I Apologise!!! (No that's not a mispelling, the use of the letter "z" here is pretty much non-existing)


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March 16th 2012
Published: March 16th 2012
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Hiya!

My deepest apologies for not doing a more active job of keeping up with this blog; this cold/flu is totally kicking my butt. Mind you the only reason I was even contaminated was because of my lively weekend excursions, further detail will be given later. The last post looks like it's from the day before the house trip to the "Big Smoke" (London) so I'll start there...



LONDON (FEBRUARY 17-20)

Not quite sure about the rest of you but this gal is not a morning person. We were given strict orders to be ready and on the coach bus, that was taking us to Waverly Station, by the ungodly time of 6:30am! This might not sound like much but you try fighting for a shower at 5:00am with 34 other girls, plus trying to get ready in the dark because your roommates have yet to awaken. Fun! Not! Ok I think I'm done ranting. Cheers!

Other then the Amtrak to Chicago, I have never been on a train. After rolling out of the station, miles and miles of beautiful countryside flew by and cute little seaside towns/cities were spotted throughout the 4.5 hour journey. I slept for a wee bit but also tried to read a book I thought would be helpful for my globalisation and Scottish heritage classes. The majority of my time was spent daydreaming and staring out the window at the hilly rolling green fields that were specked with small farms, cottages, sheep, horses and occasional cluster of trees. The train eventually eased into King's Cross, one of the many train stations of London. For those of you who are huge J.K Rowling fans, there is a platform 9 3/4 but I unfortunately did not get a picture. From the train we hopped over to the Picadilly Line to catch the tube (subway) to Russell Square where our hostel was located. When we discussed using the using the underground while in London it seemed quire frightening but it was quite fast and simple to use. By the end of our weekend I must have looked and acted like a Londoner because someone, who was definitely British, stopped and asked me for directions on how to use the tube. I am coming to the conclusion that I am not quite as country as I once thought and maybe a city dwelling does exist in my future.

My "first-time" experience continued as I set foot in the Generator, which is one of the largest and nicest hostel systems in Europe (others are located in Dublin, Berlin, Paris, etc). Our room of four was not that much smaller then the college dorm at UWRF and was set up with two bunks, four lockers, and a shared sink (super convenient for brushing your teeth and washing your face before bed and when you wake up in the morning). I shared this space with three other girls from the house but more than likely when I travel, during spring break and free weekends, my roommates will be complete strangers, which is exciting and slightly nerve whacking all at the same time. Every morning the option of a free breakfast was offered and we took full advantage of that since money spent on food over the weekend was not a priority. Every night the hostel also ran a bar that was reasonably priced compared to the rest of London, much like Nashville, it was quite hard to get a buzz on a few dollars. Oh and to answer your question from your email, no Mum I
Graffiti TunnelGraffiti TunnelGraffiti Tunnel

One of the pieces of artwork.
did not drink and party the entire weekend. Haha! Truth be told I did meet some very interesting folks at the Generator bar though, Adrian and his friends from Canada and Kyle and his mates from Wales. I also blethered with some girls from Australia and Germany throughout the weekend. Totally digging European men though! Along with the accents, I cannot count anymore how many times I have been called beautiful, yeah they may be a little gutsy over here and probably only want one thing but it still makes a girl blush. Outside of my family, friends, and a few significant others, I have never been out on the town and had a guy straight out tell me this when sober (in the United States). Boys you should really try it sometime, excellent pick-up line if done correctly.

After settling into our room, my friend Jackelyn, a few clingers from our group and I headed over to the British Science Museum, which had more time been allotted would have been amazing. London is just so huge and is definitely one of those cities that you need weeks to really see everything. I now have a bucket list just for this city and will hopefully get to kick most of it before I return home to America. But here are just a few of some of the things/places I did get to see (note I will not be talking about all of them in attempt to get caught up with my blog)...

Site for sand volleyball of 2012 Summer Olympics - I thought most of my guy pals would appreciate this one. This was somehow placed right outside the Prime Minister's house; do you think he had any say in it?

Buckingham Palace - Absolutely huge but not very eye appealing as I thought it would be. On Sunday I and a few other housemates went to the Palace to watch the Changing of the Guards, little did we know how extremely popular it was. The square out front was crawling with people and we were smashed into the sidewalks like a can of sardines. Free movement was nearly impossible. What we did see was pretty interesting; I did not realize that the Guard had its own band that played during the ceremony.

A funny and entertaining story that our tour guide told us, Buckingham obviously has very good security but of course there are probably break-ins that are never publicised, except for this one...

One dark and dreary night a homeless, drunk and slightly demented Irishman decided that he did not want to sleep out on the streets of London that night. Highly understandable right? Well, in his drunken stupor he decided that only Buckingham Palace would do. So he clambered over the fence, how I am not sure, and marched right up to one of the doors; well of course it was locked but that did not stop good ole ****. He found a large stone somewhere in the front lawn and threw it through a window. He then proceeded to climb through the broken window and in the process cut open one of his forearms and it began to bleed profusely. Now remember he was pished so of course he did not notice this at all.

Of course when **** broke the window it set off the silent alarm system in the house; the young night guard in the camera room awoke at 3:00am to several blinking lights and screaming alarms. Being new, he had never encountered anything like this and passed the din off as a false alarm and turned the security system off. Little did he know that **** was aimlessly wandering around the palace trying to find something to eat. The first thing that **** found to eat was a can of dog food and he wolfishly inhaled that but then decided that he was quite thirsty. He ended up finding a very fine and expensive bottle of wine from the Queen's cellar and drank that as he searched for a room to bunker down for the night. Now the Queen does not always stay at the palace and there are around 200 rooms to choose from but can you guess which room he picked and who was in it? That's right, you guessed it! ***** walked right into the Queen's private quarters while she was sound asleep but that did not last very long.

The Queen awoke to some ruckus at the foot of her bed and there stood a bloody, dirty, and drunken Irishman. As you might assume the Queen was quite alarmed but kept her cool as she slowly pushed the button by her bed to set off the silent alarm, which of course had been shut off by the night guard.

Tower of London - When I heard this I first thought this was just a tower but it ended up being this large castle/fortress on the North Bank of the River Thames. The castle is actually right next to the Tower Bridge.

Tower Bridge - Next to Big Ben this is probably one of London's most recognised structures. It is probably one of the prettiest and ornate bridges that I have ever laid eyes on.

Big Ben - Pretty much self explanatory. Haha!

British Parliament -

"Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
the Gunpowder Treason and Plot,


I see no reason why Gunpowder Treason should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes, t’was his intent to blow up King and Parliament.


Three score barrels were laid below to prove old England’s overthrow;
By God’s mercy he was catch’d with a dark lantern and lighted match.


Holloa boys, holloa boys, let the bells ring.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!


Hip hip hoorah!"

This is not just some made up rhyme, this event did really happen and our tour guide did an excellent job of recreating the night and following events.

Westminister Abbey - This church was absolutely gorgeous!!! It is the site of every coronation of the monarchy of England and is also where William and Kate were married.

The musical Wicked at the Apollo Victoria Theatre - This was my first professional musical production and I loved it almost more than the actual Wizard of Oz. Although our seats were in the nose bleed section, it was still a wonderful performance.

Leicester Square - Comparable to Times Square in New York.

Globe Theatre - It is obviously not the original since that was burned down during a performance. Why they thought shooting of canons over a thatch roof was a good idea is still puzzling? During our tour we were able to sit in and listen to some actors working on A Midsummer Night's Dream. If I had more time I definitely would head back to London to see a performance!

I highly recommend the free walking tours that are offered throughout London in some of the major cities. The guides are working for tips only so you are guaranteed a great experience. Of course by being surrounded by at least one of my ill housemates at anytime during the weekend, it was inevitable that I would pick up a bug as well. Battling a cold since last Monday and still trying to run and exercise for Edinburgh's half marathon is sort of rough. Overall it was a very busy and fun filled weekend but I definitely could not wait to return to my bed at Dalkeith Palace.



FEBRUARY 21-23

The majority of my time this week was spent sleeping and trying to fight of this unrelenting cold. Just recently I folded in and ended up buying some drugs to at least suppress the coughing and sore throat. Any who, Henry's cooking class started! Our entire troupe was girls so it was just a blast and Henry was in such a better mood than normal. We made shortbread (cookies) and bannocks, which are a super dry, oatmeal pastry that Highland shepherds used to pack with them on longer journeys. Not the most exciting taste but they are pretty good with a slice of cheese, butter or jam.

Cameron is back from holiday and I finally put some hours in for my internship. The first couple hours were spent helping Cameron sort through branches of a very old tree that had fallen in one of the pastures. He uses the wood to heat his home and then the rest we will burn. With the large amount of precipitation that Scotland receives each year they do not need to worry about forest fires like we do back at home; it is common to let things burn while you go and work on another project. We then returned to the Adventure Park where we removed three of four little playhouse roofs from a raised platform. Cameron explained that he was doing this because it was very common for some of the youths from Dalkeith to come down to the park at night to smoke weed and other recreational drugs. When it rained they would take shelter in the playhouses so he was trying to discourage them from using that area. I found this quite sad because the little children that I have watched playing at the park love the playhouses!

On Thursday I was sort of surprised when Cameron let me drive the tractor. It seems like ages since I last climbed into a cab of a John Deere! The day was filled with little odd jobs around the estate but ended with a walk through the Old Wood. This part of the grounds is believed to part of the old Caledonian Forest. Several of the oaks that are there are considered to be ancient trees. In order to fall into this category a tree must be the age of at least half its natural life span, so for oaks 500-600 years old. One of the first ones that Cameron pointed out was estimated to be 800 years old and I still need to find "The Michael", which they believe is 1000+ years old. After standing for several minutes in complete awe, I began mentally kick myself for not majoring in biology; I would have gotten the best of both worlds instead of focusing just on animals.

That night we invited our host families to sit in on some folklore from a local storyteller. I liked her songs that she sang but I was not a huge fan of the stories she told. They just seemed to be geared more towards elementary age children instead of college students. I did get a nice chat in with my host mom, Lorna, and her brother-in-law, Kenny, though so the evening was not a complete waste.

So much more catching up to do but I promise more will come!

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