interchangable

"Reckon" is used so commonly here it no longer sounds like a Southern word to me. Although, my friend has picked up on my habit of saying "I guess" instead. Apparently that's an identifying phrase of mine.

Tomorrow, well, today really, is the last day of classes for the term. Kind of exciting! Only, after this we're meant to be revising ("studying") and I suppose I ought to, too.

-In school (high school) the teachers are teachers. At uni, "teachers" no longer seems to apply. They become "lecturers", and I think "professors" is an accepted, but unused, word.
-The set up is quite a bit like in Harry Potter, for those of you familiar with Hogwarts. I think school lasts for six years. The first four are the Standard Levels, with an exam at the end, like OWLs.
-After that you choose the A-Levels to take over the next two years, also culminating in a final exam, like NEWTs. Most people take about five.


Today I accomplished several important things with my life completely unrelated to exams.
1. I walked my passport and other identifying items to the far end of Princes St, the commercial area, about 45 minutes' worth of fast walking. There they got photocopied and soon enough I will be an official volunteer at CHSS!
2. Train tickets for my winter travels.


We've been learning in Archaeology of Scotland about a Bronze Age settlement in the Hebrides in which bog-mummified bodies were excavated from the foundations of the houses. It's some pretty crazy stuff, check it out.

This little piggy went to market.

I didn't find out about it until after it happened, but the Christmas lights came on Princes Street (the commercial area) on Thanksgiving, although why that day is beyond me because no one knows Thanksgiving here. This also marked the beginning of the Christmas markets, which I went to yesterday afternoon to do shopping and enjoy the atmosphere.

By the Sir Walter Scott monument is a large ferris wheel... which I didn't ride, as the queues were long and it cost 3.50 pounds. Ugh. A carousel, then the beginnings of the German Market. A lot of jewelry stands, hats, trinkets, candies, and so many German food stands. Lots of sausages... I ate half of a hot dog, my first since August. Also the smell of roasted chestnuts and mulled wine. I tried mulled wine and found that despite the good smell and lovely warmth, I am really not a fan. Carmelized almonds, on the other hand... mmm.

In the Princes Street Park, below, was an ice-skating rink, which of course I didn't go to, but it was well cute. A few blocks down Princes, in a small plaza, was the French Market. I finally found the wooden rose vendor, ten for a pound, and bought five cream and five scarlet. The French Market was much smaller than the German one, but still worth the look.

I have heard the markets stay past Christmas, and take advantage of the Hogmanay (New Year's) Festival. We'll see on that.

Show Time.

First, most excitedly, I have started eating at the little cafes around the University area. One of these is called Elephants and Bagels, a cafe serving coffees and teas, and bagel sandwiches, decorated with pictures, tapestries, statues, of elephants. It is a sister cafe of Elephant House, slightly posher, famous for hosting JK Rowling as she escaped her unheated flat to write Harry Potter.

I intended to go in with a camera but I feel too touristy doing that.
And if anyone wants an Elephant House shirt/bag/mug/etc, let me know and be prepared to reimburse me for exorbitant amounts of money. Anyway.


Last night I ran the lights for The Visit, by Friedrich Durrenmatt, with Theatre Paradok. Most of it I got dead-on. The only cues that got messed up were the fault of both me and the actor delivering the cue line. So mostly it was good, what I got I got well. What I missed I hope wasn't too obvious.

It's a pretty good play too... I'm not sure. I always like reading things, and even though it's translated from German I think it's a good play to read. But so much of the comedy was in the physical acting, otherwise the written words had a more cynical, black humour to them.

If you get a chance to see a production, I'd take it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

First, to everyone at home, Happy Thanksgiving!

A pretty low-key holiday here... it's just not thought about. Not in their consciousness, really. My friends knew, of course, that it was Thanksgiving, but initially I had to explain it, there's just no parallel. At first I got asked questions like "so, ehm, is that actually a big deal in America?"

Tonight Sarah and I had turkey sconewiches, because: A. the dining hall didn't have turkey, B. we couldn't be bothered to pay money in a restaurant, C. pubs had weird things like roast duck, but no turkey sandwiches. What!
So to the grocery it was, for... organic turkey, since the normal stuff was dodgy-looking. "Mature yet Mellow" cheddar cheese, because it was pretty much that or shredded mozzarella. Scones, for a British twist on the traditional turkey sandwich. Hence a sconewich. They were pretty sweet, actually maybe too much so? But tasty!
(Pictures over in the links, to your right!)

Other than that, everything's been pretty normal. I've been told that up until now I've been lucky with this Scottish weather. Well, no longer. It's raining pretty much every day from now until forever, with temperatures hovering around, 40F? Or so. It's a little miserable. To be honest.
-I spent another day on the Shop till.
-Monday night I made Thanksgiving apple crisp! And I was so proud of it I ate the majority, the rest was consumed by my kind kitchen-lending pal Zach.
-I successfully donated blood here! Weird to do it on Thanksgiving but that's how it worked out. Some parts were kind of weird, like how they didn't take my temperature, heart rate, or blood pressure, but it went easy enough. They say they take a pint but really it's 465 mLs, slightly under. They also offer a local anesthetic, which I declined because I'm tough, don't have nicely coloured bandages, and won't give hot drinks to first-time donors. I went out the door after being watched like a hawk by the nurses, laden with the extra chocolate biscuits they forced into my hands.

A pretty good Thanksgiving if you ask me.
Lots of love to all.

The Baseball Cap Story

Last night I attended the "short service" at a very nearby Scottish Episcopal Church, "in the style of Taize". I liked it a lot, actually... there were about ten of us gathered, facing an artistic set-up of religious art and lit votives, and the---priest? pastor? clergywoman?---sat behind us. Almost the entire service was sung chant, maybe seven songs consisting of about two lines repeated. There was one Bible reading about halfway, and the Scottish version of the Our Father said towards the end, and that was it.

It was interesting. The person leading the service was a woman, wearing the same style of black shirt Catholic priests wear when not performing Mass, with the white collar. Sorry I don't know the technical names for these things.


Today is rainy. Not a full-out downpour, that never seems to happen here. It just goes from drizzly to steady rain to drizzle and all over again.
To keep my glasses dry I wore my Virginia baseball cap for the first time here. It helped.
However. I have learned why no one wears caps here... far too windy.

Also one of my hands had to be exposed to wind and rain, just to keep my face dry. Tradeoff.
Also I felt extremely American wearing it.

Charity Week

This past week was Charity Week throughout the UK. I'm not very informed on the full details for it, but my understanding is that local schools encourage their students to organise fundraisers for local charities, and have a lot of money-raising activities all week... a lot of it is about awareness of community needs.

Here at the Uni, there were a lot of fun activites with proceeds to go to different charities. For some examples, there was a "survivor sleepout" on Tuesday night to be aware of homelessness, a speed-dating event at a restaurant/club Thursday night to benefit "street kids" (not sure what street kids are), and a Party for Pudsey, which is a yellow bear used as the symbol for Friday, the day for Children in Need. Friday is the biggest day of Charities Week, where there are collection buckets everywhere: in the dining halls, in corner stores, on sidewalks like Salvation Army bell-ringers, you name it, everywhere... all for the Children in Need Fund, which I think is for kids who are in desperate need of treatment for some kind of medical problem, be it physical, psychological, behavoural, emotional. I am told that there is a broadcast on Friday night of a comedy/variety show type for the week, but am not entirely sure how it ties in.. possibly with phone-a-thon style donations? Not sure.

Pudsey, and some info from BBC

I was a little confused when I walked into the dining hall yesterday morning and all the staff were wearing bright wigs and sequined hats, with large buckets everywhere, and lots of yellow teddy bears. My British friends explained a little through breakfast, but were surprised I had to ask---they'd forgotten it wasn't something I would have ordinarily heard about. They also explaine Pudsey. Why is he called Pudsey, I don't know. Pudgy?

Apparently yesterday, the Children in Need Fund netted 19 million quid, which is actually a record. That's a lot of money, a little under $40 million. In one day!

Bright as Yellow

I haven't updated much because I guess nothing is really happening... this is the third-to-last week of classes, so after the next two weeks it's exam time. Theoretically, everyone's focused on those problem sets, essays, and exam-studying.

But, I am now the proud owner of a new pair of glasses! And my first-ever sunglasses!
The sunglasses will be very helpful on my morning walks to class... actually, really, any time I walk in a Southerly Direction. Currently the sun rises at 7:50 and sets at 4:04 (according to weather.com) and spends much of the day at a low angle. My walks to KB are especially bad, it's half an hour long, at around 9, and going S/SE the whole way. Ouch, eyes.

Also keeping me busy are rehearsals for the Theatre Paradok production of "The Visit", by uhh, Durrenmatt? someone German anyway. I wasn't going to participate in it after all, but a week or two ago I agreed to help with lighting and so whenever we're in the theatre space I've been going to rehearsals, in an attempt to see what parts of the stage need to be lit when.
The play goes up next week, but I still shouldn't be too busy. It's a lecture theatre, so really our lighting will be pretty minimal: be able to light the three regions of stage (there's a small platform in front, close to the audience, and an extra 'room' in the back of the stage, usually hidden by a curtain) with the lights we have. Probably don't have enough lights to use colors... besides, we can't find gels and don't want to buy any.
So, simple enough.


This is something I've meant to put in this blog for weeks:
Anyone in any sort of hazardous occupation has a bright, neon yellow vest as part of their uniform. Construction workers, traffic police, other police, crossing guards. Cyclists. Police cars and ambulances also use neon yellow paint, although they are still white with blue.
I think fire trucks are still all-red but I could be wrong.

Remembrance Sunday

Remembrance Sunday is always held the second Sunday in November, this year it actually fell on the day in mind---November 11. It is like Memorial Day or Veteran's Day, a day in which the people are asked to remember those who died in World War Two (as the date would imply) as well as all other conflicts. For a week or two beforehand, most shops have small plastic poppies to pin on, and ask for a donation for a Scottish Fund, although I forget the actual name. The poppies are of course for Normandy. The donation to go towards the Scottish military and veterans thereof.

We went to a non-denominational service this morning held jointly by the four universities of Edinburgh, attended by groups from several different military branches. It was short enough that everyone was assembled in the Quadrangle of the Old College well before 11, so the customary two minutes' of silence could be observed.

Then they had a laying of the wreathes... I'm not sure exactly what the wreaths were to symbolize, possibly one for each major war? one for different military groups? And some military or traditional songs on the bugle/trumpet and a small bagpipe corps.

I brought my camera but decided, upon seeing the ceremony, that picture-taking would be disrespectful, so I don't have any pictures of this event. I did, however, update my albums... see links to the right. For ease, I started a new one for the second half of the semester.

Remember, Remember the Fifth of November

"Do you have the Fifth of November in America?"

I am terrible about updating about things as they actually happen.
Monday was Guy Fawkes Day. I can't speak to the rest of Britain, but here it is more often called Bonfire Night. The history of the day doesn't seem to be played anymore, but the Scots go crazy with their night celebrations. It's the one time of the year they have massive displays of fireworks, along the lines of our Independence Day.

There were fireworks all throughout Edinburgh Monday night for at least six hours. There might have been an official show set off from around the Castle, but plenty of people bought their own supply as well. I stayed in and saw a lot from my room. Actually, yesterday people were still lighting fireworks, as they've been even since before Halloween. It's just that time of year here.

Additionally, the bonfires were out too. I didn't see it myself, but purportedly two massive bonfires were lit on the hills leading to Arthur's Seat, and other places like the roadway to our dorm has small brush fires. Luckily, I don't think there were any effigies of the Pope being burned. Possibly that tradition has long died out.

Bonfire Night is what happens when you mix a population that loves to drink and to celebrate holidays, with fire.

Coming up is Remembrance Sunday, on November 11. I'm going to try and see if I can find an actual event to see for that.

Idlewild Saturday Night

Two nights ago, Saturday night, Sarah and I had tickets to the Idlewild show, about three blocks from our dorm. I'd been counting down pretty much ever since I bought the tickets. The venue was the very pretty Queen's Hall, and all around were posted schedules for the evening:

BROKEN RECORDS 7.45-8.15
TWILIGHT SAD 8.30-9.00
IDLEWILD 9.30-11.00

Schedules at an indie rock concert? Weird. The local act, Broken Records, was pretty good... they incorporated an electric cello and a guy who played both electric fiddle and the accordian into their high-energy act. Twilight Sad was very angry, but apparently are actually somewhat famous? You be the judge.

Actually, indie rock is a much bigger genre here than at home, it seems. Just in general.

About five minutes before Idlewild was due to come on (thank you, schedules!) Sarah and I decided to move up to the balcony area, where the view looked unhindered by extremely tall boys. As soon as they came on stage we realized just how smart we were, because below us the crowd was half-moshing and just generally more rowdy than we would have liked.

Halfway through the concert we got, what else, a fire alarm. What is it with this place? (Our dorm had another at 4 AM too, no surprise.) A staff member warned the crowd before the alarms sounded, which I'm sure helped the lack of stampeding. The fire department came, investigated, and left in about five minutes and the concert went on. I was impressed!

This listing is mostly for David's benefit:

1. I Don't Have the Map
2. You Held the World in Your Arms
3. When I Argue I See Shapes
4. No Emotions. I could no believe they played this that early! That's not right.
5. Make Another World
6. Little Discourage. Another one they should have played later... the audience exploded at this one.
7. American English
8. In Competition for the Worst Time
9. Love Steals Us From Loneliness (a song I really don't like)
10. I Am a Message
11. Everyone Says You're So Fragile
12. Some guy who used to be in the band but isn't anymore? came on at this point as a "special guest", and they started to play El Capitan. Then we had the fire alarm.
"Well that was certainly exciting," the lead singer joked.
13. Actually It's Darkness
14. Roseability. The one time all night that the crowd was included in a song was that part at the end, the lead sang "Gertrude Stein said that's enough." "I know that that's not enough now," the crowd responded. Several times. I guess indie rock concerts have less interaction--and certainly have a lot more boys!--than the more mainstream.
15. Let Me Sleep (Next to the Mirror)
16. A Modern Way of Letting Go. I LOVE this song.
17. Future Works... I didn't recognize this one well.
18. I have no idea what this was and couldn't even make out any words. Hrm. Weird.
19. As a thank you for touring with them, Idlewild had Twilight Sad come back out and together all nine or ten of them played The Ramones' "I Wanna Be Sedated". Watching two guys play one drumset was hilarious.
The lead also explained that because of the fire alarm they couldn't have the suspense of an encore in order to keep to schedule. Keep to the schedule? It's hard to tell if this is indicative of all concerts here or just the QH venue.
20. The Remote Part (Scottish Fiction). Of course. They always close on this one and it is so beautiful. At the end there was only the heavy guitar, none of the old-man voice like on the studio cut, but it was so good.

Scottish Halloween

Note: some London/Halloween photos have been added to my Photobucket album, see link to your right.

People in Britain love to dress up. Costume parties are probably more frequent than normal ones, and guests are told to come in "fancy dress". So as you can well imagine, Halloween is a spectacle. A week ago, Cory and I saw a lot of people dressed up at night, and it continued here in Edinburgh, well, up to even today. Maybe even to Guy Fawkes' Day, not sure.

A lot of people wore kilts and blue face paint to do the William Wallace/Braveheart/uncivilised Highland thing.

Also along the Royal Mile was a Samhain (the Pagan festival that always occurs on the same day as Halloween) parade. I didn't actually go see it, but I heard there were a lot of people with body paint, carrying fire, and dancing. I can't report many details on it, unfortunately.

The night before Halloween, the Physics Society went on a Ghost Tour that included a graphic description of witch hunts in the 17th century, a trip to the torture room (I will spare you the details), and a tour through vaults uncovered in the 1970's. The vaults are purportedly extremely haunted, but we didn't see or hear anything. Still creepy, and a lot of fun... Ghost Tours are one of those things that must be done in Edinburgh.

Today at the Shop, I was taught how to work the till. I haven't actually worked a register since the movie theatre, and that was computerized and rounded to the nearest quarter. This was an old till, with lots of buttons, and "analog", with currency that is becoming increasing familiar but still a lot more than just one type of coin. I really liked standing at the till all morning.

I realised while pricing some items that it is obvious I'm not used to writing pound signs.