ahhh 3 weekend update!

Soooo what has Rachel been up to the past 3 weeks some may be wondering… well read on I’ll try to sum it up!

LONDON (Feb 2 – 4)
Went to visit Susan and Leila (friends of Sam who visited me the past weekend) in London. They were wonderful hostesses to Gabby and I! We stayed in spare beds in their student flat in South Kensington. Their program is directly through Lawrence University so they live with other Lawrence students in a very nice flat owned by the university and their classes are based there. We got in Friday morning (note the last post, it was a very long night/morning after the Burns Supper!) and napped for a bit at the flat before hitting the city. The girls were on a trip with their program, so Gabby and I explored London – Covent Garden, Trafalgar Square, Big Ben/Parliament/Westminster, Green Park, Buckingham Palace, Picadilly Circus, etc.! We made a stop at a day-of ticket dealer place and bought tickets to see the Queen musical, We Will Rock You, that night. So then after a fun dinner in China Town we were off to enjoy the crazy musical stylings of Queen mixed with an outrageous (but hilarious) plot line… it was great fun, everyone got so into it and of course sang along during the encore performance of Bohemian Rhapsody = ) Definitely a great experience seeing it in London with all the Queen loving Brits! I loved it!

Saturday morning Gabby and I headed out for a day trip to Windsor Castle! We made a morning stop to Westminster (it was closed already when we went past on Friday, and I had never actually been inside before so had to stop back) – saw tombs of Mary Queen of Scots and many famous British authors, very exciting! Then it was off to the beautiful Windsor Castle, which was indescribably beautiful and stunning in its grandeur. We even think we spotted Prince William and Harry playing golf on the private course behind the castle ; ) On the train back to London we enjoyed the company of the many reveling English rugby fans who were celebrating their triumph over Scotland which had just taken place – their heroic Johnny Wilkinson had returned from injury and ended England’s losing streak, imagine large groups of drunken burly men singing “swing low sweet chariot” (no idea why this choice of song, think one of my friends explained it was the rugby cup’s theme song or something?) but it was quite a hilarious train ride to say the least…

That night we went out to dinner with Susan and Leila and then they took us out to a club in Picadilly Circus. It was quite a hectic night, and made me realize how much I love the smaller and friendlier feel of Edinburgh. London is fun, but a little too large for me! Susan and Leila also explained to us on Sunday how much anti-American sentiment they have to put up with… so strange to hear considering it’s never been an issue for us in Scotland! I really felt relieved by my Edinburgh decision after. Sunday was pretty laid back then. The girls had class (at an art museum, that is pretty sweet I must admit) so Gabby and I wandered around Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park for the afternoon, returning to the flat for quick dinner with the girls before heading off to Heathrow for our return to Edinburgh. Fun weekend, but was happy to return to the ‘Burgh!

(Feb 9-11)
Weekend hanging out with Edinburgh, pretty low key – but highlight being a visit from my friend Mackenzie. She’s currently studying in Paris, but is a friend from Northwestern, in my sorority, and is also going to be my room mate next year! She and her very nice friend Jess stayed on my floor for the weekend (brought me crepes and nutella from france yummm) and we had fun goin to the pubs and out on the town. It was fun seeing a friend from school, I feel like I haven’t seen anyone from Northwestern in so long! (Besides of course my friends who have also been in Edinburgh) It made me realize that even though I will be extremely sad to leave Edinburgh, I have many friends back at Northwestern who I am anxious to see again and catch up with. Will definitely be able to handle it for one more year at least! (My friends here have been pressuring me to transfer, haha, don’t know what I’d do if it was remotely possible – but alas I believe if I have any hope of graduating on time I have to go back to NU)

Glen Dessary (Feb16-18)
So now we’re caught up, this last weekend I went away with EUMC friends (not an official meet, just a small group of us who wanted to get away for the weekend) to the Highlands. We went to an area just north of Fort William, Glen Dessary, near Loch Archaig. It was a fun change since we didn’t camp – instead we went to a bothy (which is like a small hut, really just a room or 2 usually with a fireplace, built for occasions where people don’t want to carry a tent or the weather is too bad to camp). Scotland really does have a great outdoor system, it’s legal wild camp anywhere that’s not someone’s garden (backyard) or farmland! And there’s a bothy association who runs the establishment and upkeep of bothies all over Scotland.

Well, needless to say I headed out for the weekend with an intent to have an escape from Edinburgh (even smaller cities are hectic, and sometimes you just need to get away) so I was determined to have a good time no matter what… however, fate tried its hardest to beat my enthusiasm down… in retrospect it was still an amazing weekend and I did get my mini-escape, but there were a quite few mishaps, one involving me wandering around the highlands at 4am in the rain... I would type it all out, but its an extremely long story – let’s save it for a fun anecdote to tell when I see you all in person next ; ) leave some anticipation, mystery, all that good stuff! It was a fun weekend though, beautiful weather and the area was amazing! See pics on webshots soon!

Now it is already 2nd semester essay time! I can’t believe how fast this semester is going, it’s crazy!!! Wish me luck actually buckling down and getting some work done… I have more friends visiting next week… oh dear!

~R

(ok blogger changed to beta or something and now i cant figure out how to add pics... any other bloggers know? sorry, for now just look at webshots for london and i'll get on uploading the bothy trip pics)

More than just a climbing club...

The last 2 weeks have some fun highlights to share with you all... as i described in my last blog there was the semester's EUMC theme party... GBH as i explained... and let me tell you it was quite an entertaining evening! My Great Britain-happy costume was a hit (tho i had to explain the whole concept of -happy, example trigger-happy, to a few - and my German friend Anna just didnt get it hahah. There were some very creative costumes... and some which were just downright wrong (note the pictures of my friend Duncan who dressed as Borat... or for those of you with weak stomachs you might want to avoid those in general!) But overall there was an abundance of male hookers, and my favorite had to be my friend andrew who painted himself entirely blue, gelled his hair, and was a "giant blue hedgehog" hahah or anna who was a banana tee hee. Do look at the pictures, you're in for some good laughs.

Must note in between that that weekend i had some visitors from London. Some friends of Sammy's (my best friend from home) from Lawrence visited from London where they are studying for the next couple months. They had 6 girls with them, so stayed in a hostel, but we managed to meet up for meals and i tried to point them in the right direction for touristy deals. Gabby and I joined them Saturday night for the "City of the Dead" ghost tour. I hadn't been on any of the infamous ghost tours yet (Edinburgh is famous for the amount of ghastly murders and countless plague victims that have made their graves throughout the city) and had heard this was the best/most scary. Unfortunately, tho the stories and history told on the tour were very intriguing, it was far from terrifying. We did get to go into Greyfriar's Kirkyard, where some insanely large number of bodies are said to be buried, underneath and around those that actually have gravestones, and was also the sight of a concentration camp of scottish rebels... this was/is the haunting ground of the famous Mackenzie Polterguist - google it if you want to find out about all the supposed attacks and failed exercisms that have taken place on his account! We also were told all about the Kirkyard's status as legendary inspiration, apparently having inspired Braham Stoker's Dracula, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr Jekell and Mr Hyde (based on the real life character Deacon Brodie, doctor by day, theif and murderer by night), and of course J.K. Rowling, whos portrayal of Hogwarts is based on the primary school Harriet's which can be seen jsut beyond the graveyard from the window of Elephant House Coffee shop (one of my fav coffee shops of course! birthplace of harry potter is their claim). All of the authors lived in Edinburgh at some point in their lives, and it really isn't hard to see how the gothic and sometimes gloomy feel of Edinburgh could promote such grisly yet imaginative tales! Moral of the story though: cool tour, but (alas) i emerged in the end alive, unattacked, and (pretty much) unafraid. It was a fun night though, and i'm glad i was able to check off another edinburgh attraction from my list of touristy must-dos.

On to the next EUMC highlight - BURNS SUPPER!!! Honestly one of the things i am most excited to have been in Scotland for! For those of you unfamiliar, Burns Night is the time when the Scottish celebrate the genius of their most famous poet, Robert Burns - who wrote, among many other things, the famous New Year's toast "Auld Langes Syne". The celebration consists of a traditional recitation of the poem "Ode to a Haggis," a meal of haggis (i don't care to describe what haggis actually is...) neeps'n' tatties (mashed turnips and potatoes), a toast to the lassies, and then a ceilidh (scottish dancing). Burns Night actually takes place on Thursday the 25th, but as most things are booked and more expensive for the actual night, we had our EUMC supper the following Thursday, the 1st of Feb. It was at a hotel banquet room, I got all dressed up with my girlfriends and then we went, had the traditional ode to a haggis, wonderful 3 course dinner - my veggie haggis, neeps'n' tatties were delicious - followed by a toast exchange (traditional toast to the lassies, EUMC version turns out to be quite slanderous - all in good jest - but then the girls get to have their return bashing, quite hilarious!!) and then topped it all off with a romping good ceilidh! I danced the night away (much to the sorrow of my feet the next day!) and then proceeded to get 2 hours of sleep before embarking on a fun-filled trip to London... shall continue those stories in the next post!

for fun videos from burns supper click the following:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4R1DCsSf_74
(mike playin the pipes during the haggis procession)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_a2KS1gPHY
(malcolm reciting the ode to a haggis!)

~R