Out and About

It has been a frenzied but great few weeks (yikes!) since I last wrote. Time has been flying by so quickly- it's hard to believe I've been gone from home for three months! Here's what I've been up to:

• On Guy Fawkes or Bonfire Day (Nov. 5th), we had a special canoe pool session where we had a "Rodeo" competition to see who could do the coolest tricks. I was kind of lame when it was my group's turn to go- I was nervous to have people watch me, and also couldn't think of anything outstanding to do. I was going to stand up in my boat, but the water was a bit too turbulent. Next we played a quick game where we all stood on the edge of the pool, then had to start running and someone would shout "jump" or "dive". You were out if you did the wrong one. Afterwards we had some dessert at the pub and a committee election. Being a first-year, I had to go with the other freshers to make a speech for being a first year rep. I didn't know this would happen, so I had nothing prepared and was really embarrassed!

Playing a game at the "Rodeo" (Photo Credit: Sarah)

Concert Poster

• I've been doing more graphic design lately than I ever have before. I just finished a poster and tickets for an A Capella event and I'm currently working on environmental notice posters, a poster promoting the Design Team, and a project for my family. I'm also wanted to do another poster in a few weeks. I love graphic design but it is time consuming- it's difficult to fit it in with everything else I'm doing.

• I decided to be a total "Nathalie" and buy a local sheep fleece to use for a felting project. Ever since I took a felting class with Bridget's 4H group I thought it would be fun to get the raw wool myself so I could see the process from start to finish. I found a family from the Scottish Borders who sell individual fleeces online (Tweedside Borders), and contacted them to buy one. I chose the fleece from a ewe named Damara, who looked very darling in her picture. I really look forward to receiving the beautiful grey wool in the mail- hopefully it won't look too suspicious to the janitor! I'll post any projects I make with it- so far I'm planning on making a cloche hat.

• I am really glad because almost all the work for this term is finished. All I have left is an Italian test, an Italian paper, and my Art History and Social Anthropology exams. Though there is a lot of pressure from the exams coming up, at the moment I am feeling very relaxed because I just submitted my last Social Anthropology essay on "Does ethnic tourism destroy what it seeks?" and completed the Art History visual analysis test. The visual analysis test was quite brutal- we had to remember about 120 art and architecture pieces and their context as preparation. In the actual test, 5 pictures were shown and we had 9 minutes to write as much as we could for each. I found the time limit really crazy- I was able to identify each slide easily, but didn't have time to write coherently about them- I wish we could have just done bullet notes. I'm worried because people around me were writing full pages, whereas for each one I only got half a page- I'm a really slow writer (the main reason these blog posts are so spread out- I need a good chunk of time to write them).

Victoria and I at West Sands

• I met up with my friend Victoria last weekend. She is studying abroad in Paris, and (lucky girl!) has no classes on Fridays so can take short three-day trips around Europe. She visited Glasgow on Friday morning, then took the bus to St. Andrews to meet me. On the evening of her arrival, we went for a small walk around town and went out to dinner. In the morning, I took her on a special "Nathalie Tour" of St. Andrews, which was pretty fun! We started at the Golf Course and West Sands, then made our way along the Scores to St. Sallies, the Northpoint Cafe (where "Will met Kate"), the Castle, the pier, and the Cathedral. Then we headed back the other direction, stopping into small shops until we got to West Port. We were hungry by then, so I suggested we try the Whey Pat nachos, since I had heard they were a "must do" of St. Andrews. Let's just say they weren't exactly up to Southern California standards- I don't think it is necessary ever to get them again. In the afternoon we took the bus to Edinburgh, and surprisingly met another girl who lived in Santa Barbara who noticed us because of Victoria's Santa Barbara backpack!

A lovely day in St. Andrews! 

Skyfall poster

When we got to Edinburgh, we walked to the hostel on High Street. As we were walking, we saw another person from Santa Barbara who Victoria knew from elementary school (it really is a small world)! We checked into our hostel, then strolled along George Street. We decided it would be fun to go see Skyfall, especially since there was supposed to be a scene in Scotland, and thought we should try to catch a show in the Cameo Picture House, a vintage-y type theater. It was really fun running through the streets to get there. It was drizzling, and people were everywhere because of a big sports game, so things were just generally chaotic. We wove our way through everything in such a way that it felt like being in a time-lapse film. The movie was great- I liked it a lot better than Casino Royale- though the "true" Bond movies to me are the originals with Sean Connery. I especially liked the allusions to past Bond films and the historical tie-ins in the paintings (see here). When the movie was finished, we grabbed some food and went back to the hostel.

Hostel room

We slept on bunks with assigned names (I was Robin and Victoria was Batman). People drunkenly stumbled in throughout the night, but I pretty much slept through it all- I only remember waking up once when a person turned on the light, and once to throw off my covers because it was so hot in the room. We got up early in the morning, and walked along the Royal Mile until we got to the Castle. The sun was just rising and nobody was out yet, so it was perfect for taking pictures! We went back to the "new" part of town after that, and realized since it was Sunday nothing would be open until 11:00. We got some breakfast, then wandered around the empty streets (such a contrast to the night before!) looking for something to do. We finally went to the National Portrait Gallery, as it was free and open. I really liked the Gothic Revival architecture of the building itself, and also enjoyed seeing some paintings of Tudors which I've seen in books. We went to a few shops as they opened, then said our goodbyes. Victoria went to the airport and I stayed an extra hour in Edinburgh looking for a winter coat. Then I headed back home and finished my anthropology essay!

Edinburgh Castle

Sticky Toffee Pudding

• I went to the Adrenaline Ball last night, for students in Canoe, Cycling, Breakaway, Mountaineering, and Scuba. Admittedly, I was very nervous to go, but I knew it would be an excellent experience. Anyways, at around 6:00 in the evening I met up with some friends, and we headed over to the "Castle" for a small pre-party. When everyone was ready, we walked down the Scores to the Golf Hotel, where the event was being held. After a little while we sat down to dinner at our assigned tables. The meal actually went pretty well, considering I'm such a picky eater- I didn't have the tomato soup, but ate the risotto dish and tried the sticky toffee pudding, which I really liked. When the meal finished, we watched some members of each society participate in a "Boat Race" drinking game- unfortunately, I think Cycling won, but we were pretty close behind.

After that, the céilidh (kay-lee, traditional dancing) began, which was definitely my favorite part of the evening. I've done group dances at lots of Bar/Bat Mitzvah celebrations, once at a Greek Glendi, and a bit in ballet, and always really enjoyed them, so I was excited to try céilidh dancing. If you are interested descriptions of the dances see this link. I didn't do the first dance, The Gay Gordons, because I kind of wanted to observe the situation, but did all the dances after that. My favorite dances were Orcadian Strip the Willow, The Virginia Reel, and the Eightsome Reel (which was the most complicated). We also did The Dashing White Sergeant and a variation of the Canadian or Highland Barn Dance. They were all so much fun!

Next came the discotheque part of the evening, which turned out to be a lot more enjoyable then I was expecting! I avoided all my high school dances because I hated the experience in middle school, but it was much better in comparison to the dances I remember because:
a) The music was a nice mixture of lighthearted electronic dance music, which I much prefer to hip-hop and rap
b) We formed a large Canoe Club dance circle, instead of being in a chaotic mass of people
c) The dancing itself was not excessively "raunchy", for lack of a better word

At around 12:30, the music ended abruptly and the party was over. We took a few group photos, then went our separate ways. I went with a few people to the Union, where we just kind of relaxed and played pool for a while. Finally, I went home- getting to my dorm at 2:00am! It was quite an evening!

Canoe Club at the Adrenaline Ball (photo credit: Freda)

• Today I went to the Vintage Christmas Fair with my academic sister. It was really nice- there were many booths with vintage clothing and items, people selling cupcakes and Christmas-y goodies, and singing groups onstage. I got a small purse and some steampunk bobby pins. Afterwards we went to a used CD and DVD sale, mostly just to look around- the DVDs here aren't the right zone for the US.

• And now, just for fun- I've stumbled a few times with my British English over the past few weeks. Some amusing examples:

While paying a fee:
What I said:
"Here's the 15 bucks I owe you"
What it means here:
"Here's the 15 deer I owe you"
What I should have said:
"Here's the 15 quid I owe you"

While doing laundry (luckily to a friend):
What I said:
"I'm excited to get this load of wash done- I ran out of pants so I'm only wearing skirts."
What it means here:
"I'm excited to get this load of wash done- I ran out of underwear so I'm only wearing skirts."
What I should have said:
"I'm excited to get this load of wash done- I ran out of trousers so I'm only wearing skirts."

While talking about food:
What I said:
"I don't like pudding very much"
What it means here:
"I don't like dessert very much"
What I should have said:
"I don't like (insert type of pudding/custard such as "pease" or "figgy") pudding very much"

Other phrases I'm trying to get used to:
queue- line
you all right?- how are you?
cheers- thanks
toilet/loo- bathroom/ restroom
hiya- hi
swimming costume- bathing suit
revise- review/ study
faff- to waste time
chips- french fries
crisps- chips
biscuits- cookies
squash- concentrated sugary drink
em- um
sellotape- scotch tape
torch- flashlight
maths- math
cheeky- smart alecky/ impudent
fringe- bangs
lorry- truck
zed- the letter "z"


I'm sorry that was such a long winded post- I really need to write more often!

academic family beach classes dancing exploring societies theater travel