Scotland and Ireland

This past week I was fortunate enough to spend traveling around to Scotland and Ireland. First I took a bus to Edinburgh to see Liz, Noah, Ariel, and Katie from Shepard, which was a lot of fun. Ariel was hosting a Hannukuh party so I got to meet a bunch of Edinburgh students. Also, I played my first ever game of dreidel, which I almost won!

The next day I met up with my two Oxford friends Kaitlin and Max, and we went on a day trip to the Highlands. We went by bus across the country into Scotland's snow-capped mountains. We were lucky to go on a really clear day, so you could see for miles. Our tour guide did a great job telling us the stories of the Scots and all their violence. However, the best part was taking a boat across Loch Ness. It was one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. On the boat, they showed us the sonar machine that detects the massive creatures swimming around underneath us. They showed us a picture of the sonar of the largest creature they have detected - it is 38 feet long and swims at 40km/hr. You might think that it was just a glitch in the machine, but he has detected the same creature 19 times in the past year alone. I will leave it to you to decide whether the Loch Ness monster is real!

The next day we went into Edinbugh to see the city. We saw the cathedral, statues of David Hume and Adam Smith, and the Edinburgh Castle (though the inside of the castle was closed due to the snow). The city was especially cool at night time, because they have a German-style Christmas market and tons of Christmas decorations. The only bad part about Edinburgh was the inordinate amount of snow there - the worst snow in 47 years according to the newspaper. They had gotten about a foot of snow the week before we arrived, and they got a few more inches after we got there. Our hostel was outside of the city, so it was a nightmare trying to get into town - none of the city buses were running and the taxis were in really high demand. Also, our bus to Glasgow was cancelled due to the snow, so when we finally left Edinburgh we had to catch a train.

We were only in Glasgow for a little over a day, but it was still really nice. There was a fresh layer of snow on the ground, and it made the city look pretty. We saw the University of Glasgow and Kelvingrove Park the first day. The next day we took a tour bus around the city because it was so cold (around 20 degrees) that walking everywhere was almost unbearable. The architecture in Glasgow was really interesting - very modern. My favourite part was the Winter Garden, which was a huge tropical garden inside a glass room. Overall, it was a cool city, even if we were only there for a short time.

The worst experience we had on the trip was getting to the airport in Glasgow. We asked someone in the train station which bus to take, and he actually directed us to the wrong airport. Once we got there, we couldn't find our airline, and when asking someone at British Airlines where we could find RyanAir she said, "You're in the wrong airport. The one you need to go to is over an hour and a half away!" I stared blankly at her for a couple seconds with my mouth wide open and then I started to walk away and she yelled after me "You're welcome!!" while laughing. It was horrible. As it turned out, the airport was closer than she said and our flight was delayed 20 minutes, so we got to the airport in just enough time to make the flight. It was awesome.

The last leg of our trip was Dublin, Ireland. We went on a free tour which was given by a native Dubliner who is studying history at University, and it was incredible! It lasted three hours but he kept our attention so well the entire time. It climaxed in his speech about the fight for Irish independence which was really passionate. He also explained to us that Dublin is the pub capital of the world, and that the Temple Bar district is the pub capital of Dublin. That night, we went to the Temple Bar to experience the culture, and the live music was great, even though there was no traditional Irish music. Instead, they were playing CCR and  Lynyrd Skynyrd covers, which made me a little homesick and excited to go home this week. Here are some pictures from the trip.

Loch Ness

 The Highlands

Edinburgh

Trying to find a bus into Edinburgh

Glasgow University

Live music in Dublin

Now I am back in Oxford for a couple days before I go to Baltimore for Christmas. Can't wait to see everyone!

Thanksgiving and Christmas

Not to sound critical, but the British really don't understand Thanksgiving. It's kind of funny. Some people think that we are celebrating our triumph over the Native Americans, and others think that we are celebrating our high obesity rate. I think that if they had a chance to come to Thanksgiving with my family they would understand. 

I went to a Thanksgiving dinner at one of the halls at Oxford, and it just wasn't the same. The evening started out with champagne and servers walking around the room offering hors d'oeuvres, which was funny enough. Before we went through the buffet, we were warned that "it's not like an American buffet where you just get to eat everything - make sure to only take the vegetarian entree if you signed up for it!" I think they were afraid we would eat too much. Fortunately, we got a good amount of food. We had turkey, ham, gravy, fried potatoes, brussel sprouts, cranberry sauce, dinner rolls, and pecan pie for dessert. I know that doesn't sound like very much by American Thanksgiving standards, but compared to my other meals here, I was grateful for the variety. It didn't feel very much like Thanksgiving without the family, but it was still nice. The best part of the evening was when two British guys thanked the Americans for allowing them to celebrate Thanksgiving with us by singing John Denver's "Country Roads." It was great.

Since Oxford term ends December 3rd, they start celebrating Christmas in Oxford the last week of November. The official beginning of the Christmas season was on Friday November 27 with the Oxford Christmas lighting. It reminded me a lot of Who-ville because there was a parade of thousands of kids with lanterns and some of the kids were playing in a marching band. The whole city was packed with people. There were food stands everywhere selling sausages and mince pies and other stuff, and there were also some carnival rides. Eventually, they counted down and lit up all the street decorations and the Oxford Christmas tree.

This week I finished my last essay of term which was a GREAT feeling. The rest of this week I will be playing in Christmas concerts and doing other festive stuff (as well as trying to find a summer internship...). On Friday, I am heading up to Scotland to visit some friends, which should be a lot of fun - I'm especially looking forward to my first ever Hannukuh party! I will be going with two of my friends from Oxford, and in the 10 days before I leave for Baltimore, we will be seeing Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Dublin!

 Here is the Christmas parade with the band and the lanterns in the background.

Here is the St. Anne's Christmas tree in our quad.

Here is a picture of Oxford I took this week from the top of the University Church of St. Mary

Can't wait to see everyone - I will be back in Baltimore December 14!