Hogmanay

Edinburgh is known for the city's New Year celebrations, four days of events and parties called Hogmanay.  I wanted to be here to celebrate, so I cam back from my cousins' house in time to join in the festivities.  The first day of Hogmanay was the Torchlight Procession: a parade of mostly tourists carrying giant torches through the city center and up Calton Hill.  At the top was a bonfire of viking ships (I'm not totally sure why), food, music, and fireworks.

Then entire thing took about two hours, and according to the announcements on the PA system throughout the route there were about 20,000 participants.  I haven't heard that many American accents in one place since the airport! I know, way to be a tourist...but yay! FIRE!

gathering outside St Giles Cathedral-these are two of my friends from school at home who are both studying abroad as well (one here in the Scottish Parliament and one at Oxford)

the start of the parade on the Mile

A small child with a furry hat and a big fiery stick.  Good parenting, sir.

the parade wound down a hill to Princes Street-this is from midway down, and we were towards the front of the parade

these awfully smart pipers passed us near the Omni Center.  Their bagpipes are tricked out with Christmas lights.

the fireworks were above some ruins, and choreographed(?)  to "Fire with Fire" by the Scissor Sisters

And not that anyone needs to see more fireworks, but I thought they were cool so watch them anyways:

Holidays are Here Again

Thanks to a huge snowstorm, flights from Edinburgh were delayed and cancelled the entire weekend after exams ended.  I am so lucky I had decided to go the the Netherlands instead of the US!  A lot of my friends barely made it home for Christmas day.  My flight was only delayed a few hours, so I had a full week with my cousins :)

They live in a village about an hour from Amsterdam, and I had a lot of fun walking in the snow with Aunt Lynn and their dog Eva.

 They had gotten a lot of snow too!  This is the shopping center in town.

 There are several churches in their village, but this one is in the central area, and is used by several groups.  According to John, my uncle, the top of the church isn't very high because is was destroyed during World War II.  I learned a lot from John and Lynn about the WWII history of the Netherlands.  I love learning surrounded by the effects of the past-it makes it so much more tangible.
We also attended my younger cousin's school Christmas play here.  It was in Dutch, so I didn't understand much, but Lynn explained that it was about two children experiencing Christmas in the future.  I was excited because we sang some Christmas carols (my favorite holiday tradition!) and I learned "Silent Night" and "O Come All Ye Faithful" in Dutch!

As we walked around town Lynn explained some of the traditions and fairs that the village has throughout the year.  In the spring there will be a festival around this pond in the center of town.

Lynn has learned to make a lot of Dutch recipes in her time in the Netherlands, and she made a few of them for me!  Everything was delicious :)  We went to the grocery store in town to pick up ingredients, and I looked like a crazy person taking pictures of the displays.  I'm pretty sure someone is cursing the "crazy American tourists" right now...I'll just consider it karma for all the times I've cursed tourists who cause traffic jams on my way to work!

The large variety of chocolate and flavored spreads available for toast.  So many more choices than Nutella!

Kaas means cheese-yum!  I loved that the wheels of cheese were sitting behind the counter...it seems a lot more natural than the processed blocks of American at the supermarket.

Lynn and John introduced me to many dutch foods, including brussel sprouts (which I really liked!).  One dish Lynn made was called "Stamppot" (pronounced st-ohm-pote).  It was basically mashed potatoes with vegetables and sausage in it.  I'm going to make it myself this week!

YUM

At home for Christmas my mom and I always make Russian Teacakes: round cookies with chopped nuts rolled in powdered sugar.  My favorite part is licking the warm melted-sugar-paste off my fingers...don't worry, I was my hands!  I offered to make them for Christmas day, and my cousin helped!  She also taught me how to count to five in Dutch, which was useful when we played board games.

Rolling the cookies in powdered sugar

the finished batch!

Christmas Eve is also my aunt and uncle's wedding anniversary, so they always go out for dinner to the restaurant where the had the wedding reception.  It was really yummy, and it was fun to get dressed up for a night out.  Students don't do that very often...
The restaurant also gave us little desk calendars with pictures of different places in the Netherlands.  Mine is currently sitting on my windowsill with Cu, my stuffed sheep.

they are always fooling around :)

the restaurant

We took a break from eating to watch movies and dance.  John used to take ballroom lessons, and even did a couple of competitions!  He and Lynn have taken lessons together, so I got them to show me a few steps and John taught me Viennese Waltz.  Now I just have to keep the centuries straight in my head...

By the way-their Christmas tree is in the background of this shot.  It was actually alive and in a pot-after the holidays Lynn is going to plant it in the front yard.  I thought this was a great idea!  Unfortunately, our tree at home is plastic and probably wouldn't do very well in the garden.

One night we tried a table grill, which Lynn said were popular in the Netherlands.  There was an assortment of meat and sauces, and we got to grill our selections to go with different salads and toppings.  It was a really nice way to all sit and eat together-and I didn't burn myself! yay!

I learned a lot of new things while I was away-another was Wii Sports.  I'm terrible at it, but it was really fun. John took several embarrassing pictures of me attempting to play.  For the sake of my own ego, I'm only sharing one.

 I also got to try Oliebollen and Appleflappen-fried treats traditionally served on New Years Eve.  We ate the Appleflappen too quickly for me to get a picture, but here are the Oliebollen:

In case you were wondering, I did do other things besides eat.  It's just that internship applications and class selections are a lot less interesting as blog topics.

Alstublieft, Libert family! and Happy Holidays everyone!

Winter Wonderland (part 1)

It snowed this weekend! Actually, it's still snowing...According to Bloomburg Businessweek, this is the most widespread snow the UK has gotten since November 1993.  This makes sense, considering no one appears to be able to handle it.  We've had about 6 inches so far, and as a result the city appears to have come to a standstill.  Most classes were cancelled today (although I still had my earliest one), there's a citywide snow day for Edinburgh public schools, the airport was closed all morning, and the gym closed early so I can't go to hip-hop tonight.  To be fair, the roads are really bad-but that's probably because it's been snowing for two days and I have yet to see a plow or street sander.  Hmm.  Good job, Edinburgh City Council.

Anyways, before everyone panicked today, Lydie and I had a great time exploring the winter landscape over the weekend.  It started on Friday night with a trip to the newly-opened German Christmas Market, followed by a snowy adventure to Edinburgh Castle and back down the Mile to tea.

Again, most of these pictures were taken by Lydie.  I'm pretty sure that has something to do with why I seem to be unable to re-orient them the right way up.  Anyways, this is the ferris wheel at the Christmas Market.  There were a few rides in addition to the food and craft booths in this part of the fair, and everything looked rather magical all lit up in the distance.  In the lower part of Princes Street Gardens (where the market is located) were tons more attractions, including an ice rink.  I can't wait to go skating when I've studied for exams!

The official light ceremony and market opening were on Thursday-the lights will be up until after Hogmanay, the Edinburgh New Year's celebration.

This slide is called a Helter-Skelter.  I remember going to the Fourth of July carnival when I was little and riding similar slides (your legs go inside a sack), but I don't think they were ever shaped like a lighthouse!

It was really nice seeing Lydie-in fact, it was almost like having family there for the holiday weekend.  We didn't actually go on the carousel, but they're still my favorite!

We also both tried Haggis for the first time at the "Highland Market".  Haggis is a traditional Scottish dish made of ground mutton with oats and spices, cooked inside the stomach of the sheep.  I was a little hesitant to try it because I don't eat much meat and I've barely ever had lamb, but it was really good!  I had haggis in a baked potato, which was yummy and really warm and perfect for the cold, snowy night.  Lydie had hers the traditional way: with "neeps and tatties," or mashed potatoes and turnips.

The stalls at the market sell all kinds of awesome, kitschy Christmas decorations and crafts.  I love nutcrackers-when I was little my Dad took me to see the ballet in Boston, and we always have a nutcracker or two in the house at Christmastime.  We gave Lydie one the year she lived with us, and she told me at the market she still has it (along with her football)!

My favorite from this display was the "Highland" nutcracker, wearing a a little tartan outfit and banging a drum.  Ridiculous and so cute.

This stall was a favorite among my group!  It was selling cookies, marzipan, and fruit dipped in chocolate.  I'm not a huge fan of chocolate, but they also had white chocolate, which I love.  Most interesting was a habanero pepper dipped in chocolate!  I am definitely not brave enough to try that one yet.

In addition to the slide and carousel, there was also a "flying swings" ride.  I haven't been on one in years, and they are so much fun!  It was freezing, but we braved the winds to fly over late-night Christmas shoppers and the lit trees in the gardens.

Thanks-sharing

Although Scotland doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving, I still did!  We had our celebration on Saturday since I still had classes and dance on Thursday.  I usually help Mom cook, but this was my first time doing the turkey.  Lydie, who lived with my family for a year and therefore has some experience with Thanksgiving, came to visit for the weekend from England and was a huge help.  You can also thank her for all the pictures!

 Mom emailed me instructions for roasting a turkey-Lydie and I started early in the morning so that it would have enough time to cook.  I made sure to clean out the body cavity thoroughly...but it was really gross.  I don't think I could have done it if I hadn't aced my biology dissections last year!

 In addition to the traditional turkey, I was really set on having cornbread stuffing.  Unfortunately, cornbread isn't really seen here.  After a determined search, Lydie and I tracked down cornmeal at an Indian market nearby and I made cornbread from scratch so I could make cornbread stuffing (both recipes from Martha Stewart).

 My flatmates were very helpful taste testers :)  They also cleaned the kitchen and tracked down an extra table from a friend's flat.  It was definitely a family effort.

 We also borrowed a meat thermometer from a friend, so no one would get poisoned.  Unfortunately, it never went past 160.  After almost 5 hours in the oven, we decided to just cut it and see how it looked.  I guess everything was fine...or at least, no one's gotten sick yet...

 Being the strong independant woman that I am, I whined until Sean, the only boy and one of the only three Americans (including me), carved the turkey.

 Emma is moving to the states next year, and was eager to try making pumpkin pie.  Considering she'd never even tasted it before, I was really surprised how well it turned out.

All in all, it was definitely a success.  (And very, very tasty!)  One more thing to be thankful for :)