Does anyone even still read this anymore? OK I haven't updated in a year and a half. But I think I'm gonna update again anyways, just because I need to, for me. Been thinking about revamping the blog lately anyways.
Too many thoughts going through my head. Too many things I want to do, but we can't even afford a place to live right now. Tried a job that completely failed, aside from training there really wasn't much company support. So you had to have money to earn money. So I haven't worked in six weeks, and only just paid off the last credit card payment from the seminars I hosted. I really did try with that job. It just wasn't possible.
So now it's back to bills. We're keeping afloat, but it's tight. Been living with whoever will let us stay for a time. Gah I need a job. Wish immigration wasn't being such a pain about Col's stuff, so sick of fighting governmental bureaucracies.
Thoughts flying around, things I wouldn't have otherwise thought to think about except for another blog I recently found... and realising some of the damage incurred from my brief flirtation in my early teens with certain aspects of fundamental/evangelical Christianity that I never would have otherwise figured out or been able to explain. Thank God for good pastors and mentors throughout jr high and high school who kept me thinking critically, kept me grounded, kept me questioning.
I've definitely been struggling lately. Looking back, I believe I suffered from some degree of depression as a teen, and some situationally since then, but hadn't in years. But now, I'm just trying not to fall back into it. Because I fall back, I stop trying. And I can't stop trying. I have to keep going, there's no other choice.
I don't know what made me start writing here again. I think I just needed a safe place, away from the publicness of most websites. Somewhere small and personal. Where I'm not scared of being judged for some of these things. I need somewhere I can be fragile.
I just feel so lost. Like I don't have long-term plans anymore, only short term. Get a job that will support us both. And if I'm lucky, turn it into a career or a calling. A few weeks ago I was in a mood just as broody but a lil less fragile than tonight's mood. So I sat and tried to make a list of long term goals and how to achieve them, for both C. and I. I couldn't think of any for me. For C, we have long and short term. Short? Get his immigration papers through and get his work permit. Long? He loses lots of weight and becomes a cop, with the Highway Patrol. Me? Get a job. Any job that's possible and pays enough to live off of (I just had to turn down a job not even a week ago cause we couldn't make even a basic preliminary budget work. And that was with the lowest possible room rental we could find online and without taking utilities into account. Talk about discouraging). Long term? I don't know. Before, I had it mapped out. Get a job for a few years, go back for my Masters in Social Work, use that time to figure out what branch of social work to do. Now? I can't even picture a future where that will be doable. Not to mention my last semester made me doubt that as a career path.
How do you stay faithful when it seems things just aren't going to go right? I know God will provide... but lately, I've been feeling that's more head-knowledge than heart-knowledge. How do you keep the hope when it's nothing but job hunting, rejection notices, bouncing from friend to family member just for a roof? And to top it off my costochondritis is acting up, right now to the point the pain is radiating into my shoulder and down my arm. I need to get back to pain doc, but I just got a bill from the retinal specialist that I thought was covered by MediCal. So much for that, it's just another freaking bill to pay. Every time we think we're getting a handle on them, another one comes and screws it all up again. I just can't take it anymore. So tired of this life. So tired of having to live off the mercy of others. But one thing we've definitely decided from all of this: Whenever we buy a house, or can afford to rent an apartment and not live hand to mouth, we are keeping a spare guest room. For guests, and for people in this type of situation.
We've got to move again in another two weeks, and we don't know where we're going again. Would be so easy to just live in denial... but we can't. I don't know what to do anymore but keep searching. Don't know if a job will fix everything... but it will at least take care of a good number of worries, and then I can work on long-term plans and my own personal fragilities. And have a sense of purpose maybe. I just can't keep doing this much longer.
Monday, April 15, 2013
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Motivationless.
I've actually started one or two blogs since my last update, but have lacked the motivation to finish them. I don't really know why, but that's how it is.
To sum up: C's and my trip to Barcelona was great, we got to do pretty much all the typical touristy-type stuff while still getting to spend time just relaxing. Two weeks later, towards the beginning of April, I was off to Munich to meet a friend from a small just-for-friends forum made by a gal we both know from Pennsylvania. Ironically, she's also from California, her husband just happened to have a business trip, so I went and met them there. We had a blast, saw most of the city including two palaces and a tour of the Dachau concentration camp. It was a blast, and the best part was, we clicked in real life as well as online :). Of course, being so close to the Alps, the weather was fine, as long as the wind wasn't blowing. When it was blowing, it was absolutely freezing. Apparently when her husband was at work, he was 14 floors up, and said that one morning it was actually snowing up there. But it wasn't so much on the ground where we were.
There has also been lots of business with finishing up the term. I am actually writing this about an hour and a half before I have to go catch the bus to take my last exam. That's a group project (with all it's group-associated frustrations), an individual essay, and one exam that have already been done. I'm definitely looking forward to not having anything to do after this!
I'll also be moving out of halls tomorrow, and staying in MK for a month with C and his family before finally flying home. It seems so weird to be this close to the end, and yet at the same time, I'm ready to go home. I miss my family, my friends, and my church. Obviously going to miss C like crazy, but it won't be that long until we're back together again. If all goes according to current plan, between now and Christmas will be the last long-term separation we have. Maybe another few-week separation or two, but that last six months will be it. And after having done four years, mostly long distance? We'll be fine. Won't be easy, but we've done it before, we can do it again.
In the meantime, I should go do a bit of studying and get ready to go take this last exam. Cheers all.
To sum up: C's and my trip to Barcelona was great, we got to do pretty much all the typical touristy-type stuff while still getting to spend time just relaxing. Two weeks later, towards the beginning of April, I was off to Munich to meet a friend from a small just-for-friends forum made by a gal we both know from Pennsylvania. Ironically, she's also from California, her husband just happened to have a business trip, so I went and met them there. We had a blast, saw most of the city including two palaces and a tour of the Dachau concentration camp. It was a blast, and the best part was, we clicked in real life as well as online :). Of course, being so close to the Alps, the weather was fine, as long as the wind wasn't blowing. When it was blowing, it was absolutely freezing. Apparently when her husband was at work, he was 14 floors up, and said that one morning it was actually snowing up there. But it wasn't so much on the ground where we were.
There has also been lots of business with finishing up the term. I am actually writing this about an hour and a half before I have to go catch the bus to take my last exam. That's a group project (with all it's group-associated frustrations), an individual essay, and one exam that have already been done. I'm definitely looking forward to not having anything to do after this!
I'll also be moving out of halls tomorrow, and staying in MK for a month with C and his family before finally flying home. It seems so weird to be this close to the end, and yet at the same time, I'm ready to go home. I miss my family, my friends, and my church. Obviously going to miss C like crazy, but it won't be that long until we're back together again. If all goes according to current plan, between now and Christmas will be the last long-term separation we have. Maybe another few-week separation or two, but that last six months will be it. And after having done four years, mostly long distance? We'll be fine. Won't be easy, but we've done it before, we can do it again.
In the meantime, I should go do a bit of studying and get ready to go take this last exam. Cheers all.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Home and Travel
I seem to be making a habit of not updating for a month at a time. Yet every new post, I start with how I do this and need to post more often, and then don't. Maybe I just need to make a schedule or something.
As I mentioned, C. and I went back to California for a week. The main purpose was wedding venue hunting, and we did find our places! We also just booked them last week (!). Just a point of reference for anyone, anywhere who will ever plan on getting married: give yourself more than a week to find a venue. We just about ran ourselves ragged. But it was incredibly good to be home, even if only for a short and busy while.
And of course, being home has resulted in a low-grade homesickness pretty much since being back. Took me a couple weeks to really notice it, but then it hit hard for a couple weeks. It's still there, but a bit more low-grade than it was thankfully. I still miss home, but am able to relax and still enjoy life here.
I think what's also helped the homesickness is, planning more travel! C. and I are off to Barcelona this weekend, my first trip to continental Europe! Which is a bit sad seeing as I've been here since September. But oh well, it is now time to start fixing this situation :P. Bestie K. is also trying to come out in June, hoping she can, so we can do some Europe touring together. I'm also looking for a travel buddy for the three weeks that we have of in April, as C. can't really take that much time off work, so if anyone (in the UK) is reading this and interested, please let me know! Doesn't have to be the whole three weeks, even just a few days is fine.
All in all, the last month and a half or so hasn't been terribly exciting, nothing really out of the ordinary. It's been just like any other school semester, that just happens to be located in England. Here's hoping travel will mix it up a little! Sorry for the rather dull post, it's been a dullish couple of weeks.
As I mentioned, C. and I went back to California for a week. The main purpose was wedding venue hunting, and we did find our places! We also just booked them last week (!). Just a point of reference for anyone, anywhere who will ever plan on getting married: give yourself more than a week to find a venue. We just about ran ourselves ragged. But it was incredibly good to be home, even if only for a short and busy while.
And of course, being home has resulted in a low-grade homesickness pretty much since being back. Took me a couple weeks to really notice it, but then it hit hard for a couple weeks. It's still there, but a bit more low-grade than it was thankfully. I still miss home, but am able to relax and still enjoy life here.
I think what's also helped the homesickness is, planning more travel! C. and I are off to Barcelona this weekend, my first trip to continental Europe! Which is a bit sad seeing as I've been here since September. But oh well, it is now time to start fixing this situation :P. Bestie K. is also trying to come out in June, hoping she can, so we can do some Europe touring together. I'm also looking for a travel buddy for the three weeks that we have of in April, as C. can't really take that much time off work, so if anyone (in the UK) is reading this and interested, please let me know! Doesn't have to be the whole three weeks, even just a few days is fine.
All in all, the last month and a half or so hasn't been terribly exciting, nothing really out of the ordinary. It's been just like any other school semester, that just happens to be located in England. Here's hoping travel will mix it up a little! Sorry for the rather dull post, it's been a dullish couple of weeks.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Politics in the USA: What I Don't Miss
I've been mulling over some of this for a while, so I decided to write some of it out. Partly to help me figure out my thoughts, partly because... well, I feel like I need to say it. This is the post that it has taken me the longest to write, by far. I hope it makes sense, and means what I mean to say.
The news about the shooting in Arizona made headlines over here too. A lot of discussion and analysis about why it happened also began appearing here. A lot of people were blaming the angry rhetoric of people such as Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin for causing him to go off the edge. Now, I understand that the shooter was not a tea-party-er, but it got me thinking. The one thing that I have not missed, and actually been grateful to get away from, has been American politics. Not necessarily the political structure, but the way political event, commentary, ads, etc are in the media.
Out here, I have yet to see one attack ad. Okay, I'll admit, I'm not here during an election, so there's far less likelihood of them being shown at all. But even opposite sides of the government are expected to show at least a certain degree of solidarity. They may rip each other to shreds during the weekly PMQs (Prime Minister's Questions, for those of you unfamiliar with it), but they still walk out together, meet outside of Parliament, and demonstrate a common... bond, goal, I'm not quite sure what to call it. A united front, maybe. Not quite like in the States, where one person runs an ad saying "look who's paying for his ad and where that means his loyalties really lie! look at (insert flaw here) that we found in his voting record/personal life/whatever! He's trying to lie to you for votes!" with response ads of "He just ran a baseless attack ad on me! Well let me tell you about him!" and everything gets polarized and nothing resolved. I really, truly, do not and don't think I ever will miss that type of mudslinging.
And the commentary. Oh my goodness, there is so much to be said for being away from that. But this leads to the part where I have to be perfectly blunt, even though I know of a few people who read this who will strongly disagree: the Tea Party scares me. As in, scares the s^&# out of me. Now, I'm sure there are plenty of sane, rational, smart people among those who claim to belong to the Tea Party movement. These are not the people who scare me. What scares me are the frontrunners and spokespeople for the Tea Party. Sarah Palin, for a start. She is the first thing that finalised my decision to vote Obama two years ago. Partly because she represented McCain going from maverick to pandering to the Republican party for votes, but also because she, herself scares me. Now, she's a great motivational speaker, I'll give her that; but she has neither the experience nor, in my opinion, knowledge required to lead America into anything.
As for spokespeople who are not leaders; I have to say, the idea that people picked Glenn Beck as a leader of anything is simply unbelievable to me. I mean, this is a man who regularly spouts of comparing "progressives" to Communists, Socialists, Fascists and Nazis, often in the same sentence. He's the spokesperson and a driving force behind much of the Tea Party, yet he doesn't even seem to realise that those four things are not only not the same thing, they are all on different ends of the political spectrum. Not to mention, he even equated Social Justice with communism and nazism on his show. Because freeing slaves and helping the downtrodden is oh-so-Nazi-esque. My original intent for this post was to mull over the claims that it was angry rhetoric that caused the shooter in Arizona to go off the deep end. Now I don't know about that man; but if it wasn't then, it's only a matter of time until the violent rhetoric often used by people like Beck will cause someone to go off the deep end. Now I'm not saying that there's no bias elsewhere in other shows like his; but the only response I can have to that is to tell you to go watch Jon Stewart's "Lupus of News" clip. Even as a person with lupus, it was hilarious and completely accurate.
I thought before that those two were my main problems. But then C. and I were back in California for a week at the end of January, and our friend T. showed us a couple of videos of another Tea Party frontrunner (whose name I am currently blanking on, so if someone reading this knows, please comment) in which she said that our Founding Fathers "fought tirelessly to end slavery" until the practice was ended. Um, nice rewriting of history. Fact is, the Founding Fathers were so divided over the issue that in order to get the Constitution ratified, they had to write in that Congress would not address the issue for the next twenty years. Not to mention, every last one of them died before slavery was abolished, so unless they were zombies or ghosts, they couldn't have kept fighting until its end. Basic history, people. Let's make sure our politicians remember it.
I guess I'm just getting frustrated that people who are trying to lead can't get some very basic facts straight. If someone can't even get straight basic historical facts about the founding of America, or understand the differences between Nazism, Communism, Fascism, and Socialism, how can we expect them to really understand the basic facts about what is happening in the world today? I honestly don't think we can. And so I cannot bring myself to trust them, and the fact that people can trust them, believe in them, and just plain believe them, scares me. There's just no other way to say it. They scare me.
Now I'm remembering a story I saw recently on notalwaysright.com, in which a cashier relates the story of one customer seeing something on a news station playing in the store and goes on a rant about Obama's healthcare bill, how it's unconstitutional, Americans aren't socialist, we don't need any socialist programs... and then goes to pay for their purchase with a food stamps debit card. Don't need any socialist programs, really?
In many ways, I'm beginning to think that Jon Stewart's Rally to Restore Sanity was right on the money. It's time for the sane, smart people to be heard. In the writing of this post, I have watched the clip of his imitation of Glenn Beck and his gospel choir address to Bernie Goldberg of Fox News more times than I can count, just to remind myself that sanity is out there. They may not be the loudest ones, but they are there.
In the meantime, the only thing that comes to mind is a phrase my pastor used to use a lot: "It hurts me right in the IQ!"
The news about the shooting in Arizona made headlines over here too. A lot of discussion and analysis about why it happened also began appearing here. A lot of people were blaming the angry rhetoric of people such as Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin for causing him to go off the edge. Now, I understand that the shooter was not a tea-party-er, but it got me thinking. The one thing that I have not missed, and actually been grateful to get away from, has been American politics. Not necessarily the political structure, but the way political event, commentary, ads, etc are in the media.
Out here, I have yet to see one attack ad. Okay, I'll admit, I'm not here during an election, so there's far less likelihood of them being shown at all. But even opposite sides of the government are expected to show at least a certain degree of solidarity. They may rip each other to shreds during the weekly PMQs (Prime Minister's Questions, for those of you unfamiliar with it), but they still walk out together, meet outside of Parliament, and demonstrate a common... bond, goal, I'm not quite sure what to call it. A united front, maybe. Not quite like in the States, where one person runs an ad saying "look who's paying for his ad and where that means his loyalties really lie! look at (insert flaw here) that we found in his voting record/personal life/whatever! He's trying to lie to you for votes!" with response ads of "He just ran a baseless attack ad on me! Well let me tell you about him!" and everything gets polarized and nothing resolved. I really, truly, do not and don't think I ever will miss that type of mudslinging.
And the commentary. Oh my goodness, there is so much to be said for being away from that. But this leads to the part where I have to be perfectly blunt, even though I know of a few people who read this who will strongly disagree: the Tea Party scares me. As in, scares the s^&# out of me. Now, I'm sure there are plenty of sane, rational, smart people among those who claim to belong to the Tea Party movement. These are not the people who scare me. What scares me are the frontrunners and spokespeople for the Tea Party. Sarah Palin, for a start. She is the first thing that finalised my decision to vote Obama two years ago. Partly because she represented McCain going from maverick to pandering to the Republican party for votes, but also because she, herself scares me. Now, she's a great motivational speaker, I'll give her that; but she has neither the experience nor, in my opinion, knowledge required to lead America into anything.
As for spokespeople who are not leaders; I have to say, the idea that people picked Glenn Beck as a leader of anything is simply unbelievable to me. I mean, this is a man who regularly spouts of comparing "progressives" to Communists, Socialists, Fascists and Nazis, often in the same sentence. He's the spokesperson and a driving force behind much of the Tea Party, yet he doesn't even seem to realise that those four things are not only not the same thing, they are all on different ends of the political spectrum. Not to mention, he even equated Social Justice with communism and nazism on his show. Because freeing slaves and helping the downtrodden is oh-so-Nazi-esque. My original intent for this post was to mull over the claims that it was angry rhetoric that caused the shooter in Arizona to go off the deep end. Now I don't know about that man; but if it wasn't then, it's only a matter of time until the violent rhetoric often used by people like Beck will cause someone to go off the deep end. Now I'm not saying that there's no bias elsewhere in other shows like his; but the only response I can have to that is to tell you to go watch Jon Stewart's "Lupus of News" clip. Even as a person with lupus, it was hilarious and completely accurate.
I thought before that those two were my main problems. But then C. and I were back in California for a week at the end of January, and our friend T. showed us a couple of videos of another Tea Party frontrunner (whose name I am currently blanking on, so if someone reading this knows, please comment) in which she said that our Founding Fathers "fought tirelessly to end slavery" until the practice was ended. Um, nice rewriting of history. Fact is, the Founding Fathers were so divided over the issue that in order to get the Constitution ratified, they had to write in that Congress would not address the issue for the next twenty years. Not to mention, every last one of them died before slavery was abolished, so unless they were zombies or ghosts, they couldn't have kept fighting until its end. Basic history, people. Let's make sure our politicians remember it.
I guess I'm just getting frustrated that people who are trying to lead can't get some very basic facts straight. If someone can't even get straight basic historical facts about the founding of America, or understand the differences between Nazism, Communism, Fascism, and Socialism, how can we expect them to really understand the basic facts about what is happening in the world today? I honestly don't think we can. And so I cannot bring myself to trust them, and the fact that people can trust them, believe in them, and just plain believe them, scares me. There's just no other way to say it. They scare me.
Now I'm remembering a story I saw recently on notalwaysright.com, in which a cashier relates the story of one customer seeing something on a news station playing in the store and goes on a rant about Obama's healthcare bill, how it's unconstitutional, Americans aren't socialist, we don't need any socialist programs... and then goes to pay for their purchase with a food stamps debit card. Don't need any socialist programs, really?
In many ways, I'm beginning to think that Jon Stewart's Rally to Restore Sanity was right on the money. It's time for the sane, smart people to be heard. In the writing of this post, I have watched the clip of his imitation of Glenn Beck and his gospel choir address to Bernie Goldberg of Fox News more times than I can count, just to remind myself that sanity is out there. They may not be the loudest ones, but they are there.
In the meantime, the only thing that comes to mind is a phrase my pastor used to use a lot: "It hurts me right in the IQ!"
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Holidays, Homework, and Going Home
It has, once again, been far too long since my last update.
The holidays were fantastic. Each weekend that C was down, we spent the Saturday in London doing various touristy/holiday type things. The day we went to Trafalgar Square, there was a giant mass of people all dressed as Santa; when we asked one what was going on, he said it was just a random thing of people dressing as Santa and getting drunk. Interesting idea for an event, it was quite random.
The last Saturday before Christmas, we went to the Christmas market on the South Bank. Of course, by the time we got on the train and got there, it was snowing pretty heavily. It hadn't been in the morning; we had gone to meet a friend of mine for breakfast who was on a semester program about to go home. On our way to a pub that was open at 9:30am, we stopped into a game shop so C could pick up a gift; when we came out, it was snowing. Then we finally stopped in at the pub, and when we finally came out... the entire street was white. We were about a block from the train station, and could barely see it. It was quite intense. But it was fun on the train up, as we'd brought my iPod to put Christmas music on shuffle. It felt like we had a soundtrack to our own Christmas movie in a way. And yet, we still ended up at an outdoor Christmas market. Mostly because there was a particular booth that I wanted to re-visit, as I hadn't been able to get much the last week due to a lack of cash. Then we gave up on doing touristy things; we were going to do the Natural History Museum, but the only tube line that goes to the station by it was closed due to strikes. So instead, we went to go visit a friend of his who recently moved down to London, and just hung out at his for the evening.
The Monday before Christmas was fantastic; we went to go see Les Miserables on the West End. All I can say is, if you ever get the chance, go see it. It is phenomenal.
The holidays themselves were a blast; we went up to C's folks for the two weeks we had off. It was a nice time, mostly spent just chilling and meeting up with various friends and family. And, for me, working on my final essays. I even got permission to redo my room, got a single bed so that I could also fit a desk in there so I could have a space to just shut off and do my work. Two full essays and a half-length literature review were due yesterday, so I spent all my time on those. Now I just have one last full-length paper that's a mix of literature review and research paper to do, to be finished before I go home again, as it's due while I'm in the States.
Yes, I am going back to the States! C and I will be flying back for a week, visiting family, and most of the rest of the time visiting potential wedding venues. Given our list of potential venues, this may take the entire week - and that's with the shortened list nixing all the places that we discovered were double or triple what we could afford! So that's also been keeping me busy, with trying to set up appointment times with each place. Going to be a busy week, that's for sure.
In the meantime, I have approximately one week in which to finish my last final essay. Granted, it's not due for two weeks, but I'm heading up to MK again a few days before we fly out, so that puts it at just over one week for me to get it done and turned in. Off to work! :)
The holidays were fantastic. Each weekend that C was down, we spent the Saturday in London doing various touristy/holiday type things. The day we went to Trafalgar Square, there was a giant mass of people all dressed as Santa; when we asked one what was going on, he said it was just a random thing of people dressing as Santa and getting drunk. Interesting idea for an event, it was quite random.
The last Saturday before Christmas, we went to the Christmas market on the South Bank. Of course, by the time we got on the train and got there, it was snowing pretty heavily. It hadn't been in the morning; we had gone to meet a friend of mine for breakfast who was on a semester program about to go home. On our way to a pub that was open at 9:30am, we stopped into a game shop so C could pick up a gift; when we came out, it was snowing. Then we finally stopped in at the pub, and when we finally came out... the entire street was white. We were about a block from the train station, and could barely see it. It was quite intense. But it was fun on the train up, as we'd brought my iPod to put Christmas music on shuffle. It felt like we had a soundtrack to our own Christmas movie in a way. And yet, we still ended up at an outdoor Christmas market. Mostly because there was a particular booth that I wanted to re-visit, as I hadn't been able to get much the last week due to a lack of cash. Then we gave up on doing touristy things; we were going to do the Natural History Museum, but the only tube line that goes to the station by it was closed due to strikes. So instead, we went to go visit a friend of his who recently moved down to London, and just hung out at his for the evening.
The Monday before Christmas was fantastic; we went to go see Les Miserables on the West End. All I can say is, if you ever get the chance, go see it. It is phenomenal.
The holidays themselves were a blast; we went up to C's folks for the two weeks we had off. It was a nice time, mostly spent just chilling and meeting up with various friends and family. And, for me, working on my final essays. I even got permission to redo my room, got a single bed so that I could also fit a desk in there so I could have a space to just shut off and do my work. Two full essays and a half-length literature review were due yesterday, so I spent all my time on those. Now I just have one last full-length paper that's a mix of literature review and research paper to do, to be finished before I go home again, as it's due while I'm in the States.
Yes, I am going back to the States! C and I will be flying back for a week, visiting family, and most of the rest of the time visiting potential wedding venues. Given our list of potential venues, this may take the entire week - and that's with the shortened list nixing all the places that we discovered were double or triple what we could afford! So that's also been keeping me busy, with trying to set up appointment times with each place. Going to be a busy week, that's for sure.
In the meantime, I have approximately one week in which to finish my last final essay. Granted, it's not due for two weeks, but I'm heading up to MK again a few days before we fly out, so that puts it at just over one week for me to get it done and turned in. Off to work! :)
Sunday, December 12, 2010
It Is Official!
This is the post that will probably surprise nobody.
C and I are officially getting married!
The question everyone has been asking me (or at least every girl has been asking): How did he do it?
Answer: On the top of the London Eye. Last Saturday, we made a day of doing various Christmassy things in London, beginning with the Hyde Park Winter Wonderland, a late lunch in a pub, and the Camden Market. The Eye was our last stop of the day before heading home. What he told me was that we should get a picture of us on the top. So we just enjoyed the ride up, watching the scenery and enjoying everything lit up for the evening and with Christmas lights. At the top, we handed off my camera to another person in the pod for our picture. Of course, I forgot to turn the flash on before passing it over, but oh well. Then he ignored the camera... and the minute he began talking, I realized what was coming. After a brief second of panic (of the OMG he's doing it! variety, not a bad kind of panic), I ended up with a death grip on his jacket and shaking harder than I even realized was possible before. My grip was so tight he even had to push me backwards a little bit so that he could kneel to ask! I was shaking so hard I could barely even stand.
Now, for the other questions we've been asked:
Do you have a date?
Mid-2012, May/Juneish. That's about as close as we've gotten, there's a few other things to figure out too, like immigration.
Where will the wedding be?
California. The States gets about half the vacation time that England does (at most), so it will be far easier for his folks to get the time off. Most of my family would probably not be able to come at all if we had it over here. Plus with the exchange rate, the wedding itself will be less expensive in Cali.
Who's moving?
Ah, the oh so huge question. We haven't finalised that yet, will announce at some point in the future.
Of course, this has made it tough to focus on coursework when all I want to do is google wedding planning things! So I've been bribing myself all week with it, if I get so much work done, then I can google. So far it's worked :) We'll be looking at venues when we visit in January, so will spend the next few weeks looking up places to visit. In the meantime, he's coming down this weekend, so I better finish up my chores! I'm still getting so jittery when I think about it... and distracted by the shiny-ness on my finger! :D
C and I are officially getting married!
The question everyone has been asking me (or at least every girl has been asking): How did he do it?
Answer: On the top of the London Eye. Last Saturday, we made a day of doing various Christmassy things in London, beginning with the Hyde Park Winter Wonderland, a late lunch in a pub, and the Camden Market. The Eye was our last stop of the day before heading home. What he told me was that we should get a picture of us on the top. So we just enjoyed the ride up, watching the scenery and enjoying everything lit up for the evening and with Christmas lights. At the top, we handed off my camera to another person in the pod for our picture. Of course, I forgot to turn the flash on before passing it over, but oh well. Then he ignored the camera... and the minute he began talking, I realized what was coming. After a brief second of panic (of the OMG he's doing it! variety, not a bad kind of panic), I ended up with a death grip on his jacket and shaking harder than I even realized was possible before. My grip was so tight he even had to push me backwards a little bit so that he could kneel to ask! I was shaking so hard I could barely even stand.
Now, for the other questions we've been asked:
Do you have a date?
Mid-2012, May/Juneish. That's about as close as we've gotten, there's a few other things to figure out too, like immigration.
Where will the wedding be?
California. The States gets about half the vacation time that England does (at most), so it will be far easier for his folks to get the time off. Most of my family would probably not be able to come at all if we had it over here. Plus with the exchange rate, the wedding itself will be less expensive in Cali.
Who's moving?
Ah, the oh so huge question. We haven't finalised that yet, will announce at some point in the future.
Of course, this has made it tough to focus on coursework when all I want to do is google wedding planning things! So I've been bribing myself all week with it, if I get so much work done, then I can google. So far it's worked :) We'll be looking at venues when we visit in January, so will spend the next few weeks looking up places to visit. In the meantime, he's coming down this weekend, so I better finish up my chores! I'm still getting so jittery when I think about it... and distracted by the shiny-ness on my finger! :D
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Thanksgiving and Snow
It has once again been too long since I last posted. Unfortunately it looks like it will have to be for a while, as Christmas is fast approaching and with it, final projects and papers. But on to the real update.
Thanksgiving in England was... well, pretty much like any other day, since it's not celebrated here. I just made some pumpkin pie, and enjoyed it with the Christian Union that I've been going to on Thursdays. The oven here in halls rather sucks, so some top patches got burnt, but it still tasted like pumpkin pie so it was okay. The next day it was back up to C's for his parents birthdays. Had a nice family dinner for them, then I made some more pie for them. It turned out much better coming from the better oven. His mom is a fantastic cook, so I was a bit nervous about it, but I knew I had done fine when she asked for a second piece and asked if I could make it a bigger one :).
It's also been snowing for a good bit of the last week, which was lots of fun. The uni even got closed for it on Thursday, which as that was my busy day, I was quite happy about. There were flurries going almost all day. Of course, one flatmate here is from Norway, so he just found all the snow hype to be funny; apparently that is normal fall weather for them. But I guess when it's unusual, especially this early in the year, it can cause some chaos. It was great fun though :)
My update about this last weekend, however warrants it's own blog post. So that is forthcoming (and soon, I promise!)
Thanksgiving in England was... well, pretty much like any other day, since it's not celebrated here. I just made some pumpkin pie, and enjoyed it with the Christian Union that I've been going to on Thursdays. The oven here in halls rather sucks, so some top patches got burnt, but it still tasted like pumpkin pie so it was okay. The next day it was back up to C's for his parents birthdays. Had a nice family dinner for them, then I made some more pie for them. It turned out much better coming from the better oven. His mom is a fantastic cook, so I was a bit nervous about it, but I knew I had done fine when she asked for a second piece and asked if I could make it a bigger one :).
It's also been snowing for a good bit of the last week, which was lots of fun. The uni even got closed for it on Thursday, which as that was my busy day, I was quite happy about. There were flurries going almost all day. Of course, one flatmate here is from Norway, so he just found all the snow hype to be funny; apparently that is normal fall weather for them. But I guess when it's unusual, especially this early in the year, it can cause some chaos. It was great fun though :)
My update about this last weekend, however warrants it's own blog post. So that is forthcoming (and soon, I promise!)
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
A Week in Alba
Beware, this is a long blog here!
First week of November was Reading Week, which of course meant that I took the opportunity not to catch up on reading, but to go with C on a week-long circle around Scotland. Okay, it was more like a slightly wavy line, but still, we saw the main places.
Actually getting there was a bit of fun itself, as we had to be up about 4 in order to catch our 7:05 flight. Yes that was a totally insane idea, but we booked through EasyJet, and it was the only one they had that day. After a few adventures getting to the hostel, we dropped off our bags in the lobby as it was only about 9am, far too early for us to check in. We then took about two hours walking up the Royal Mile, which we were only just off of, towards the castle. It wasn't a terribly far walk; we just took our time browsing some of the touristy shops along the way, especially once we found one that also had armor and such for sale. The castle itself was interesting, although I'll admit not excessively thrilling as there weren't very many indoor places we could see. The chapel was off-limits as it was being used for a wedding, and one of the buildings I think was closed for refurbishment. Several were also still in use as military garrisons. So we caught one of the early afternoon tours around, which mostly involved the history of the building: the many battles fought over it, especially once the Scots and English became ethnic groups and enemies, Mary, Queen of Scots giving birth there, etc. It is interesting and certainly a place worth visiting; but maybe only the once, at least for quite a while.
We headed to bed early that night due to the extremely early morning. Of course, the hostel happened to be having a Halloween party that night. Poor C had a really hard time sleeping through it; I was fine, I think living in the halls at school has helped me fall asleep with strange stuff going on.
The next morning, we headed out to hit up a free walking tour of the city. Which was awesome. The tour guides work for tips, which actually made it fun, because then you get the tour guides who, literally, are doing it for the love of the job. There is so much fascinating history around Edinburgh; unfortunately a lot of it comes from the dark times, but just glad those are mostly past. For instance, when they built the wall around Grayfriar's Churchyard, they required ashes to make the mortar. But, as trees were a scarce commodity, they turned to another source of ash: the remains of people who had been burnt at the stake as witches. So the wall is, literally, made from witches of old. We also got to see the grave of John Knox, founder of the Presbyterian faith aka the Church of Scotland. He was buried just outside St. Giles' High Kirk, as he had requested to be buried within 20 yards of it. Of course, they cleared the cemetery some years ago to build the church a parking lot. But they did follow his requests about where he wished to be buried, so he now lies under parking space #23, with a solitary yellow square stone as the only marker on his grave. Seems strange to me, you'd think they'd at least put him under the statue base that doesn't have a statue and make it a memorial of some sort. But I guess not...
That evening, we went back up the hill to the Scotch Whisky Experience for a brief tour of... to be honest, I'm not sure what. I was half anticipating a tour through an actual whiskey distillery, or even a reconstruction of one. Instead, the tour was more using projectors to tell you how the whiskey was made, while you rode through it in a barrel that rather reminded me of the carts on the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland. Then we were ushered through to a room where we were shown a video describing four different types of whisky, after which we got to have a taste-test (and take the glasses home). As I am a non-drinker, C got to taste two different types rather than just the one. It was worth doing once, but to be perfectly honest, it wouldn't have been worth the tour fee if we hadn't gotten to keep the glass.
Day 3, Monday, we were up and out early (ish... had to be past 9:30 for the off-peak trains) and on our way to Stirling for the day. Right next to the train station was the main bus station with lockers, so we were able to stash our luggage while we wandered. First thing we did was Stirling Castle. Far more interesting to wander than Edinburgh, I thought, in part because the audio tour seemed better. Of course, given that it was the off-season, there were no live tours, so instead the audio tours guided you through. At times it was a bit stop-start-stop-start, but overall was interesting. The royal palace was being refurbished to it's 1500's style, so we weren't able to see that, but the rest of it was still impressive.
Then we headed over to go see the Wallace Monument. When we got there, we figured we'd have lunch in the cafe, as it was getting on in the afternoon. Unfortunately, we discovered when I went to go get tickets, they close earlier than we had thought they did, and stopped selling... while we were eating lunch. The lady then directed us to the nearest bus station, which we thought was right around the corner. Wrong. At the bottom of the hill wasn't far when in the cab coming up it, but took foooooorrrreeevvveeerr to walk down. And of course it was raining, so by the time we finally got to the bus stop and back to the bus station, we were both a bit tired, cranky, and irritable. Since all other interesting sites would have been closed by that time, we just got our things and walked back to the train station... where we ended up more frustrated. Apparently, the train prices we had seen online just that morning were considered advance tickets, and not valid to buy then. So, without much choice, we had to pay more than planned for the train to Inverness.
But once we got to Inverness, our moods started lightening. Outside the train station, we asked a cabbie if he knew where our hostel was. He was actually pretty nice, started giving us walking directions first, which surprised us coming from a cabby. But still being tired and cranky, we just took the cab as we were too tired to deal with possibly getting lost. Once we were dropped off though, both our moods started lifting. The hostel was very nice (by hostel standards, anyways), and felt more like you were just renting the room from someone who just welcomed you in than a hostel. Nice room, we had a view of the river, two churches, and the castle (not open to the public). The lounge was large, lots of tables around, as well as a small couch and chairs next to a fireplace. And the managers would come in, chat with you, get to know you a bit, do their own cooking in the same kitchen, even fold the day's laundry in there. It was perfect. She even reccommended the pub next door for dinner; it was a bit more than pub prices, but we discovered there was a restaurant upstairs... with nobody in it. So that was lovely too. The hostel was a bit cold, as they only had single pane windows, but that was really the only possible complaint. It just encouraged sitting by the fire.
So moods sufficiently better, we were up on Tuesday to head over to the bus station for our three-and-a-half hour Loch Ness tour. All in all, that consisted of a drive down, a half-hour cruise on the lake, a wander through the ruins of Urquhart Castle, the Loch Ness Experience, and the bus back. Being Scotland in November, the country was green and gorgeous. Of course, it was also I think the coldest day that we had on our brief tour. It poured while we were on the bus and some while we were on the cruise, but thankfully let up for some of the castle wandering. The cruise was great fun (no, we didn't see Nessie for those of you who are wondering). The lake was choppy, windy, and foggy, which made it feel more like an adventure than a tourist activity. When the rain was a bit lighter, C and I even went up on the top deck. Of course, as soon as I stepped around the cabin with the boat's pilot, the boat dropped and a huge wave came over the bow, even up to the top deck and gave me a good splashing. Which C found hilarious. I was just grateful to be mostly waterproofed that day :P
Once we got to Urquhart, the sun began to come out. It was gorgeous to walk around, with the grass still wet and sun shining all over. Lots of great photo opportunities as well. The only thing really left of an indoors, was part of the gatehouse and one tower. We didn't climb the tower though; it was only 3-4 stories, but it was steep stone spiral staircases (say that three times fast), and given that it was a ruin and had been raining earlier? We didn't trust those stairs. We took one look at the steps worn smooth and decided no, that was too dangerous, if we slipped at all we'd probably die. So instead we headed back up to the visitor's center and the bus, which took us up to the Loch Ness Experience.
Okay, I think C and I have something against that which has been rated a five-star tourist attraction. Because the Whisky Experience and Loch Ness experience were both rated that high, but we didn't find either to be all that worth it. I've already gone over why for Whisky. Loch Ness was a similar idea. The idea was for them to essentially lay out all the evidence both for and against the existence of the Loch Ness Monster. You'd think it would be interesting; it wasn't really. Literally, all we did was get guided into one room, shown a video on some of the history of the legend, guided to another room, shown a different video, through several rooms. Granted, they all had different props and decorations relating to the video, but none that were really absolutely necessary. If it hadn't been part of the tour, it would not have been worth the money.
Then it was the bus back to central Inverness, and a quick grocery stop on the way back to the hostel so that we'd have dinner and some breakfast the next day. And the rest of the afternoon, we spent sitting in front of the fire. I tried to get some school reading done, but that only half worked. You see, the managers have a cat. Not only would she pester whoever was in front of the fire for attention, she liked to lay on my papers. First she started off on my book. After a while, I passed her over to C, when she promptly crawled off his lap onto my notes. It was so funny I just couldn't bring myself to move her again after that. All in all, it was a lovely evening in, and a perfect hostel to be at to have an evening in.
And once again, we were up and out somewhat early so we'd be sure to make it to our train on time. This time though, we were smart enough to book in advance. So we picked up our tickets, had some hot chocolate in the cafe (as well as a more substantial breakfast) and boarded the train for Thurso, at the northernmost coast of Scotland. It was a four hour ride, so I tried to get some more reading done, but that only half worked; it was my first time in the Highlands, and they were far too pretty. I couldn't stop taking pictures. And it was raining on and off, so we saw I think a total of four rainbows on that one ride.
We didn't really do much in Thurso; we were there just to visit my brother-in-law's sister and her family, who I'd met on their last two trips to California. Actually, they'd taken me to Disneyland with all of them, as I get the disability passes and could take the kids through the separate lines so they wouldn't have to wait as long. I know, probably a bit cheeky, but hey, they gave me a free trip to Disneyland :P (the first year... the second year was when I had a pass). So we mostly just stayed in and hung out with the family for two days, which was great.
Then Friday, we took a coach back to Edinburgh. We tried for train, but for some reason the advance ticket prices weren't showing up online, so a coach it was. And those were long. I don't know why I was so exhausted that day; was probably crashing from the long days before. But I slept a good bit of the way to Inverness, where we had a half hour break in which to get lunch before changing buses to go back to Edinburgh. And I slept for most of that trip, too. Although I do vaguely seeing C with his iPhone pointed at me. Next time I got online, I saw a picture of me sleeping against the bus window posted on his Facebook. Great. Oh well, by that time it had been up at least a day, so it didn't really matter. We went and checked in at a new hostel, as the one we had stayed at first was booked for the night, then had dinner and went up to the castle again as we were told we could see the fireworks show for bonfire night from there. Well, not quite, the Royal Mile buildings were in the way. We could hear it, and see some being let off in other areas, just not the main one. But it's okay, we just hung out in the mostly-empty area in front of the castle, mostly next to the gate where they had a couple of large torches lit. Real ones, even. So we stayed there and warmed up from the walk, then got dessert on the way back to the hostel for the night.
In the morning, before our flight, we did what we had tried to do on the first weekend: a tour of Mary King's Close. For a city that has a lot of hauntings, this is supposed to be the most haunted tour of them all. The Close is, basically, a street that was once open to the sky, but has been buried and forgotten for centuries. And it was fascinating. Looking back though, I wouldn't have wanted to do it at Halloween, when everyone was looking for a fright; some parts were creepy enough as it was. Guess it's a good thing it was completely booked up then.
We then took the bus back to the airport for an uneventful flight home. All in all, it was a fantastic week. Normally week long vacations fly by and leave me feeling like it wasn't enough time and was just too short; but somehow this one didn't. It felt like we spent a long time there, and got to see and do the main things there, even a few offbeat ones like Mary King's Close. So it was a great vacation, well worth every penny and the time that they say should have been spent on schoolwork. But I don't regret it. Absolutely nothing was wasted.
Of course, I am still trying to catch up on my reading. But it's okay, I will eventually.
First week of November was Reading Week, which of course meant that I took the opportunity not to catch up on reading, but to go with C on a week-long circle around Scotland. Okay, it was more like a slightly wavy line, but still, we saw the main places.
Actually getting there was a bit of fun itself, as we had to be up about 4 in order to catch our 7:05 flight. Yes that was a totally insane idea, but we booked through EasyJet, and it was the only one they had that day. After a few adventures getting to the hostel, we dropped off our bags in the lobby as it was only about 9am, far too early for us to check in. We then took about two hours walking up the Royal Mile, which we were only just off of, towards the castle. It wasn't a terribly far walk; we just took our time browsing some of the touristy shops along the way, especially once we found one that also had armor and such for sale. The castle itself was interesting, although I'll admit not excessively thrilling as there weren't very many indoor places we could see. The chapel was off-limits as it was being used for a wedding, and one of the buildings I think was closed for refurbishment. Several were also still in use as military garrisons. So we caught one of the early afternoon tours around, which mostly involved the history of the building: the many battles fought over it, especially once the Scots and English became ethnic groups and enemies, Mary, Queen of Scots giving birth there, etc. It is interesting and certainly a place worth visiting; but maybe only the once, at least for quite a while.
We headed to bed early that night due to the extremely early morning. Of course, the hostel happened to be having a Halloween party that night. Poor C had a really hard time sleeping through it; I was fine, I think living in the halls at school has helped me fall asleep with strange stuff going on.
The next morning, we headed out to hit up a free walking tour of the city. Which was awesome. The tour guides work for tips, which actually made it fun, because then you get the tour guides who, literally, are doing it for the love of the job. There is so much fascinating history around Edinburgh; unfortunately a lot of it comes from the dark times, but just glad those are mostly past. For instance, when they built the wall around Grayfriar's Churchyard, they required ashes to make the mortar. But, as trees were a scarce commodity, they turned to another source of ash: the remains of people who had been burnt at the stake as witches. So the wall is, literally, made from witches of old. We also got to see the grave of John Knox, founder of the Presbyterian faith aka the Church of Scotland. He was buried just outside St. Giles' High Kirk, as he had requested to be buried within 20 yards of it. Of course, they cleared the cemetery some years ago to build the church a parking lot. But they did follow his requests about where he wished to be buried, so he now lies under parking space #23, with a solitary yellow square stone as the only marker on his grave. Seems strange to me, you'd think they'd at least put him under the statue base that doesn't have a statue and make it a memorial of some sort. But I guess not...
That evening, we went back up the hill to the Scotch Whisky Experience for a brief tour of... to be honest, I'm not sure what. I was half anticipating a tour through an actual whiskey distillery, or even a reconstruction of one. Instead, the tour was more using projectors to tell you how the whiskey was made, while you rode through it in a barrel that rather reminded me of the carts on the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland. Then we were ushered through to a room where we were shown a video describing four different types of whisky, after which we got to have a taste-test (and take the glasses home). As I am a non-drinker, C got to taste two different types rather than just the one. It was worth doing once, but to be perfectly honest, it wouldn't have been worth the tour fee if we hadn't gotten to keep the glass.
Day 3, Monday, we were up and out early (ish... had to be past 9:30 for the off-peak trains) and on our way to Stirling for the day. Right next to the train station was the main bus station with lockers, so we were able to stash our luggage while we wandered. First thing we did was Stirling Castle. Far more interesting to wander than Edinburgh, I thought, in part because the audio tour seemed better. Of course, given that it was the off-season, there were no live tours, so instead the audio tours guided you through. At times it was a bit stop-start-stop-start, but overall was interesting. The royal palace was being refurbished to it's 1500's style, so we weren't able to see that, but the rest of it was still impressive.
Then we headed over to go see the Wallace Monument. When we got there, we figured we'd have lunch in the cafe, as it was getting on in the afternoon. Unfortunately, we discovered when I went to go get tickets, they close earlier than we had thought they did, and stopped selling... while we were eating lunch. The lady then directed us to the nearest bus station, which we thought was right around the corner. Wrong. At the bottom of the hill wasn't far when in the cab coming up it, but took foooooorrrreeevvveeerr to walk down. And of course it was raining, so by the time we finally got to the bus stop and back to the bus station, we were both a bit tired, cranky, and irritable. Since all other interesting sites would have been closed by that time, we just got our things and walked back to the train station... where we ended up more frustrated. Apparently, the train prices we had seen online just that morning were considered advance tickets, and not valid to buy then. So, without much choice, we had to pay more than planned for the train to Inverness.
But once we got to Inverness, our moods started lightening. Outside the train station, we asked a cabbie if he knew where our hostel was. He was actually pretty nice, started giving us walking directions first, which surprised us coming from a cabby. But still being tired and cranky, we just took the cab as we were too tired to deal with possibly getting lost. Once we were dropped off though, both our moods started lifting. The hostel was very nice (by hostel standards, anyways), and felt more like you were just renting the room from someone who just welcomed you in than a hostel. Nice room, we had a view of the river, two churches, and the castle (not open to the public). The lounge was large, lots of tables around, as well as a small couch and chairs next to a fireplace. And the managers would come in, chat with you, get to know you a bit, do their own cooking in the same kitchen, even fold the day's laundry in there. It was perfect. She even reccommended the pub next door for dinner; it was a bit more than pub prices, but we discovered there was a restaurant upstairs... with nobody in it. So that was lovely too. The hostel was a bit cold, as they only had single pane windows, but that was really the only possible complaint. It just encouraged sitting by the fire.
So moods sufficiently better, we were up on Tuesday to head over to the bus station for our three-and-a-half hour Loch Ness tour. All in all, that consisted of a drive down, a half-hour cruise on the lake, a wander through the ruins of Urquhart Castle, the Loch Ness Experience, and the bus back. Being Scotland in November, the country was green and gorgeous. Of course, it was also I think the coldest day that we had on our brief tour. It poured while we were on the bus and some while we were on the cruise, but thankfully let up for some of the castle wandering. The cruise was great fun (no, we didn't see Nessie for those of you who are wondering). The lake was choppy, windy, and foggy, which made it feel more like an adventure than a tourist activity. When the rain was a bit lighter, C and I even went up on the top deck. Of course, as soon as I stepped around the cabin with the boat's pilot, the boat dropped and a huge wave came over the bow, even up to the top deck and gave me a good splashing. Which C found hilarious. I was just grateful to be mostly waterproofed that day :P
Once we got to Urquhart, the sun began to come out. It was gorgeous to walk around, with the grass still wet and sun shining all over. Lots of great photo opportunities as well. The only thing really left of an indoors, was part of the gatehouse and one tower. We didn't climb the tower though; it was only 3-4 stories, but it was steep stone spiral staircases (say that three times fast), and given that it was a ruin and had been raining earlier? We didn't trust those stairs. We took one look at the steps worn smooth and decided no, that was too dangerous, if we slipped at all we'd probably die. So instead we headed back up to the visitor's center and the bus, which took us up to the Loch Ness Experience.
Okay, I think C and I have something against that which has been rated a five-star tourist attraction. Because the Whisky Experience and Loch Ness experience were both rated that high, but we didn't find either to be all that worth it. I've already gone over why for Whisky. Loch Ness was a similar idea. The idea was for them to essentially lay out all the evidence both for and against the existence of the Loch Ness Monster. You'd think it would be interesting; it wasn't really. Literally, all we did was get guided into one room, shown a video on some of the history of the legend, guided to another room, shown a different video, through several rooms. Granted, they all had different props and decorations relating to the video, but none that were really absolutely necessary. If it hadn't been part of the tour, it would not have been worth the money.
Then it was the bus back to central Inverness, and a quick grocery stop on the way back to the hostel so that we'd have dinner and some breakfast the next day. And the rest of the afternoon, we spent sitting in front of the fire. I tried to get some school reading done, but that only half worked. You see, the managers have a cat. Not only would she pester whoever was in front of the fire for attention, she liked to lay on my papers. First she started off on my book. After a while, I passed her over to C, when she promptly crawled off his lap onto my notes. It was so funny I just couldn't bring myself to move her again after that. All in all, it was a lovely evening in, and a perfect hostel to be at to have an evening in.
And once again, we were up and out somewhat early so we'd be sure to make it to our train on time. This time though, we were smart enough to book in advance. So we picked up our tickets, had some hot chocolate in the cafe (as well as a more substantial breakfast) and boarded the train for Thurso, at the northernmost coast of Scotland. It was a four hour ride, so I tried to get some more reading done, but that only half worked; it was my first time in the Highlands, and they were far too pretty. I couldn't stop taking pictures. And it was raining on and off, so we saw I think a total of four rainbows on that one ride.
We didn't really do much in Thurso; we were there just to visit my brother-in-law's sister and her family, who I'd met on their last two trips to California. Actually, they'd taken me to Disneyland with all of them, as I get the disability passes and could take the kids through the separate lines so they wouldn't have to wait as long. I know, probably a bit cheeky, but hey, they gave me a free trip to Disneyland :P (the first year... the second year was when I had a pass). So we mostly just stayed in and hung out with the family for two days, which was great.
Then Friday, we took a coach back to Edinburgh. We tried for train, but for some reason the advance ticket prices weren't showing up online, so a coach it was. And those were long. I don't know why I was so exhausted that day; was probably crashing from the long days before. But I slept a good bit of the way to Inverness, where we had a half hour break in which to get lunch before changing buses to go back to Edinburgh. And I slept for most of that trip, too. Although I do vaguely seeing C with his iPhone pointed at me. Next time I got online, I saw a picture of me sleeping against the bus window posted on his Facebook. Great. Oh well, by that time it had been up at least a day, so it didn't really matter. We went and checked in at a new hostel, as the one we had stayed at first was booked for the night, then had dinner and went up to the castle again as we were told we could see the fireworks show for bonfire night from there. Well, not quite, the Royal Mile buildings were in the way. We could hear it, and see some being let off in other areas, just not the main one. But it's okay, we just hung out in the mostly-empty area in front of the castle, mostly next to the gate where they had a couple of large torches lit. Real ones, even. So we stayed there and warmed up from the walk, then got dessert on the way back to the hostel for the night.
In the morning, before our flight, we did what we had tried to do on the first weekend: a tour of Mary King's Close. For a city that has a lot of hauntings, this is supposed to be the most haunted tour of them all. The Close is, basically, a street that was once open to the sky, but has been buried and forgotten for centuries. And it was fascinating. Looking back though, I wouldn't have wanted to do it at Halloween, when everyone was looking for a fright; some parts were creepy enough as it was. Guess it's a good thing it was completely booked up then.
We then took the bus back to the airport for an uneventful flight home. All in all, it was a fantastic week. Normally week long vacations fly by and leave me feeling like it wasn't enough time and was just too short; but somehow this one didn't. It felt like we spent a long time there, and got to see and do the main things there, even a few offbeat ones like Mary King's Close. So it was a great vacation, well worth every penny and the time that they say should have been spent on schoolwork. But I don't regret it. Absolutely nothing was wasted.
Of course, I am still trying to catch up on my reading. But it's okay, I will eventually.
Monday, November 15, 2010
This One's For You, Rose
After my post about the view from my kitchen window, I was informed by one friend that she would like to see a picture of it. So here it is:
Of course, the trees had significantly more leaves on them when I took it so it was a bit more blocked off, but we could still see the cemetery quite clearly. The only thing I haven't liked about it so far was this morning, when I saw a people getting out of the cars of a funeral procession, I can only assume to walk to someone's graveside service.
Of course, the trees had significantly more leaves on them when I took it so it was a bit more blocked off, but we could still see the cemetery quite clearly. The only thing I haven't liked about it so far was this morning, when I saw a people getting out of the cars of a funeral procession, I can only assume to walk to someone's graveside service.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Student Protests: A Twist?
Okay, budget cuts are pretty universal right now: from homes to governments, everybody's making sometimes-extreme cutbacks. And the UK is no different than California in this. I did, however, find some interesting differences in the protests from the cuts made in California last year than the protests that have begun over the last couple of days.
To be honest, in Cali, most students seemed cranky, but not extremely bothered by it. Some people skipped classes to go to protests, a couple teachers cancelled class so that they (and any of their students) could go to a protest, but mostly, the school itself stayed out of it and most people, at least that I know of, did attend classes if they were held during a protest time. Actually, I take that back; the school administrations did send out e-mails letting us know that protests were occurring; however, that was the extent of it. They neither encouraged nor discouraged attendance, and did not cancel classes. But back to the students. At my school, a group of students took the "extreme" measure of storming and taking over the Humanities and Social Sciences building. Of course, it only lasted about twenty minutes. Once the police got there and asked them to leave, they did. Without fuss. That, for obvious reasons, did not make any news (how anticlimactic). The only reason I even heard about it was because there was an editorial about it in the school paper on a day I happened to be stuck on campus for four hours and needed reading material, that read, essentially, "Come on guys. If you're going to be militant like they were in the 60's, can't you at least follow through with it?"
So my verdict of Californian students' reactions to university fee hikes? Cranky, moderately annoyed, but not really bothered enough to do much about it.
The UK's new coalition government has been rolling out new cuts this year as well. (Though don't ask me to explain the coalition government bit, I'm not sure I understand it that well myself. Certainly not well enough to explain it). And of course, universities are getting hit as well. Organized protests have begun this week, and look what happened at one while I was in class: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-11726822. (Yes I realize the irony of being in class at the time of the protests. I didn't actually realize there was one today). According to the "breaking news" scroll across the top of the BBC News page, 32 people were arrested in relation to the violence.
Okay, so let me lay out my thoughts here. In America, a country founded upon violent protest of a government's actions, students just get mildly cranky about tuition hikes, but not much more than that. In the UK, where they've never really had a violent revolution like the US or France has, students get so upset that they end up breaking into the Conservative Party's headquarters, in many cases even to their own surprise.
How ironic. The Americans, who protest just about everything, don't really bother much with university budget cuts. The Brits, who have a few more laws about the legalities of protesting, are the ones who end up full on breaking into a government party's headquarters.
Oh, by the way, I should point out that I am in a suburb of London, not London itself, so am a minimum 20-minute train ride away from where the action was. Just because I got a few concerned comments on Facebook, I thought I should include that fact.
In the meantime, I have a test in the morning, so have to finish up the last bit of studying and head to bed. Goodnight, world.
To be honest, in Cali, most students seemed cranky, but not extremely bothered by it. Some people skipped classes to go to protests, a couple teachers cancelled class so that they (and any of their students) could go to a protest, but mostly, the school itself stayed out of it and most people, at least that I know of, did attend classes if they were held during a protest time. Actually, I take that back; the school administrations did send out e-mails letting us know that protests were occurring; however, that was the extent of it. They neither encouraged nor discouraged attendance, and did not cancel classes. But back to the students. At my school, a group of students took the "extreme" measure of storming and taking over the Humanities and Social Sciences building. Of course, it only lasted about twenty minutes. Once the police got there and asked them to leave, they did. Without fuss. That, for obvious reasons, did not make any news (how anticlimactic). The only reason I even heard about it was because there was an editorial about it in the school paper on a day I happened to be stuck on campus for four hours and needed reading material, that read, essentially, "Come on guys. If you're going to be militant like they were in the 60's, can't you at least follow through with it?"
So my verdict of Californian students' reactions to university fee hikes? Cranky, moderately annoyed, but not really bothered enough to do much about it.
The UK's new coalition government has been rolling out new cuts this year as well. (Though don't ask me to explain the coalition government bit, I'm not sure I understand it that well myself. Certainly not well enough to explain it). And of course, universities are getting hit as well. Organized protests have begun this week, and look what happened at one while I was in class: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-11726822. (Yes I realize the irony of being in class at the time of the protests. I didn't actually realize there was one today). According to the "breaking news" scroll across the top of the BBC News page, 32 people were arrested in relation to the violence.
Okay, so let me lay out my thoughts here. In America, a country founded upon violent protest of a government's actions, students just get mildly cranky about tuition hikes, but not much more than that. In the UK, where they've never really had a violent revolution like the US or France has, students get so upset that they end up breaking into the Conservative Party's headquarters, in many cases even to their own surprise.
How ironic. The Americans, who protest just about everything, don't really bother much with university budget cuts. The Brits, who have a few more laws about the legalities of protesting, are the ones who end up full on breaking into a government party's headquarters.
Oh, by the way, I should point out that I am in a suburb of London, not London itself, so am a minimum 20-minute train ride away from where the action was. Just because I got a few concerned comments on Facebook, I thought I should include that fact.
In the meantime, I have a test in the morning, so have to finish up the last bit of studying and head to bed. Goodnight, world.
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