Dublin Day One

Well hello all. After a long hiatus I have finally returned to you. I’m sure you have all been at the edge of your seats wondering, “What is the latest adventure/embarrassing act Christine has faced?” So, never fear I am here to fill you in on all my mishaps.
Last weekend (March 5-7) I ventured to Dublin to discover what it means to be Irish. I found that it means you are very social…only when drunk. I was surprised to find that the Irish people were not as friendly as the Scots that I have come to love. To be fair, I was in Dublin, the most touristy city I have been to yet. But still, I was saddened to find that the Irish aren’t as jolly as I thought they would be. I still had a great time though. The hostel we stayed at was pretty much a hotel. It was very spacious, had a nice kitchen, and was very safe. Most of the hostels (okay all two) that I have stayed in are very nice. So since we got there late on Thursday, we went pretty much right to bed. We shared the room with six other very loud and obnoxious French people. Note to those traveling: ear plugs = best packed item. The next day we woke up really early in order to go on a walking tour of Dublin. I’m not quite sure why this city is so popular. There wasn’t too much to see and the walking tour consisted of history which to me is a lullaby. Ask any of my friends and they will tell you my pathetic knowledge of history. I swear it is not my fault. I would always try to pay attention in Western Civ. my first year in high school but to this day it my only D on a final. Ooops. My brain literally turns off at the mention of historical facts/figures/dates. I know this isn’t a good quality, but ask me anything about the inverted U hypothesis of stress and sport performance and I will rock it. Anyways, that was extremely off topic, but I wanted to forewarn you because I would tell you about what I learned on the walking tour, but um, I don’t remember. Pretty much the theme of the walking tour was that the English are absolutes arses. The Irish and the Scottish both seem to dislike the English. Lucky for me, I’m not English. The walking tour ended around 2, so being in Ireland, we did as the Irish do, grabbed a pint. Then to be considered proper tourists we visited the Guinness Factory. I was really excited to see the factory and find out how this magical potion is made. Well, I was sort of disappointed to find out that surprise…they don’t take you on a tour of the factory. Instead, they set up this huge warehouse as sort of a show. You walk around on your own and discover how the product is made. It is very impersonal and not as cool as the Anheiser Busche tour…hello they have Clydesdales. But I was able to forgive the Guinness company a little when I got a free drink at the end of the “tour.” And by free I mean I paid 11 pounds to see the nonexistent factory, and by drink I mean syrupy, nasty, foul tasting, couldn’t be a worse brew drink. So if you are going to Dublin anytime soon, skip the Guinness factory and instead tour the Jamison whiskey factory. I didn’t get to do that but it couldn’t be worse than the Guinness factory. Then we went to Tesco to buy some cheap groceries for dinner (after that Guinness tour my wallet was pretty bare.) Well, we sort of overestimated our hunger and how many of us there were. There were six of us, but we probably could have fed half of Zambia. We bought three packages of pasta…nevermind that meant that each of us would eat half of a package…and two loaves of garlic bread. Needless to say, we had a good portion leftover. We tried to give the cooked pasta to the others around us, but they looked at us like were offering them something dirt or Guinness. We went to a local pub where we talked to some pretty funny Englishmen. They were all mid forties, married, and making fun of us for being American. One asked what I was studying and when I replied sport psychology he said, “how are you supposed to tell people how to do better in their sport when you don’t even know what a proper sport is?’ I didn’t have a quick comeback, so I just laughed. Har har.

My Life at Uni

So in between all the traveling I have decided to join a few groups.  The kayaking club is one of them...although I haven't gone back yet after seeing that monkfish.  I have also joined the International Student Society, so far we've gone on a pub crawl and went to a Cailidh (pronounced kailey.)  A Cailidh is basically as Scottish as you can get.  It's a party where people wear kilts and there's a band that plays traditional scottish songs.  They teach you how to dance and how to look pretty much like a fool.  I went with my American friends (Annelise, Kacey, Lauren, Emily and Cailine) and we danced the night away.  You were supposed to try to pair up with a boy but for some strange reason there were way more girls than boys. Go figure.  So needless to say my girls and I took turns being the Scottish gentleman.  I learned a couple of fun dances that I'll be sure to pull out next time I'm at the fine drinking establishments of Champaign-Urbana.  

I've also joined this club called UrbanDance, which is basically a hip-hop/break dancing club.  I joined it with my friend Cailine who was in a ballet company for majority of her life.  We always have a good time because we generally look pretty goofy doing the moves that others can easily pull off.   One guy in the club taught us how to sort of break dance.  One move called a freeze, is where you basically use your arms and head to hold the rest of your body up.  And by head I mean side of your face.  Well this seemed easy enough to me, being the amazing gymnast that I was.  So I attempt to do a freeze and basically end up sliding on my face across the floor.  Wooden floor + face = painful.  So, my break dancing career might not work out after all.  I'm still doing the hip-hop club, just sort of keeping my face off the floor.  

My classes, or so they call them, are pretty much a joke.  I have three lectures a week (which most students "can't be bothered" to go to, not me of course though mom and dad...) and each lecture meets once a week for two hours.  Then about every other week I have a seminar for each class which lasts about 50 minutes.  So basically I have a maximum of 8 hours of class a week.  I just finished one essay for a class that is worth 50% of my grade.  But don't worry, the professor gave us an outline of what our paper should be.  So that was not the most difficult either.  

One thing that was difficult however, was my practical for one of my classes.  Since all of my classes revolve around sports and exercise, they thought it would be a "fun" idea to have the entire class participate in a fitness test.  oh joy.  Now I like being active, like you know hiking, walking to McDonald's, break-dancing, ect. but I absolutely hate running.  I am a pathetic runner so thank goodness my metabolism has not slowed down quite yet.  So this fun test was called the bleep test.  Apparently it's a pretty big thing here in Scotland.  Basically there are two lines separated by about about 20 meters.  You start on one line and then you hear a beep and you have to run to the other side before you hear the other beep.  Once you've reached the other side, you wait until you hear the beep and then you get to run back to the other side. Yay! The beeps get separated by less and less time as the test goes on.  So on my way to this joyous experience I asked my friends in my class what level people typically get to.  He says usually girls get around level 7 or 8.  So my goal was 7.  So I line up, get ready to go and then I hear the beep and start to run...but I guess I had missed the directions before that beep because apparently that was just a "test beep."  The Scottish accent is still a little difficult to understand.  So I realize nobody else was running next to me so I turn around and my friend shakes his head and tells me to come back to the line.  Sweet.  The American looks like a dummy. again.  So I skip back to the line wearing my t-shirt that says "Iowa Hockey" aka "look at me I'm American!"  and stand next to my friend James again.  He tells me to go on the next beep.  So I get ready, stretch a little bit (intimidation duh) and rethink my plan.  I visualize myself completely through level 7 and think positively (sports psychology here people.)  I hear a beep, wait about a fraction of a second to make sure everybody else is running too, and then start at a nice jog pace.  I get to the other line with a second or two to spare before I hear the next beep.  This continues until the fourth beep when I turn to my friend and say "oh this isn't bad at all, we're already on level 4!" to which he responds "no, we're on level 0.4"  ummm come again?  He explains that each level has 10 sublevels, so we have yet to finish level 1.  Oh bugger. I curse under my breath and continue along as if I could do this forever.  Around level 3.8 I start to wonder if it would be really embarrassing to drop out first.  On level 4.5 I'm sweating breathing hard and in need of water.  I push myself until level 6.1 where I become the third person to drop out.  I blame it on the fact that I had just climbed up the volcano in Edinburgh.  I totally could have gone to at least level 6.3 if I had not just died hiking a volcano.  But alas, I have come to the realization that perhaps McDonald's three times a week does take its toll (But I have only had McDonald's ONE time so far. A record.)  I am seeing a pattern here that I might need to work out a tad bit more.  So as I sit down sweaty and smelly and completely red in the face, my professor wanders over to me and says, "how did you do?" to which I respond "about a as good as you would expect from your average American...poor."  He laughs and tells me at least I can laugh at myself and my nationality...that's half the battle.  He did the bleep test in the second round and got 12.7.  He is pushing 60.  I can't help but to laugh and embrace it. Thank goodness for those Donewald genes.  Well I'm off to Dublin tonight so I will make sure to try to connect with my great ancestors.  I'll probably find them in a pub, where I can find any family member of mine. 

Cheers! 

Edinburgh

So this past Wednesday and Thursday I went to Edinburgh to meet up with Kelley  and two of her friends to explore this historic and beautiful city.  So I hopped on a train around 9:30, got into Edinburgh at 10:30 and found the way to the hostel all by myself!  I was very impressed with my navigation skills. After I found Kelley at the hostel we walked about 2.5 minutes to the castle.  Yes, our hostel was pretty much right next door to it.   We got there and went on a tour so that we would have an idea of what exactly we were looking at, because honestly my history of Scotland is about as good as my Scottish accent- not very good (although my English accent is pretty spot on "pip pip cheerio!" eh eh?)  I was fascinated to learn that the castle had been built and destroyed many times.  My favorite story is that when the English were trying to capture Scotland again (after they won freedom from them) the Scottish king, Robert the Bruce, decided to destroy many castles so they would not fall into the hands of the English.  The only building Robert the Bruce said not to destroy that was part of this castle was a tiny little church.  It is 900 years old and the oldest building on sight.  It is said that he ordered it to be saved because it was built in memory of another kings mother.  I have decided that I will get married in this little church, after I meet Prince William, or Harry of course.  

After the castle we toured this underground city.  It's called Mary King's Close, which means it was a street called Mary King.  Basically a long time ago there was this a town with a few streets where the bubonic and black plague hit really bad.  Then in 1920, the city of Edinburgh decided to pretty much put a slab of concrete over most of the town and put a building right on top of it.   So today they offer tours where you can see how people used to live and what the houses were like.  They also told us a few ghosts stories and said they've had paranormal detectives down ther

e and confirmed that there is in fact paranormal activity.  Needless to say my night of sleep was not the best.

The next day we climbed up this volcano called Arthur's Seat.  It was a little steep, and by a little I mean pra

ctically vertical.  I was stopping every 3 minutes or so to snap a few pictures, but that of course h

ad absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I needed a rest or was out of breath.   About three minutes into the hike, a man passes us who is probably in his upper 60s...jogging. Well, okay he's probably really into running or something right? I mean we don't have volcan

os in the middle of Illinois. So we sort of laughed about it.  About 7 minutes later, weare half way up, and he is jogging down the volcano.  Well, what goes up must come down...and then apparently back up when he passes us a third time. needless to say I felt like a complete failure. When we got to the top, I pretty much died (from the breath taking views of course...) but the hike up was well worth it.  It was absolutely the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.  The way the volcano was, you walked to the back side of it, and there was a sort of a basin with many paths to choose to walk on.  We were initially feeling energetic so we started to climb this one path that had stones that sort of mad a foot path, and was probably the steepest path we could have chosen.  Exactly 4 minutes on this path I decide this was a horrible oversight and overestimation on my part.  We all look at each other and decide perhaps a path a little flatter would be a better choice.  (I'm not even going to pretend I wasn't embarrassed when another man, even OLDER, was about 50 paces behind us when we started on this path and within two minutes he passes us and says "Oh come girls I was expected better from you" he chuckles, I mumble some excuse about never having climbed a volcano before.)  Anyways on the flatter path we notice from a distance some old ruins, so we decide to be tourists and check it out.  It was this really old (1000 years old) church and only one wall remains of it.  It's just so cool to be able to touch something and be around something so old.  So needless to say, the volcano was my favorite part of Edinburgh.  Let's just hope my thighs and bum will return to their normal non sore state soon!

Cheers!

Kayaking, Glasgow and Edinburgh...oh my!

So I realize I have not written in a while, but would you want to be typing on your computer, indoors, in an 8 x 5 foot cell while beautiful Scotland is right outside your window?  Obvious answer: bloody "heck" no!  I am very sorry to keep you all waiting but I've got some good stuff now to entertain you.  

So I have joined kayaking club.  Yes, kayaking.  You might think to yourself "Christine, you do not go into an ocean or any other body of water that you cannot see the bottom of because you are afraid to get eaten."  While this is true, I have yet to actually kayak in anything besides the pool. Thus, I have not yet dealt with that fear.   I do imagine it will arise when say we kayak on the loch next Wednesday, but I have faith that my incredible balance and practice of gymnastics gracefulness will keep my kayak steady. (Note: first practice I tipped my kayak 6 times, and my kayak ended up with too much water in it for me to tip it back over.  My Kayak proceeded to sink to the bottom of the pool.)  But all that aside, I am very excited to say I kayaked in Scotland...if only in a pool. 

Also, I went to Glasgow this past weekend and thought it was pretty cool.  I'm not going to lie, I like Stirling better.  Stirling is a little more quaint and historical.  Glasgow is more of a business area...but it had a ton of shopping!  Being the tourists we are though, we decided the first time we were there we had to see all the sites and monuments.  We went to the National Piping Center (very cool to hear bagpipes!) and the Glasgow Cathedral and Necropolis.  The Cathedral was amazing with all the stained glass and old architecture.  Again, I was in awe of how old the Cathedral was.  The tomb of St. Mungo was constructed in 607 AD.  That still seems unreal to me.  The fact that I had walked in the same place as people did hundreds of years ago is very very cool.   But what I loved more than the Cathedral was the Glasgow Necropolis (yes another cemetery, and no I do not have a weird obsession with them.)  At home, I thought graveyards were sort of creepy and haunted, but here they are just peaceful and reiterate the idea that there such little time to leave an impact on this earth (so keep it clean and go green please).  I can't explain the feeling too well, but I do know that there is just so much to do and so little time to do it. After the cemetery, we walked (I navigated!) to the museum of modern art.  blah.  I seriously do not get modern art.  I wish I could have taken a picture of some of the exhibits, but no that would take away from the artistic beauty of it...so let me paint you a picture (haha so funny) of what one of the exhibits was.  You walked into a room with white walls and white floors.  In the room there were fluorescent  light bulbs hanging from the ceiling, in two clumps of three in sort of a shape of a tree?  In the middle of the room was a black wire cot.  That is it.  If anybody has a good idea as to what this is, please enLIGHTen me (oh I am just so clever today.) After viewing what they call "art," we went to a cute fish/seafood restaurant called the Grand Fish and Chip Co.  Right outside the door they had a sample of the fish they serve on ice on display.  Oh Dear Lord. Seeing that fish was totally not a good for my kayaking career.  One word: monkfish.  Those teeth, eyes,  and entire being is the freakiest thing and pretty much what I imagine being at the bottom of our Loch.  But the best part of this story is that I tried: Calamari (not bad...actually quite good besides the fact that it's a poor baby squid) Sweet corn and potato soup (really really good) and I had a hamburger for dinner (for those of you who don't know this, I don't eat hamburgers.  Hot dogs only thank you.)  

Tomorrow I leave for Edinburgh where I'm going to meet my friend Kelley who is studying in Spain but has a week off.  I'm really excited to see Edinburgh as I have heard great things, and I'm excited to see a little piece of home.  

So as you can see, I've been trying new things, pushing myself and really really trying to keep an open mind (Haggis is still not something I'm looking forward to trying any time soon).  But Scotland is amazing and I know this was a great choice for me.  

...now I have to get back to Glasgow and shop... CHEERS!

Dear Stirling, I love you.

Well, I didn't think it was possible to fall in love so fast, but I have.  Stirling is absolutely amazing.  The people, food (yes I do like the food), places, sights, culture, and night life are just perfect.  The only thing I have to complain about is the music (which is all american pop songs) and the weather (yet another cloudy 40 degree day in Stirling.)  But I can get around those minor setbacks when I get to do things like oh I don't know...tour a castle?  We visited the Stirling castle this week and it was beyond what I expected.  The architecture is beautiful, the green moss and stone everywhere is right from a post card.  My favorite part of the castle was this hidden garden. It had really cool looking trees and green plants growing everywhere.  I think I'm going to purchase that castle one day, no big.  You are all welcome to come.   

On the way tothe castle we passed this really cool looking graveyard (huge and old) and got a little sidetracked.  Not until we entered the graveyard did any of us realize it was Friday the 13th (cue scary music and wait for dramatic pause.)  But it was actually really peaceful and I was in awe that I could be around something so old.  Some of the tombstones were put there in the 1500s.  It made me feel pretty small (I see your eye roll those of you thinking "you can't get sma

ller") and humbled.  The best part of the cemetery was this cliff thing that you could walk up and get a great picture of Stirling.  I 

swear that view never gets old.  

After the castle, we were all very numb and decided hot chocolate was the best way to warm up (it was only 4 o'clock so we felt that alcohol was probably best avoided.)  We wandered into a cute cafe and I had the best hot chocolate I can remember, or maybe I just wanted it to be better because I'm in Scotland...there's my psychology degree paying off!  Lastly, to get to the bus stop we had to cross through a mall (tragic I know.)  Annelise and I saw a shoe store that said "buy one pair get the second for a $" well a pound but I don't have that key on my laptop. So we just had to go in and make sure they weren't lying to us.  Well, they weren't and 15 minutes later I had a cute pair of brown boots for 13 pounds  (Annelise got a pair too so we split the 26 pounds it cost for both pairs.)  I love them just like everything else in Scotland. Now I can give those Scottish and English girls a run for their money.  Seriously, they get more dressed up for class than I get dressed up to go out!  We're talking Stilettos people! Well, I better go do some reading, or maybe just go socialize...I haven't decided yet.  Until next time, Cheers!

Oh yeah...I do have to go to school...

After having 8 weeks of school off (winter break and then starting late here) I sort of got comfortable with the idea that I didn't have homework or studying to do.  Now, I'm finding that Scotland is not all fun and games (about 65% fun, 30% games) but it also requires work (about 3%, the other 2% is sleeping.)  I had my first class this morning and it was a little tough to get up for since I'm still sort of on Chicago time and since I'm your average college student who loves to sleep.  So I got up at 9, which is 3 am back home, and made some breakfast (toast...again...)  Luckily I had my class with my roommate Louise so I didn't have to leave quite so early to find my class.  Seriously the building is meant to make you feel like a foreigner.   My first class was fine, should be fairly easy with the brains I've got (or the fact that I'm taking all my classes pass fail.)  My next class is Friday, it's an introduction week so it's fairly light.  

Yesterday was probably the most fun I've had here so far.  We (Kacey, Annelise (from Ohio) and Lauren (from Wyoming)) went into Stirling to buy some things that were essiential to comfortable living here.  I finally got a cell phone!  It's a really high tech Nokia with sweet monotone rings, color background and a keypad lock.   I also bought a clothes rack for over the door, some kitchen utensils, a shirt and most importantly a pillow to replace the sheet of paper that they called a pillow.  We ate lunch at this really cute restaurant/bar in town and people watched.  Then we found a pub that we stumbled upon towards the outskirts of town.  It seemed really cute and off the beaten track.  When we came home we told some locals where we went and told them about the cute pub only to discover that the pub we went to was a old folks pub.  Ohhh so that's why we were the youngest people in there by a good 40 years...and I thought the young people just didn't drink before 5.  Clearly we have a little bit to learn.  So all and all, the adventures in Stirling were a success.  I really love it here and cannot wait to explore more.

Cheers!

I HAVE INTERNET!!  this is from yesterday but I didn't have my internet set up so yet...now that I finally do I'll keep you all informed on my adventures!! yay!

Let me preface this with saying that I was awake yesterday for 35 hours.  Absolutely no sleep.  So, if, this seems a little rough, it's because my already poor skills ae being coupled with an extreme lack of sleep.  Anyways, enough whining, I absolutely love Scotland!  It's the most beautiful place I've ever been to (in my opinion.) This is because there are no sandy beaches with shark/stingray/jellyfish/crazy fish with teeth that will attack you without warning (it does happen).  Also, there are tons of trees here, yea for being and going green!  I've seen a lot of sheep, rabbits, squirrels, swans, ducks, lots of crows and even a fox.  Jealous? I thought so.  I'm surrounded by mountains, and lots of friendly people.  My flatmates are really sweet and fun.  Three of them go to school here year round and are locals.  Emily is from England and is the most outgoing.  The other one (Louise) is from Scotland.  I haven't met Louise yet, but Kerry is also really nice and from England as well. So, we (a bunch of americans) went into the city of Stirling which is about a 5 min bus ride away, to buy an ethernet cord as well as a cell phone.  But I had no luck because everything was pretty much closed.  I did manage to buy some food though (pasta, a lot of it, bread, butter, sauces, and ham and cheese) so I'm not wasting away.  In fact, many of you may be happy to know that the first night we got here we went to and Indian restaurant and I ordered the chicken rogan josh meal.  It was pretty good actually...not quite as good as my McDonald's.  Haven't had that yet...I'm surrounded by mountains and trees and hills and green.  It's gorgeous.  My room is sort of small, but I have my own and there's even a sink in it!  There are two bathrooms, a common area, and a kitchen.  All the people (boys and girls) in my building that I've met so far are very kind and helpful. Okay well there is so much more to write about but right now I have to catch up on my sleep (we all know I sleep a ton) so until tomorrow I'll say Cheers! Which is the way they say goodbye or thanks.