1 down 5 to go

Hello everyone!
I left Amsterdam early this morning and am now in Florence. Since I didn't have an Amsterdam/Holland post, I'll give you a few of the highlights:
1. love how everyone rides bikes
2. hate how everyone rides bikes because it is nearly impossible to cross the street with both bike traffic AND vehicle traffic
3. everyone is tall
4. I still love Amsterdam. Even though it's touristy and known for sex and drugs, it is such a unique city with so much history and more to offer than just the Red Light District and coffee shops. The canals, narrow streets, and house boats make me love the city so much for its distinct beauty.
5. I stayed outside of Amsterdam in an adorable town called Lieden. Between going back and forth between Lieden, Amsterdam, the Hague and the tulip gardens, I got to see a lot of the Dutch countryside.
6. Even though we went to the tulip gardens, few tulips were out. But the ones that were out were absolutely beautiful and the enormous garden was still magical.
7. Dutch cheese is delicious. Though we didn't buy any we got ample opportunities to try many different kinds in the multitude of cheese shops around Amsterdam.

this morning we had a bumpy transition between Amsterdam and Florence involving sprinting to the absolute end of Amsterdam airport and barely making our flight, getting diverted from Pisa to Bologna back to Pisa, and trekking through the narrow Florence streets with enormous suitcases.

Currently: in Florence. In love. Such a beautiful city I cannot wait to explore it more tomorrow! I have already eaten gelato and can't wait to sink my teeth into some spaghetti!

nom nom nom

Euro Trip

I'm out of my funk and ready to go on my 3 week Euro Trip.
I said goodbye to Edinburgh yesterday by going to the one sight I had yet to go to: Coloton Hill. It's a hill in the city with some monuments on top and gives great views of the castle and Princes Street.
I'm leaving in 10 minutes for the airport and can't wait to embark on this epic adventure. I'll keep you all updated!

Heatwave

I've become probably the worst blogger of all time, but this trend of sporadic and few posts will probably continue over spring break, which I am leaving for on Sunday!

Today was the last day of classes at the university for the year. The rest of my time here is break and the examination period. Even though people will still be around there will be far fewer and it won't be the same since everyone will be studying. It's been really weird for me to think that even though my time abroad is only 3/5 over, the life and routines I've gotten used to are ending. It's very strange and I'm in kind of a funk right now, which is a shame because I'm about to go on an amazing three week trip!

The weather here has been unbelievable. Yesterday it was 60 and people freaked out. I saw some girls sunbathing. I hiked up Arthur's Seat.

This is the most awkward post and I am so sorry, but this funk is seriously getting to me! I'm bringing my computer with me on my trip so I'll post whenever I can. However, I won't be able to post pictures so that might be a little boring, but I'll add pictures once I get back or create multiple slideshows of my trips.

Itinerary:

Amsterdam March 27-31

Florence March 31- April 3 (Cinque Terre April 2)

Prague April 3-6

Copenhagen April 6-9 (day trip to Sweden on the 8)

Istanbul April 9-16

So that's 6 countries, 6 different languages, 5 currencies, and 2 continents. Having such an amazing trip planned should seemingly get me out of my funk, but I am very sad to say goodbye to Edinburgh as I know it.

I'll leave you with a couple pictures I've taken this past week. Unfortunately, I am not in any of them. I'll make sure to get ample photos of your favorite face during my break!

Tom Riddle's grave!

Edinburgh from Arthur's seat

Sorry for Slacking

Hi Everyone!
Sorry I've been seriously slacking on writing here, but I've had a busy couple of days. I was going to write on Friday, but St. Patrick's Day wasn't too exciting and I ended up not having time after the rugby game yesterday.

St. Patrick's Day:
Though there weren't any parades or celebrations of epic proportions, the Edinburgh Irish Pubs were very excited to celebrate their home country's favorite holiday. Christine and I went pub hopping during the day and accumulated two St. Paddy's Day t-shirts and an awesome Guinness hat. All the pubs were playing Irish music and some even had live music. Many people were doing Irish jigs. It was a really fun and happy atmosphere.

Yesterday I went to the Scotland v. Italy rugby game and Scotland won! Woo hoo! We had terrible seats but it was a really great experience. People got decked out in their team's gear and many Scottish men were wearing kilts. The highlight of the game for me was during halftime when we found a little stage outside of the stadium with bagpipe players. I started a little dance party and a bunch of people started dancing to the traditional Scottish music.

little boys dressed in kilts and Scotland rugby attire

getting a full cultural experience: kilts, beer, and rugby

Mary Caroline, me, and Christine

The end of the dance party I started (kilt included):

Today me and Christine's friend Hannah arrived all the way from Colorado! She's staying with us for the week and we'll be doing a lot of touristy stuff with her so expect lots of great pictures!

Sorry this is such a lame entry after such a long time away. It's truly been a great couple of days and I'm sorry I can't express it more enthusiastically. All of my essay writing has taken all of the inspiration out of me. But don't worry--I'll get a second wind this week!

FREEDOM

I am finally done with all of my essays!! I finished my Irish Celtic paper today and turned it in along with another paper due today. I am so relieved and happy to be done! I am now released from the library wahoo!!

The past month I have worked on 4 essays. All together I: printed out 40 pages; wrote 10, 195 words; cited 25 sources; and cited 7 images. 

Since I've been complaining about my essays for so long, I might as well share with you what I thought was the most interesting things I learned:

• the banishment of tartan in 1746 eventually helped it become a symbol of Scotland even though it was originally only a symbol of the Jacobites (tartan was banned for 6 years).
• The Jacobites were a group of people who supported King James II of Scotland and VII of England (they're the same person, but James I of England was the 6th king of Scotland to be named James). King James II was forced out of the throne because he was a Catholic king in a Protestant country. This is the time in history when the Hanovers (current ruling family in England) were brought over from Germany to rule England as a protestant country.
• Bonnie means 'attractive'
• • poets in both Scotland and Ireland were highly respected and held jobs that allowed them to live a lavish lifestyle and sometimes own their own land under their wealthy patrons. The job of poet was hereditary and required years of education (up to 12 in Ireland)

So now you all know that I'm learning. And it is ALL about Scotland. I know a lot about Scotland, which is really nice. I understand more references in my Scottish Lit. class than most international students.

One of my classes tomorrow is cancelled because the teachers are on strike.

okay bye! 

final essay!

I am in the home stretch of writing my last essay that is due on Monday and plan to be done with it by tomorrow evening! However, travel plans have been distracting me as I just finalized everything for my trip to London! Now Christine and I are planning a trip to Paris, and then we will be planning our final trip which will include Munich, Hungary, and Croatia.
Before I get back to my paper, I'm going to get a little excitement out and put up a countdown!

6 Nations Rugby game v. Italy: 4 days
Hannah comes: 5 days
Last day of classes: 10 days
Leave for Amsterdam/start 3 week spring break: 12 days
Go to Istanbul/see mother: 25 days
Tentative Paris trip: 37 days
London: 43 days
See Ian and Fifi again: 44 days
DIPLO: 44 days
Royal Wedding: 45 days

and I'll stop it there...because highlights after that involve exams :( but time in Edinburgh :)

3 Days, 2 Museums, 1 Hostel: Successful Trip

My trip to Madrid was a great success. Out of all the weekend trips I've done so far, I think Madrid has been my favorite. I successfully balanced sightseeing, having fun, and exploring the city to feel like I got as full of an experience as I could in 2 1/2 days.

Friday:

floor directory for Kapital (7 floor club)

Maddy and her two friends, Christina and Emma, didn't get to the hostel until 6. We dropped off our stuff in our separate 6 person rooms and went out into the rain to explore and find a place to eat. We ended up eating at a tapas bar called Lateral, which was recommended by someone I know who is currently studying in Madrid. The tapas were DELICIOUS; the dinner started my 2 day delicious food binge (since we don't have much of that in Scotland). After dinner we got ready and then went out to a 7 story club. It was so much fun because they had a huge dance floor on the main level and then different types of lounges and bars on the floors above--they even had karaoke. On the main level they had a stage with very odd dancers and miniature performances sporadically to keep the crowd entertained.





Saturday:

Alexander Calder sculpture

I woke up before Maddy and her friends and went to the Reina Sofia Museum by myself because they had gone the weekend before for their surrealism class. The collection is really incredible; it's entirely surrealist. The museum itself was too big and weirdly laid out. I began to feel oddly depressed after looking at surrealist artwork for about 45 minutes and sat in the sculpture garden for a bit, where they have an enormous Alexander Calder sculpture. I also was not the biggest fan of the museum because they allow people to take pictures inside and many of the people who go do not go to enjoy the artwork, rather they go to say they've been there and take pictures of the famous paintings. I did really enjoy finally seeing La Guernica (some of the images are truly haunting and need to be seen in person to get the effect Picasso had intended) and the Dali paintings. The way he uses color and is able to fragment his images to look like dreams is absolutely amazing. They also have a great collection of Joan Miros.

me in front of the Reina Sofia

The rest of Saturday in bullets:

communist protest

• took the metro by myself to Plaza del Sol to meet up with Maddy. Upon emerging I found myself looking at a communist demonstration which included yelling and sporadic bangs (fire crackers?). I miraculously found Maddy and we went to Plaza Mayor.
• Took a New Europe walking tour. Guides work on tips so they're amazing. If you're in a European city that does these GO. 
• Highlights of tour:
• World's oldest restaurant
• extensive history lesson on Spain's history (did you know that Spain was a dictatorship until 1975?!)
• bridge with the most suicides in Madrid
• Palacio Real

symbol of Madrid: a bear kissing a tree

Maddy and me in Plaza Mayor

Plaza Mayor

Even though it doesn't look like it, I'm seriously enjoying these churros

most beautiful strawberries i've ever seen

Me with Maddy's trusty guid

Saturday night we met up with an old high school friend that happened to be in Madrid.

Beaver alums: Maddy, Jacob, me

brave friends sleep on the top bunk

Maddy and I returned to an empty room and decided it was the perfect time to document my first hostel experience (maddy's second) pretty much for this blog

you keep your stuff in lockers

Sunday:

Maddy and I woke up early and went to the Prado Museum. It is considered one of the best museums in the world. However, it is strictly classical art. I really enjoyed seeing the Titians and pieces by El Greco, but let's not lie to ourselves: an entire museum dedicated to paintings of Jesus in almost identical style does not sound very interesting. Maddy and I looked for the humor in the paintings, because since there is a lot of prostitution and sinning in the bible, classical art at the time tended to paint pictures of these scenes.
favorite recurring themes:

• men sneakily grabbing women's boobs
• floating baby heads (okay, angel heads. still weird)
• naked babies 
• midgets doing different things: standing next to huge dogs, riding tiny horses, hanging out naked

Even though Prado has an incredible collection and there were many paintings that blew me away, I could not help but keep in mind the movie "Exit Through the Gift Shop" (if you haven't seen it, watch it now. It literally changed my life) and asking myself: what is art? When you're in a museum full of classical paintings, many of which look the same, it is only logical to ask, "why is this here? how is this different from the last painting i saw?" Usually people ask these questions about modern art, but I think it is important to ask it about classical art as well because many times we are told something is art and just take it as that.
All in all, the Prado and Reina Sofia are amazing museums, but it is way too overwhelming for me to go into a huge museum with the same period paintings. To me, it makes them less amazing as a group. However, when I found a painting I loved, I was able to look at it in a different light since it was among so many other similar paintings.

Favorite HILARIOUS classical painting:

Ruben's 'Creation of the Milky Way'

After Prado we went to this huge market that they have on Sundays. Vendors sell clothing, purses, oddities, antiques: just about anything except for food and livestock. It was way too crowded and I had to leave; I've discovered I don't really like huge crowds.

Overall thoughts on Madrid/Spain:

• the food is DELICIOUS, most notably churros
• wonderful culture and interesting history
• too much PDA
• no sense of punctuality
• apparently they're really organized: all classical art in Prado, all modern in Reina Sofia. no mixing.
• cars actually stop for you if you're in the street
• ABSOLUTELY LOVE.

¡Vamos a Madrid!

I am currently packing for Madrid! I am so excited to meet up with one of my best friends, Maddy, who is currently studying abroad in Salamanca. Some of her friends from her program are also going to Madrid this weekend and staying in the same hostel as us. It will be my first time staying in a hostel (we're staying in a dorm with 6 other people), but I'm really excited and am hoping for the best. We probably won't be in the room for much of the time and hopefully the people in our room will be cool and we can hang out with them. All we have planned to do so far is go on a Free Europe walking tour (the guides are paid only by tips and they're the best rated tours in Europe. win-win for college students), and I am definitely making a trip to the Prado and Reina Sofia museums. I have studied many pieces of art in both museums, most notably Picasso's 'La Guernica' which is located in La Reina Sofia. I am VERY excited for this trip!
Another trip I am wildly excited about is my trip to London at the end of April. The trip will consist of going to Cambridge, seeing my favorite DJ, Diplo, and being in London for the royal wedding!

Yesterday I spent 12 hours in the library and finished 2 research papers. I am so proud of myself and relieved. Unfortunately, I still have one more. And even though I started an outline for it, I read it over today and it is probably one of the least helpful outlines I could have possibly written.
Example:
the essay question is : How did the changing social and political conditions in seventeenth- and/or eighteenth-century Ireland affect the role and identity of the poets?
the topic sentence of the first paragraph is:  In the early 16^th century, poets were revered and had a high place in society.


Let's just laugh at how ridiculous that is and not mention my stupidity. The good thing is that the question is the same as the other research paper for the Gaelic part of the class, so I now know how to go about writing the paper and actually answering the question.


Sorry for another incredibly wordy post about nothing happening in my life. But I will have a really awesome post Sunday night or Monday with tons of wonderful pictures of yours truly in one of her favorite places, Espana! eyeyeyyy


In the meantime, I will leave you with the best commercial ever created: Grammy-nominated producer Diplo's Blackberry commercial!

working for the weekend

Great news everyone: I found out I got an internship for the fall semester back in Boulder! It's a marketing internship that is promoting 2 new products by a group called Celect Media. One is called Quad Deals, which is similar to Living Social and Groupon, and the other is Black Sheep Magazine, which is a magazine targeted towards college students; it's supposed to be funny AND informative. I'm really excited and have an opportunity to make some money through Quad Deals. But most importantly, I will be working in promotions which I have never done and am really excited to have an internship where my ideas are heard and have the possibility of being executed; and I get to work on a team with a bunch of other university students.

My dad informed me that I make it seem like school is miserable. It isn't. I've really been enjoying (most of) my classes and have learned a lot about Scottish history. I also really enjoy taking these classes because I would never have the opportunity to take classes like these at Boulder or many other universities. However, I am not a fan of writing four 6-10 page research papers and spending at least 4 hours in the library every day when I could be exploring Edinburgh.

I finally found out my exam schedule. I have between April 25 and May 2 to write an essay for my Scottish Lit. class, an exam on May 7 and on May 14. So after spring break I have 3 weeks in Edinburgh. Some of the time will be for studying, but I will be able to do all of the exploring I haven't been able to do! I don't fly back to Boston until May 28 so I have 2 weeks to travel after exams. So far I'm planning on going to Milan for a couple of days to visit Costanza, and then Christine and I want to go to Croatia, and either Paris or Hungary. Also, I might be in London for the Royal Wedding, which would be AMAZING and I hope it works out.

Tonight I met up with my second cousin Marcy's childhood friend who has been living in Edinburgh for the past 7 years. We met in a restaurant in Old Town called Under the Stairs and had a great time chatting about differences between the US and the UK. She offered me some wonderful advice on where to go and what to do. Hopefully I will be able to meet up with her again before I leave. Thanks Marcy!

Tomorrow I am taking the whole day to finish 2 essays (I've started writing both. Then I just have one essay to write that is currently in outline form). But I need to get them done because I am going to MADRID this weekend!

Sundays are the worst days

I hate Sundays because I hate saying goodbye to the weekend, especially this past weekend which was exceptionally fun. I also hate dealing with being tired from the weekend and realizing all of the essay writing I need to do and being sad that I have to wait so long to have fun again.

Friday night I went to a concert that I was really excited about because it's a DJ, named Afrojack, that I really like. It was the event to be at in Edinburgh Friday night, meaning that a lot of weird people that should have not been there were. But first of all: it was in a shopping mall. They cleared out the food court, set up a couple of bars, and put a little stage at one end of the room. It looked like a low-budged middle school dance, which is really embarrassing since Afrojack is a huge name on the electronic scene. As for the people: Scottish girls were in a state I have never seen them in. They were wearing 6-inch heels and caked on the makeup. There were older people as well; some looked like they could have been parents. Also, most of the men were trying to into fights and the front was a mosh pit and when I finally got far enough back to be out of it there was a pole in my way. I also experienced a new kind of dancing that I have never seen before. A bunch of guys will form a circle, put their arms around each other, and jump around in a circle. It's bizarre and dangerous and I didn't like getting trampled on. All in all though I had a great time and am really glad I went. I was able to socialize more than I expected which was nice. It just didn't meet my expectations because if I went to a concert in Boulder of the same sort, everyone would be wearing sneakers, neon clothes, and would be dancing peacefully.

me, Jack, and Christine enjoying our time in the closed shopping mall

and the award for worst venue goes to: Ocean Terminal Shopping Centre

Rosslyn Chapel

Saturday I woke up at 8:30 after getting about 3 hours of sleep and went on a trip to the Scottish borders with Arcadia. Our first stop was Rosslyn Chapel which has some unbelievable stone carvings and was featured in the DaVinci Code movie and book. It's famous because the Holy Grail is supposedly buried somewhere in it. It is also rumored to have Mary Magdalene's embalmed body and the mummified head of Jesus. They x-rayed the whole church and didn't find anything in the pillars or anywhere else in the church; however, they did find honeycomb-like cellars buried up to 12 feet below the church. The Duke of something doesn't want anyone tampering with the vaults underneath because that is where his ancestors are buried  and he does not want to disturb them. I suppose the mystery will never be solved. The chapel is also very small because it never got finished. One of the most important and interesting carvings in the chapel are of tobacco, maize, and aloe, which were carved 100 years before Christopher Columbus ever reached the New World, suggesting that there may have been Europeans in the United States before him.

After Rosslyn Chapel we went to Melrose, had lunch, and went to Melrose Abbey. It was pretty. It was a bunch of ruins. Yeah. 

me on top of the Abbey

Melrose Abbey. The stones in the front are the only remains of the original 15th century Abbey

After the abbey we went to a tower in the middle of nowhere. It used to be owned by Walter Scott's grandparents, who lived in a farm house below it. He lived there for a while and went to the top of the tower when he was wee. It was originally built as a farmhouse and is tall, on a hill, and built out of special stone so that offered protection and lookout if the British tried to attack. It was boring, I learned nothing, and we didn't even have a good view.

Smailholm Tower

Me and Cahrissa in front of the tower

Scott's view

Our next stop was a look off of a beautiful view of Scotland where Walter Scott allegedly used to sit and contemplate the beauty of his country and write poetry and books about it.

Our last stop was another abbey called Dryburgh Abbey. It was very similar to the first abbey. I did learn that the monks had a strict vegetable only diet that consisted of kale, oats, and beer. Beer was a food in 1500. The monks also spent most of their lives praying including waking up at 1 AM to start their prayers. There were also a lot of beautiful trees. Scotland has really interesting and different looking trees. Oh, this Abbey is also the burial place of the Scott family.

Last night I went to one of the student unions called Potterrow, where they have it open late on Saturday nights. There were four bars, a lounge downstairs, and a huge dance floor upstairs. It was all "cheese" music, but it was so much fun to just dance and goof off. 

Sorry for the long post! I'll be writing essays this whole week so there probably won't be any very interesting blog posts. 

I had my all-time highest pageviews in one day when I put up my cat post. A little sad that I got 70 pageviews about cats and I usually get about 15 for posts about me...I guess people just love Brainard and Magic more than me.

Happy Cat Day!!!

Sorry I've been slacking on my blog writing, two days without a post is not like me! I haven't been writing because nothing exciting has been happening. I've been doing a lot of essay writing. In fact, I'm procrastinating now! I plan on finishing my Gaelic literature essay today and then start researching for another essay. aaahhhh. 4 essays due within a span of 2 weeks...not fair if you ask me.
According to Facebook, today is cat day. Happy Cat Day everyone!! Some suggestions Facebook gave to celebrate cat day:

• Listen to Cat Stevens
• Eat cat food
• Play with your cat
• Strike up conversation with a random person about cats
• Eat a Kit Kat bar
• purr and meow all day! (okay, that was my contribution).

in honor of cat day, here are pictures of my ADORABLE cats:

Magic is so cute even though I haven't completely forgiven her for pooping on my bed

Brainard is soooo silly

okay, now that I'm done being a crazy cat lady, I have a very exciting weekend ahead! I'm going to a concert tonight that is supposed to be huge. It's being held in a shopping center. I'm going with some friends from the dorms and two girls I met the other night who live in different houses in Pollock. Tomorrow I'm going to the English Scottish borders with Arcadia. We're going to some Chapels and churches. Should be a good time after most likely not sleeping tonight...

I am also EXTREMELY happy that student elections are over because I am so sick of people knocking on my door and people shoving little pieces of paper into my face telling me to vote for them. Such a waste of resources.

Okay, time to get back to work and finish this paper!

Is it weird that I have so many self-made records/weird photos/videos of cats?

wissenschaftsfeindlichkeit

I woke up at 7 this morning so I could get breakfast and head to the library since I discovered last night that one of my readings for my tutorial this morning is not online or in my course anthology. I quickly discovered that the poem is not only over 2,000 lines long, but also written in Scots. And not just one dialect of Scots, but different dialects from all over the country. And some words MacDairmid made up. It was a nice surprise/good morning/wakeup call. Allow me to share a line from the poem:

Were you a vision o' mysel'

transmuted by the mellow liquir?

Neist time 'guise you in a glass

I'se warrant I'll mak 'siccar

That was one of the more decipherable lines. The poem is called 'A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle.' It's about a drunk man who is coming home from a pub one night, falls into a ditch, looks up and sees a thistle and the moon, and then contemplates love, life, tradition, and literature from Holland, Belgium, and Greece. Plausible, right?

Here are some awesome words and accompanying annotations I came across:

wissenschaftsfeindlichkeit: hostility to scientific knowledge

youcky: itchy, disgusting, and sexually aroused (is it just me, or is that all quite contradictory?)

I had to read that poem for my Scottish Lit. class, which has been quite amusing lately. Last week we learned about a magazine called 'The Captain,' which was a magazine for young boys. Stories such as Prester John were published in it to inspire young boys to go on adventures to South Africa and help the British in their imperialist efforts. It was edited by the Old Fag.  Even the lecturer admitted that his name would not be very well received nowadays. 

I also just realized that I have been here for EIGHT weeks. Time is going by too fast. However, I still have over 12 weeks until I go home, so I guess it's not all that bad. And some of my most exciting trips/events are coming up, mainly this month!