the train back to London yesterday, and it was still so good.

Anyway.  About half the group ended up going to Linlithgow, which was amazing.  It's partly in ruins -- there are no roofs, and some of the walls are crumbling, but it's still mostly intact.  It was raining the whole time, but I had such a great time exploring.  So many awesome pictures, especially one Martin took of a bunch of us in what had been the kitchen.  The fireplace there was so huge that seven of us could stand in there without touching each other, the sides, or the ceiling, so Martin took a picture of us in the fireplace.

We explored that for about an hour, including going up to the top of the tallest tower and seeing yet another great view, but the palace isn't really that big.  We went back to Edinburgh and still had a few hours to do our own thing before dinner.  I wanted new gloves, but in particular I wanted those kind of fingerless gloves with the flaps that fit over and turn them into mittens, but I couldn't find them.  I went to two different malls and walked down several shopping streets, and could not find the kind of gloves I wanted.  It's probably because winter fashion is out and spring fashion is in, sigh.

I went back to the hostel for dinner, and afterwards one of my roommates expressed interest in the bar across the street advertising pear cider.  I love pear cider, so I agreed to go with her.  It ended up being just us, because a bunch of people were either going out for serious drinking (it was one of the girls' twenty-first birthday) or were going on the Edinburgh Ghost Tour.  I thought about going on the Ghost Tour, but it looked like it was going to be cold and wet, so I decided not to.  (The next day I was glad, because the girls who went said that they'd never been so soaked.)

The pear cider was wonderful.  Definitely the best I've ever had.  The bartender noticed our accents and asked where we were from, so we chatted a bit about that.  It was really just a nice relaxing experience, where we just talked and had a couple drinks.  After two each, we went back to the hostel and went to bed, and it was pretty early, but I still slept well.

Yesterday we climbed Carlton Hill, which was the second of the absolutely awful climbs.  Carlton Hill is where the Nelson Monument (for Admiral Nelson) is, and though a bunch of the group climbed to the top, I did not.  Carlton Hill is also where they built this thing they wanted to be a second Parthenon, because during the Enlightenment Edinburgh was called the Athens of the North, but they ran out of money partway through and so this second Parthenon is unfinished and looks sorta funny and is sometimes called the Shame of Scotland.

After Carlton Hill, we went to the Scottish Parliament.  It's an extremely modern-looking building (quite the contrast to Westminster Palace) right across from Holyrood Palace, which is where the Queen stays when she's in Scotland.  We went on a tour of the Parliament, which I thought was very cool for multiple reasons.  Scotland had had a parliament since at least 1235, but it was dissolved in 1707 when Scotland united with England to become Great Britain, and has since been governed from London.  But then in 1999 they got their own parliament back, and after learning more about Scottish history, I felt so happy for them.  They really are a people with their own distinctive history and society, and though I think the issue about them becoming a completely separate nation again is very complicated, if they do manage it I'll be very happy for them.  Scotland is now the only country in the United Kingdom to have its own parliament -- Northern Ireland, Wales, and London have assemblies, but they can't make laws and raise taxes, and parliaments can, so they've all just been governed out of Westminster.  But now Scotland has its own parliament, which is a step closer to being independent.

Our tour guide also said that the Scottish Parliament is a unicameral legislature where committees are used in effect as a second chamber, and I think I'm going to have to do some more research to figure out how that works.  I mean, Congress has committees that do what the Scottish ones seem to, from my understanding, but Congress is still bicameral.  Now I want to figure out unicameral vs bicameral and their respective advantages and disadvantages.  I also really want to see Westminster, but that's not scheduled for awhile yet.

That was pretty much it for Scotland.  Our train left at three, so we had to get back to the hostel and get our bags and get to the station.  The first part of the train ride was actually sorta funny though, because at the front of our car was a hen party, and they were very...exuberant.  They got off at Newcastle, though, so they weren't there for very long.  Otherwise the train ride was quiet.

Next week we'll be going to Birmingham for a day, and later I'm going to try and organize trips to Southampton, where I have a friend, and Cardiff, because the Doctor Who friend and I really want to see it.