Snowy Days

The subtitle on the sign entering Holyoke, MA, reads "Home of Volleyball".

They were calling for snow all up and down the East yesterday, but the storms weren't really supposed to hit NE. Well, they did, and almost every school district is cancelled, along with almost every university. UMASS included.

My morning appointments were cancelled up to 11 AM, so I decided to roam about the campus and play in the snow. I bundled up as much as I could, meaning normal clothes but double-socks. I asked the front desk if there was a place I might be able to buy a hat, but the bookstore is closed whenever the rest of the university is. I think that with one, and perhaps a better pair of gloves than my leather driving gloves, I would have managed to stay out longer than the half-hour I managed.

The crews had already cleared the main sidewalks, though of course I took the opportunity to tramp through unshoveled areas. At some parts the wind cleared the snow down to about half an inch, in others the drifts piled to about a foot (though much deeper in parts I avoided). The "Valley" was not hit as hard as parts more east or south of here, as Boston.

The guy on the news mentioned Worchester (Wooooster!) and Concord (Conk-aaard) often. It was cute.

Rally back

Two nights ago (Wednesday night), Michelle Obama visited UVA. It was kind of a surprise for everyone, I don't imagine it was a spontaneous stop on their Virginia tour, but the employees working in the plaza where she spoke didn't find out until an email was sent out less than 24 hours before it happened. I didn't go, I didn't even hear about it until I asked why traffic was so bad that night, but according to the Cav Daily (our student newspaper, the Cavalier Daily), it centered almost exclusively on women, especially the issues women face in the workforce.


The weather has gotten a lot more fall-like, which I think is wonderful. Soon it will be sweater season! Yes!

welcome back to class.

I remember my move-in day first year. It was hot, humid, sticky, disgusting. We had to carry large amounts of my stuff up a few flights of stairs and I unpacked in an un-air-conditioned room. It was horrible.

I don't know about anywhere else, but the weather in VA the past week or so has been downright chilly. Move-in day was cloudy-ish and only about 80F. Still humid, but it could be, and has been, a lot worse.

The temperatures kept dropping. Well, that's a lie, Monday was still hot and humid out, but it's rained every day since, with a high of about 70F. It's been nice, I've been able to break out my chocolate wellies and splash through the puddles without consequence, but I've also gotten a little bit soaked. It's cold, sitting in classrooms with the AC on high while my clothes dry out.

On the plus side, I find it a lot easier to focus on the lecturer when it's not sunny and wonderful out. The fake-fall weather has me tricked into studying, I'm more willing to make that transition than I would be if I felt like it was still summer.
-Also it's a lot like being in Scotland, this constant grayness. Only it didn't rain quite so persistently, it was more of a steady drizzle or intermittent downpour, not a 72-hour Rain Fest.

West Virginian MacGyver

This entry has little to nothing to do with Scotland, except perhaps the name MacGyver.

Saturday night found my parents, my brother, and myself in a small house in rural WV with no power, no candles, and only one battery-powered light, a smallish lantern. (It turns out I had a small flashlight in my car, but I didn't find it until much later.) The electricity went out just after dinner, giving us enough time until dark to figure out another light source.

After some brainstorming, we created our own oil lamp in an empty pickle jar. A strip of an old towel provided the wick, which protruded from the metal lid. The jar we filled with an inch or two of lighter fluid. A sheet of tin foil blocked drafts and reflected some of the light back onto our card game. It was brilliant! The only thing that needed adjustment was the length of the wick, ut turns out that it doesn't take much to provide a long-burning flame.

I wanted to make a candle with the plethora of crayons in the cabin, but we didn't even try that one.

Scots in DC

Last weekend I met up with my next-door neighbor from Edinburgh (who is American) and two Scots, who were all visiting DC. It was really nice to see them all, but also amusing to see the flip side of my situation in Edinburgh.

Though the week before was some 10 degrees warmer and much more humid, none of them cared for the DC weather at all. I thought it was pleasant, mid-80's and fairly dry considering the season. Boston and Scotland are both much cooler, though I feel Boston can't be much less humid.

Food. We spent a lot of time finding and eating American food. the BBQ pork sandwiches we had downtown were delicious, as was the Mexican we had for dinner. Apparently they've never had Mexican before! (Although after my experience with the Mexican place is Keswick, I can't blame them...) So I got to explain items like guacamole, enchiladas, and why refried beans look the way they do.
Also: these Scots love IHOP. Amazing!

They were pleasantly surprised to find that I could understand what they were saying without any problem. Most people they talked to in America could hardly understand a word, but it sounded perfectly natural to me, a clean---not cluttered---accent.

One of the Scots disappeared in the afternoon to watch the 'football' (soccer) on TV. Priorities.

Sometimes it actually does rain in Scotland.

All of last week we had absolutely gorgeous weather, up in the 70's, bright blue skies, lots of sun, the kind of weather that makes it impossible to revise for exams. Instead the entire student population turned a brilliant lobster pink.

Last night we had a thunderstorm.

It was a bit odd, really. I know it doesn't storm all that much over here, because storms require instable conditions and the constancy of the weather patterns preclude that a bit. But yesterday saw some heavier rain than usual, paired with rumbling thunder for a few periods of about fifteen minutes each. As far as I can tell, there was no spectacular flashes of lightning anywhere, just some thunder high up in the atmosphere somewhere.

Of course the 70F weather is gone as well, the storm heralded in cooler, foggy weather.

At least it's easier to focus on physics?

Chug! Chug! Chug!

Chugging. It's not downing your beverage quickly. Well, that too. It's also short for "charity mugging". The people, usually attractive young kids fresh out of uni or college, who approach innocent passers-by, present a sad story about [homeless people, veterans, abused animals, so on] and then ask for a donation: they are chugging.

Turns out [many? most? some?] people get paid to chug.

Creche. Daycare centers. In commercial centres, it seems. I heard an advertisement on the radio today that a new shopping mall has a large creche. This weekend, a few parents were chugging outside the local swimming pool (located on my block) with signs saying "Save Our Creche".


For those of you keeping track at home, today in Edinburgh the sun rose at 05:38 AM and set at 8:45 PM. That's over 15 hours of sunlight! And it's only the end of April. No wonder I can't sleep in the mornings.

Compare, for DC: 6:15 AM sunrise, 7:58 PM sunset. 13.5 hours of sunlight.

The temperature was in the mid-60's, very sunny with a slight breeze. And at the beginning of exam time, so people studied outside in shorts and tanks.
That seems a little extreme to me.

Notes on Home

Since being home I've had to adjust to a few things of course, but most of it came back. Driving, for example. DC drivers still manage to get under my skin but it's okay, hopefully I'll escape before all the bad driving habits come back, and I managed to not get in an accident (yet? knock on wood). I remembered you're allowed to turn right on red. I remembered the plus-five rule on speed limits. Just like riding a bicycle.

The weather is extremely warm right now, but when I first got home the end of March it was a wee bit chilly, but I was a confused girl because I know how to dress for Edinburgh temperatures---which I only know in Celsius. I can convert them to Fahrenheit, sure, but the Celsius drove into my brain to become instinctual. I think the temperatures here were more or less the same, into the 30's and 40's, but I completely forgot how to dress for weather that was cold-ish but not windy. In Scotland the game is to cover as much skin as possible without bundling up too much; especially for the two-mile walk to KB. At home? I couldn't really remember how to dress for a 42F evening stroll with the dogs. But that kind of knowledge comes back too.
Of course now it's hotter than Scotland will see for months, and I'm trying not to get used to that.

Things I learned at the Shop today...

Today was another day of typical Scottish weather. Sunny in the morning, then a drizzle, then sunny from 11-1. Then a rainstorm that lasted about 20 minutes, followed by sun, followed by rain, then sun, then around 3:30 drizzle to rain to snow? to rain to sun.

Apparently England is having a lot of flooding problems this week, and there is some big storm approaching Scotland soon. But, as the storm has been predicted for several days now and has yet to come, 'it's those English metereologists who hate Scotland and want to give us bad weather'.

Hm, maybe.

I really like how the Scottish people I know say "idear".
Apparently the subjunctive is a pretty American constructive ('I wish I were a rich man')

After months of complaining to the head office about our lack of hangers, we finally got a set of 60 at the Shop. This was cause for much celebration, and now you can hardly browse through the ladies' tops there are so many on the racks.


No entries until next week, for reasons I won't divulge online. Take care until then.

wind

Do soda bottles come in 20oz size as well? I honestly can't remember. Anyway, 500 mL is about 17 oz, so I'm losing on that battle too.

I hope you all had a chance to see the lunar eclipse last night. Despite a string of clear nights earlier in the week, it was cloudy last night and we had no luck at all.

It's definitely coming on spring, though. Which is odd, that for such a temperate climate you (I) can tell season change and in mid-February. But it is noticably warmer and I daresay less of the winter-icy-biting wind that we had before. I've even been running outside on occasion! That's something I can only do when the wind is down, which is pretty rare.

Yay spring!

Drainage.

I did not watch the Superbowl last night.
Kickoff, though a reasonable time for all time zones in America, was at 11:30 last night. I don't know how long the game went, but I imagine I would have been up until about 4 last night, if not later. And I know I would not have been able to watch only part.

I might see if I can find some legal recording online, because it sounds like the game was better than most Superbowls. Also, Tom Petty?


Every time it rains here I am re-impressed with the drainage systems. Walking in the rain, there are of course puddles and sheets of water flowing down the street. But an hour or two after the rain stops, even the low-lying puddles tend to disappear. It is usually wet walking after the rain, but in the way a misted sponge is wet, never slick or splashy. Maybe cobbled streets help in this? Either way, whoever designed the drainage here deserves a posthumous award.

Yes, Virginia, there is "snow" in Scotland.

Just when I thought I'd figured out Edinburgh weather patterns, I am thrown for a loop. Yesterday had a high of 12C (about 53F) and was sunny and glorious, until some nasty rain in the late afternoon. This morning started just over freezing and never rose higher, but the promise of sun I saw walking towards breakfast changed into big fat snowflakes by the time I walked down to KB for my morning lecture.

During this walk the snow changed to icy sleet-like drops, then rain, then stopped completely by the time I made it to the physics building. So I actually walked in the worst half-hour possible. It drizzled a little bit this afternoon; the rain drops changed into snowflakes and then back again.

Brilliant.


This reminds me of a poster by the JCMB library, advertising need-based scholarship money. Today was not the first time I saw it, I just haven't mentioned it until now. I think it resonates with me because the phrase is so short and so profoundly Scottish:
"Clever but skint?"
Roughly translated, this means "Smart but broke?", yet has a much better ring. Every time I see it I marvel. Perhaps other phrases don't sound as good as in American English, but this one "clever but skint?" is a work of art.

Dalkeith Park

Sunday morning was actually pretty nice looking... warm, not raining... and so I decided it was a good day to give the uni conservation group a try, Dirty Weekenders. Every Sunday they go on an all-day workday in a local park, or sometimes a far-away park.

This week they/we went down to Dalkeith Park, a quick busride south out of Edinburgh. It was a lot of fun, some of us recobbled the plaza area while the rest trimmed back rose bushes that encroached into the path and liberated ivy-covered trees. We got back late afternoon, so it really was all-day, and we got a lot of work done out there---it helps to have 40 or 50 volunteering, I suppose.

Lunch and a plethora of biscuits were provided. Delicious!

a few scattered notes

Oh yeah, so something I forgot to mention about the Salisbury Cathedral:
all the wooden supports have been around so long they have essentially fossilised into rocks.
So maybe once they had to worry about insects burrowing in, but no longer.

Sunday night it rained, and at some point snowed. All that was left on Monday morning was slush, which was really gross. Now I understand why it's best that maybe Edinburgh stay snowless. In any case, it was an opportunity to wear the wellies I bought in the post-Christmas sales!
Wellies
Likewise, sometime last night the temp dropped below freezing again, and so thin spots of ice greeted us in the morning.

Classes began yesterday. This first week is pretty light because the tutorials don't start until next week (an extra four or five hours a week) AND one of my courses doesn't start until the end of January.
Still, I think this term might prove to be something of a challenge. For the first time possibly ever my coursework will be completely, entirely new. None has the least amount of review, and all are at the third- or fourth-year level. Eeep. Sounds like a bit of work to stay on top.

Massive Christmas Update: Scorraig

On Thursday morning I left Katharine's, took the train to the city centre (Central Station), walked about half an hour to the bus station on the other side of the city centre, and boarded a bus heading to Inverness, which is in the Highlands near Loch Ness and the North Sea, with a quick change of bus at Perth. Then Flora and I went grocery shopping for some important Christmas essentials, and we made it to the 'mainland' side of Scoraig, which Google Maps tells me might be called Carnach, seperate from Scoraig by a sea loch, Loch Rum. I think. Pronounced "Room".

Scoraig is a peninsula in the Highlands, nearish to Ullapool, and isn't an island but might as well be. It's best to access via boat. On the 'mainland' side is a free car park and a 'pier', a slope of concrete for small boats, but no permanent place for the boats to go. On the other side of the loch is Scoraig, another concrete pier and a boathouse, and a system by which the boats can be let out to sea using ropes on the pier. It is difficult to explain with words alone so I won't try. Scoraig is also accessible by foot, on a long path around some large hills/small mountains but it's so steep a road may never be put in. Very large things can be brought to Scoraig by a large raft if it's calm and clear.

About eighty people live on Scoraig (Scorraig is the local spelling, but one R is the official), though many were gone for the holidays. Flora divides them into the ones who are "creepy hippies" and the more normal. Most of the people came from England originally, and most are now in their fifties or older, though there are some children growing up there and a few people in their twenties escaping modern life. Everything is driven by wind power, which charges up the batteries used, with solar power secondary. Most people keep animals of some kind, mostly chickens, sheep, and a few people have pigs, cows, or horses. Most of the dogs are trained to be sheepdogs. Half the people are into drugs, some of the home-grown variety.

My first morning on Scorraig was the day of the winter solstice, so Flora and I joined the creepy hippies on the top of a hill to watch the sun come up. We arrived with an armful of fuel for the fire, and received brandy coffee and virgin hot chocolate at the top, shared amongst the dozen or so. The sky slowly lightened around nine, then we grew silent around 9:30 as the first rays broke over the hills. A low "ohm" began when the sun rose above the rocks. Some sort of crazy pagan ritual? Flora and I tried not to giggle. Our efforts were slighted when one of the dogs ran into our direct line of sight and squatted down, leaving its own offering for the solstice.
At that point giggling was guaranteed.

The rest of the time on Scorraig was relaxing and wonderful. What began as myself, Flora, and her parents for the first few days became eleven people in their large cabin. Eleven! During the few hours of daylight we went on walks exploring the area. About half a mile to the west was the end of the peninsula with beautiful views of sunsets, over the uninhabited islands. The mountains dividing Scorraig from civilisation were about two miles away, though I never went that far. One mile to the north brought one over the ridge and down to the other side, which was reputed to be amazing in the summer but muddy and desolate looking when we went over.

Our evenings were spent with large family dinners, games (including The Marble Game... Flora's young nephews, ten and eleven years old, asked me, "Does everyone play this in America?" Hah. Erm, no...) and talking.

Christmas dinner was the slightly untraditional roast beef, apparently most British people have turkey dinners, but it was accompanied by crackers (with crowns, jokes, and toys inside) and whisky---pretty Scottish! We followed the Bush family tradition of having our big dinner on Christmas Eve, and the opening of one present that evening, then a long morning on Christmas Day of presents after the equally-traditional breakfast of an egg and sausage sandwich (I did not partake). Because there were many crackers left over, we had more crackers with our Christmas dinner, which tasted surprisingly like Christmas Eve leftovers. The dinner, not the crackers.

I made friends with the two dogs belonging to Flora's brother, and became their primary caretaker for the almost-week I was on Scoraig. Mai (actually spelled My) was about ten, and her daughter Fati (actually Fatsy, but I felt that was too mean) almost a year old. Both were collie mixes, used as sheepdogs. Fati liked to jump up into laps and be cuddled though she didn't stay for long.

The day before Christmas I made my own contribution to the Christmas biscuits and baked a batch of coconut cookies that were more like coconut-hinted shortbread, as well as a batch of peanut butter cookies with Hershey's Kisses in the center, as Mom makes for Christmas. The Kisses baffled the other ten in the house, they'd never seen such a thing! Flora's "brother-out-law" told me, "I like the peanut butter shortbread biscuits, but what are these dodgy chocolates doing in the middle?" No one could understand how the chocolate kept the shape! I explained how the chocolates are made, and passed around the bag of unused Kisses, which did not impress our British friends. "It tastes like goat's cheese," Flora said. I suspect that British chocolate has different sweeteners than American chocolate. To me it was a bit like the taste of home.

Merry Christmas to all, and Happy Boxing Day!

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.