SkyeWalker

Just saw a field of ducks and bunny rabbits hanging out together. This means two things: that bunnies are great and that it has been raining so much that ducks have flocked to the grassy hills of DRA.

But that's okay because I have been at the Isle of Skye all weekend! We left on Friday at 4 and drove straight to the hostel, only stopping for some fish & chips. The place we stayed at was awesome - very clean and quirky. It was called the "skyewalker" hostel and had a bunch of star wars things all over the walls. For example, here is a picture of Darth Vader which they have clad with some nice tartan pants [I say pants here in the british sense, meaning underwear. We learned this weekend that saying you've got "crappy pants" is a big mistake!!]

The hostel also had things like a human sized chess board, an igloo-like "sun dome" outside where there were benches and a zen garden, a picture of the mona lisa that turned into a terrifying skeleton when you moved away from it, etc.

On Saturday a group of us did a walk to Loch Coruisk. They said that it was a "low-medium" walk because it was pretty flat, but it went for a long time. By long time they meant 21 km, and it is fortunate that I decided not to do that conversion in my head because that is 13 miles and that is a lot of hiking. But! The hike was absolutely incredible. The weather was beautiful and honestly I have never seen so many rainbows before in my life. We also got to hang out with some sheep and some big stags, and I took too many pictures of them both in typical tourist fashion. Anyway, the route was flat for about 5 miles, and then the last mile or so went up to get a great view of the loch. Then we walked around the top of it for a while and headed back the way we came, getting in after a 7 hour day. Here are some pictures from the hike:

That night we were served a delicious curry by gracious members of breakaway. We also had some sweet dessert that was basically cake with sugar goo on it now and i forget what they called it, probably some sort of "pudding." I have to say though that I am sort of confused what puddings are because I asked someone about "black pudding" at a fish & chips shop and that is apparently some sort of sausagey blood goop that has congealed. That is not exactly the definition he gave me but it sounded sort of like that. It is confusing to me because it is not a dessert and also I can't see why anyone would eat it.

Anyway, that night was full of games, guitar, and talking, as all the nights proved to be. Everyone was pretty laid back and it was fun to get to meet some new people. The next morning the clocks changed but we chose to ignore that, and just pretended that when we woke up at 8:30 it was still actually 7:30. I decided to do the hike that went by some old castle ruins and then up to something called the "Quiraing" which is a really interesting group of rock formations on the top of Trotternish Ridge. The hike to the castle was really just a pit stop and I had already seen it last week, but that was alright. The hike to the Quiraing was a little bit more difficult, mainly because the weather was pretty awful. It was raining and hailing on us for a good amount of the day and was very windy, which was not good because we had to scramble up a lot of slick rocks. But the hike definitely did not disappoint. Clara and I moved pretty slow on the rocks because we were a little nervous but the view from the top was incredible and the rock formations were all really impressive.

We had a little more time that night to enjoy ourselves, and after eating burritos we had a breakaway quiz night and dined on bananas foster. The next day we woke up pretty early to get all of our stuff together and clean up the hostel. In hopes to get back early, I decided to join a group doing a little hike in one of the small coastal towns on the mainland. The town was seriously too cute I could have barfed, and the weather was the best of the whole trip - sunshine and blue skies. I am getting lazy so I won't say any more and I'll just show ya some more pics

Eep! It was really an incredible weekend and I will remember it for a long time! Now I am off for France though (leaving approximately 30 minutes) Yikes. Almost April, can you believe it??

Au revoir!!! :)

Scottish Tour

Sheww! Ryan just left after a whirlwind tour of Scotland, and I am exhausted! Here is a very long post that does a poor job of summarizing the last week. I tried hard to include some pictures and links to make it a little more interesting but it may just be overwhelming:

Ryan came in last Wednesday and I met him in Edinburgh. He was supposed to have come into town a couple hours before I got there, and we were going to meet at Scott Monument. I walked over from the bus station, looked around, and saw him there - just getting off the bus! Crazy timing. Turns out that his plane had been delayed in Germany because of a "sticky substance."

That night we got to eat at a nice, but very expensive, indian/thai restaurant. The menu itself was like 8 pages and the front page had a description along the lines of: "Have you ever wanted Thai food, but had to settle for Indian? Not here!" Truly they had just about every dish you could imagine. Also we were served water in a wine bottle and it cost about 3 pounds. After that we went to a pub were there were a bunch of locals. We thought it might be a busy night because it was St. Patrick's day, but we were wrong. Just a lot of old men with very strong accents.

The next day I headed back here for class, and he spent the day looking around Edinburgh. He got to climb up Arthur's Seat which I was really jealous about. It is part of an old volcano and offers a cool view of the city. After looking around for a couple hours he met a nice old man in a graveyard, who drove him all around and gave him a tour of town. He also told Ryan a compact history of the world through the eyes of a Scotsman. I wish I could tell you some of the stories but I don't think that I could do them justice! Anyway, it sounded like he had a great day. When he came into town I made some curry and we got everything together for the weekend. Eric was nice enough to bring over a bottle of French wine, and we celebrated with Jamee because we just finalized booking our apartment in France for spring break!

On Friday I went to class and then Ryan and I picked up our car. I will not lie to you, the first 20 minutes were pretty terrifying. Ryan did a good job though!! We just went really slowly and I kept saying things like: "Now make a right hand turn into the left lane." After a little while he had mastered the round-a-bouts and turns and tiny roads. The hard thing for him was remembering to shift with this left hand, but eventually he got that down too. I was the trip navigator - we made a pretty good team. I think that one might draw parallels between the team and an efficiently run company, of which I was the head and Ryan was the labor force. Or perhaps Ryan was an old lady and I was a hearing aid. Ryan was a herd of sheep and I was a shepherd. Something like that.

(Just joking, Ryan.) He did a great job and got us all the way to Fort William safe and sound. Fort William is known as the "outdoor capital of the UK" and is located right at the foothills of Britain's tallest mountian, Ben Nevis. We spent the evening looking around town, exploring a local castle, and visiting "neptune's staircase," which is a series of locks. Here are some pictures from the evening [Ryan driving on the opposite side, me & some cows, some ships at neptune's staircase]:

That night we stayed at a b&b called TreeTops - it was awesome! It was nestled in a bunch of trees and had a beautiful view of the Nevis mountain range. That morning we woke up early and the owner made us an awesome breakfast: yogurt, fresh fruit, OJ, sausage, ham, eggs, toast. We got on the road at about 9 and headed towards the Isle of Skye! (Note: We were traveling from "Fife". Fort William was in the Highalnds) Everyone had been telling us to go there and so we were pretty pumped about it. The road to Skye itself was gorgeous, and we stopped a lot along the way. Here are a few pictures - Ryan infront of one of the many lochs; Eilean Donan castle; and a cool woodlands garden we stopped at (mom, you would have loved it!):

Right after passing into Skye we knew we had made it to a really special place! We headed up the coast, stopping at a bunch of awesome places. The weather turned out to be really nice as well. Big white clouds, blue skies, sun! It was perfect weather for getting out and exploring. These pictures don't do justice to how sweet it was.

1)The first is from the main road up the coast - we had to stop a lot because they were doing a ton of construction. The island was full of big dramatic mountains and cliffs along the coast.

2) Next pic is a herd of sheep friends that I made while Ryan was taking pics of a waterfall nearby. They pretty much roam everywhere and it was not uncommon to see a bunch walking across the road.

3) This was one of my favorite places that we stopped. There was a big waterfall, the cliff was full of sheep, the sun was shining and we just sat for a while taking in the blue water.

4) Kilt Rock - a big waterfall coming out of a cliff!

5) Funny sign warning about the cliffs.

6) Ryan and I exploring another (somewhat unsafe) castle.

7-8-9-10) One of the most incredible hikes I've ever been on - up to Old Man of Storr, an awesome rock formation. Check out the picture of Ryan doing tree pose!!

After a long day we went to an nice indian restaurant (just about the only thing open on the island). The hostel we stayed at was a little sketchy, but we had a nice shower and were exhausted so we didn't really care that much. On Sunday we decided to head back towards Fort William and check out the hiking there. Before leaving we looked at some ruins near our hostel. The weather was nice for us again, and we had a good time walking around. Here is a picture from the top of the ruins, looking back on the Skye bridge:

When we got back to town we got to meet some highland cows! Then we walked around Glen Nevis, the valley below the Nevis Mountain Range. The scenery was gorgeous again. That night we went to a sweet local restaurant in a barn. The walls were full of instruments, and they said anyone who was so inclined could play them! Ryan and I saw a banjo and both thought that it would have been nice if Claire was there to play us a little song!! (Miss you claire!) Here are some cow pictures and a picture from our hike...

On Monday we headed back to St. Andrews and spent the day exploring the town a little. We went up on the tower in the old Cathedral ruins and got to see a cool view of town. That night Eric, Ana, Clara, Ryan and I went to the pub quiz in town and made an embarrassment of ourselves. (Trivia is not our strong suit, particularly British trivia, or trivia that has to first be translated because the announcer has such a strong accent.) It was fun anyway, though!

Yesterday Ryan and I tried again on our eternal struggle to find seals by traveling to the nearby Tentsmuir forest, but to no avail. It was cool to see the forest anyway, though. We came back and ate a nice dinner and then Ryan packed up and headed back to Edinburgh to catch his flight :( It was a great week, though! I wish I could have a few days to recuperate because I feel a little exhausted, but I have tons of work to do after avoiding it for the past week.

Okay, this is a huge post! I am tired of writing and I'm sure you guys are getting tired of reading by this point. I can't help but feel guilty that I have been able to do so many amazing things. When I was in the grocery store today, agonizing over which brand of dark chocolate to get, I heard a little girl complaining to her mom about how hungry she was for dinner. I was thinking the same thing to myself. And then I heard her mom say: "Sophia - stop suffering. You live a good and satisfying life."

She is so right! Me and Sophia, we are seriously lucky. And the worst part is, I have Spring Break the next two weeks. This weekend I am going back to Skye with the breakaway (hiking) club, and then right when I get back I am heading to Southern France for 10 days with Jamee, her friend Angie, and Eric! Good lord!! Seriously I am so lucky that it makes me a little sick and it doesn't seem fair. But, now I am looking back on something I wrote to Eric earlier this semester..

"it is our duty as study abroad students, at this juncture in our lives, while we are here so close to europe, young and capable of seeing the world, even despite the fact that you are sickly, and knowledgeable of the fact that we have little money, to get out there and give continental europe a definitive american stomp."

I think that was some time when Eric had a cold. Anyway, even though I feel guilty I think it is important to make the best of every second I get over here (and just in life in general)! I hope that every thing is going well with everyone at home. I know that Virginia has been getting some beautiful weather, and I wish that I could be up in the Appalachians with you guys (and beans) soaking in the sun and going to the farmers market and riding my bike.

Happy Wednesday!!!

Bother

Hello!! Mostly this last week I've been doing schoolwork - I had a project due for computing in statistics, and a big paper due for women & scottish society. But that's all done now! Couple terms I want to discuss:

1. "missed call" - Ana and Clara recently have been asking us to give them "missed calls." For a week or so, I kept laughing to myself whenever they said this because I just thought their english wasn't great and somehow they mixed up someone calling you with when your phone says: "missed call from.." However, Eric finally decided to confront them on the issue. Turns out we were totally wrong! They ask for missed calls on purpose, meaning - "can you call me? as a warning, I am purposefully not going to pick up." This is because it is cheaper than a text or call to just have a missed call. (only applicable for me here since I don't have unlimited texts) Anyway, it is smart! You guys should all start using the phrase.

2. "Can't be bothered." - Everyone here seems to use this phrase a lot. It is great. Examples: "I just couldn't be bothered to get out of bed today." "I couldn't be bothered to grade your tests." "I couldn't be bothered to go to lecture." "Couldn't be bothered to shower."

(Clearly some are better than others)

Anyway, it is the best because people seem to take it as a valid excuse. "Ah, that's alright - they couldn't be bothered." Here's what I couldn't be bothered to do this week:

- any of my CS project due next week. (we have to make a blog site! how ironic)
- start my absurdly large pile of laundry
- clean up the hizzouse for ryan's visit!

Alright, now looking at it all of those are pretty lame. I'll try to have better ones next week. I did bother to do some stuff today, though. I went with the breakaway club to Braemar, a small town in the Highlands. We hiked up a mountain, got a little lost in a whiteout/hail storm, were blasted by 40 mph winds, and then came down on a beautiful hill of heather, with the sun shining and bunnies and little mini deer-animals, and headed to the pub to play scrabble + drink hot cocoa. Can't be bothered to put up the pics tonight, but I'll do it this week.

Here's a few pics, though, for my mom! Today is mother's day in the UK so I'm sending her a shout-out. You can have two of them this year mom!! :) I was going to do the traditional hold-piece-of-paper pose, but I thought you deserved better than that, which is why I made this extremely classy composition:

Good lord that is one classy shot, pinkies out. Here's a traditional one though, just in case:

Have a great day!!

Spring

Spring is upon us!! Okay, so it is still pretty much 40 degrees and gray. I can't believe I haven't posted anything in almost two weeks. Even though it is cold still there have been a sprinkling of really beautiful days - sun, bright blue sky, ..45 degrees? We're getting there. I think that the bunnies know spring is coming and they are getting a little bit more frisky. Every once in a while I'll come across an open field and see a big pack of them hanging out. Which reminds me! I saved the lives of a few bunnies the other day. When I was on a run a saw some big waddley ones in the street and (i'm pretty sure) we made eye contact. I said: "bunnies, get out of the street!" and I ran at them, and they went and hid under a bush. And then I said - "stay there bunnies, you are safe there." Oh bunnies.

Let's see.. what else has been going on. I made a dungeon: http://host-vs235.cs.st-andrews.ac.uk/dungeonHome.html. Don't judge it now cause we haven't learned how to do style sheets so it's not that pretty. It reads in data from a dungeon data file and then creates a virtual dungeon. No, as many people have pointed out, it is not a game. (But I do have a feeling it may be one of those websites that changes your life forever.)

So I've been doing school work, enjoying cooking, getting down to walk on the beach when the weather's nice, and playing guitar. Also I've been watching Mad Men. And battling a cold that has lasted for too long. Here are a few pics from a day that Clara, Elizabeth and I went to a bonfire out on the beach, and then some pics from the DRA ball. The ball took place in a farm outside of St. Andrews - so weird! They shuttled everyone there in buses. It was really cool inside though; they had a labyrinth of different rooms for dancing etc. Also the artist was "lee ryan" from the british boy band "blue." Not positive but I think it may be the equivalent of (for example) one of the dudes from LFO coming and playing some of his new songs, and then DJing some stuff. Except that LFO songs are timeless. Anyway, the best part of the ball was that they had free ice cream and free champagne! I got 2 helpings of ice cream, mint chocolate chip and some weird marshmallow one.

I'm hoping to see Alice in Wonderland tonight! Hope its not too scary. (P.s. check out the pick of siannie - I think its pronounced like shanny! - with my new guitar)

P.p.s. In other news, I just found out that I got into the REU that I applied for this summer! There are 7 other people in the program, which takes place near Baltimore at UMBC. We will be learning about/working on programs for clients dealing with parallel computing in the "high performance computing facility" there. It is for two months and it pays very well, in addition to them paying for our food/housing there. But I will miss Blacksburg a lot!! :( . Apparently It is about 3 hrs from charlottesville, 5 hrs from Blacksburg, though, and we have every weekend off - so hopefully I'll get to spend some time at home.