Day 13, 7/9/09 – Edinburgh
Oh, so I forgot to mention that on the 6th we watched this really cool show called “Waking the Dead” – not as good as CSI (or how CSI used to be, at least) but still very entertaining. Has anyone in cyberland heard of it? Anywho, we are in the Amaryllis Guest House in a huge room – it has a queen, two twins, and a bunk bed. It’s really nice that the owner is willing to potentially sacrifice £100 to allow us to stay here (25 per person on the bunk bed, 2 nights).
Anyway, today we went on a “Tale of Two Cities” tour put on by the National Trust for Scotland. It explored/explained how the New Town (N and W Edinburgh) grew out of Old Town (S and E). Essentially, there has been something where Edinburgh Castle sits since the time of the Roman Empire. In more recent history, at first it was only the castle, but then a town began to build around it. The Scots, having no idea how to build towns in the 1100s (they only had villages, and many of the clans were nomadic to some degree), got the Dutch and French to come over and tell them how to build. The entire town (also, interesting note, they use “town” here they way we would say “city”) was built for defensive purposes, with narrow wynds (side streets that connected main roads) and closes (dead end side streets), buildings built tall instead of wide, and narrow staircases connecting the different levels of the city (it being built on a rather steep hill). Edinburgh was fought over for 300 years, only being taken once by Robert the Bruce when he scaled the cliff face at night. So, originally on the North side of the castle, the cliff fell straight into a lake called the Nor (North) Loch. This was the only source of water in Edinburgh (other than a well, I think, in the Castle grounds) so in the morning people would go down to the loch and get their bucket of drinking water. As the drinking water was depleted, the waste bucket increased in volume (you might see where I’m going with this). When the sun set, people were allowed to dispose of their waste, which they did by flinging it out of the window into the center of the street below. As the night passed, the waste did as all things must and followed gravity to the lowest point… which just happened to be the Nor Loch. And the next morning, down people went to get their water. It was said that the crust of excrement on top of the lake got so bad you could actually walk across the water. Disease, it need not be said, was common. Interesting fact, though. High heeled shoes were actually invented to keep you from sinking into the waste lying on the ground. Back to the Old/New Town split, though. Around the 1770s Old Town became so overcrowded that they drained the loch and built New Town across the resulting ravine, which is now the location of the Princes Gardens. All of the wealthy folk moved to New Town, which was built based on the French Three Estates, with the clergy, wealthy, and workers all living separately from each other (in the Old Town, you all lived together). Old Town quickly devolved into a slum.
Princes Gardens is rather nice. There is, of course, the Scott Monument for Sir Walter Scott which I think is just gorgeous. There are also a lot of war memorials. There is on in particular that I rather liked. It is for WWII memorial for Scots that fought with US forces and vice versa that is a statue of a Scottish soldier, whose face is a (rather handsome) composite of the faces of some of the men the memorial is dedicated to, taken from pictures. This allows many people to see their relatives/loved ones in the face of the statue. There is another memorial on the East side of the gardens that quotes the Declaration of Abroath, the real inspiration for the Declaration of Independence.
After all this we did a little shopping on Grassmarket then headed to the Balmoral Hotel (very posh place, I’m going back to celebrate Christmas dinner with other people from Butler) for High Tea. I had oolong tea, which always reminds me of my childhood. The sandwiches were good, the scones great, and the desserts fantastic. They had a harp player on a balcony playing soothing music, including Ave Maria and the theme from Beauty and the Beast. We then went to the National Gallery of Scotland and checked out the “Scottish” (only Scottish artists) section. We didn’t have time for anything more, but since it’s free, I’m sure I’ll go back.
Day 14, 8/9/09 – Edinburgh
So, I’m shoving a lot of info into this post so it’s going to be long. As for the day itself, first we went to the Castle, which was very wet (it rained… my interest was somewhat reduced in favor of “must find shelter!” thoughts). I definitely have to go back at some point. We then went to St. Giles’ Cathedral, which is absolutely gorgeous on the outside, but rather ordinary on the inside. They also want you to donate like £2 for every room you go into, which was ridiculous. They have been repainting the ceiling to match what it might have originally been like. I can’t really say I approve. I mean, I know that this is how the Cathedral was meant to be seen, but I rather like the bare stones look. We then went to the Queen’s Gallery at Holyrood Palace which had an exhibit of conversation pieces, which are generally less formal portraits of groups of people, often with a humorous element. That’s a terrible description, but the gallery was rather nice. Also, I got free entry for a year, so I can go back when they get a new exhibit. After that, we went on a ghost tour, which I will talk about later…
Quick facts about Edinburgh: It was King James I of Great Britain (previously King James VI of Scotland, son of Mary, Queen of Scotts) that designed the Union Flag, basing it around the flag of Scotland. The flag of Scotland (white X on a blue background) was based on two things. St. Andrew, the patron saint of Scotland, did not want to be crucified on a cross in the same way that Jesus was, so instead was crucified on an X-shaped cross (now known as the St. Andrews cross). Also, a Pictish king (I believe, it could have been a later king) looked up before he went into battle and saw the clouds shaped like an X against the blue sky, and then went on to win the battle and so took the white X on a blue background as his flag. Another fact, all that highlander tartan and royal guards? A complete fabrication by Sir Walter Scott. So, the story. In 1822 King Charles IV determined that he would visit foreign countries. Only, dear old Charlie wasn’t very smart, and wasn’t really liked, to his advisers convinced him that the Scots would be jolly glad to see him, and they really were due a visit, so Sir Walter Scott was put in charge of organizing the extravaganza to be held for the King in Edinburgh. Now, they all knew what the King wanted – it was to be a bonanza of traditional Scottish things. Only, the traditional Scottish things… didn’t seem to exist. So, not letting that stop him, Scott went about inventing! He took a gentleman’s club (as in guys that smoke their pipes together, not the more modern, more dirty definition) and turned them into the Royal Guard! Scott then thought, well, I better get some highlanders in here, so up he traveled, and the highlanders said, “Sure, we’ll show up.” And Scott said, “Great! Can you bring your tartan?” And the highlanders said, “Our what?” You see, to keep warm the highlanders would wrap yards and yards of cloth around and around their waist, and they made this cloth on simple looms that couldn’t make the complicated patterns we know and love. And really, they wouldn’t wear such things if they could – bright blue and green and yellow doesn’t really help them blend in while they are hunting. So, Scott said, “No problem! You show up, and I’ll supply the clothes!” And he traveled down to Edinburgh and got all of the weavers busy, making thousands of yards of the “traditional” fabric. Why does Scotland embrace these things, then, if they are not truly and traditionally Scottish? One, the money they get from tourists. Two, this was the first time that the highlanders and lowlanders really came together in peace and celebrated their connection as Scotts – a miraculous feat since before this most lowlanders wouldn’t speak to a highlander, except to kick them out of the city. I learned a lot of this from my Underground tour, hosted by City of the Dead, put on by Black Hart Entertainment. It is a really good tour, taking you through some underground chambers below South Bridge.
That’s a whole other story though. Okay, so, Old Town is a slum, New Town is growing, we don’t really have to worry about wars anymore since we have union with England. It is time to make the city a little more accessible to tradesmen. They decided to put in bridges to make traveling between the levels of the city easier and someone had the bright idea to make the areas under the arches of the bridges available as storage spaces to merchants – including the underground sections of the arches. Essentially, this led to the development of an underground city. It was too damp to store things in, so the caverns became places for the homeless to live (there was a law in Edinburgh at the time that banned homelessness). It became a den for the less desirable side of Edinburgh. It was also so disease-ridden that the police refused to enter them. This led to a perfect hiding place for Messrs Burke and Hare. These two were quite the entrepreneurs. At the time, the government only allowed one body to be dissected per year at the University of Edinburgh. Soon private practices sprung up to teach anatomy, practices that did not have this restriction. At first the bodies of executed prisoners were used, but when that option ran out, other sources had to be found. Let’s just say, many cemeteries had watch towers put in. Burke and Hare saw a need, and decided to fill it by providing bodies – freshly deceased by their own hands bodies – to those doctors willing to pay without question for a corpse. It is said that they were doing quite well, until one night when they killed a “lady of the town” and the next day on the dissection table, several young men recognized her. This led to enquiries and the eventual arrest of the two serial killers. Hare turned on Burke for immunity, and Burke was hung, eviscerated multiple times in front of a live crowd, skinned, had his skin converted into purses, belts, leather book bindings, etc, his skeleton cleaned and wired up, with him standing, his phalanges resting on a book of medical ethics, the binding made of his own rear end. Never let it be said that the Scottish are not creative.
Day 15, 9/9/09 – Okay, so this is all going to be Edinburgh for a while, so… Just assume
Mom and Liz left, which was both harder and easier than I thought. I was ready to start my own adventure, but I was also sad to see the people I was so familiar with go. I moved to my orientation room, met some new people, met my orientation roommate… Okay, if you want to know about roommate issues, email me. I don’t want to go into it here. After dinner, I decided to be social for once and go to a pub with some of the other Butler (Butler is the program I’m studying through) kids. …Mainly, I heard there was a match on and wanted to see it. We went to The Tron (had me thinking megatron all night, but apparently there’s a Tron Kirk nearby) and into their downstairs bar. One of the girls we were with got carded… embarrassing, in a country that lets 16-year-olds drink, no? The match was between Scotland and the Netherlands and was Scotland’s last chance of getting into the World Cup. Sadly, we lost. But I’m getting ahead of myself. There was this somewhat pissed (as in drunk, not angry), over-affectionate older (late 20s) guy why was really enthusiastic about the game. He and I seemed to somewhat connect, in that I was the only person in my group that was more interested in the game than getting drunk (though I did try a vodka cranberry… yeah, don’t like it). When we lost, he held out his arms for a hug so I gave him one. Sweet but tipsy, he reminded me of a drunk teddy bear.
Day 16, 10/9/09
So. Today. Started at 4:30 in the morning. Not by choice. My roommate apparently woke up at 1:30 am, assumed it was time to be up, took a shower and got dressed before she checked what time it was. Luckily, I did not wake up for this. She went back to bed, woke up again at 4:30, Turned All The Lights On In The Room, and then proceeded to chat on the computer, straighten her hair, put her makeup on, with ALL the lights on in the room, before she checked what time it was again. I did wake up for this. I sat up, grabbed my cell to check the time, she said “Good Morning” to me, which I ignored and crawled back into bed. It took her over a half hour to realize that, no, I’m not just a bear in the morning, she was actually up insanely early. Not the best start to my day. We later found out about our homestay weekend – I am living with Jill, who is in TV production and likes gardening, and Stan, an engineer that likes sport, and their dog and parrot – and I got the wonderful revelation that my orientation roomie will once again be my roommate for that weekend. But you know what? She’s not a bad person, and I’m going to blame the lack of common sense on jetlag. Please, let it just be jetlag.
Butler set up a bus tour of the city for us, which covered a lot of info that I already knew with little gems I didn’t. I did get a history of Holyrood Palace that was quite interesting. A forest used to be there and one day King David I went hunting there. He fell off his horse and a stag attacked him. The stag started talking to him (…) and said it would spare his life if he would build a church in that spot. David, of course, agreed. Supposedly a piece of Jesus’ cross was placed there, and so it was called the Holy Rood (Holy Cross). The palace was built over the years as the royals decided they liked the estate.
Day 17, 11/9/09
We learned a lot of stuff about academics. I am scared.
Day 18, 12/9/09
We moved into the dorms today! And my big bag? WAY over 50lbs now. I kept on warning the moving guys that it was heavy, but I felt so guilty watching their faces go from disbelieving-this-girl-must-think-I’m-weak to holy-crap-is-this-thing-holding-bricks?!?!? But we made it to Pollock, and I managed, painfully, to haul my stuff up two flights of stairs. My room is nice, way bigger than the double I shared with Brigie last year. The desks are miniature, though, which is annoying since it looks like the only way I will be able to use the internet is if I’m at my desk. Major sighs. Also, my internet doesn’t work. Any time you have seen me online I have either been stealing my roomie’s internet or at a café terminal. Today I pretty much just unpacked. OH! I have a roommate! She’s from the IFSA-Butler program and her name is Eunis. She is from China but she goes to school near Chicago. She’s a sophomore and thinks she’s going to be a business major.
Day 19, 13/9/09
We got welcomed as international students today. I got lots of info about academics in the sciences. Like, anywhere between a 60-70% is great, and above 70% is genius status. 50-60% is okay, but you could do better. 40-50% is you just barely passed, so either get your butt in gear or talk to someone about why you don’t understand the material. Also, I am going to have lectures, practicals, and tutorials/workshops (depends on the class). And my internet isn’t working. They didn’t activate my internet plug thingie, but hopefully they will fix it by Monday, Tuesday at the latest. Sigh. I was going to go on a ghost tour, but apparently it filled up like 15 min before the event was supposed to start. Message to self: arrive early for everything. I did meet someone from Butler, Khue (pronounced “quay”) who is from Harvard, as well as two Spanish students, Neus and Candela. We all headed to Teviot Row House for Traditional Yummies and a Ceilidh. The yummies included vegetarian haggis (which is SO good, and the first spicy Scottish food I’ve had), tatties (mashed potatoes), neeps (like mashed potatoes but made with turnips) and stovies (kind of like a lamb and potato stew). Oh my gosh, it was all amazing. The haggis, tatties, and neeps usually go together, and the blandness of the starches saved my tastebuds from the spicy haggis, and the stovies, despite having lamb (sorry Liz!) was deliecious! After that, we headed upstairs to a ceilidh (pronounced “kay-lee”), which is a traditional Scottish folk dance. It’s kind of like those structured partner dances you see in the Jane Austin movies, but way less formal, faster, and generally more insane. I really want to bring it back to the 5-C’s. I am planning on joining the New Scotland dance/ceilidh society (societies = clubs). But let me tell you, it is exhausting.
Day 20, 14/9/09
So. Sore. I am not used to that much jumping in my dancing. I went to the Surgeon’s Hall today, which is a history of surgery and also has a large collection of tissue specimens. It was interesting listening to the history of surgery, but it was hard looking at the bone and tissue specimens. They had a collection on display based on injuries sustained during wars from the 1800s and early 1900s. They had skulls and femurs and brain tissue and kidneys and hearts all show through with musket balls or ripped with bayonets. Those were rather difficult to see, I’m horrible at separating these kinds of things from the people who were wounded and died. It didn’t help that they had a collection of paintings made by a doctor during the Napoleonic wars of soldiers’ wounds. After that I was just drained, so I went back to my room and took a nap. Eunis and I then went to IKEA (only 20 min away, burn with jealousy, people) where I bought a hand towel, laundry bag, towel rack, and sun screen.
Day 21, 15/9/09
Today started with a meeting with my DoS (Director of Studies, like an advisor only WAY less involved in your life – they literally press a button to approve your courses and confirm that you do in fact exist). Well, actually, with a lecture aimed at freshmen entering the School of Biological Sciences. Not very useful to me. All of my DoS’s students then met our DoS, Mrs. Mandy Gordon, who seems somewhat frazzled and absent minded, but I don’t need her for much. I then went to the trade fair where I got a lot of free stuff, not all of it useful, before heading to the Bedlam Theater, home of the University of Edinburgh’s theater troupe. I had a soup and a show – tomato and ginger soup, not a fan, and “The Pillowman.” I cannot describe how much I loved “The Pillowman.” I actually started tearing up near the end. The story itself is amazing, but it was also excellently acted. I have to go back sometime this week to see their production of “Adoring April.”
