Happy Halloween, everyone! My official Halloween celebrations started off last night with a flat viewing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show since none of my flatmates had seen it. We invited some of the neighbors as well, and it actually turned out to be a lot of fun. I'd forgotten how ridiculously long the movie feels though-maybe because usually there are so many people yelling at it I can't be bothered to pay attention :)
Anyways, celebrations continued today with a batch of pumpkin bread (Mom mailed me the Trader Joe's Mix) to which I added chopped apples. I'm taking it to dance tonight, because I could actually just sit and eat the whole loaf for dinner. Tomorrow I have a test on the human brain, then we're going to the Halloween party at the theatre down the street from us, called the Bongo Club. Saturday is still a little up in the air, but this is the advert for the school's party. It's the freshman mascot, Robert the Moose (I took a picture with him during orientation) performing the Thriller dance. I'm actually pretty excited about the party, because Teviot, our student union, looks like Hogwarts.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Monday, October 25, 2010
Immersion Therapy
This weekend I attended New Scotland Country Dance's "Fresher's Weekend" in New Lanark. I had an amazing time, met a bunch of amazing people, and I plan to write out a full post with pictures soon.
However, meeting great people and going to sleep 2 hours before the 8am wake-up call by live bagpipes does not a good blogger make. So in the meantime:
On Sunday we got to dance at Bothwell Castle, which dates from the mid thirteenth century. That was very, very, cool. One of the things I love about the type of dance I do (here and in the states) is that you become immersed not only in something really fun but in a tradition that's been around for a long time. There's something especially magical about attending a ball, and doing the same dances, in a town hall where dances were held during the Civil War...or dancing in the ruins of a thirteenth century castle, doing the modern evolution of dances that have been a part of the social life here for centuries.
Also, it was just a blast!
Ok, I promise I'm done being melodramatic now. Here we are in the castle grounds where we danced. I'm wearing a white shirt and red mini kilt, just right of center.
Real post tomorrow. There were waterfalls.
However, meeting great people and going to sleep 2 hours before the 8am wake-up call by live bagpipes does not a good blogger make. So in the meantime:
On Sunday we got to dance at Bothwell Castle, which dates from the mid thirteenth century. That was very, very, cool. One of the things I love about the type of dance I do (here and in the states) is that you become immersed not only in something really fun but in a tradition that's been around for a long time. There's something especially magical about attending a ball, and doing the same dances, in a town hall where dances were held during the Civil War...or dancing in the ruins of a thirteenth century castle, doing the modern evolution of dances that have been a part of the social life here for centuries.
Also, it was just a blast!
Ok, I promise I'm done being melodramatic now. Here we are in the castle grounds where we danced. I'm wearing a white shirt and red mini kilt, just right of center.
Real post tomorrow. There were waterfalls.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
"Oot and Aboot" part 2: Food Edition
So as I was jokingly explaining to my parents earlier, my activities lately have fallen into three categories: studying/class, working out, and eating. I've also discovered a setting on my camera that lets me take really artsy, professional-looking pictures of food.
So far I've been trying really hard not to eat out too much, since it's expensive and I haven't found a job yet. Sometimes though, it's nice to get little treats. To celebrate the end of the first week of classes, some friends and I went to dinner at Hispaniola, a restaurant around the corner from my flat that's Treasuer Island themed.
The building used to be Rutherford's Bar, which opened in 1834 and was apparently a favorite haunt of author Robert Louis Stevenson...thus the theme based around one of his books. The inside was charmingly kitschy, and the food was really good (Italian).
These came out really dark...but here we are inside! The antique pistols on the wall were really cool.
We also had some uninvited guests!
I've also discovered some cheap/quick places to grab a bite, but mainly my food adventuring takes the form of post-study treats! Last night, I'd planned on going to a favorite, Chocolate Soup, after working on my paper. Unfortunately, when we got there it was closed. Nicolette ended up introducing me to Piemaker, which is down the street from my flat and has traditional British savory pies in addition to a few sweet offerings. Plus, it's cheap and open until 2am, which is rare here! Most things close at 5 unless it's a restaurant.
The name always reminds me of the TV show Pushing Daisies when I walk by. On the back of my pie wrapper was printed "Piemaker and the Story of Pies":
Pies were first made by the Romans in ancient times. They used to cook the filling and sealed it in a clay shell which could be reheated on their travels. Later they introduced a 'paste' layer made from maize which could be eaten when moisturised and cooked. (The origin of the word 'pasty')
In Britain the Welsh miners introduced the famous double crust Cornish pasty, which was made with succulent meat, potato and vegetable fillings and puff pastry with a dough rim on one side. As cleaning of dirty coal hands was a time consuming exercise, they held on to the rim while eating the rest and then discarded that.
During the industrial development and mechanisation of the previous centuries, pies lost the quality (which had made it food for Kings), when fillings were minced and liquidised to be able to fill inferior pastry shells.
Cute! Of course, it then goes on to talk about Piemaker pies and why they're so yummy. I'm not arguing-mine was really nice.
But even with that, I was still craving the hot chocolate Chocolate Soup is known for. So today I went to the library and then headed over to the cafe for a late afternoon treat.
YUM. I decided to try "Autumn Harvest," which was dark hot chocolate with whipped cream, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Definitely worth the wait!
There are a few more places I want to try, including a Frankenstein-themed pub which reminds me of the Jekyll and Hyde Pub in NYC. Seems like a perfect place to go for Halloween! I also need to check out The Elephant House, which in addition to being the cafe where J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter, is also supposed to have really delicious tea, which I've definitely been missing!
Hopefully I'll have gotten over my picture-taking phase by then...
So far I've been trying really hard not to eat out too much, since it's expensive and I haven't found a job yet. Sometimes though, it's nice to get little treats. To celebrate the end of the first week of classes, some friends and I went to dinner at Hispaniola, a restaurant around the corner from my flat that's Treasuer Island themed.
I've also discovered some cheap/quick places to grab a bite, but mainly my food adventuring takes the form of post-study treats! Last night, I'd planned on going to a favorite, Chocolate Soup, after working on my paper. Unfortunately, when we got there it was closed. Nicolette ended up introducing me to Piemaker, which is down the street from my flat and has traditional British savory pies in addition to a few sweet offerings. Plus, it's cheap and open until 2am, which is rare here! Most things close at 5 unless it's a restaurant.
Pies were first made by the Romans in ancient times. They used to cook the filling and sealed it in a clay shell which could be reheated on their travels. Later they introduced a 'paste' layer made from maize which could be eaten when moisturised and cooked. (The origin of the word 'pasty')
In Britain the Welsh miners introduced the famous double crust Cornish pasty, which was made with succulent meat, potato and vegetable fillings and puff pastry with a dough rim on one side. As cleaning of dirty coal hands was a time consuming exercise, they held on to the rim while eating the rest and then discarded that.
During the industrial development and mechanisation of the previous centuries, pies lost the quality (which had made it food for Kings), when fillings were minced and liquidised to be able to fill inferior pastry shells.
Cute! Of course, it then goes on to talk about Piemaker pies and why they're so yummy. I'm not arguing-mine was really nice.
But even with that, I was still craving the hot chocolate Chocolate Soup is known for. So today I went to the library and then headed over to the cafe for a late afternoon treat.
There are a few more places I want to try, including a Frankenstein-themed pub which reminds me of the Jekyll and Hyde Pub in NYC. Seems like a perfect place to go for Halloween! I also need to check out The Elephant House, which in addition to being the cafe where J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter, is also supposed to have really delicious tea, which I've definitely been missing!
Hopefully I'll have gotten over my picture-taking phase by then...
"Oot and Aboot" *
So one of the things about being an exchange student that I'm really enjoying is that even though I'm just another student/Edinburgh resident, I'm also a tourist to a certain extent. I've been unapologetically taking advantage of this, and balancing studying and going out with trips to museums and other touristy spots.
Last Saturday, one of my flatmates and I decided to check out Mary King's Close: a series of underground streets that were populated by over 700 people during the 17th century. The tour was conducted by a 3rd-person costumed historian, which means our guide was in costume and had a 17th century identity, but spoke from the present day. (For example: "This is my house, which I share with 12 other people. This is very common, and...If you live here during the 17th century, it would have been..." I did this type of interpretation at Hartwell Tavern in Lincoln, and it's a great way to deal with large groups and foreign visitors.)
The tour took us through many anecdotes of life in the close (a close is a narrow street in between tall city buildings, some of which are still usable cut-throughs for pedestrians in Edinburgh), including a story about a murder that occurred in one of the houses, an account of ghosts, and what life was like there during the Plague. My favorite story was about Mary King, the woman whom the close was named after. Traditionally closes were named after their wealthiest resident, but Mary was actually the second wealthiest resident in the close. It was named after her because she was a burgess (a tax-paying member of society who was eligible to vote), which was extremely rare for women of that time!
This picture is of another room in the close which was really interesting-but it didn't look exactly like this when we were there (there are more toys now). One of the areas we went into was an original 17th century house, with the original walls and ceiling, made out of a mixture of water, dirt, and human ash. The history dork in me was really excited about this! The story goes that in the 1990s a psychic from Japan came to visit the close, and when she entered one particular room in the house she was filled with the sensation of overwhelming sadness. In the corner of the room she saw a little girl, who told her that her name was Annie and that she had been left there by her family, who had died of the Plague. The reason she was sad was because she had lost her toy dog. So the psychic went up to the Royal Mile and purchased a tartan barbie in one of the tourist shops. When she placed it in the room, she said that the feeling of sadness disappeared.
Over the years people have left all sorts of toys and gifts for Annie in the room, and there's a big mountain of them now. That was really neat to see as well. In March the close hosts "Ghost Fest"-I may need to check it out.
Another museum I've been to recently was the Surgeon's Hall Museum, which was recommended by my history tutorial leader. I thought it sounded really interesting, and I walk past the building all the time so I was curious to see inside. What I didn't count on (which seems really stupid now) was that a museum about medical history would mean lots of preserved body parts. EW! Really not my thing-although nothing bothered my quite as much as the exhibit about facial deformities and tumers; the parasites; and the 18th century child's head in a jar...bonnet and all. YUCK.
However, I'm still glad I went. There were several really interesting exhibits about the history of surgery, and two that were particularly exciting. The first was about Burke and Hare, Edinburgh serial killers from the 1820s who lured victims into Hare's boarding house and suffocated them. They would then sell the bodies to Dr. Robert Knox, who would dissect them in demonstrations for students at Edinburgh Medical School.
In 11 months, the pair killed 17 people. Apparently, this is where the term "burking" comes from, and it means to purposely smother someone. When the men were arrested in fall of 1828, there wasn't enough evidence to convict. In exchange for immunity from prosecution, Hare confessed, leaving Burke to be tried alone. I think the final ruling was actually kind of perfect-Burke was condemned to death by hanging (which was very common for murderers at the time), and the to have his body publicly dissected (which is not). Poetic justice, don't you think?
Among the things in the Burke and Hare exhibit at the museum are a plaster cast of Burke's head (post-hanging; you can see the rope marks in his neck!), the skull of one of the victims they sold to Knox, and a wallet made out of Burke's skin (called a pocket-book or purse in the UK). On the front it says "Burke's Skin Pocket-Book" and on the back "Executed 28 Jan 1829."
The Burke and Hare murders have been inspiration for tons of fiction, including a short story by fellow Edinburgh resident Robert Louis Stevenson (The Body Snatchers), and several movies. In fact, there's a new Burke and Hare movie (it's supposed to be a dark comedy) coming out in the UK on October 29th, and it was filmed right here in Edinburgh!
Here's the trailer:
The other exhibit I really liked was called "The Real Sherlock Holmes." Arthur Conan Doyle was a medical student at Edinburgh, and apparently he based Holmes on one of his professors, Joseph Bell (in addition to a few other Edinburgh figures.)
Many of Bell's items are on display, as well as a map of the several buildings Doyle lived in. One of them, 23 George Square, is now on campus! I was very excited about that. There was also a section on the real Doctor Watson, who was an Edinburgh figure as well. He wrote a book about medicine and violent crime, which was on display along with three preserved hearts he used in his studies, each with a stab wound. Those were really cool.
So definitely worth the price of admission, but I don't think I'll be heading back any time soon.
*Scottish people don't really sound like this, but it's the stereotypical accent.
Last Saturday, one of my flatmates and I decided to check out Mary King's Close: a series of underground streets that were populated by over 700 people during the 17th century. The tour was conducted by a 3rd-person costumed historian, which means our guide was in costume and had a 17th century identity, but spoke from the present day. (For example: "This is my house, which I share with 12 other people. This is very common, and...If you live here during the 17th century, it would have been..." I did this type of interpretation at Hartwell Tavern in Lincoln, and it's a great way to deal with large groups and foreign visitors.)
 |
| Disclaimer: Photos aren't allowed on tour, so these are from the company's website |
Over the years people have left all sorts of toys and gifts for Annie in the room, and there's a big mountain of them now. That was really neat to see as well. In March the close hosts "Ghost Fest"-I may need to check it out.
Another museum I've been to recently was the Surgeon's Hall Museum, which was recommended by my history tutorial leader. I thought it sounded really interesting, and I walk past the building all the time so I was curious to see inside. What I didn't count on (which seems really stupid now) was that a museum about medical history would mean lots of preserved body parts. EW! Really not my thing-although nothing bothered my quite as much as the exhibit about facial deformities and tumers; the parasites; and the 18th century child's head in a jar...bonnet and all. YUCK.
 |
| Similarly, no pictures inside Surgeon's Hall. These are from tourism sites. |
The Burke and Hare murders have been inspiration for tons of fiction, including a short story by fellow Edinburgh resident Robert Louis Stevenson (The Body Snatchers), and several movies. In fact, there's a new Burke and Hare movie (it's supposed to be a dark comedy) coming out in the UK on October 29th, and it was filmed right here in Edinburgh!
Here's the trailer:
The other exhibit I really liked was called "The Real Sherlock Holmes." Arthur Conan Doyle was a medical student at Edinburgh, and apparently he based Holmes on one of his professors, Joseph Bell (in addition to a few other Edinburgh figures.)
So definitely worth the price of admission, but I don't think I'll be heading back any time soon.
*Scottish people don't really sound like this, but it's the stereotypical accent.
The Sound of Drums
Tomorrow I'm going to a residence event and I have a paper due Monday, so I decided to take today and finish it at the library so all I have to do tomorrow is edit. Naturally, as it's a Saturday, I had some trouble getting motivated. So I decided to include some self-bribery, and stopped at the Central Library (the main branch of the public library located on George IV Bridge) to check out The Alienist, which I've been meaning to read on my dad's recommendation.
There are three different routes I can take to get to the library, but because it was a beautiful morning I decided to take the one that spends the majority of the walk on the Royal Mile. The Royal Mile, which stretches from Edinburgh Castle to Holyrood Palace (thus the name), is probably the most touristy area of the city. But I love all the weird little shops and pubs and people in capes advertising ghost tours. So I headed off up the hill listening to "Paperback Writer" on my iPod, which is kind of my paper-writing tradition. As I hit the Mile, I noticed a lot of police around and the road was closed. I figured there was some sort of event happening and disregarded it, intent on my destination. Then, over the sound of the Fab Four in my headphones, I noticed the sound of drums from up ahead...
I stepped over to the curb where people were lining the road and took out an earbud. Yep, there were definitely bagpipes approaching. So I joined the rest of the crowd to watch to approaching wave of kilts:
I'm still not sure exactly what was happening. Behind the band was a modern army regiment, and they were heading in the direction of Holyrood, so my guess was they were mustering at the palace for some reason. Regardless, it was a really nice way to start off my day. There's nothing like getting ready to write a paper about Scottish history surrounded by masses waving Scottish flags and cheering for their national army!
Oh, and they have an ADORABLE mascot:
After the parade went by I did eventually make it to the library, where there was a three-ish year old boy battling and inflatable Dalek (a notorious Doctor Who villain) with a foam devil trident thing and a plastic spider.
And yes, I did get my paper written :)
P.S. Trivia question!! Does anybody know where the title of this entry came from? (Hint: it has to do with the boy in the library)
There are three different routes I can take to get to the library, but because it was a beautiful morning I decided to take the one that spends the majority of the walk on the Royal Mile. The Royal Mile, which stretches from Edinburgh Castle to Holyrood Palace (thus the name), is probably the most touristy area of the city. But I love all the weird little shops and pubs and people in capes advertising ghost tours. So I headed off up the hill listening to "Paperback Writer" on my iPod, which is kind of my paper-writing tradition. As I hit the Mile, I noticed a lot of police around and the road was closed. I figured there was some sort of event happening and disregarded it, intent on my destination. Then, over the sound of the Fab Four in my headphones, I noticed the sound of drums from up ahead...
I stepped over to the curb where people were lining the road and took out an earbud. Yep, there were definitely bagpipes approaching. So I joined the rest of the crowd to watch to approaching wave of kilts:
I'm still not sure exactly what was happening. Behind the band was a modern army regiment, and they were heading in the direction of Holyrood, so my guess was they were mustering at the palace for some reason. Regardless, it was a really nice way to start off my day. There's nothing like getting ready to write a paper about Scottish history surrounded by masses waving Scottish flags and cheering for their national army!
Oh, and they have an ADORABLE mascot:
After the parade went by I did eventually make it to the library, where there was a three-ish year old boy battling and inflatable Dalek (a notorious Doctor Who villain) with a foam devil trident thing and a plastic spider.
And yes, I did get my paper written :)
P.S. Trivia question!! Does anybody know where the title of this entry came from? (Hint: it has to do with the boy in the library)
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