It is my last week of winter break, and I've decided to sit down and write a blog post before I jump back into my busy college schedule. The title of this post is a line from Tennyson's Ring Out, Wild Bells, a beautiful poem for the New Year- I won't insert the whole poem, as it is a bit long, but here is a stanza (You can read the rest at this link):
Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
2013 was a year of intense activity, but also a year of settling down and becoming at ease with previously unfamiliar surroundings and situations. Some big achievements for the past year were:
• Moving into a flat
• Getting my driver's license
• Completing my first year of college and entering my second
In 2014, my main resolutions fall under the categories of education, organization, and communication.
As with the last post, my ramblings about the past two months are sorted by activity:
U.K. End of Semester
Academics
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| Ladies Luncheon Room |
- On Saturday November 9th, I took a trip to Glasgow with my Art History class to visit the Burrell Collection and Kelvingrove Museum. I'd been to the Kelvingrove already last year, but it was still a very enjoyable day trip. We had to choose from a list of works from the latter half of the 19th century to do a visual analysis report on- I decided to study the Ladies Luncheon Room, part of the Ingram Street tea rooms designed by Mackintosh. I really admire Mackintosh- in fact last year I stayed in Glasgow for a few days to focus on his architectural work- so the essay was about as fun as an essay can get.
- During the week of November 18th I had an particularly intense period of essays and projects due. I had to give a presentation for Sustainable Development, write my essay on the Ladies Luncheon Room, submit a project to my online course, and research and write an essay on bees for SD. It was not very enjoyable, but I guess it is kind of what college is about.
- Studying for exams was stressful, especially since I spent the first revision week traveling (see below). However, I felt like I was much more calm and stable than last year. The exams themselves went all right, though I've always been really horrible at timed writing (I'm quite scatterbrained so find it extremely difficult to write an essay from start to finish- I usually jump around, which isn't possible on paper). After my Art History exam, I went on a short bike ride to Balgove Larder, a lovely farm-shop just outside town which I'd never been to before.
- My online design class has been rather disappointing- I won't go into detail, but basically the way they the way they teach some aspects of the course seem really nonsensical to me. They are constantly making mountains out of molehills, which is really irritating because it does not simulate real world design work.
Design Team
- I've continued to help teach Photoshop classes on Sunday afternoons. It is a really great experience- explaining the program to students forces me to think about it in a whole new way.
- The Design Team committee went out for a Christmas dinner before exams at a nice restaurant called The Dollhouse. It was nice to be able to talk as a team in a relaxed atmosphere rather than in the usual meeting setting. Towards the end of exams we also went out to a new pub called the St Andrews Brewing Company, which serves local and eclectic beers. I tried a sample of one that was made with sourdough yeast, which was probably the best tasting beer I've ever had. Unfortunately they ran out just as I was ordering, so I got a beer with hints of berries instead.
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| Design Team (sadly missing Allison) |
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| After Design Team Meal |
Canoe Club
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| Thornthwaite Scout Campsite |
- On the weekend of the 23rd, I participated in the BUCS Wild Water Race in Yorkshire, England- my first ever kayak race. We left Friday evening and drove about 5 hours to the Thornthwaite Scout Campsite. When we got there it was dark, but luckily the cars that came before us had already set up most of the tents. We spent a little while all huddled together chatting in one tent, but soon we all decided to get some sleep.
When we woke up in the morning everything was frosty- luckily our club had decided to pitch camp under some trees and on higher ground than some of the other clubs, so we were spared from the worst. Around 9:00 we drove over to the River Washburn where the event was to take place.
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| Thruscross Dam Releasing |
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| Racing |
The next day we went back to the river, and this time I raced first thing in the morning. It was a sprint, so was only a small section of the river, and my time was 1:57 (best time was 1:26). When everyone was done, we packed up and drove home- we did not stay for the awards ceremony as we would have to wait for several hours until it was to take place. Overall, our school did pretty well- we tied for 7th place in event points with the University of Edinburgh and apparently we have the best kayaking girls in all the U.K. (for the K1 race at least!).
PhotoSoc and Ents
- PhotoSoc put on a student photography auction and event on November 14th. I helped out setting up for the event with Ents, then enjoyed watching the auction as a PhotoSoc member. Professor Kathryn Rudy of the Art History department, who has a hilarious sense of humor and taught some of my first-year lectures, was the auctioneer. I also did another Bubble Bath show with Lavin and Ryo.
KnitSoc
- Unfortunately, I still did not have time to go to many KnitSoc meetings in the past few months. I'm doing projects on my own and I hope to go more next term.
Life About Town
- My friend Lavin and I went to the Around the World in 80 Minutes Concert put on by Big BUSTA and the Music Society's Concert Wind Band to see our friend Ryo perform. I was really impressed both with the bands and with Ryo, who flawlessly and naturally switched off between conducting, playing a trumpet, and doing percussion. It was great to go to another event at Younger Hall- the last I had been to was the Freshman Induction during my first week.
Travel
- During revision week (the week set aside to study), I went and visited my extended family in Israel. It was really spectacular to visit a place so steeped in history that is also such a vital part of living tradition- for full details and photos, see my trip blog here: nathalieinisrael.blogspot.com/
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| Floating in the Dead Sea |
- Right before leaving to go home, I went on a short trip to the Dunmore Pineapple, the Falkirk Wheel, and the city of Stirling.
The Dunmore Pineapple is an architectural oddity built in the 18th century with a pineapple shaped cupola. It was really awesome- I definitely recommend visiting if you are in that area. There was a short trail to get to the building with some lovely Scots pines and an interesting ruin.
The Falkirk Wheel is a giant rotating boat lift, an engineering marvel that replaced a series of 11 locks between two canals in 2002. Unfortunately, I did not get to see it in action, but it looks like this when it is moving:
I found this paragraph from an article really amazing:
"Based on Archimedes’ principle, floating objects displace their own weight in water, so the caissons always weigh the same! Always remember the classics. By this method, the wheel is always balanced, allowing the most mind-blowing statistic about this wonder to exist—the Falkirk Wheel uses only 30.2 horsepower to rotate! In just over five minutes the wheel makes a half rotation, moving 600 tons to its new canal, using a measly 1.5 kW/h. The same amount of power used to boil eight kettles."
We visited Stirling on my first trip to Scotland in 2009, but for some reason were not able to spend much time exploring. I really enjoyed the city- in fact, I'd have to put it high on the list of my favorite cities in Scotland. I loved how the town was placed on a slope- it made getting lost impossible, and it was awesome seeing how the buildings progressed through time (the castle and oldest structures were at the top, while a new shopping center was at the base of the hill). I arrived in the evening, and checked into the youth hostel, went for a walk, then got some dinner and went to see the second Hobbit movie.
When the movie ended around midnight, I walked back into town. It was very eerie- the wind had picked up significantly while I was inside and was screeching and howling as it swept through the narrow medieval alleys. Nobody was on the streets, and dead leaves were spiraling though the air. I felt like I was in some sort of scary story, like the kind Bridget and I used to read under the covers with a flashlight. The hostel looked fine during the day, but the full moon lighting up the church-like exterior and the surrounding gravestones was a bit too much for me. When I got inside my heart was beating pretty fast! It was hard to sleep that night because the near gale force wind was so strong it shook the entire building.
When the movie ended around midnight, I walked back into town. It was very eerie- the wind had picked up significantly while I was inside and was screeching and howling as it swept through the narrow medieval alleys. Nobody was on the streets, and dead leaves were spiraling though the air. I felt like I was in some sort of scary story, like the kind Bridget and I used to read under the covers with a flashlight. The hostel looked fine during the day, but the full moon lighting up the church-like exterior and the surrounding gravestones was a bit too much for me. When I got inside my heart was beating pretty fast! It was hard to sleep that night because the near gale force wind was so strong it shook the entire building.
The next morning I got up early and walked over near the Church of the Holy Rude and John Cowane's Hospital to look for a geocache. I wasn't successful, but it had snowed during the night so I got a great view of the hills of the Trossachs lightly dusted white. Then I went over to St. Mary's Wynd, on the other side of the hill to get a view of the The Wallace Monument (I even found an interesting little raised lookout). After that, I went over to the Old Town Cemetery. It was really an unusual graveyard- the features I found most interesting were The Martyrs Monument, The Star Pyramid, and The Ladies Rock. From there I visited Stirling Castle, which was very impressive- I especially liked the stories on placards throughout the castle, like these about the Great Hall (taken from Stirling Castle website):
"Two royal baptism celebrations were held in the Great Hall. The first was at Christmas 1566, when Mary Queen of Scots hosted a three-day spectacle for her only child, the future James VI. The entertainment culminated in a banquet in the Great Hall. The guests sat at a round table, in imitation of King Arthur and his knights, and the food was brought in on a mobile stage drawn by satyrs and nymphs. A child dressed as an angel was lowered in a giant globe from the ceiling and gave a recitation. The banquet ended with a great fireworks display – the first ever witnessed in Scotland.
The second celebration came in August 1594, when James VI celebrated the baptism of his firstborn, Prince Henry. The climax was a banquet, the highlight of which was the fish course. This arrived on a model Ship of State, over 5m long and more than 12m high, floating on an artificial sea. As it sailed around the hall‚ 36 brass guns on board fired off a salvo."
You can find more short stories on this page. I also liked the interactive mini-museums within the castle and the tapestry workshop.
After visiting the castle, I went down the Back Walk to the Stirling Art Gallery and Museum. It had quite a few nice historic exhibits including an old dollhouse and projector. Finally, I stopped by the Thistles shopping mall, then took the bus back to St. Andrews.
- I flew home on December 20th, just in time for the holidays...
Break in California
Family Time
- We celebrated Christmas early this year, because we decided to meet up with relatives on Christmas day (see below). Christmas is my favorite major holiday (funnily enough, the name Nathalie means "Christmas day" or "birthday"). I love the feel of the Mitchell household during December- we have all kinds of vintage and hand-made decorations we put up, my sister and I decorate mini-trees and as a family put ornaments on our big tree, my dad strings lights out in the driveway, and my mom lights "Christmas candles" which make the whole house smell like the holidays. Bridget and I made fancy gingerbread creations- I made a Steampunk-Victorian house, and Bridget made a carousel.
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| Our Gingerbread Houses |
- On New Year's Eve, I burned the family videos of the year onto a DVD and we watched the past year's adventures together as is our tradition. In the evening we watched some countdown and "top-ten" shows, then watched the ball-drop in New York at 9:00 (as we were sleepy and did not plan on staying up until midnight). Unfortunately, Bridget decided to take a shower 10 minutes before the ball-drop, and did not make it back in time, so she stayed up till 12 with my dad- they are both night-owls anyway.
- January 3rd was my dad's birthday, and he had several of his friends over to celebrate. I had fun being a bartender- I used an app called LiquorCabinet where you can enter all the types of alcohol and mixers you have at home and it generates a list of drinks you can make and how to make them. It was nice to catch up with some of my parents friends who I hadn't seen for quite a while.
- It was great seeing Henry, Lucky, and Lucy again! I got a lot of quality time with all three pets. Lucy has recovered very well from her car accident last year- she is very mellow and lovable. Lucky is almost a "lucky 13" and is doing really well- I just made a nice climbing structure for him in his outside pen. Henry is as wild as ever, but very sweet and fun to play with- he just got neutered on Friday and is not happy about the "cone of shame" he has to wear.
Travel
- On Christmas day we went to Disneyland with my extended family from Oregon. I used the application called RideMax to plan our visit before we got to the park, so we were able to go on pretty much all the rides we wanted to and take advantage of the FastPass system. My favorite Disneyland attractions are Pirates of the Caribbean and The Haunted Mansion (when I was little It's a Small World was at the top of my list). Pirates of the Caribbean was excellent as ever, but I was a bit annoyed with The Haunted Mansion because they changed it to A Nightmare Before Christmas theme for the holidays and barely used the cool Grim Grinning Ghosts song or chilling "Ghost Host" voice at all. Overall it was an fantastic visit and probably the most relaxing time I've ever had at Disneyland.
- The day after Disneyland we went to Palm Springs, and hung out with our relatives on the main street. I went and saw the Hobbit again with some of my family members, and we ate out at the Lulu California Bistro. In the evening my relatives from Oregon headed off to Joshua Tree National Park to see the sights and so my cousin could rock climb. My family stayed overnight, then went to some of our favorite Palm Springs shops in the morning (I tried to visit the store of Shag, one of my favorite artists, but it was closed this time). In the afternoon we went to Shields Date Garden, which my dad remembered visiting when he was little. We watched a documentary there about the super complicated process of producing dates, shared a milkshake made with date-sugar crystals, and bought some dates for at home (my dad likes them raw, but I prefer mine in Sticky Toffee Pudding!).
- After leaving Palm Springs, my parents dropped Bridget and I at LAX to fly to Tahoe. Our grandparents picked us up from there and took us to their house in Northstar. We had a great few days spending time with our relatives, playing in the snow, and skiing (though there was very little snow so conditions were poor). Bridget and I did a Photoshoot:
- I made a couple videos on my Contour camera which you can see below:
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| Univex Model A |
- On Sunday the 12th, my family headed down to the famously gigantic Rose Bowl Swap Meet in Pasadena, California. The amount of stuff there was overwhelming, but we had an excellent time looking for "buried treasures" in the thousands of stalls. Back at home in the evening we had a show-and-tell of all the items we had purchased. My favorite find was a 1930s subminiature bakelite Univex Model A camera, that appears to be in working condition and cost less than the online asking price.
Life About Town
- We had "King Tides" in late December/early January which meant that the water levels were way higher and lower than usual. My parents and I were going to take the dogs for a walk on the beach one morning, but ended up having to walk along the sidewalk as the waves were crashing right up to the sea wall and there was a crowd gathered to watch. Bridget and I met up with my neighbor and childhood best friend Ian to go tidepooling during the afternoon a couple days later. We saw a couple of huge red crabs, a sea hare, tons of anenomes, and many hermit crabs. We brought along jars and had a sea glass finding contest- Ian won at around 100 pieces.
- I met up with my friend Kevin from stage crew, and we visited San Marcos High School during crüe period. We had a chat with Mr. Holmes, our teacher, who is sadly but befittingly retiring this year (this spring will mark his 30th year teaching- see article from 2010 here). It was kind of surreal being back in the theater where I had spent so many hours in high school- many of our jokes and memories were still tacked up on the scene shop walls. After visiting the theater we went and caught up with Ms. Teraoka-Brady, the choir teacher, then caught the bus and headed downtown for lunch.
- My dad and I went kayaking in the harbor with my dogs during the week we had 80°F (26°C) weather almost everyday. Unfortunately, Henry has grown much more bold in the water, and could not sit still in the kayak like he used to. He kept jumping in and swimming around using his tail as a propeller (see video). It was a struggle to get anywhere, but we did a lap around the harbor and went under the Channel Cat as is our tradition.
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| George Steedman's Workshop |
- My parents and I visited the Spanish Colonial Revival style house Casa del Herrerro (House of the Blacksmith) designed by George Washington Smith and inhabited by the Steedman family. I found the architecture and Beaux Arts landscape really stunning- I especially liked George Steedman's workshop. I also found it interesting that they moved in the same day as the great Santa Barbara earthquake, but the house was undamaged.
- I visited my ballet school and went out for coffee with my friend Lorraine. It was really nice catching up while walking along State Street.
- I fixed up my bike at home- I pumped up the tires, cleaned it, and attached a basket. I got a nice couple of bike rides in- one I did a loop around Montecito, stopping at the beach to watch some surfers and going through the Oak woods near Casa Dorinda. The second I went down to the Farmer's Market and to my mom's office.
- Bridget and I met up with her friend at Hendry's beach and brought Henry along. It felt like a summer's day- I went boogie boarding and relaxed in the sun. The waves were absolutely huge and there were surfers everywhere- I wish I had brought my camera!
Crafting and Hobbies
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| A Castle Wheel |
- For Christmas my mom booked a lesson for me with a spinning instructor in Goleta named Edith Ogella. I've been wanting to make my own yarn for knitting for quite some time now, but was having a bit of difficulty teaching myself, so was really excited to learn from a professional. Edith was really amazing and very patient! I learned about the history of spinning, the evolution of the wheel's construction, what types of wool are best for different purposes, and techniques for spinning itself. I was also very impressed with her vintage and antique camera collection and all the different types of spinning wheels she had throughout the house- from giant early American wheels to petite castle wheels.
- I always get really into sewing when I go back home, because I don't have a machine in Scotland. I decided to make an elven outfit since I had a lot of green felt my mom bought at a yard sale. I made a sketch, but sadly did not scan it in before leaving for Scotland. I finished making a warm brown fleece cape, and made a medieval looking coat, but still need to add the finishing touches.
- I did some shopping for my Steampunk dollhouse at Larrianne's Small Wonders in Ventura, but did not have time to work on it much over break. I hope to do more of my clay miniatures this spring to sell on Etsy.
- I have been learning how to use the 2D and 3D design program AutoCAD with Lynda tutorials- I hope to use it combined with a 3D printer one day so I can make intricate objects without taking the time to construct them. I'm also excited about using it for making mock architectural plans.
- I just ordered my own developing tank and photographic chemicals so that I can work on learning to develop photos at home (I'm following these instructions: http://chromogenic.net/develop). I'm really excited, as this will mean I won't have to send my pictures away to be processed. I am hoping I can still use PhotoSoc's darkroom over the next term, but I have to wait until they arrange another information session.
Back to St. Andrews
- My flights back home yesterday were all right- I flew on New Zealand airlines, which was different from what I normally take (the plane was for a flight from Auckland to London with a stopover in LA- I sure felt bad for the New Zealanders!). Luckily, the journey was only 9 1/2 instead of 11 hours due to the fact we had a good wind and flew more directly (not over Greenland as usual, which is also a shame because looking at the glaciers is amazing). On my second flight from Heathrow to Edinburgh I got a really good view of some fantastic clouds.
- I made it back just in time to eat a home-cooked Burns Night dinner with Sarah and her boyfriend Jonty. Being a vegetarian, I did not indulge in the haggis, but had some nice roasted potatoes and vegetables. I slept like a log last night.
- This morning I went to get groceries and on my way back I had an ultimate fail. I have a hook on my bike where I can hang grocery bags, and it normally works just fine. However, I stupidly made a sharp turn just after getting on my bike, and the bag got caught in the wheel. The spokes sliced through the plastic and somehow managed to rip open a bag of carrots. There were carrots all over the ground and stuck in my spokes, and it was a pretty embarrassing situation- luckily nobody was nearby except for some teenage kid smoking at a bus stop who I think was laughing at me. I regained my composure, threw away the carrots (sadly- what a loss of 69p!), and rode home.
- Tomorrow classes begin again- this term I'm taking:
•Art, Culture and Politics, from 1900 to Now
•Aesthetics
•Rationality and Action
•Sustainable Development: Social and Economic Aspects
I'm excited to get back into my daily routine- well, not that there is much of a routine here in St. Andrews- things have a way of changing pretty quickly around here. Talk to you again soon!
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