Discovering His World

This weekend (February 24-26) was filled with new cities and new experiences. Lots of traveling and lots of sports. Friday was a mandatory house trip to Glasgow, another city in Scotland, for our Scotland: Society and Globalization class. We left on a coach bus at 7:30am and met our professor in Glasgow at about 8:30am. As we drove through the city, our professor pointed out buildings and gave us some history and information about this very different part of Scotland. Where Edinburgh is very 'old' with the castle and other historic buildings and monuments, Glasgow is very industrious and modern. Glasgow has a population of 700,000 and is the biggest retail center in the UK besides London. While it used to be very industrial (and parts still are) many parts of the city are run down now and many people have moved away. Our first stop was the Celtic (pronounced like Boston Celtics without the 's') Football (what Americans call soccer) Stadium. The Celtic Football Club ...

This past weekend was extra long and we took a house trip to London. Get comfy because we did a lot! Friday morning, a coach bus was at Dalkeith House to bring us to Waverly Station in Edinburgh and we pulled out a little before 6:30am. We took a 4.5 hour train ride to London and arrived at our hostel, The Generator, at 12:30pm. After dropping off our luggage, Gabby, Courtney, Kathy, and I (roommates for the weekend) set off for Leicester Square in hopes to buy discount theatre tickets. We got tickets to that night's Legally Blonde: The Musical. We then headed over to Trafalgar Square and viewed artwork from some of the the greats (Van Gogh, Monet, etc) at the National Gallery. That night we got dressed up and headed to the Savoy Theatre for Legally Blonde. It was a fun show with catchy songs that kept us laughing. Saturday was one of those days where nearly everything went wrong. We got up early to go shopping in Covent Garden, only to find out - after we had arrived - that ...

This past weekend was our first weekend in Scotland where we weren't busy all day every day with orientation. Friday through Sunday (that's right, I don't have class on Fridays!) was all ours. Friday started with a hike up Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh. Arthur's Seat is a crag formed out of volcanic rock and this very large hill can be seen from virtually everywhere in Edinburgh. The weather was great for climbing; it was overcast with a slight chill in the air, and no rain! The hike up was muddy in places (it had rained the night before), rocky in others, and overall exhausting. The payoff, however, was well worth the trek! Gabby, Kathy, and I at the peak with Edinburgh below us. After we tackled Arthur's Seat, Gabby and I stayed in Edinburgh to do some shopping. We stopped in one of the Ness stores (really, the store name is my last name!) where every item is named. After searching the entire store, I found a purse called Hannah! Saturday was the H...

A Ceilidh (pronounced "Kay Lee") is a Scottish word that translates to mean "party" or "gathering" and a Ceilidh Dance is the traditional dance(s) of Scotland. Sunday evening, to conclude our orientation, the dining hall was cleared and we were taught five Ceilidhs. To give you a taste of these fun, energetic dances, I recorded three of them. The first is called Canadian Barn Dance. Sorry, I don't remember the names of the others.

I have arrived in Dalkeith! I actually arrived 5 days ago, but have been kept busy with orientation, not to mention poor internet connectivity. I will fill you in on my first days in my new host country. Our flights went good: no delays. Our London airport experience was one I do not wish to relive, however. We arrived on time and in the same terminal as our departing flight. However, this terminal is the biggest one in the airport. We went down and up escalators, took a tram to another part of the terminal, made it through customs without a hitch, went up more escalators, made it through security, down more escalators, and made it to our gate. No sooner did we sit down to wait, and they called for boarding. The rest of our travel to Dalkeith was relatively uneventful. Once we arrived at Dalkeith House (which will be our home for the next several months) we had time to unpack and settle in. Then the orientation began. The next three days were filled with sessions on th...